Am I Stupid For Not Returning This Game?

[aquavit]

It's been a month now. I downloaded v1.09 but Civ 4 still crashes my computer. Crashes. My. Computer. I've run XP for years now. Nothing, ever, ever, ever has crashed my computer. I never knew what a XP blue screen looked like before Civ 4 came around. No, I don't need to upgrade my computer. From what I read around here, there are lots of people who have top of the line computers and still can't run this game.

I'm not knocking the quality of the game, from what I can tell, it's a great game that I will eventually waste entirely too much time on but what happened with the release though? Why is Civ 4 the most buggy piece of software ever on my computer? I'm out $50 and all I've had the pleasure of doing was spending hours combing these boards for answers and updating (and downgrading) every driver known to mankind. Firaxis please tell me when I'm going to have a game to play here.

 

[Underseer]

This happens with most games. The first couple of months after release, there is a small subset of players who get crippling bugs, errors, crashes, corrupted save files, etc.

Because of this, I normally wait for a patch or two before buying a game. Even then, I sometimes prowl the relevant boards to see what users are saying first. I broke my personal rule with Civ4 and placed a pre-order. I got lucky and the game runs fine on my computer.

Your problems may be solved by a future patch of the game. Your problems may be solved by a future driver release for your video card or your sound card. Whichever way it goes, chances are your only solution is to wait. Whether you return the game or not in the interim is up to you.

 

[Jafendel]

Because of this, I normally wait for a patch or two before buying a game. Even then, I sometimes prowl the relevant boards to see what users are saying first. I broke my personal rule with Civ4 and placed a pre-order. I got lucky and the game runs fine on my computer.

I was going to wait-and-see with CIV 4, but I, well, wanted to be 'one of the firsts' for a change (the Civ's I bought earlier were some kind of budget versions lacking posters and/or manual so I wanted to be sure that won't happen now ). I knew version 1.00 was going to be buggy, and I got what I 'deserved' as I'm currently suffering from wondermovie and blackness in some animations. Patch 1.09 made no difference and I'm going to wait for the next patch before I'm gonna seriously tweak my system. I just wished all was smooth from the begin.

I'm confident that they're trying to solve crashing problems in upcoming patches, but the amount of different hardware makes things complicated.

 

[groston]

Underseer -
Your response is completely wrong! Would you buy a car if you thought that it would break down every few miles? Of course not. Civ 4, despite what appears to be good game play, is a total piece of crap. What is needed is a class action suit - if they don't refund my money, I'll find a greedy lawyaer to take on the case.

p.s. aquavit - you are right on the money (or out it in this case...)

 

[Tarascan_King]

I didnt even know you could return opened games at some places. Would be nice if i could return this RTW BI Expansion pack, kept CTD'ing.

 

[Roach]

Nah, just optimistic.

I am in the same boat as you, fingers crossed that the next patch comes good. Despite my disappointment so far I have faith that the problems will get sorted out sooner or later.

I have finally got the game to work (only occassional CTD) with a lot of tweaking, Small maps only. Angry? yes but I could have always returned the game to EB for a refund.

 

[Aramazd]

Underseer -
Your response is completely wrong! Would you buy a car if you thought that it would break down every few miles? Of course not. Civ 4, despite what appears to be good game play, is a total piece of crap. What is needed is a class action suit - if they don't refund my money, I'll find a greedy lawyaer to take on the case.

For what, $50 if your lucky. In California it costs $50 to file a suit in small claims. A lawyer would be even more expensive.


On topic, if you are planning to upgrade you made the right decison. If not you messed up.

 

[Willybach]

So should the box state clearly on the front - "may require internet connection to play!" ...for, as you can see on this forum, there are many many people who require patches. Its not just CivIV though, ive been getting increasing problems with games of late, Rome total war just to name one. It seems to spring from a game developers desire to push the envelope graphically. For me the most important thing is game play and immersion. Ive played CivIV for two weeks now, and so far i prefer CIVIII. All that 3D zoom in crap is a complete waste of time if it means your machine struggles to handle it. In the future I can see me buying only games that fall easily within my machines capabilities.

 

[DementedAvenger]

A class action lawsuit for some bugs in a video game? What has our society come to?

 

[CloudyPeak]

Well I have had enough tonight after CIV 4 took down Windows XP Professional with SP2 and restarted my computer .... yet again. No other game has been able to do this ever !
I have tried everything .... including the patch. I'm sorry Fireaxis but its just too buggy for me ... I'm going back to Conquests. I LOVE the game but its totally unstable !!!
Sold my copy of CIV4 on the internet today.... so good luck ppl
I'll buy again it in a year or so ... perhaps!

 

[Underseer]

Underseer -
Your response is completely wrong! Would you buy a car if you thought that it would break down every few miles? Of course not. Civ 4, despite what appears to be good game play, is a total piece of crap. What is needed is a class action suit - if they don't refund my money, I'll find a greedy lawyaer to take on the case.

p.s. aquavit - you are right on the money (or out it in this case...)

I'm not wrong at all. Civ 4 doesn't crash every few minutes for me. Bad analogy.

Maybe you are having problems, but like I said, most games are like that so soon after release. If you don't like it, wait a bit longer before purchasing a newlly-released game.

 

[JohnnyFrost]

Why dont you format your computer reinstall system WHEN IT ASKS YOU TO PARTITION use NTFS (DEVIDE INTO TWO PARTITIONS IF POSSIBLE) after system installation install service pack 2 over it (IM NOT USING IT) defrag harddisk.

Then locate a few graphic card and sound card drivers from google DOWNLOAD THEM (try all of them with the game if you have the time).

Then download and install Via chipset drivers DO THIS IF YOUR USING A VIA CHIPSET MOTHERBOARD.

Make sure you have your hard disk set to MASTER and then check your primary ide channel from device manager and see if ULTRA DMA is enabled and set to 4 if not .

Then Click start and then click RUN type msconfig in the little tiny window close all background programs.

Dont install any virus programs.

Install the game install the patch over it start playing.

give me your system specs !!!!

Im using pentium 3 500 cpu with 448 sd ram geforce 4 mx 440 graphic card.

NO PROBLEMs


ohhh and download cacheman and try it.

 

[DemonDeLuxe]

A class action lawsuit for some bugs in a video game? What has our society come to?

Yeah, right, sounds ridiculous, really. But think again: For you, it's $50 and "just a computer game". But for the company, it's a multi-million-dollar business. Now, let's assume that CIV4 will, sell, what do I know, 500.000 copies (just to have a number). We'd be talking 25.000.000 dollars here. Imagine, however, we would redestribute this and say: just 500 copies at 50.000 dollars each. Would you deem a lawsuit ok then?

Yes, certainly you would.

But, what is a lawsuit basically about? It's about who did something wrong and how MUCH he did wrong. And that, the "how much", is the same in both examples - with the price tag of $50, it's just spread out among more people.

Really, I'm not saying that it would be a good idea to sue Firaxis / Take2, absolutely not. BUT I must say it is not as RIDICULOUS when one thinks about it a second time. The approach of "Ah, it's only a game and it's only $50" is the wrong one, I think. It is millions for THEM, and these millions set the standard for how much they should care about their product and what one should be able to expect from it.

 

[pdathert]

This happens with most games. The first couple of months after release, there is a small subset of players who get crippling bugs, errors, crashes, corrupted save files, etc.

It is unacceptable for companies to do this.

I think it is bigger than a small subset, i'd estimate at least 1 in 5 players have had problems. Just check out the tech forum (these are people that have problems (thousands and thousands) and this is just ones complaining on this tech forum on this website!)

The more we accept it the more it'll happen.

Apathy rules.

 

[onedreamer]

fully agree with pdathert and demondeluxe.
Over at Firaxis and Take2 they are professionals. They didn't set up a browser game that we play for free. I don't think we can expect no bugs at all in the first release, but we can expect a playable game. For EVERYONE that meets the requirements. If someone meets requirements but cannot play (which is different from playing with bugs, Underseer), then since they paid for the product it can be considered a scam. In such a case a class action lawsuit is not ridiculous at all.

 

[MattJek]

Underseer -
Your response is completely wrong! Would you buy a car if you thought that it would break down every few miles? Of course not. Civ 4, despite what appears to be good game play, is a total piece of crap. What is needed is a class action suit - if they don't refund my money, I'll find a greedy lawyaer to take on the case.

p.s. aquavit - you are right on the money (or out it in this case...)

Are you telling me that you've never heard of faulty cars being sold to consumers? This happens all the time, just go to any car review website and you'll read tons of posts of people who were sold faulty new cars and were not offered a full refund. BTW, a flaw in a car can be potentially fatal, a flaw in a video game means you simple wont be able to play it. Im not gonna even comment on your idea of filing a class action lawsuit

 

[warpstorm]

For what, $50 if your lucky. In California it costs $50 to file a suit in small claims. A lawyer would be even more expensive.

In addition, you agreed to a binding contract (in the USA anyways) that said you won't sue for more than you paid.

 

[Woody]

Why dont you format your computer reinstall system WHEN IT ASKS YOU TO PARTITION use NTFS (DEVIDE INTO TWO PARTITIONS IF POSSIBLE) after system installation install service pack 2 over it (IM NOT USING IT) defrag harddisk.

Then locate a few graphic card and sound card drivers from google DOWNLOAD THEM (try all of them with the game if you have the time).

Then download and install Via chipset drivers DO THIS IF YOUR USING A VIA CHIPSET MOTHERBOARD.

Make sure you have your hard disk set to MASTER and then check your primary ide channel from device manager and see if ULTRA DMA is enabled and set to 4 if not .

Then Click start and then click RUN type msconfig in the little tiny window close all background programs.

Dont install any virus programs.

Install the game install the patch over it start playing.

give me your system specs !!!!

Im using pentium 3 500 cpu with 448 sd ram geforce 4 mx 440 graphic card.

NO PROBLEMs


ohhh and download cacheman and try it.

Because its ludicrous to go through all that to play one game when every other application and game you have runs perfectly

 

[MrCynical]

I'm sorry Aquavit, but I find it impossible to believe you when you say you have never had a crash. I'd just about believe you'd never seen a blue screen of death before, but other lock ups and freezes? No.

Civ 4 is no worst than most software at release. There is a significant minority of people who's games don't work to any satisfactory extent, but this is more or less the same for any game shortly after release. That is simply how the system works, whether you approve of it or not. Eventually it will be patched into a condition where it should work for almost all people, but that will take time. At least you can be confident that Firaxis will keep patching until it works, whereas many other companies wouldn't.

 

[aquavit]

Maybe you are having problems, but like I said, most games are like that so soon after release. If you don't like it, wait a bit longer before purchasing a newlly-released game.

This is a great post. It jammed-packed with bad excuses.

1. "It's your problem" - Many people have clean installs with the recommended requirements and it still doesn't work. Some people have to revert back to old drivers to get the game to work. Obviously, Firaxis didn't test this game out very well. This isn't always the consumer's fault.

2. "Most games are equally buggy" - Not in my experience. Not that games aren't buggy but Civ 4 takes it to a new level. This isn't a simple gameplay bug, the game takes down the whole computer. Nothing else has ever done that in my case. Anyway, Firaxis isn't some podunk, little developer. We expect quality because they are good. Saying that they are equal to the worst developers out there right now, so it's okay, is just ridiculous.

3. "If you don't like it, wait until it's fixed" - But I thought the game was released over a month ago? You know, the full game, what I paid $50 for. Again, I didn't pay money and spend time to help beta test this game. A small problem here and there is okay but it's been a month and there are many people who shelled out money for a game that doesn't work, doesn't run, brings my computer to a grinding halt. I understand that I'll just have to be patient if I want to eventually play but how about a word from Firaxis in the mean time? How about a sorry, you should expect better quality from a company like us, we are working on it and we'll let you know how it's going.

As much as you want to deflect the blame away from the developers it looks more and more like their problem to me. Firaxis released a game that wasn't ready and have wasted a lot of people's time and money.