Firaxis: Patch coming next week

[doggiedaddy]

All this moaning is just encouraging developers to abandon the PC as a significant games platform and move their development effort to consoles (which is several orders of magnitude easier to work with, since the goalposts are firmly rooted in one place).

I implore you all - if you do not want this to happen, then please, as a matter of principle, stop complaining (about this). Post-release patches are unfortunately an unavoidable part of modern PC games - live with it or stop buying them.

But by all means complain if the patch(es) are insufficient. Just don't moan about the fact patches exist and releases get rushed out for holiday periods.

It's interesting you should mention that. I bought my copy of Civ IV at EB and when I was talking to the guy he mentioned that relatively speaking, they sell very few PC games compared to consoles. With online capability and hardware advances, it's a little easier to go with consoles, except when there is a bug there is no quick and easy fix.

 

[Dida]

This game just crashed on me again, for the 3rd time in a day. I cannot believe how buggy it is. This time, the diplomacy window gets screwed up, some options were covered up by the unit action panel. Then, when I was trying to figure out a way out of this, it crashed. hmm..., are we doing beta testing for Firaxis? I cannot believe they can release a software of this quality.
For those that says softwares are certain to contain bugs, go try age of empires 3. At least that game does not crash 3 times in a day.

 

[rob.derosa]

Well then that settles it, doesn't it? No patch needed everyone - someone call Firaxis and give the guys the week off, it runs like a charm for Rob...



So one would wonder why you are participating in this thread...



I wonder if you know how outright foolish you sound. Why would you say something so ignorant? According to your ill-considered logic, my problems should clear up then with a reboot, shouldn't they?

I better get all four score of my clients to start rebooting their servers nightly, since obviously leaving them up is going to cause random crashing and such... and imagine how miraculous it's been that the computer was able to run all sorts of programs - everything from Treo sync software to Office to Firefox to all sorts of games and other utilities without your expert advice of rebooting often - clearly Civ4 was just the straw breaking the camels back, huh?

Some bulbs are dimmer than others, and some are just burned out...

Venger

firstly i was saying that its obviously not an exclusive problem with the sofware. its obviously some conflict between certain software/hardware

im participating in this thread cause it would be obviously totally one sided otherwise

and. the last point, i was just poking fun at windows' record on the way it handles memory, in that after a restart things often move faster. it wasnt supposed to be a serious suggestion of how to fix the game.. hence the laugh. or have you lost all sense of humour.

and yeah. a server doesnt have the same issues as a desktop, as you will not be running really memory intensive programmes for a protracted period of time. surely you should know the difference between a desktop and a server. unless your trying to run this game on a server..... in which case your four score of 'clients' better get themselves a new admin

i dont like how you decided to start insulting me simply because you were having problems with running a game on your computer. why dont you take your snide comments to someone who actually gives a damn.

 

[HounddogLGS]

I feel for you guys who can't run the game, but I have to say that I don't have the hottest PC around and it runs great for me- no issues with performance and bugs at all so far.

Recommendation to moderators: perhaps you could start a forum for reporting issues in an organized manner- separate performance issues from bugs and compatibility issues, provide a form to fill out and present the info in a concise and organized manner (identify hardware, OS, specific problem, etc.).

That would be a whole lot more constructive than all this ranting and raving all over the forums.

 

[agoodfella]

All this moaning is just encouraging developers to abandon the PC as a significant games platform and move their development effort to consoles (which is several orders of magnitude easier to work with, since the goalposts are firmly rooted in one place).

I implore you all - if you do not want this to happen, then please, as a matter of principle, stop complaining (about this). Post-release patches are unfortunately an unavoidable part of modern PC games - live with it or stop buying them.

But by all means complain if the patch(es) are insufficient. Just don't moan about the fact patches exist and releases get rushed out for holiday periods.

You're implying that this groundswell of complaining could possibly lead to Civ on Console?

GOOD! About damn time, I'd say.

These kinds of comments above underscores the sheer petulance and pettiness of hardcore PC gamers.

So Civ might come out on console, SO WHAT? Do you hear console gamers "imploring their fellow console buddies" to ensure that their games don't come out on PC?

No you do not.

And what's so bad about being able to pop in a Civ game into your console and the only thing you have to worry about is how much sleep you're gonna be missing over the next few hours? no graphic card issues, no compatibility issues, no sound issues, nothing-but-nothing-but-good.

Face it, console gaming is the way of the future. This is a business at the end of the day, and numbers just don't lie. Console gaming has been steadily increasing and PC games are shrinking. Period. Nothing you can do about that, unless you are Bill Gates-rich and want to by 1 million copies of every PC game that comes out just to support the industry.

Why are you so scared that Civ be ported to consoles?

The way I see it, it's their only hope for survival. If the next-gen version doesn't come out on XBOX360 or PS3, it ain't coming out. At least no one is going to buy it in enough numbers to justify the cost of making it - esp. with these "complaints" coming through.

Thanks for the heads up - KEEP THE COMPLAINTS COMING.

 

[wilebill]

"go try age of empires 3" -- apply the patch first. The release was rocky. Go look at the early posts.

As for publishers abandoning the PC, no it will not happen long term. But right now the PC game market is in eclipse by the hype for the next gen consoles. Having played with one of the new consoles for an hour and a bit, I have to say I was not impressed.

Some games do not fit on consoles anyway. I think the next gen console war will sink a lot of the current game publishers for good. Supply will greatly exceed the demand.

What I think we will see is the demise of some of the large software publishers and the rise of pc game designers who market and publish online. It is the shrinkwrap box that may become a thing of the past.

 

[Dida]

age of empire 3 has some bugs here and there, but at least is is not released at beta quality. Civ4 must be the most buggy game I have tried in recent history.

 

[rob.derosa]

if this 'is the most buggy game' of all time.
how come it gets such high reviews? lol
its just a problem with the game and certain types of hardware. its not that the game itself is buggy, just how it send data to the graphics card to be processed is.

 

[Kwyjibo]

Venger, obviously something is bothering you, as you seem to know everything about everyone, what they do and how stupid they are. You claim to know that the only PC I ever see is my own...strange, since I repair/reconfigure PC's for a living, so I tend to see quite a few every day... Secondly you tell people that don't have problems not to mix in the discussion, I suspect so you can say later 'look at this thread, NO one seems to be able to run Civ4'. Well let me wake you up, EVERYONE in my circle of friends (before you suggest I haven't got any, I do...) seems to be able to run the game just fine (except for the memory leak bug I mentioned earlier, no biggy) on a multitude of different systems. Lastly, you seem to be so certain Civ4 will not sell more than a few copies...The entire Civ-franchise has sold several million copies up until now (I think I read a few days ago it was 6 or 8 million), so I would be surprised if Civ4 doesn't represent a fair share of that...what with it being in the top 3 list of about every major online/retails sales list...but you seem to know better, so you're probably right; the 100 people complaining about problems on this thread probably represent 50-80% of all Civ4 sales, therefore only a quarter of the people that bought it are able to play it...

 

[doggiedaddy]

"

What I think we will see is the demise of some of the large software publishers and the rise of pc game designers who market and publish online. It is the shrinkwrap box that may become a thing of the past.

This is already being planned on with consoles. I read recently that with used game sales being so strong, companies will release games that you purchase by downloading to the console, the Xbox3 being the first. This is in the hopes that people will always have to buy a game at full price.

As a consumer, we have the power to reject this.

As for CIV on a console, I just don't think it's a practical fit.

 

[Panzer Ace]

DAMN! That was fast for a patch. I'm just glad their working on it and not sitting around planning the next game like so many companies do. I hear to many people puting down Civ4 and Firaxis, though I think more testing could have been done. GOOD JOB FIRAXIS!

 

[noosh]

if this 'is the most buggy game' of all time.
how come it gets such high reviews? lol
its just a problem with the game and certain types of hardware. its not that the game itself is buggy, just how it send data to the graphics card to be processed is.

They get high reviews, because every reviewer fondly remembers Civ way back in the day when they were in highschool or whatever.

But this is the buggiest game I've ever had the misfortune of running into. It whiped out my laptop, totaled the harddrive. So ontop of the ridiculous 70 dollar CND price I'm going to fork out another 250 just to undo the damage that Civ IV inflicted opon me.

But Fireaxis should be proud I guees. Civ was the first comptuer game I've ever played, Civ IV is the last computer game Ill ever play.

So nice work boys, way to bring some symetry to my life

 

[rob.derosa]

They get high reviews, because every reviewer fondly remembers Civ way back in the day when they were in highschool or whatever.

But this is the buggiest game I've ever had the misfortune of running into. It whiped out my laptop, totaled the harddrive. So ontop of the ridiculous 70 dollar CND price I'm going to fork out another 250 just to undo the damage that Civ IV inflicted opon me.

But Fireaxis should be proud I guees. Civ was the first comptuer game I've ever played, Civ IV is the last computer game Ill ever play.

So nice work boys, way to bring some symetry to my life

lol it 'totalled' your hard drive how exactly.?

 

[jdurg]

You do realize that software can't actually harm a harddrive anymore, right? If the hard drive failed, then it just failed. If you had loaded Mozilla when your hard drive was ready to crap out, would it be Mozilla's fault?

 

[DisruptiveIdiot]

I haven't had any problems with Civ 4 so far with a GeForce 3, 512mb of bargain RAM (corsair, but low-end), and a 2.5ghz P4 overclocked to 3.2ghz. The only issues I get are on huge maps with several civilizations in the late game, and those are just performance hits that are expected.

Civ IV is very stable and you guys should quit your *****in, every game has problems with different hardware configurations. It's noone's fault so chill. Just wait a few days and you'll get a patch, an apology, and a great game that is more polished than Civ III was.

 

[noosh]

lol it 'totalled' your hard drive how exactly.?

Lets see. I loaded the game, i played it for 2 hrs, it crashed to the blue screen of doom. Ok. I restarted my computer and went about my buisness, using word and such, the computer crashed again an hour later, and then an hour after that. Then it crashed one last time and that was the end of my harddrive.

Its all "lol" when your a fan boy, but when a game breaks your HD its a whole different matter. But you know, I'm not a bitter man so I hope you never have to encounter this problem.

 

[noosh]

Civ IV is very stable and you guys should quit your *****in, every game has problems with different hardware configurations. It's noone's fault so chill. Just wait a few days and you'll get a patch, an apology, and a great game that is more polished than Civ III was.

You would be *****ing whing too if your computer was destroyed in the process. No ? Or would you just say "Neat, I just lost all my files and 250 dollars. Thanks Fireaxis!"

 

[DisruptiveIdiot]

You would be *****ing whing too if your computer was destroyed in the process. No ? Or would you just say "Neat, I just lost all my files and 250 dollars. Thanks Fireaxis!"

Software doesn't arbitrarily destroy hardware. You win the illiterate award in the category of computers.

 

[jdurg]

Software doesn't arbitrarily destroy hardware.

I agree. Modern Hard Drives cannot be 'destroyed' by software. The only way software could potentialy harm a hard drive is if it was something that was run constantly for 24 hours a day for dozens of days. Then it would have to be software that wrote and read on and off at random spots on the hard drive and physically wore out the hard drive. Civ4 hasn't been out long enough, so it couldn't have done that. If your hard drive died like you said it did, then I have some bad news for you; it was going to die whether you installed Civ4 on it or not.

 

[oldStatesman]

Software doesn't arbitrarily destroy hardware. You win the illiterate award in the category of computers.

Rare, but it can potentially happen.

http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/securi...takes_Cisco_told/0,2000061744,39205587,00.htm
"This could actually destroy the routers ability to turn on again ... certain instructions in certain parts of memory in the router tell it how to turn on .... It is one of those rare cases where software can destroy hardware," said Lynn.

http://www.computerworld.com/blogs/node/1099 So is it only a matter of time before a virus comes out that destroys a hard drive by attacking the firmware area? "With enough time and energy they could figure out how to get into the drive," he says. Doing so requires hacking through the operating system and the disk drive, which would be challenging. But he adds, "Since it's just a bunch of digital logic they could probably figure out a way to get through it."

More common would be poorly written software that causes harddisk corruption...although the disk is not destroyed physically, it is 'destroyed' because critical files have been corrupted. Had it happen to me a few months ago - a software program added a key to the registry that unlocked the Kernel Reserved Space that XP uses for system files and allowed any software to write to it...it hosed my OS files and corrupted the boot sector of my disk ... had to re-format and reload.

To a lot of regular users, a BSOD and a failure to boot seems like the disk is 'destroyed, when it is only the OS Boot files or disk boot sector that has been corrupted. I have amazed and astounded a few folks when I 'miraculously' revived their disk that they swore was 'destroyed', through the Recovery Panel...