Comments on: Sell Out

By: Robin

Robin — Sat, 14 Jan 2006 04:42:20 +0000

I can’t agree with your review more. Further, I have written both to the support people and to Firaxis about this piece of crap and asked where I can get a refund.

I fell in love with games because of the original Civilization. I remember the first night I played it. I didn’t realize how hooked I was until my wife asked if I wanted breakfast…

Civ 2 didn’t disappoint either and Civ 3 was fantastic. It is still me favorite game of all time.

But this buggy, crashing piece of **** should NEVER have been shipped until it actually played well on most computers…and my P4 with 2 gig of memory and a top of the line GeForce isn’t most, since most people own a P4 with 512k and onboard video….or whatever.

So, I am still waiting for Firaxis to tell me where I can get my money back. And sadly, I don’t think I will be playing CIV4 again, even when they ship it.

Back to CIV3 and hope these guys learn their lesson about shipping before its ready.

By: Tony

Tony — Tue, 03 Jan 2006 14:04:27 +0000

I’ve been playing CIV since #1 and am a big fan of the series. I bought my first computer mostly to play this game. What I’m able to play of CIV4 is great. But I’m experiencing continuous crashes too – even after the patch and in spite of meeting all the minimum requirements on the box and most of the recommended requirements. This is ridculous! I don’t really have time to play PC games at all. I certainly don’t have time to download patches and tweak graphics settings. I’m furious that I payed FIFTY dollars for this tease.

By: Shawn Summers

Shawn Summers — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 07:29:28 +0000

peterb, thank you for shooting the honest truth about Civ4. I’ve been playing Civ since Civ2, and I’ve been drooling over Civ4 for months. Finally I get it for Christmas, and have I finished ONE game yet? Endless load times, constant crashes, freezing every few turns (and this is on low graphics setting). I got the game, discovered that it didn’t work, got the patch, discovered that it still didn’t work, tried to play five turns at a time, and now I’m just about ready to just pop in Civ3, or better yet, just go play Alpha Centauri.

Don’t get me wrong, what I can play of the game is excellent. I love every minute I play it. I have nothing against the UI. I think the gameplay is beautifully designed, and it fixed all of the many gameplay issues of Civ3. But all the game balance in the world doesn’t do a bit of good if the game is unplayable.

To those for whom the game works: Congratulations. I wish I could say the same.

By: peterb

peterb — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 22:58:26 +0000

One factor that seems to be related is the size of the world. In particular, more scrolling over dark regions of the map seems to result in more slowdown, and eventually crashing. See the bug forum on civfanatics.com for more specific information.

By: Greg Williams

Greg Williams — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 22:41:27 +0000

I’ve played a handful of games on Civ4 with the difficulty settings as high as Warlord. (I’m a new to the Civ world). So far the only serious bug has been stuttering in the audio when I build a World Wonder. I’ve also experienced a couple minor bugs with the hover text in specific cases. I’ve not had a single crash so far in probably 30 hours worth of game time. Is the main difference between people experiencing crashes the difficulty level they play under?

By: Troy Goodfellow

Troy Goodfellow — Thu, 15 Dec 2005 17:54:18 +0000

Civ IV hasn’t crashed on me once. The original Civ crashed more often.

None of the Civ bugs rise to the level of making the game unplayable – this isn’t Darklands people. It’s not even Harpoon.

I don’t begrudge anybody not liking the game – I don’t like Diablo all that much. But let’s not operate on the assumption that Civ 4 is a bug ridden mess.

By: Andy P

Andy P — Thu, 15 Dec 2005 11:28:21 +0000

Damn straight. I’ve been playing PC games for, what, 18 years now? And I for one am SICK AND TIRED of crashes, patches, hangs, bugs and Steam.

Windows crashes much less than it used to (though we all know it’s still not perfect), so it’s not an unsolvable problem, and the market size, different hardware configuarations and number of bugs Windows has to deal with is WAY more than every PC game put together, blowing the usual excuses right out of the water. It’s simply not good enough, it’s preventing me from playing games I’m sure I would love (like Half Life 2 and Rome Total War), and it’s killing PC gaming altogether.

Gah.

By: jeff

jeff — Wed, 14 Dec 2005 22:05:37 +0000

Matthew Gallant writes:
> Yes, the game is crashing for some people. Welcome to PC gaming, Mr. B.

You, sir, are the reason why PC gaming is dying. You are willing to accept crashy, buggy software as the natural state of things. You are willing to accept that the game you just bought will need at least one patch downloaded and applied before you can even play it. And worse, you seem to blame the spotty QA process of Firaxis (and the industry in general) on Peter. How can it possibly be his fault?

Also, on a completely personal note, you’re a condescending ass. I will bet dollars to donuts that Peter has been playing games on his PC for longer than you’ve been eating solid food. Welcome to PC gaming, indeed.

By: Nat Lanza

Nat Lanza — Wed, 14 Dec 2005 18:19:54 +0000

When I saw this post, I was wondering how long it’d take for a snotty “you suck for not liking my FAVORITEST GAME EVAR” fanboy comment to show up.

Four days is a lot longer than I’d expected.

By: Matthew Gallant

Matthew Gallant — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 17:33:40 +0000

Civ 4 is my game of the year too.

I’ve encountered one obvious bug (stuttering wonder movies), two performance issues (performance degrades in the late game when graphics settings are pumped up, noticeable annoying pause at end of AI turn), and zero crash bugs. Zero.

I’ve played the hell out of it. Fifty games at least, a few from beginning to Space Race or even turn limit without exiting the program. It’s not a very buggy game, it certainly isn’t a pile of anything except great new game mechanics, and while the interface has minor issues (your noting of them in your super dry, checklist-style review is the only part with any critical acumen in it), the game portion of it is near-perfect.

Take a look at Apolyton or CivFanatics, the forums are not filled with complaints about bugginess. Yes, the game is crashing for some people. Welcome to PC gaming, Mr. B. However, most Civ fans are having a great time with this game. This is nowhere near anything like when, say, Civ III: Play the World was released. That was a disaster. That had big bugs.

This, however, is a superlative game. Telling people not to buy it in your first “commercial” review is a hell of rÃˆsumÃˆ builder. The only more off-the-mark review I’ve seen is the IGN review of Master of Orion 3. And that’s including every review of Black & White ever.