Psyringe said:
With reviews averaging at about 92%, I find Civ4 very appropriately rated. There's no conspiracy going on. It's just a very good game.
Technical problems should be mentioned in a proper review, but are no reason to lessen the score unless everyone (or at least most people) are effected by them, which just isn't the case. These are bound to change anyways, partly because they are solved by patches, partly because new hardware will introduce new problems in the years to come.
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I also think that there *are* sites that can be trusted. And some that can't.
Right on, my thinking exactly.
Just for the heck of it I took a little sampling of some reviews, to see if their content mentioned anything about the performance issues. I gotta admit, I can see why the OP saw a bias.
The reviews I checked out were from a post on the front page of this website, the first group of reviews that come up, the latest entries basically. Out of the seven reviews, (Digital Entertainment 9.5/10, PGNx Media 9.3/10, Game Axis 9/10, Gamer Dad 4.5/5, Game Chronicles 9/10, Voodoo Extreme 9/10, The Journal Gazette (no rating)), only one of them (Gamer Dad) makes mention of people experiencing problems running the game. One other, Voodoo Extreme I think, mentions lagginess toward the end of the game. Aside from that, nobody had anything bad to say.
The truth is, there ARE a decent number of people having serious problems running this game, they may be a vocal minority, but they are a decent amount. In addition to those with serious problems, almost all of us have at least a slight problem, like difficulty playing games on large or huge maps. And that's running the game well above the advertised minimum specs. For a review to not mention those kinds of things is wrong, imo. I understand the reviewers have a lot of games to go through, and most of them base their reviews only on their personal experience playing the game, and don't bother checking into this sort of thing... but it's still pretty misleading. Judging by 5 of those 7 reviews, you'd this this game ran 100% perfectly, without a hitch, no matter what.
Like Psyringe said, unless the vast majority of people were having serious trouble running the game, it shouldn't affect the ratings reviewers give the game. It may be wrong, but if I'm browsing through a list of ratings, I'm more than likely going to ignore a game that gets a 6/10 or lower. If it's a 9/10, I'll go ahead and read the review, which is what a game like Civ 4 deserves. But, the review should definitely make mention of the potential technical problems.
Guess you just need to make sure you find a website that's reliable and objective. Good to know for the next time I'm looking to buy a game.