A.J. Caesar
Chieftain
- Joined
- Sep 28, 2002
- Messages
- 20
Hi, sorry for my spelling but I'm a civ fanatic and I'd like to add some personal consideration to this interesting thread !
I'm very disappointed with this new release.
I loved Civ2 and Civ3...I've not played Civ1 but I loved the first Pirates! on Amiga (8MHz cpu!!!) (I like also the 2005's remake) : in practice Sid is my aunt !
I can accept that Civilization 4 or CIV is a commercial name and it was used to sell a lot of copies...in other words I can accept that it's a totally different game but this is not the point.
Why I'm disappointed ?
target
FireAxis said "We want the family as target of our game".
FAMILY ??? What family has a computer able to run (well) this game or just run it?
A lot of people with "a real life" dont have an "Alienware"...simply they think "my computer is not so old: I'm sure I can play a strategy turn based game!".
It may sound strange but there are people who dont understand the meaning of T&L or they dont care about download the latest patch (what is a patch???)
They think : "Black terrain bug? Well ! The game is crappy ! I will return it to the shop !"
At Fireaxis can smile because they have sold a lot of copies...but this will create a lot of problems too!!!
Moreover this game has an incredible depth (that's good!!!) but it's too much for the classic "family" (for example Pirates! is more suitable) ; on the other hand civ purist prefer a fast keyboard playable game instead of animated 3D graphics
The target is wrong !!!
implementation
This is a strategy turn based game not a first person hard core shooter!
Why this requirement ???
And sorry for the term but the implementation sucks !!!
I ran Civ3 on an old PIII 500MHZ with an ancient Voodoo3.
Now I'm using a PIV 2.8GHZ, 512MB, GeForce MX 440....ok it's not a powefull game machine but I can play UT2004, FS2004, Pirates! without any problem...the only exclusion is CIV!
I've not any graphic bug but the game is so lagged (it's lagged also the mouse cursor!!!) that I cannot play. It cause me headache !!!
I tried to reduce resolution, disabled animations, disabled everything but the lag persists : the difference is that now the graphics is worst than Civ3 !!!
I cannot believe that a 3D engine can be so slow !!! We have seen a lot of good examples in the last 5 years ! Why not a sort of Empire Earth static engine (EA was light and fast and most important real-time!!! ) ?
I will change my card as usual (that's not the problem) but I dont want to spend $350 only to run this game....be serious!!!
Bad graphic engine!!!
testing
Now it's clear! The beta-testing was not finished! They have sold a crappy game! There are a lot of people with good specs and major bugs/crashes !!!
If they have tested the AI as they have tested the graphics we are done!
Why test the AI? There are a lot of modders that will develop a better AI for freee !!!
Civ3 was buggy too when it was released but not as this CIV !!!
French tech-tree !!! Mislabeled cds !!! There are people unable to install the DVD! Memory leaks (it's slow, at least it should be "safe" !!! ) We can continue...
The game was not tested !!!
reviews
I've not read a single review in which these problems arise. Why ?
For example a 9.5/10 (instead of 10/10) because there are "minor" technical problems or the minimum system requirement is not realistic....something like this! Not a single note!!!
The reviews were written without play the game!
patches
Fireaxis will fix a lot of bugs but the problem is that the engine sucks and it will be always slow.
They cannot rewrite the engine !
conclusions
A static game, some text and a couple of icons can not require this hardware...there are not excuse: the game is bad programmed!
For me CIV has great potentials but the bugs and the poor implementation have broken the series !!!
I'm very disappointed with this new release.
I loved Civ2 and Civ3...I've not played Civ1 but I loved the first Pirates! on Amiga (8MHz cpu!!!) (I like also the 2005's remake) : in practice Sid is my aunt !
I can accept that Civilization 4 or CIV is a commercial name and it was used to sell a lot of copies...in other words I can accept that it's a totally different game but this is not the point.
Why I'm disappointed ?
target
FireAxis said "We want the family as target of our game".
FAMILY ??? What family has a computer able to run (well) this game or just run it?
A lot of people with "a real life" dont have an "Alienware"...simply they think "my computer is not so old: I'm sure I can play a strategy turn based game!".
It may sound strange but there are people who dont understand the meaning of T&L or they dont care about download the latest patch (what is a patch???)
They think : "Black terrain bug? Well ! The game is crappy ! I will return it to the shop !"
At Fireaxis can smile because they have sold a lot of copies...but this will create a lot of problems too!!!
Moreover this game has an incredible depth (that's good!!!) but it's too much for the classic "family" (for example Pirates! is more suitable) ; on the other hand civ purist prefer a fast keyboard playable game instead of animated 3D graphics
The target is wrong !!!
implementation
This is a strategy turn based game not a first person hard core shooter!
Why this requirement ???
And sorry for the term but the implementation sucks !!!
I ran Civ3 on an old PIII 500MHZ with an ancient Voodoo3.
Now I'm using a PIV 2.8GHZ, 512MB, GeForce MX 440....ok it's not a powefull game machine but I can play UT2004, FS2004, Pirates! without any problem...the only exclusion is CIV!
I've not any graphic bug but the game is so lagged (it's lagged also the mouse cursor!!!) that I cannot play. It cause me headache !!!
I tried to reduce resolution, disabled animations, disabled everything but the lag persists : the difference is that now the graphics is worst than Civ3 !!!
I cannot believe that a 3D engine can be so slow !!! We have seen a lot of good examples in the last 5 years ! Why not a sort of Empire Earth static engine (EA was light and fast and most important real-time!!! ) ?
I will change my card as usual (that's not the problem) but I dont want to spend $350 only to run this game....be serious!!!
Bad graphic engine!!!
testing
Now it's clear! The beta-testing was not finished! They have sold a crappy game! There are a lot of people with good specs and major bugs/crashes !!!
If they have tested the AI as they have tested the graphics we are done!
Why test the AI? There are a lot of modders that will develop a better AI for freee !!!
Civ3 was buggy too when it was released but not as this CIV !!!
French tech-tree !!! Mislabeled cds !!! There are people unable to install the DVD! Memory leaks (it's slow, at least it should be "safe" !!! ) We can continue...
The game was not tested !!!
reviews
I've not read a single review in which these problems arise. Why ?
For example a 9.5/10 (instead of 10/10) because there are "minor" technical problems or the minimum system requirement is not realistic....something like this! Not a single note!!!
The reviews were written without play the game!
patches
Fireaxis will fix a lot of bugs but the problem is that the engine sucks and it will be always slow.
They cannot rewrite the engine !
conclusions
A static game, some text and a couple of icons can not require this hardware...there are not excuse: the game is bad programmed!
For me CIV has great potentials but the bugs and the poor implementation have broken the series !!!