My game is currently running almost to perfection. I am still getting major artifacts when I zoom out to the full globe mode. Here is the rundown.

Game loaded... perfect, ran tutorial... perfect, played a standard single player game... perfect. The next day I get the "Failed to Initialize" error. Ofcourse I am baffled because just 12 hours earlier I was playing the game. I uninstalled and reinstalled and the error was gone??? Then I started playing again... wow what slow down! Choppy graphics, complete slow down, then complete freeze up? Again I'm baffled. How did I get it to play at it's current near perfection? I am using an Nvidia card the PCI express 256mb GeForce 6800, this card was not mentioned on the Civ4 website as a problem but I thought I would try the fix for the ATI cards on my machine anyway, also ran the "unpack" from Firaxis. I also updated every driver I could think off. Updated my BIOS, updated everything available to my PC from Dell, and prayed to the CIV gods that it would work and... IT'S ALIVE!!!

Playing a custom map, large size, 8 civs, it's the year 1882 AD, played for several hours.

Like I said running almost perfect other than the pesky artifacts on the globe zoom out but I can live with that until the patch fixes it (fingers crossed). I don't know if system/driver/BIOS updates are the answer or not just thought I would throw in my 2 cents.

I'm running a:
Dell Dimension 8400
Pentium 4 3.2 Ghz
Microsoft XP Service Pack 2
1 Gig of Ram
160GB Hard Drive
Nvidia GeForce 6800 256mb PCI express

siouxfallsciv

That's interesting. Next time try deleting the game cache in your profile.

Also, are you able to save, close, restart and load games?

I was unable to find the game cache, even after I turned on the, see hidden files thing, is that possible or am I not looking in the right place?

I can save, close and load games with no problems. I have saved and loaded the same game about 5 times.

I can live with that until the patch fixes it (fingers crossed). Yeah, thats the problem; we all expect a patch, everyone is eager for it, but im sure it wont fix half the problems :wallbash:

There are just so many problems, I only hope they are using different systems and different graphics cards to come up with a patch that will work for everyone, or almost everyone atleast.