Kotaku - preview of civ5

"Anyone with a laptop that's designed to be portable"? Uh?

Let me clarify what I mean. There are a few basic size/performance sets for laptops. Ultra portable (systems that are designed to be super light weight getting as small and light as is useful for their purpose, this would include most netbooks and typically have a screen that's <10 in), portable (small laptops designed more for portability then performance, but more powerful then a netbook, typically have a 10-12 in screen), balanced (just like the name says typically a balance between portability and power), desktop replacement (lager beefier laptops designed for performance rather then portability, but obviously still portable due to their nature as a laptop).

With the req they are coming out with any new balanced or better laptop at the time should be able to run Civ V. Most portable or better laptops that are 1-2 years old today should have the dual core required to run Civ V, but the 256 MB of V-RAM may be a problem. I travel quite a bit for work and my laptop would fit into the portable category. If I wanted to carry a larger heavier laptop all around the country with me I could easily run Civ V, but I can't justify the extra size and weight just to play a game.
 
Let me clarify what I mean. There are a few basic size/performance sets for laptops. Ultra portable (systems that are designed to be super light weight getting as small and light as is useful for their purpose, this would include most netbooks and typically have a screen that's <10 in), portable (small laptops designed more for portability then performance, but more powerful then a netbook, typically have a 10-12 in screen), balanced (just like the name says typically a balance between portability and power), desktop replacement (lager beefier laptops designed for performance rather then portability, but obviously still portable due to their nature as a laptop).

With the req they are coming out with any new balanced or better laptop at the time should be able to run Civ V. Most portable or better laptops that are 1-2 years old today should have the dual core required to run Civ V, but the 256 MB of V-RAM may be a problem. I travel quite a bit for work and my laptop would fit into the portable category. If I wanted to carry a larger heavier laptop all around the country with me I could easily run Civ V, but I can't justify the extra size and weight just to play a game.

My laptop would fall under "balanced" then, and is about 2 years old and will meet the minimum requirements. I find it a little nitpicky to expect a new game to run on a highly portable laptop. I would expect even Civ4 to run pretty crappy on them. In any case, what is their alternative? Cater to the lowest common denominator and not improve graphics at all? No thank you sir.
 
In that case, I have to agree with cspyr0 - at some point, limiting requirements enough to keep the game running on even computers that are that old, would require sacrifices in feature, interface and presentation that may become too much.
 
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