Does this game work out off the box

[BigJMoney]

Originally posted by evizaer
Hopefully the patch will clear up the issues i'm having.

Don't cross your fingers. Firaxis is known for amazing support, but you do have a laptop. I, too, play on a laptop, and I was saved only by the little work-around Firaxis came up with using the unpacker. This is because HP has decided they don't care to research updated Video drivers to support their Pavilion zd8000. I have an ATI x600 mobility, and most other laptop retailers who use that card are compatible with ATI's drivers for it, but not mine! Thanks HP! I just hope future patches don't require a driver update or I'm screwed for MP.

=$= Big J Money =$=

[Rhuffin]

The game would not start after installation: I ran into the ATI card problem. The unpak trick fixed everything (2,5 hour of effort installing/unistalling/updating my already updated drivers/unpaking....).

I will try this weekend on my laptop.

[nbarclay]

Radeon 7500's don't seem to be working reliably yet. I and apparently several others have run into problems where instead of seeing the terrain, all we get is black. (Oddly, resources do show up; it's just the underlying terrain that doesn't.) My own card is a 64MB All-in-Wonder Radeon 7500. My system otherwise easily exceeds the minimum specs - a late-model albeit low-end CPU and over a gig of memory. I was already running practically brand-new drivers when I installed, and updating the drivers another point release didn't improve the situation.

I have no idea how widespread the problem is, but as I said, I'm not the only Radeon 7500 user to have run up against it. What's really annoying is that the Civ 4 web site explicitly names the Radeon 7500 as the minimum video card needed, so I had every reason to expect my card to work.

[CJB]

That would be a definite no from me.

Won't even start: installed from the DVD but when I try to crank it up it just freezes on the loading screen then throws up an "Cannot locate the CD-ROM" error and disables the DVD drive.

Marvellous

[brunner]

ZERO issues for me. It doesn't run very well, but I expected that (athlon 1ghz/256mb ram)

[spy14]

"the ATI Catalyst driver stopped working correctly. You will need to re-boot your system"

My 5.10 driver download has just finished - wish me luck!!

[Adrian Hon]

After updating my sound and video drivers, I still get regular crashes that reboot the computer. I suspect it *may* have something to do with my CPU overheating (Athlon XP 1800+), which is at least plausible, but not something I have seen with any other game I've played.

Other than the crashes, it works perfectly, apart from the occasional audio stutter. Hopefully the patch will solve things...

[kayalar]

Too slow...

[Garwoofoo]

Minor audio glitches, nothing major. Maybe could be a little quicker but generally runs well.

Oh, and it's the best game I've played all year.

[WiggleStick]

Worked
First game huge map 18 civ's I noticed the game was getting laggy as it progressed. Its now setting at 1400AD where I recieved 2 world maps. I now can only scroll with the mouse a small distance before 30-45 second stalls and occasional CTD's if I continue to push it.
After furiously reading the boards I started a game with a STD map and 5 civs. Small lag, probably because I'm looking for it. no CTD's.
I'm looking for the patch because I didn't buy this to kick around only 5 civs at a time.

AMD 3200
1g ram
XP-SP2
Fx5700 nVidia
SB Audigy
All UTD

[Donegeal]

Does it work out of the box? Yes.
Does it have some issues? Yes.
Can these issues be overcome? Yes.

Good game.

[wysiwygbill]

The best I can do without it crashing every time I pan across the map is 1280x1024 with "Medium" graphics settings and no AA. If I set it to high or 1600x1200 it'll crash on a large map.

I have an ATI x850xt PE and suspect it would crash at lesser settings if I only had an ATI 9800xt.

It still crashes if another program (like AVG) pops up and starts a virus scan or update.

I'll probably wait for the patch before playing anymore. Hopefull that'll fix it. The tech I talked to on the phone said he hadn't heard of the crashing issue amazingly enough. That doesn't fill me with confidence about the patch.

[Akaoz]

CTD's late game on my x800 PCI-Express. My older 9800 on year old drivers run it just fine...

[PJL]

Originally posted by Donegeal
Does it work out of the box? Yes.
Does it have some issues? Yes.
Can these issues be overcome? Yes.

Good game.

Wot he said...

[McSeamus]

This game is worthless bug-filled garbage. I have returned it to the store and I will never buy another Firaxis product.