I have played Civilization games for over a decade. I liked them all until the remake of Colonization. When I first ran that game I was worried about the next Civilization release. The bugs were so bad that the best strategy was not making an army. I don't know if they ever fixed the bugs because I never reinstalled it. Instead I waited for what I really wanted, the next release of Civilization.
So on the date of its release I purchased the DRM infested game. I've never purchased any game with it before, but I was willing to do it for Civilization. I bought it straight from Steam. Then I had to remove my firewall because it couldn't find the internet. Once I'm past that it starts to install itself. At the end it informs me that it can not replace Steam.exe. Not that this is 2k's fault but damn even the DRM is buggy. I install it again and it finally let's me download the game. 2 hours later it is installed.
I start the game and I'm greeted by Steam asking me what I want to play. Do you want to play Civilization, or do you want to play with DirectX9? I click Civilizations. Then it asks me do you want to play with DirectX 9 or DirectX 10/11. At this point I'm starting to worry. Finally Civilization V is loading up. The video begins glitching like mad. I'm thinking WTH because I just built this entire computer to the specifications of this game. Everything is built above those specs it should not be doing this. I hit enter repeatedly to no avail. I'm forced to watch and listen to the glitching.
Finally, the moment of truth. I click play the game and I am in my first game on chieftain. I figure what the heck and let it ride. At least I'll see what's on the game before I move up. I think everything looks great. Then I'm presented with my first wonder for +1 culture. I'm thinking oh no right away. I explore the map. It's time to fight and I start rolling through everything. I notice that my archers don't like water. If they are near it they get really confused and can't attack the target unless they are right next to it. In fact they'd prefer to build a ship then launch a ranged attack. My first wonder completes and I get a water painting pop up. Are you serious? Yes, yes they are. Next I become aware that my trading posts do not mature. I've conquered most of the map already and suddenly a box pops up. What is this? I tab through it and find that I've won a domination.
The next game is on prince aka normal. I fly through the tech tree and it tops out very early. So I proceed to destroy everything in sight. There are no ships anywhere and nobody has the balls to team up on me. I get a msg that city states don't like what I'm doing so I kill them all. I max on my techs and there is nothing left. Then I'm just staring at the screen wondering why I built all of this research. I start over.
The rivers are so ugly that I play with the settings until they finally have a current. I'm content with that. Now to replace that damn movie with a chick strip teasing. At least when it hiccups it just freezes her booty. With that in place I'm ready to rock.
I decide to go for culture, but I have nothing to do. Wonders don't seem to provide enough culture to spark my interest. I just build the +5 buildings. I can't take the boredom and conquer my continent, but I leave all of the city states. They aren't bothering anyone. In fact they don't seem to do anything, but you can give them all of your money if you don't know how to make a unit? I figure what the hell I'll befriend anyone with culture. Then I notice that I am losing money fast. I already spent a ton of time making everyone happy, but I focus on economy. Where is the economy? OMFG I am paying so much money just for buildings. My only option is to flip everything to wealth and stop building unless it generates currency. Napoleon shows up and he has conquered a much larger continent. He proceeds to blast the city state above me with 7 frigates, which eventually are replaced with battleships/destroyers, from 1800 until the final turn. At no point does he actually occupy that city or land troops. He likes me. He's kept one other Civ with him. Catherine has one city but doesn't even show up as existing. The game tells me only two players are left. Well, whatever I think. Let's try a little experiment. I proceed at the year 1800 to sell every single military unit that I have and put every single city on wealth. Even then I'm losing money but I have stolen enough workers from Rome to sell them for a great profit, and that's what I do. So there I am with 6k and everything on wealth. From then on I proceed to click enter all of the way until I'm presented with a box of tabs. Again I tab through to find that I won a timed victory.
Well, that's my long ass story. I am wondering if this game will go the same route with me as Colonization. Can I wait out them fixing this? Will they fix this? Are these people making positive threads working at 2k? I'm just lost at this point. Other people are saying to wait it out, some like certain aspects, and the 2k forums are spammed hardcore by disgruntled veterans. I'm just in shock really. That's why I made this long post. Shocked.
