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Trying to make lemonade!!!!!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 41 / 67
Date: October 27, 2005
Author: Amazon User

My experience with this game has been absolutely horrible. I have an ATI Graphics card and Sound Blaster Audigy two very common components. Put simply the game won't start and it locks up. Support for this game is non-existent and when you call the help number you actually wait ten minutes on the phone before an automated message says that all the reps are busy please call back in 24 hours, "24 HOURS!!!", then hangs up. If you are lucky enough to get through they will tell you whatever they can just to get you off the phone. Whatever you do if your are gullible enough to buy this game and have to call support, do not let them say they will send you an email. DONT HANG UP THE PHONE!!. DON'T BUY THIS GAME UNLESS YOU ARE A GLUTTON FOR PUNISHMENT or are looking for lemons!

Fix for ATI Issues

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 21
Date: October 28, 2005
Author: Amazon User

[...]

I had one lockup on my nVidia system that seemed to be sound related. After bumping down the graphics to medium, everything until I quit for the day.

It is odd, though, that the beta and in-house testing didn't uncover this.

I am giving this only 4 stars as a measurement of Civ IV customer support.

Released as a beta version, but now works (mostly) fine

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 662 / 741
Date: October 30, 2005
Author: Amazon User

[5th version of my review - March 1]

While I can edit this review, I can't updating the ratings above; if I could, then I'd change them to 5 stars for 'fun' and 4 stars for 'overall' with the 1.52 patch installed.

I stand by my earlier contention that 2K Games pushed Civ4 out the door a few months too early. Civ4 should never have gotten through SQA (software quality assurance) and been declared 'golden' (ready for commercial release) with these kinds of defects. I suspect this was done to increase Christmas sales, but the net-wide flap over the Civ4 problems likely had just the opposite effect.

Since then, 2KGames had released patches to fix most of the technical problems. Because of that, I've deleted the section I originally had in this review regarding installation and graphics driver problems; just be sure to download and install the current Civ4 patch (version 1.52, as of this updated posting) from the 2kgames.com web site before playing.
----------------------------

That said, I am quite happy with the changes and expansions made to Civ4. My highest praise goes to the actual game design changes, to wit:

--Faster gameplay. I typically play with a huge world, but I finish a game a lot faster than I could in Civ3. (That's not saying too much; I've still had a few all-nighters.)

--Reduction or elimination of a lot of the micromanagement. I am _so_ happy not to be dealing with riots; in virtually every game that I've played, I've never had to open up a city and reallocate who was working where. Also, automated workers are a lot smarter (and have more options).

--The improved terrain modeling and the increased improvements options; again, it makes things more interesting.

--The combat unit "promotion" track. I tend to go for non-military victories, but this feature may make me play around more with actually conquering my neighbors. It also makes barracks more valuable.

--The "civics" and "religion" aspect. Both are interesting and fun, and both appear to be well-balanced.

--The "culture borders" concept. This allowed me to stake out territory while minimizing incursion by other nations. However, be aware that keeping your borders closed irritates the AIs after a while.

--The "great leaders" concept. There was a little of this in Civ3, but this new implementation makes it a far more vital part of the game. I managed to trigger two (2) golden ages for myself in one game (one by building the Taj Majal, the other by using several great leaders), and I also kept a few Great Engineers on hand to hurry some major wonder projects towards the end of the game. And Great Artists are very useful for 'culture bombing' neighboring cities or pre-emptively staking out large amounts of unclaimed territory.

Most of the complaints I had (UI response, lack of right-click menu features, raging barbarians) appear to have been fixed or, at least, improved by the 1.52 patch. Here are a few that remain:

--The "Show Friendly Moves" option does _not_ include units that are automaticly exploring (scouts, galleys, etc.)--which is where I used it the most in Civ3. Indeed, there appears to be some overall flakiness in both the "Show Friendly Moves" and "Show Enemy Moves" options--it's hard to tell at times whether Civ4 is paying any attention to those options.

-- Even with the 1.52 patch installed, when you complete a game, it's best to exit Civ4 before starting a new game. I've had one or two abrupt crashes when I've tried to go from completing one game to starting a new one.

All this said, Civ4 is a major improvement (in game design and graphics) over Civ3. It is very addictive, and I've spent far more time playing it over the past several months than I should have. ..bruce..

Nice Job Firaxis......Now if you could just make it playable

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 35 / 40
Date: October 30, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I have an ATI graphics card (Radeon 9800) and it obviously is not supported at all. Even when following the instruction on the Firaxis website the game locks up and is completely unplayable. I am hugely disappointed in the complete lack of respect by Firaxis for its customer base. It's a shame, by all respects this should be a good game (and probably is if you could play it).
This is the last Firaxis product that I buy......
The rest of my system is as follows:
Athlon 64, 3000+
1 GB of PC3200
MSI K8T Neo Mainboard
Windows XP Pro with Service Pack 2
If you have anything similar, I'd stay away from this game till when/if they fix the game. So much for meeting every requirement.....

Waste of money

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 32 / 39
Date: October 30, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The game simply doesn't start. The company blames bad ATI graphic cards and drivers, but I have a new NVIDIA GeForce card, and the game still doesn't start.
Tech support is a joke: if you call Canadian number, the message will say your call can not be completed as dialed; US support will keep you on hold for 15 min, then suggest to visit their web site and quickly hang up.
Overall, for me this was a classical example how the combination of incompetent development, management and support can ruin a great game.

Don't Buy It

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 30 / 52
Date: October 30, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I've now installed this game on 3 PCs. On 2 of them the terrain is black and the game is unplayable. On the best PC, the game is viewable but still unplayable. Civ4 is an unspeakable desecration to a great line of games.

Some specifics: The map is just plain ugly and eye-straining. The screen floats and jumps around like playing a shooter game. You have to constantly look all over the screen to find pieces of related information. The right-click options (formerly a Civ game strength) are turned off by default and even when you re-enable them, they still aren't very useful.

All the effort at trying to 'see' what's going on produces a gaming experience that is mentally exhausting and devoid of strategic thinking. Don't buy this game. They'll probably come up with some graphic patches for some of the hardware, but don't buy the game then either because it just isn't any fun.

Civilization IV - don't buy it

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 19 / 33
Date: October 31, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Civ III was superior in every respect to Civ IV. Gameplay in IV is mind-numbingly slow, and the emphasis on 3D rendering just detracts from the game (it's Civ, not Age of Empires!). I will be returning it for as much of a refund as I can manage.

This game installed and worked perfectly on my computer, but I was still hugely disappointed. The high standards that have guided the Civ franchise until now have been abandoned.

Don't buy until it's patched

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 24 / 30
Date: October 31, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is barely playable in its current state. I have a nVidia FX5900, a 2.6GH P4 and 1GB RAM, which is above the suggested requirements, and the game runs extremely slowly on huge maps. I don't understand how they could list the minimum requirements for RAM as 256MB or even 512MB when I've seen the game taking over 600MB by itself. As if the slowness wasn't enough, the game occasionally crashes to the desktop, often taking down the video drivers and reverting to 640x480 and 4 bit color requiring a restart of the computer.

If at some point the game is patched to fix the above problems, it will be a very good game. I like the way unit upgrading was redone to allow the specialization of individual units. I like that borders were redone so that the AI can't enter your territory unless you allow open borders. I especially like that there are now many more paths and choices to be made regarding the tech tree, city improvements, city specialists, worker actions, and government types.

Prepare for Seclusion!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 19
Date: October 31, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The difference between CIV3 and 4 is simply out of this world.
First, The graphics are absurdly cool. You can zoom in to look at individual tanks, or you can use your mouse scroll key to back-out. Sounds simple, but as you zoom-out you zoom away on a curve (like an airplane taking off), and as you zoom out far enough, clouds drift by, and finally you see the world as a 3-d globe that your can rotate and spin!

Second, government is a blast. Do you want to be a pacifist dictator committed to Taoism? Go for it! You can really set-up unique government this go-around. The fantastic thing is that your internal policies really will affect the way the other countries work with you (or against you), and you can see right-up front on the screen the reasons why Mao is thinking of invading you.

Third, Barbarians rock. Yeah, in the past they were good for a little gold. In CIV IV, being a barbarian is more like looking at the Goths or Huns. Sure they were barbarians (to a Roman), but left alone, they will eventually build cities, and ARMIES THAT WILL SWEEP OVER YOU! Way cool.

Fourth, the wonder movies have to be seen to be believed, and Leonard Nemoy does all of the voice overs.

Fifth, you can now choose about 50 types of planet-types, you can play multi-player easily, and you can now set game speed so that you can play a game in 2 months, or in 2 hours. Gone are the bogging-down affects of the past. Your nation may grow large, but it still MOVES along.

Look, the things I think are great may not float your boat, but this is a WORLD they've built here, and I guarantee you will find stuff you will love about this new game. It is absolutely bitchin. I've only played 2 times so far (once as Saladin, spreading Hinduism and Judiasm to the world!), but over the whole weekend of play, not five minutes went by without a wow or a call to my buddies. I am SO thankful that I did not let myself bring the game to work today. I could not have withstood the temptation.

Troy

Buy it! yay!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 18
Date: October 31, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I love this game. Now yes I have a good system which any gamer worth their salt should own. The graphics are great and the gameplay is an updated form of Civ 2 and 3 as it should be!

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