Civ 4 - buggy piece of shit

Mad Max RW · Post by **Mad Max RW** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 9:57 pm

I went against my instincts on this one and got the special preordered version of Civilization 4. It looks alright, maps are big, and it's pretty much exactly like the previous games. Except I don't remember it crashing to desktop so god damn much. Sometimes it'll happen three turns into a game, sometimes three hours. That alone kills it for me.

The new wonder movies are nifty. Only they tend to violently skip if you look at them wrong.

Don't waste your time with the tutorial. It is so easy to break the scripted events. And even following the shit doesn't guarantee the game won't fuck up.

Computer oppononents frequently get stuck in mountains.

The interface sucks. Most of the buttons are tiny and the icons make no damn sense as to what they are or do.

No throne room/palace.

No more city view. Zooming in close is kinda crap with buildings out of scale.

There's probably more I can't remember. Compared to all the problems people are having in Civ fansite boards, I guess I'm considered one of the lucky few who can actually run it. When everything is working it's quite good. Sound is awesome. The new music is nice (Civ 3 sucked so fucking bad, if anybody remembers). I don't hate the graphics, but they aren't too good either considering how much of a resource hog this thing is. Zooming out to globe view is cool. Some of the included scenarios are awesome. Starting in the Ice Age is brilliant.

I recommend waiting several months before picking up a copy. Let a few patches iron out the numerous wrinkles the reviews conveniently ignore.

Mad Max RW · Post by **Mad Max RW** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 10:01 pm

Note, my computer's stability is not in question here. The stupid game actually gave me a blue screen, which I've never seen before on WinXP, and rebooted the shit.

Urizen · Post by **Urizen** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 10:21 pm

Civ 2 was good, alpha centauri was good. there's no reason to buy anything else.

Nicolai · Post by **Nicolai** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 11:20 pm

The game didn't work for me. (Black world, flickering cursor, stuttering audio, cheshire cat leaders..)

vendetta · Post by **vendetta** » Sun Oct 30, 2005 3:01 am

Eh.. what did you expect? The outcome was obvious.

ApTyp · Post by **ApTyp** » Sun Oct 30, 2005 3:38 am

3D graphics are abomination.

POOPERSCOOPER · Post by **POOPERSCOOPER** » Sun Oct 30, 2005 5:52 am

This is the same game they pushed a few months ahead of schedule right? Who would of thunk?

VasikkA · Post by **VasikkA** » Sun Oct 30, 2005 3:11 pm

I don't like the childish visual look Firaxis has taken in the new Civs. Judging from the screenshots, it looks like Civ IV has taken another step in this direction.

Civ II is still the best of the series(haven't played Civ IV).

Kashluk · Post by **Kashluk** » Sun Oct 30, 2005 3:34 pm

Civ 3 was such a let down. Everything that was supposedly 'new' and 'grand' in it was already done (better) in Alpha Centauri.

Pfft. I'll be holding my breath for SMAC2

Blargh · Post by **Blargh** » Sun Oct 30, 2005 3:42 pm

Alas, poor Kashluk, death by asphyxiation is a most unpleasant path.

VasikkA · Post by **VasikkA** » Sun Oct 30, 2005 3:43 pm

Kashluk wrote:I'll be holding my breath for SMAC2

The "SM" part is there just for marketing purposes; has been since 1991.

Kashluk · Post by **Kashluk** » Sun Oct 30, 2005 3:47 pm

Well I prefer using Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri instead of just Alpha Centauri, because it might be confused with Anal Carvers. In some circles... I think. Ahem.

It's clearer this way allright.

You're right about it, I admit. I think it should be more like BRAC, eh?

vendetta · Post by **vendetta** » Sun Oct 30, 2005 8:02 pm

Kashluk wrote: I think it should be more like BRAC, eh?

Absolutely. I had the same thoughts.

Mismatch · Post by **Mismatch** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 10:15 am

oh, I had plans to pick a copy of civ as soon as I got back from egypt, mebbe now I wont.
Ive nevar liked the look of civ4, it looks like chit

but I know that in the end i'll probably buy it anyways

jetbaby · Post by **jetbaby** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 11:45 am

Civilization peaked with 2 and 3 was a last gasp. I had no hope for 4. Much less knowledge that it was coming out.

I want Alpha Centauri

..please?

PiP · Post by **PiP** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 9:36 pm

Mad Max RW wrote: No throne room/palace.

no pimp-my-ride-for-monarchs? pity, kinda useless, but got used to it.

No more city view. Zooming in close is kinda crap with buildings out of scale.

That (no city view) was easily predictable. However I had hoped they would balance the scale so that it looks stupid neither in normal nor in extreme-closeup zoom. Pity again.

What about the alleged excellent units' animation/look? They say screenshots just don't do it justice.

Does anyone have Alpha Centauri image eDonkey link?

Mad Max RW · Post by **Mad Max RW** » Tue Nov 01, 2005 2:08 am

The unit animations are kinda boring. I still haven't gotten out of the ancient era, so it might get better. I don't know.

Page 27 of the manual actually mentions a Palace Screen.

Besides that, I can't urge people enough NOT to buy Civ 4. I've had 3 more blue screens today and only managed about an hour of play. This shit is broken. There's no way for the fanboys or the publisher or whoever to dismiss it. I'm sure there's a patch in the works but it's not gonna come for several months.

There's a funny line on the last page of Soren Johnson's Aftwerwards section in the manual describing all the problems people are having now:

"...They were but a few of a larger group of dedicated volunteers who put up with the terrible crash bugs, gaps in communications, system incompatibilites, invisible terrain, and worse, ..."

Right fucking there. Crash bugs plague even the most up to date computers, ATI owners got the worst with the system incompatibilites, and invisible or black terrain is a common occurrence. It's as if they accidentally released a beta version. In the state Civ4 is currently in it would never have been seriously considered a release candidate.

St. Toxic · Post by **St. Toxic** » Tue Nov 01, 2005 11:13 am

How do you get the blue screen doh? Does it just pop up out of nowhere, or are there hints that you'll crash before you do?

Mad Max RW · Post by **Mad Max RW** » Tue Nov 01, 2005 1:46 pm

It happens randomly. There's no slowdown, I didn't click or initiate anything. Sometimes it'll happen a minute after loading (before completing a single turn) or an hour into a game. That's probably the worst of it. Sudden crashes to desktop are slightly less painful.

The deal with Civ4 is it suffers from huge memory leaks. Unless you have 2 gigs of RAM (like myself) and allocate 3 gigs to your paging file, it probably won't run at all.

There is a group of people (mostly of the blind fanboy variety) who claim to not have any problems. They're lying. There's no doubt about it. Every game released in shit conditions has idiots backing it, claiming all is well. Eventually they're drowned out by the enormity of the problem.

S4ur0n27 · Post by **S4ur0n27** » Tue Nov 01, 2005 3:10 pm

Didn't they test the game before releasing it?

Duck and Cover

Civ 4 - buggy piece of shit

Civ 4 - buggy piece of shit

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