So yeah, I'm way behind the curve on this, but I've been looking at Civ IV for a while and decided to download the demo today to see how much I like it, if it's a worthwhile successor to Civ III and if I want to go out and buy the game. Installation of the demo seemed to go just fine.
Starting the demo and actually playing, however, is another whole issue.
When I started I immediately got a pop up box from Windows Vista 64 saying that there were compatibility issues with the demo, and did I want to check for solutions. I checked and of course there were none. Not a good sign. Tried to start the demo and I got black boxes that didn't fill the screen, stuttering sounds, a window resize then resize back, another black box covering 2/3rds of the upper left of the screen, more stuttering sounds, and that was about it. Clicking on it in the task bar did nothing and I finally had to use Task Manager to shut it down.
So I switched it into compatibility mode. Put it into xp sp2 compatibility and told it to run as an administrator. Got the same sort of start, but when I clicked on the task bar, lo and behold I got a preview movie and a start screen. Well, that's better. Selected the tutorial, watched the game close, restart as the tutorial, did the box and sound dance, clicked on the task bar, and managed to get it to start.
So I'm the Romans, got through to building a worker in the tutorial and I have to build a farm. Uh oh, for some reason I apparently don't have bronze working, so I can't build a farm. it also means I can't do anything else since everything else is turned off and unavailable. Go back to the main menu and restart the tutorial. This time I get my warrior to kill the lions and get teh command to go back to my city. But Sid doesn't seem to know I'm back at the city no matter how many times I move in and out or try fortifying. Back out to the main menu again and do it again. Twice more. Both times Sid doesn't know I'm moving back into the city.
So I shut the game down and start all over again. But now I can't get the game to start. I'm getting the same black boxes and stuttering sound, but it won't run full screen. Clicking on the task bar I can sometimes get it to pop up and show me the intro window, then it immediately minimizes or turns into a black box again. Now it doesn't matter if it's in compatibility mode or not, or which type, or run as an admin or not. That's all I get.
I'm on Win Vista Home Premium 64, Geforce GT 240, AMD 64x dual core 4400 2.31ghz, McAfee Security Center (virus and malware- tried it both on and off), and not sure what else.
So is the demo just incredibly terribly buggy, or am I going to run into this if I buy the game as well? I'd really like to actually play through a few real turns and see what all is new before I decide to buy, but so far this isn't a good sign.
Starting the demo and actually playing, however, is another whole issue.
When I started I immediately got a pop up box from Windows Vista 64 saying that there were compatibility issues with the demo, and did I want to check for solutions. I checked and of course there were none. Not a good sign. Tried to start the demo and I got black boxes that didn't fill the screen, stuttering sounds, a window resize then resize back, another black box covering 2/3rds of the upper left of the screen, more stuttering sounds, and that was about it. Clicking on it in the task bar did nothing and I finally had to use Task Manager to shut it down.
So I switched it into compatibility mode. Put it into xp sp2 compatibility and told it to run as an administrator. Got the same sort of start, but when I clicked on the task bar, lo and behold I got a preview movie and a start screen. Well, that's better. Selected the tutorial, watched the game close, restart as the tutorial, did the box and sound dance, clicked on the task bar, and managed to get it to start.
So I'm the Romans, got through to building a worker in the tutorial and I have to build a farm. Uh oh, for some reason I apparently don't have bronze working, so I can't build a farm. it also means I can't do anything else since everything else is turned off and unavailable. Go back to the main menu and restart the tutorial. This time I get my warrior to kill the lions and get teh command to go back to my city. But Sid doesn't seem to know I'm back at the city no matter how many times I move in and out or try fortifying. Back out to the main menu again and do it again. Twice more. Both times Sid doesn't know I'm moving back into the city.
So I shut the game down and start all over again. But now I can't get the game to start. I'm getting the same black boxes and stuttering sound, but it won't run full screen. Clicking on the task bar I can sometimes get it to pop up and show me the intro window, then it immediately minimizes or turns into a black box again. Now it doesn't matter if it's in compatibility mode or not, or which type, or run as an admin or not. That's all I get.
I'm on Win Vista Home Premium 64, Geforce GT 240, AMD 64x dual core 4400 2.31ghz, McAfee Security Center (virus and malware- tried it both on and off), and not sure what else.
So is the demo just incredibly terribly buggy, or am I going to run into this if I buy the game as well? I'd really like to actually play through a few real turns and see what all is new before I decide to buy, but so far this isn't a good sign.
