We feel ripped off by Firaxis.

[-EFD-Hitless]

Here is the situation. There are 5 of us fireman that work 24-hour shifts. To kill the down-time between emergency runs we play computer games. Civ has always been one of our favorites to play. We were excited with the announcement of Civ 4 many months ago. We all pre-orderd it and waited for the release. Once release day came we attempted to play many games via LAN and Direct IP thru our Linksys 8-port switch-router. Of course we experienced many CTD's, freezes, lags, video corruption issues, and the all mighty BSOD re-boots. I emailed Firaxis tech support multiple times just to recieve one mass mailer back explaining I would hear from them soon. I never heard from them again. So we waited for the patch. The patch came, we all installed. I will admit we experience less (keyword = less) CTD's, but, the freezes, lags, and the BSOD are still happening. In fact after the last game crash our Linksys router has stopped responding. So here are the totals, 5 fireman buying Civ4 (5 X 49.99 + tax = $264.95, add one fried $80.00 Linksys router-switch and to buy another router at $80.00 for a grand total of $424.95!!!! What really pushes me over the edge was as we (the ones that bought the game) were all struggling to get the game to work at first with no success, Firaxis was not working on a patch to fix it, but, they were working on releasing a demo of the game to trap more suckers to buy it. If they had beta testers for this game, they definitly need to be fired. I honestly can't believe that they did have beta testers. They released the beta version of the game to us to test it out for them. And now all of us are paying the price for that! Please let the public know about this game, copy and paste this to as many forums as you can before they get more people to buy this game!

 

[Circastes]

Relaaaxxx.

 

[Renata]

You have five relatively modern computers in your firehouse? The one my aunt works in has only one, and it's ten years old.

 

[spyder77777]

I'm with you -EFD-Hitless...this is by far the worst release of a supposed class A game I've ever seen. Anyone who thinks otherwise hasn't played many games. I can't believe I used to complain about Blizzard's servers for things like D2 and WoW! I had to RMA my graphics card that had zero issues previous to this game and now have to question whether the game-forced reboot issues have done other damage, like to my nforce4 motherboard. I'll keep spreading the word and I'll keep nagging Firaxis...

 

[-EFD-Hitless]

Relaaaxxx.

Are you serious? I'll tell you what, send me $425.00 and I'll relax like I'm drinking a nice cold one on the beaches in Mexico! I'm just not a big fan of being ripped off. Why would you even say that?

 

[Turner]

Moderator Action: Thread moved.

Again, please refrain from creating more than one thread on the same subject.

 

[Corlindale]

Please don't include me in your statement, I can't recall ever being ripped off by Firaxis. I love the game, and I like how it runs perfectly smoothly on my pc, even though it is below-recommended specs.
Of course it is a shame that you've experienced problems, you just can't conclude that everyone has problems, based on that.

 

[-EFD-Hitless]

You have five relatively modern computers in your firehouse? The one my aunt works in has only one, and it's ten years old.

All five are completely different. 3 are self built systems with AMD Athlon 64 3500's to 3200's with new Giga-byte and Asus boards. 6800GT 256 PCI-x video card, to Radeon 800 series cards. One Dell and one HP system. Some with 2 gig of dual channel memory to 1 gig of 2100 ddr. Issues with all the systems.

Mine personnally is this:
Mobo = Giga-byte GA-K8NXP-SLI
Processor = AMD 64 Athlon 3500+
Video card = 1 MSI 6800 GT 256 PCI-express
Memory = 2 gig dual channel 3200 by Gail
Power = Antec 400w true power

Running latest drivers and board bios on all. Tried the revert back to older drivers and didn't work for me.

 

[Statman]

Are you serious? I'll tell you what, send me $425.00 and I'll relax like I'm drinking a nice cold one on the beaches in Mexico! I'm just not a big fan of being ripped off. Why would you even say that?

Probably because he's not having any problems.

I've spent $100 in RAM upgrades, $100 in a new video card and $40 for a new power supply, which comes to $290 if you include the game. My wife thinks I'm nuts! I can kind of justify it since all of the parts can easily go to a new computer down the road, and this will extend the life of our current computer.

Customer support hasn't exactly been what I've expected, but then again when the game works it is awesome! A little less anger might get you a little less apathy.

 

[Turner]

Moderator Action: Be nice.

.​

 

[Efexeye]

Please don't include me in your statement, I can't recall ever being ripped off by Firaxis. I love the game, and I like how it runs perfectly smoothly on my pc, even though it is below-recommended specs.
Of course it is a shame that you've experienced problems, you just can't conclude that everyone has problems, based on that.

/signed

890

 

[Nightfang]

I cannot understand how the fried router figures into all of this.

Oh, and I also do not feel ripped off. I have been playing with extremely few problems (only two crashes to date) and love the game. Sorry you are having problems, though.

 

[Mon Mauler]

Mine personnally is this:
Mobo = Giga-byte GA-K8NXP-SLI
Processor = AMD Athlon 3500+
Video card = 1 MSI 6800 GT 256 PCI-express
Memory = 2 gig dual channel 3200 by Gail
Power = Antec 400w true power

Running latest drivers and board bios on all. Tried the revert back to older drivers and didn't work for me.

I have a very, very similar machine. The only real difference is that my vid card is 6600 GT.

Mine works absolutely, 100%, fine. I've not had one single problem.
MM

 

[Mazruk]

As with civ 3 (so you could have figured it out with a tiny bit of research) LAN based multiplay only requires a single copy of the game - no need for you all to buy one (unless you also play at home).

Are you sure your linksys didnt die on its own? I cant see any way that a computer crash (that isnt caused by something like a power spike) can take out your router. You are using a clean supply arent you?

What are your computer specs? How well are they maintained? Have you tried 3dmark05 on them (because 3dmark05 caused me problems like you had, but they turned out to be problems with my machine/drivers/old mobo bios)?

I havent been ripped off by Firaxis so please dont include me in your comment - its worked fine out of the box on my home network (also using linksys). It only cost me £18 because I didnt buy it at the most expensive retailer I could fine.

Edit: Ok I see your specs now. All quite new compared to my kit. I did find that DX9.0c and/or 3dmark05 were very sensitive to things like memory timings on my kit - given that a few of yours are home built might be worth looking at that. I keep mentioning 3dmark05 because I had exactly the same kind of errors lots of Civ4 players mention (I had them with 3dmark05 instead) and when I had fixed them all, civ 4 (which I bought after sorting it all) worked fine out of the box.

 

[MattJek]

Im sure they didnt intentionally ripped you off. Its not like they put in the bugs on purpose. And please dont generalize, I dont feel like I've been ripped off... on the contrary, I couldnt think of a better way to spend $50 on myself.

 

[Turner]

Moderator Action: Crimso - warned, flaming. We don't need those kind of posts here.
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889

 

[jayeffaar]

I cannot understand how the fried router figures into all of this.

It's either a coincidence, or a sign that something else is seriously wrong in their computer set-up. Either way, it can't possibly have anything to do with the game...

 

[Doomed_UK]

All five are completely different. 3 are self built systems with AMD Athlon 64 3500's to 3200's with new Giga-byte and Asus boards. 6800GT 256 PCI-x video card, to Radeon 800 series cards. One Dell and one HP system. Some with 2 gig of dual channel memory to 1 gig of 2100 ddr. Issues with all the systems.

Mine personnally is this:
Mobo = Giga-byte GA-K8NXP-SLI
Processor = AMD Athlon 3500+
Video card = 1 MSI 6800 GT 256 PCI-express
Memory = 2 gig dual channel 3200 by Gail
Power = Antec 400w true power

Running latest drivers and board bios on all. Tried the revert back to older drivers and didn't work for me.

Interseting, my system is very similar to yours:
Mobo = Giga-byte (cant remember which one)
Processor = AMD Athlon 3500+
Video card = 1 MSI 6600 GT 128 PCI-express
Memory = gig dual channel 3200 by Crucial (Ballistic)
Power = 560w cant remember make

I also have 3 other machines of lower specs all running Civ

We play using a network hub & router

I have had no problems - even multiplayer (besides not being able to have a friend on dial up join my game - we have to join his)

The only thing I can think of is that all my machines are using older drivers - I have not updated for at least 6 months.
Also my 4 machines are running win 2000, my 2 remote friends who I often play with are using XP though.

 

[-EFD-Hitless]

I'm sorry if I'm coming off as way to angry. I don't mean to offend anyone. Its just super frustrating to have so many issues on so many different computers. We have played many games, BF2 + SF, AOE series, and many others. Sure they had there problems, but, tech support kept in contact with us and let us know what was going on. Were getting nothing here from Firaxis. Now with the router blowing up, I'm alittle upset.

 

[TrailblazingScot]

£17.99 I paid for my Civ IV, it works perfectly and I have alot of fun with it.

I was not ripped off.

Poor YOU.