So to me it is perfectly understandable that many people will be / are surprised by how poorly the game will perform on their recent laptops. I definitely was not surprised by how low they were (in fact they are higher than I expected), esp. since the expectations had already been set to low requirements based o some previous comments.
This is nothing new, PC's are not TV's, they are a highly flexable and powerful tool. Yes TV's are simple, they all do the same thing so all you have to do is look at size and resolution and price and decide what you want within that window.
But PC's give you alot more and a "PC" is not just one tool it is many tools, from desktops to netbooks to ultraportables to desktop replacement laptops, in this we have business/productivity laptops/desktops and home computers and mid range gaming rigs to high end gaming rigs.
So if you are serious about buying the right computer( and I'll include Macs in the "PC" category for general purposes) then it is your duty to learn at least A/ what are your needs, and B/ what categories of computers meet those nees.
If you are unwilling to put this basic effort in then yes you are going to be *susprised* that your brand new laptop is absolutely incapable of running anything but Facebook games.
This happened when Civ4 came out as well, people with brand new but business/internet class computers with Geforce2 MX cards that clearly were not capable of any hardware T&L, and no chance at running Civ4. And they were shocked too. But a little homwork would have avoided this. And I don't mean becoming a computer geek, just a well informed consumer. Most people put a fair bit of research into buying a car before they hit the lots, but don't put any thought in before they hit the computer stores.
Laptops are even worse, unless it has the word Gaming on the cover, you are for sure getting an integrated intel graphics solution. Why? Because laptops are expensive to start with and integrated chips bring down the cost, plus they are low power and have a low thermal signature, which when you have limited cooling options in a laptop design is something the engineers jump at.
So I don't blame 2K/Firaxis for setting realistic system performance specs for a 2010 game, yes it may very well run on lower systems than the min, but for legal reasons 2K can not say that officially or they will have 1000's of players complaining that there systems met the spec and have X problems running the game.
Just my 2 cents though.
CS
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