You have the game - Does it work for you?

[Mors]

Spare me, anyone who votes "I've had no problems" is a straight out lier. 9 of my friends bought this game (Part of a Online Civ club) and every single one of them has had at least 3-4 technical issues prior to getting the game to run right for those that are able to run it at all.

Right now

3 of us can't play at all due to constant desktop drops despite all of the "fixes" out there

I can't load saved games while there are 2 of us that can't save games (getting all manner of errors and or desktop drops while trying to save games).

All of us are experiancing horrible lag and there isn't a single person in the group with anything less than a 3.+ Pent 4 with at least 1 gig of memory in the group.

To say there are "no problems" is just down right ridiculous and I think the majority of the people who come on these forums and proclaim that do that just to annoy everyone (Reverse Trolls). Quite frankly if the freaking game was working I wouldn't even bother coming to this sight and I can't imagine why anyone that has a working game would either, short of looking for Strategy tips. I would be playing it. I think the percentage of people having problems is far higher then polls show.

I played Civ IV for over 5 hours on sunday on my machine(Dual AMD MP2000+, 1 GB ram, 6800GT) and did not experience a single crash, graphical error, or sound problem. I guess I must be lying, either that or it might just be that I know how to maintain a computer properly and thats why all of my games run. Don't make foolish generalizations...the game runs beautifully on my machine and I have no complaints.

 

[doronron]

I realize not everyone has serious game breaking bugs, but for 23 people to say they have had "no problems" is just unrealistic. To this day I don't think a PC game has been invented that would qualify as a "no problem" game, let alone this one.

Runs fine right out of the box. No crashes so far. No lag. No sound issues. No movie issues. No chesire bug. No black terrain. I can view the globe completely zoomed out. Running 1280x1024 with all detail on high except AA.

And no, I'm not a liar.

 

[xguild]

Well yeah, I guess you're right, if you're on a crusade to prove the game sucks beyond all recognition and should be banned and boycotted, I guess that's a good way of seeing it.

But if 23 people on your poll are able to install and play the game without running into these major bugs and just experience a bit of lag here and there, then how can you dispute that?

I'm not on a crusade to boycott the game, quite the opposite. In my personal opinion it's one of the best Civ's ever made. I love the game and I love Sid Meiers design idea's in this game. I have nothing but absolutly envy of the people who are able to play it without any issues. What I don't like is the hypocracy of saying that the game "has no problems" when it's plainly obvious that it does. In fact all this poll acomplished so far since my last update is prove that at least 35% of the people have issues or are unable to play while 65% of the people voted under the pretence that they have had absolutly no problems whatsover. Since we know for a fact that game has issues, I don't see how that could possibly be accurate. Instead I think there are fan boy trolls on this forum that simply speak out for the game just to annoy people who are already frustrated and angry that they aren't able to play a game that they just paid 50 bucks for.

Besides, what I really dislike is the "your excused" attitude from fan boys who support the idea that these publishing and production companies are allowed to produce buggy untested games. Imagine if a game was released on the X-box with this many problems.

 

[Luke515]

Works fine out of the box. If the speed of research can be slowed down to civ 3 speed, I be calling in sick a work for a few days and play my brains out.

 

[doronron]

I'm not on a crusade to boycott the game, quite the opposite. In my personal opinion it's one of the best Civ's ever made. I love the game and I love Sid Meiers design idea's in this game. I have nothing but absolutly envy of the people who are able to play it without any issues. What I don't like is the hypocracy of saying that the game "has no problems" when it's plainly obvious that it does. In fact all this poll acomplished so far since my last update is prove that at least 35% of the people have issues or are unable to play while 65% of the people voted under the pretence that they have had absolutly no problems whatsover. Since we know for a fact that game has issues, I don't see how that could possibly be accurate. Instead I think there are fan boy trolls on this forum that simply speak out for the game just to annoy people who are already frustrated and angry that they aren't able to play a game that they just paid 50 bucks for.

Besides, what I really dislike is the "your excused" attitude from fan boys who support the idea that these publishing and production companies are allowed to produce buggy untested games. Imagine if a game was released on the X-box with this many problems.

Where to start? How about the fact that you refuse to believe there are people who can run the game with no problems? The ones that state flat out they have no problems you call liars and trolls?

Why would these people lie? Wouldn't you expect them to have good sense enough to raise their concerns if they were, indeed, having problems? They're consumers, just like you (though a bit more level headed). Certainly you have something better to do instead of outright insulting random people who's only apparent action was having the gall to have trouble free gameplay?

What the poll shows in not a bunch of liars, but rather a good portion of the people who've participated that do not share your view, nor have the problems you claim exist universally in the user base.

EDIT - @Luke: located somewhere in the forums is a tutorial on editing the XML file that affects game speed (turns, research, build times, etc.). If I could find it at the moment, I'd link it for you. However, I do have an offline copy of the contents of the thread. PM me with an email addy, and I'll sent it to you, if you can't find the thread either.

 

[Luke515]

Thanks for tip Doronron..I am going to have a look. If I cant find it I will pm ya.

 

[xguild]

Where to start? How about the fact that you refuse to believe there are people who can run the game with no problems? The ones that state flat out they have no problems you call liars and trolls?

Why would these people lie? Wouldn't you expect them to have good sense enough to raise their concerns if they were, indeed, having problems? They're consumers, just like you (though a bit more level headed). Certainly you have something better to do instead of outright insulting random people who's only apparent action was having the gall to have trouble free gameplay?

What the poll shows in not a bunch of liars, but rather a good portion of the people who've participated that do not share your view, nor have the problems you claim exist universally in the user base.

EDIT - @Luke: located somewhere in the forums is a tutorial on editing the XML file that affects game speed (turns, research, build times, etc.). If I could find it at the moment, I'd link it for you. However, I do have an offline copy of the contents of the thread. PM me with an email addy, and I'll sent it to you, if you can't find the thread either.

Look guys, I'm not some troll out to make anyone look bad or insult anyone's sensibilities. I just think anyone who claims "The game has no problems" is full S***. If that's an insult, well, sorry, but I think it's the truth. This forum is littered from head to toe with nothing but bug reports of every kind. There is litterly hundreds of people who either can't play the game or play on some "buggy" level where they have to put up with some random issue. How can anyone stand up and say "The game has no problems?".

 

[billT]

Look guys, I'm not some troll out to make anyone look bad or insult anyone's sensibilities. I just think anyone who claims "The game has no problems" is full S***. If that's an insult, well, sorry, but I think it's the truth. This forum is littered from head to toe with nothing but bug reports of every kind. There is litterly hundreds of people who either can't play the game or play on some "buggy" level where they have to put up with some random issue. How can anyone stand up and say "The game has no problems?".

Because there are no problems FOR THEM. Just because I haven't had any problems doesn't mean that there are no problems, but that's not what you asked. Obviously there are problems with the game, but you asked if we've experienced them, and the fact is that ~60% of the people to respond to your poll say that they haven't. Perhaps the real problem is the way in which you chose to word your poll.

 

[xguild]

Because there are no problems FOR THEM. Just because I haven't had any problems doesn't mean that there are no problems, but that's not what you asked. Obviously there are problems with the game, but you asked if we've experienced them, and the fact is that ~60% of the people to respond to your poll say that they haven't. Perhaps the real problem is the way in which you chose to word your poll.

hmmm... It ain't my poll pal... but even at 60-40 it means that almost half the people who purchased the game either can't play it or are playing at a diminished level. Your right though the poster did ask specifically as to whether individual people were "having" problems rather then whether or not the game has problems. My point is that I just don't believe them. I think a forum called Civfanatics screams FANBOISM and if this freaking game was destorying PC's like a virus, people would still jump on this forum and hump Sid Meiers leg in defense of Civilization 4.

The game is not working the way it should, period. That is a stone cold fact. I'm sure there are a few people who are willing to overlook lag, and a occassional crash (For those that are lucky to have the specific and only configuration that was tested prior to release), but for the rest of us were left wondering what happen to the game, IGN and Gamespot called a 9.4 editors choice? How can a game be a 9.4 if it doesn't work right?

 

[billT]

hmmm... It ain't my poll pal... but even at 60-40 it means that almost half the people who purchased the game either can't play it or are playing at a diminished level. Your right though the poster did ask specifically as to whether individual people were "having" problems rather then whether or not the game has problems. My point is that I just don't believe them. I think a forum called Civfanatics screams FANBOISM and if this freaking game was destorying PC's like a virus, people would still jump on this forum and hump Sid Meiers leg in defense of Civilization 4.

The game is not working the way it should, period. That is a stone cold fact. I'm sure there are a few people who are willing to overlook lag, and a occassional crash (For those that are lucky to have the specific and only configuration that was tested prior to release), but for the rest of us were left wondering what happen to the game, IGN and Gamespot called a 9.4 editors choice? How can a game be a 9.4 if it doesn't work right?

hmm ... since you were the one b****ing and moaning in the thread, I just assumed it was your poll. Regardless, my point still stands. I have had zero problems with the game and there are likely plenty of others in the same boat. If you don't like the game, don't play it until it's stable on your system. It's a pretty simple solution.

Edit: You can go ahead and call me a liar if that's what you want to do... I'll just continue playing - and enjoying - the problem-free (for me) game as I have been to this point.

 

[jaxjaggywires]

I have had no issues so far either...well, aside from an install problem, but that was due to Windows autoload on the second disc, so nothing because of the game itself.

 

[xguild]

hmm ... since you were the one b****ing and moaning in the thread, I just assumed it was your poll. Regardless, my point still stands. I have had zero problems with the game and there are likely plenty of others in the same boat. If you don't like the game, don't play it until it's stable on your system. It's a pretty simple solution.

It's true, I could just stop playing (not that it's much fun to play when you can't save or load saved games), but what's really frustrating is that the assumption is that people who ***** about bugs don't like the game. I love this game, I think from a design and gameplay perspective it's genius. But I'm not going to come on the forum and brag about how great the game is if it's ridden with bugs. Nore do I think a game deserves a 9.4 review score if it's ridden with bugs. If it was a bad game with bugs, there wouldn't be anyone on this forum at all. The problem is that it's a good game with bugs, I think that's the most frustrating part of this whole experiance.

I suppose I'll just have to be patient and wait for a patch, but I wonder how long the "fanboism" denial (such asyourself Billt) will hold. At some point your going to realize that the game does in fact have a lot of deal breaking bugs. Maybe you haven't run across them yet, but you will. We'll see how long it takes this community to turn. I'll guess about a week or two. In fact I'm going to run this exact same poll two weeks from now and compare the numbers, I'll bet they'll be polar opposites.

 

[humboldt]

With all the complaining, I started the poll to try and quantify how big the problem was. There are actualy more people with trouble than I expected, but then like someone mentioned this poll is biased. The population of posters here is inflated by those looking for help because they are having trouble. I think if the entire group of people who bought the game were to take this poll then the pecentage of those who cant play would be lower.

 

[doronron]

hmmm... It ain't my poll pal... but even at 60-40 it means that almost half the people who purchased the game either can't play it or are playing at a diminished level. Your right though the poster did ask specifically as to whether individual people were "having" problems rather then whether or not the game has problems. My point is that I just don't believe them. I think a forum called Civfanatics screams FANBOISM and if this freaking game was destorying PC's like a virus, people would still jump on this forum and hump Sid Meiers leg in defense of Civilization 4.

The game is not working the way it should, period. That is a stone cold fact. I'm sure there are a few people who are willing to overlook lag, and a occassional crash (For those that are lucky to have the specific and only configuration that was tested prior to release), but for the rest of us were left wondering what happen to the game, IGN and Gamespot called a 9.4 editors choice? How can a game be a 9.4 if it doesn't work right?

You are certainly being a troll. The first post you made in this thread was to call the people who stated they had no problems with the game "is a straight out liar". What proof do you have that they are lieing? None. That's trolling. Period. You insulted people for telling the truth with no facts to show that they weren't.

There is no Fanboism going on here. My copy works just fine on my system. No crashes, no render bug with my ATI card, no lag. Having the game run perfectly on my system does not give you the right to call me a liar or a fanboy. Others who's computers run the game bug free do not deserve that kind of treatment either. Apologise, xguild.

 

[mweather]

hmmm... It ain't my poll pal... but even at 60-40 it means that almost half the people who purchased the game either can't play it or are playing at a diminished level.

No it means almost half of the people on the forums who purchased the game either can't play it or are playing at a diminished level. That includes the Intel vodeocard people.

Given the fact that people having problems tend to frequent forums more than those with no complaints, I'd say 60% is probably a damn good percentage for the demographic.

 

[billT]

I suppose I'll just have to be patient and wait for a patch, but I wonder how long the "fanboism" denial (such asyourself Billt) will hold. At some point your going to realize that the game does in fact have a lot of deal breaking bugs. Maybe you haven't run across them yet, but you will. We'll see how long it takes this community to turn. I'll guess about a week or two. In fact I'm going to run this exact same poll two weeks from now and compare the numbers, I'll bet they'll be polar opposites.

Nah, no 'fanboism' here. I bought the game because I liked Civ2 and Civ3, but if the game stops working for me, as you're predicting it will, I'll just move on to something else until whatever bugs I'm experiencing get fixed.

As for the bugs manifesting themselves a few weeks from now - we'll see. I'd be willing to bet that most of the bugs we've seen so far are caused by hardware incompatibilities. That being the case, if I'm not experiencing them now, I probably won't be experiencing them in two weeks.