The Release Sucks!!!!!!!

[blue3c]

Bottom is line is take it back. Tell them to finish the game. Unless this happens the gaming industry will continue to put out the unfinished crap they do. Each and every company is doing it more and more. Why pay beta testers when they have us. Right?? Well that is how they are thinking. The last three new games I have purchased are like this. Takes two or three patchs before they work. Makes ya wonder if console gaming is the way to go. At least then I don't have to deal with wasting money on games that don't work. Yah they are not as good. But with the crap they are putting out these days it seems easier.
Ok let the flaming begin

 

[generalshake]

Bottom is line is take it back. Tell them to finish the game. Unless this happens the gaming industry will continue to put out the unfinished crap they do. Each and every company is doing it more and more. Why pay beta testers when they have us. Right?? Well that is how they are thinking. The last three new games I have purchased are like this. Takes two or three patchs before they work. Makes ya wonder if console gaming is the way to go. At least then I don't have to deal with wasting money on games that don't work. Yah they are not as good. But with the crap they are putting out these days it seems easier.
Ok let the flaming begin

Amen brother.

 

[Hot Fury]

Everything has been covered, but I want to reinforce something that a couple of other people said:

I DON'T HAVE TO BE F**CKING CONSTRUCTIVE. IT IS BEYOND THAT STAGE. I AM A CONSUMER WHO WASTED HARD EARNED MONEY THAT I BARELY HAVE ON THIS POS.

I AM NOT A GAME DEVELOPER

I AM NOT A HELP DESK

I AM NOT A F**CKING BETA TESTER

Can anybody tell I just got done with another 10 minute Civ IV disaster session?

 

[Turner]

Moderator Action: Hot Fury - warned, language.
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889

 

[A.J. Caesar]

The game has excessive hardware requirement and bugs. Period.

The fact that the series is targeted to "slow and strategic" players and not to extreme gamers will produce a lot of furious customers.

This is not only my personal opinion: search in the web and you will find 8-9 / 10 customers furious about that (and this is only the beginning)!!!
This game was released in this unfinished beta version only to be the game of the year and sell a lot of copies worldwide during Christmas (see also the complicity of the game reviewers...)

If you are a great industry (FireAxis) and you want to produce a great game you have to deal with the typical system specification. You can push the requirements above the entry level (progress must go on) but not so much: this is excessive !!!

And it's obvious that the beta testing phase, very important in large scale games like this, was skipped or ignored.
And now the game is out and it's very difficult or even impossible to apply a patch here and a fix there.

Fireaxis should retire the game from the market and rewrite the engine core from scratch!!!
Obviously this is not possible so I'm sure that CIV is going to be the greatest catastrophe in the computer game history (not only in the Civilization serie).

 

[Utherhimo]

this si bad really bad this makes the the support of a small company like corned rat studios look like look like angels, Ww2online now Beyond Blitzkrieg patches fast to clear up things and runs great compared to this pile!

 

[pjdodd]

Is it really all that bad?
I'm waiting for the MAC version early next 2006 even though I could buy it on the PC today... Your experiences of Civ4 sound like my expierences of Civ3 on the PC. Only when I got the MAC version did I get a stable version of the game (even though the game itself was a balls up). I'm not repeating that mistake.

Also I applaud everything that has been said about using gamers as beta testers and software companies rushing through games that require a few patches before they work beautifully. It's worth noting that sharware games and very small companies don't push second rate coded games onto the public, so why are the big boys allowed to get away with it?

 

[Markstar]

Yep, the game engine sucks and even a patch that fixes the frequent crashes is probably not going to fix the engine flaw. Therefore I'm afraid the slow game play is here to stay.

Kinda reminds me of many years ago when this futuristic race simulation came out that looked awesome but wasn't even closely playable on any computers at that time. The difference is that in this case this was totally unnecessary in so many ways (a TBS just shouldn't require top notch hardware; never has (even the better-looking AoEIII works perfectly on all my computers); it doesn't even show (cIV doesn't looks that good to justify the slow gameplay)).

I just wish the reviews would have reflected the experience many (most?) "players" of cIV have and thus saved many from spending money on this crap.

 

[TheBarnacle]

Yep, the game engine sucks and even a patch that fixes the frequent crashes is probably not going to fix the engine flaw. Therefore I'm afraid the slow game play is here to stay.

this is what i'm afraid of. should i (having purchased this unplayable POS) patiently wait for a 'fix'? or will the slow gameplay forever haunt me (in which case, i'll take civ IV back...store credit is a hell of a lot better than the crap wasting space on my machine now).

you know, in some other threads i said the game is playing better some now (with forced 1.1 shading, etc. and "low" graphics). but that didn't last. it still starts to really struggle late in the game. it's just not worth it. i may have answered my own question, if i'm not even going to PLAY the game while waiting, take it back until they solved that...if they don't, $50 saved for me.

 

[A.J. Caesar]

Is it really all that bad?

No! It's worst!

Your experiences of Civ4 sound like my expierences of Civ3 on the PC.

I bought Civ3 the first day it was released (2001) : it has different bugs (after Conquests expansion it is a perfect game)
I played it on a P3 500MHz with 256MB, Win98 and a 16MB Voodoo3 card !!!
The experience was 1000 times better !!! I said : "Civ2 is a cult game but Civ3 is much better!"

I think that CIV has great potentials: the best feature is the python scripting and in general the total freedom in modding.
The use of XML makes it very elegant.

But the graphic implementation is too bad; the engine is too heavy for a TBS (even the mouse cursor in the start screen is laggy!!! ).
My system is a P4 2.8GHz 512MB, GeForce4MX440...it should be enough for a static TBS ( remember we are not talking about UT2007 !!! )

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

To Markstar : quote everything !!!

 

[big mazy]

Ok...usually don't post 'bout the games,but....can't help my self on this one...
first,just to be clear,played civ's for years now,besides win and comp drivers,it's the first thing that get's to be installed on my comp,so...
When got my copy,installed it and got it working in a sec,buuuuuuuttttttttt...
since i'm on GForcMx440 and Amd 1.4 expected that game would have minor problems and lags,but this is ridicoluos....I mean c'mooonnn,men,,,,
After few quick turns on a standard map I tried to load a mod with earth map and 7 or 8 AI-s and it took me 23 min to load,yes you read it right...23 FREAKING MINUTES.....AAAAAAAAAA....
...and when roman settler finaly apperad,game was sooooo slow,that I couldn't budge...couldn't move a mouse pointer,nothing...it just seat there for another 10-15 min,and then I restarted...(and I manged to play games like UT2005,Doom 3 etc. on this system without any bugs)
anyhow...was thinking to upgrade my comp with new graffics,sempron 2200+ maybe,bigger ddr some time this month,but people here are talking about lags on machines with AMD 3200+,2 800+,1GB/400 ddr, 1TB hard drive's and latest ATI and Nvidia cards so...I'm not going to spend hundreds of dollars on
a comp just to get a message"...unable to initialize render...or whatever"...
...like I have hundreds of dollars..hehehehe...so I say..up your's Sid....
...taking this crap back to the store first thing in the morning!!!!!!!!

 

[DMITCH8080]

Anybody return the game and get their money back yet? I have totally put this game in the past!!!! I just don't want 2K to walk away w/ my money!!!!

 

[DreamTheaterSFG]

It doesnt matter. 2K gets there money from the retailers, who get there money from you. So actually 2k alrdy made its bills, its the retailer that you paid.

 

[DMITCH8080]

It doesnt matter. 2K gets there money from the retailers, who get there money from you. So actually 2k alrdy made its bills, its the retailer that you paid.

Are you kidding me? Thanks for a lesson in nothing!!!!!

 

[Moff Jerjerrod]

I believe that the debacle that is Civ4 is just confirmation that the computer gaming industry is dead. They can't make a game anymore that works out of the box without any patches.

Consoles are the wave of the future. Most console games that are released are bug free. They have to be because you can't patch a cd,dvd, or cartridge.

 

[harlowheat]

Im not very computer literate but i can put new things in my computer and i have a very good computer but no more money i want to play this game but im going to be a little more leary of buying take2 games or sid meier anything

 

[Dreamlogic]

This game is currently unplayable on many systems that by far exceed the minimum requirements for the game. On my system - p4 2.4ghz, 512mb ram, gforce ti 4200, it is impossible to play even on the smallest maps.

I keep asking myself why Firaxis chose to use a graphic engine for civ 4 that needs so much computer power to function. This graphic engine does not result in breathtaking beautiful graphics, and ultimatly it has never been the graphics that has made the civilization series so popular.

To me it seems as if this game has been rushed to the market for some reason while it was still in an early phase of beta testing. This is unacceptable from a customers perspective.

If a patch does not come soon that greatly improves the overall perfomance of the game, then I'll return the game to the store for sure.

 

[Moff Jerjerrod]

This game is currently unplayable on many systems that by far exceed the minimum requirements for the game. On my system - p4 2.4ghz, 512mb ram, gforce ti 4200, it is impossible to play even on the smallest maps.

I keep asking myself why Firaxis chose to use a graphic engine for civ 4 that needs so much computer power to function. This graphic engine does not result in breathtaking beautiful graphics, and ultimatly it has never been the graphics that has made the civilization series so popular.

If a patch does not come soon that greatly improves the overall perfomance of the game, then I'll return the game to the store for sure.

Well stated. It's really disappointing that I need a state of the art system to run a TBS game when my mediocre P4 1.8ghz laptop can run FPS games without problems.

Actually you're right. All this work to wow us with graphics is for naught. This game is fun to play until it melt's down in slow motion lag in the middle game. Graphics never were a selling point for me wrt to a TBS game.

 

[big mazy]

The biggest supprise was when saw that the smallest res. is 1024X768...I always
preffered practicality over eye-candy...and it's not that big of a candy to be honest...

 

[thasan]

with an integrated graphics card and black fog fied, the biggest annoying thing for me is the sluggish performance even with 1.6 gig processor with a 1 gig ram.

oh, eye candy?? he he he...i got headache after i experienced this *fantastic* (put anything u like instead of this word) 3D...even age of empire 2 had a much much better graphics than one.