Dreamlogic
Chieftain
- Joined
- Nov 5, 2005
- Messages
- 6
I purchased Civilization 4 yesterday as it was released here in Norway, and this is my experience:
The first thing I did was to test this game on my laptop computer, a computer with specifications somewhere between the minimum and recommended specifications for the game. It turned out however not to work very well, as the world background was completely black and the game ran extremely slow even with all graphics specifications and resolution set to the absolute minimum.
Next I tried installing Civilization 4 on my stationary computer. A computer which has got slightly better specifications than the recommended specifications for the game. (It is a Pentium 4 - 2.4ghz, 512mb ram, G-force ti 4200 128mb ram, 120gb hd). The blackness problem that I experienced on my laptop was gone, but to my surprise the game was still running extremely sluggish. I then reduced all graphics options to the absolute minimum, but to my horror the game didnt run smooth even then. Next I tried playing the single player on various map sizes, but the game didnt run smooth even on the smallest maps.
(And this is at the start of the game with only a settler and a warrior, so I can only imagine how horrible the game will run once there will be a larger number of units and cities.)
I upgraded the graphics driver, installed windows updates etc. but my efforts resulted in no improvements.
Next I called a few friends that I had arranged to play Civilization 4 with that evening, to inform them that I was unable to play the game with them. Guess what? It turned out that they had the exact same problem with poor performance. (Even though they also have the recommended computer specifications).
The game is simply unplayable for me in its current state, as is it for my friends. Judging from all the error reports on the forum, there are also a lot of other people who are unable to play this game for a number of reasons.
To me it seems as if this game has been rushed to the market for some reason while it still was in an early beta testing phase. This game definetly does not live up to the quality that I've come to expect from games by Sid Meier.
Apperently a patch will come next week. If that patch does not fix my problem, then I'll return the game.
Regards
Disappointed customer
The first thing I did was to test this game on my laptop computer, a computer with specifications somewhere between the minimum and recommended specifications for the game. It turned out however not to work very well, as the world background was completely black and the game ran extremely slow even with all graphics specifications and resolution set to the absolute minimum.
Next I tried installing Civilization 4 on my stationary computer. A computer which has got slightly better specifications than the recommended specifications for the game. (It is a Pentium 4 - 2.4ghz, 512mb ram, G-force ti 4200 128mb ram, 120gb hd). The blackness problem that I experienced on my laptop was gone, but to my surprise the game was still running extremely sluggish. I then reduced all graphics options to the absolute minimum, but to my horror the game didnt run smooth even then. Next I tried playing the single player on various map sizes, but the game didnt run smooth even on the smallest maps.
(And this is at the start of the game with only a settler and a warrior, so I can only imagine how horrible the game will run once there will be a larger number of units and cities.)
I upgraded the graphics driver, installed windows updates etc. but my efforts resulted in no improvements.
Next I called a few friends that I had arranged to play Civilization 4 with that evening, to inform them that I was unable to play the game with them. Guess what? It turned out that they had the exact same problem with poor performance. (Even though they also have the recommended computer specifications).
The game is simply unplayable for me in its current state, as is it for my friends. Judging from all the error reports on the forum, there are also a lot of other people who are unable to play this game for a number of reasons.
To me it seems as if this game has been rushed to the market for some reason while it still was in an early beta testing phase. This game definetly does not live up to the quality that I've come to expect from games by Sid Meier.
Apperently a patch will come next week. If that patch does not fix my problem, then I'll return the game.
Regards
Disappointed customer
