Disgraceful- Activision should be ashamed

[Mudface]

I really can't believe they released the game in this state. I bought it a couple of weeks before Christmas but have only started playing it over the last few days due to finishing off Zeus (now there's a game Activision could learn from, stable, good-looking and challenging).

When I did I was a bit disappointed it crashed after 10 minutes. This quickly turned to frustration when 2 hours of "play" was punctuated by around a dozen freezes. Frustration turned to contempt very easily- this is a game that, graphically, could have been from 1998- the only other game that doesn't run on my Athlon 850/ GeForce 64 Mb GTS/ 128Mb system is Theme Hospital. I finally got it running via a post on the Game Help forum- turning down audio acceleration (thanks to the fella who posted that). How utterly ridiculous, was this game actually tested before release?

Anyhoo, it's now running, bar the glitches during building a Wonder when the movie stays on screen. And... oh, dear- poor AI, niggly interface, pretty much the same as the first CTP, in fact.

I've had enough of this sort of treatment. Civ is brilliant as a concept and the first two games were amazing, I still play them when I'm bored of the shallow eye candy that passes for many games these days. But it's now a franchise and Activision's "vision" in particular sucks big time. I really wish I'd read some of the messages on this site before I bought this game; after being badly stung by SMAC and the first CTP I certainly will before I buy Civ III.

[Simpleton]

Ashamed? Why would Activision be ashamed?!! They got us Civ loving dopes (me included) to plop down cash for this load of ..... and they got away with selling a patch of CTP1 for full price.
I think the brass at Activision are sleeping very comfortably right now thanks to an $80 pillows one of which was purchased from my contribution.

[Spiker22]

quote: Originally posted by Mudface on 01-05-2001 05:40 PM When I did I was a bit disappointed it crashed after 10 minutes. This quickly turned to frustration when 2 hours of "play" was punctuated by around a dozen freezes. Frustration turned to contempt very easily- this is a game that, graphically, could have been from 1998- the only other game that doesn't run on my Athlon 850/ GeForce 64 Mb GTS/ 128Mb system is Theme Hospital.

Maybe they only tested it on Intel processor based systems. I've been playing this game for more than a month now and it didn't crash even once on my PIII 800.

[MarkG]

i doubt it is something related to athlon cpu's

i've got an athlon600 and i have 0 crash problems....

[red_jon]

I don't think I've ever had the game crash, but I've had a problem where I'd open a saved game file to find it a couple of hundred years too old.

------------------
"We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills, we shall never surrender!" -Winston Churchill

"Gotta love me"- Baby, Dinosaurs

[dande]

I'm an Athlon 600 (boy does that sound outdated) as well and the game has been very stable for a month. I don't know what it could be?

[Bluevoss]

Shoot, I'm running in 233 with 48 meg of Ram and not a crash. No video, but no crashes.



------------------
Bluevoss-

[LDiCesare]

I have an intel celeron and experienced several crashes too. Very often, if the program ends up correctly, (seemingly) Windows won't close afterwards.
I guess Activision didn't test all platforms (CPU and sound card and graphics card...) but I wouldn't blame them for that. It is impossible to test all different hardware combos and the crash rate didn't prevent me from playing. Was anyone stuck because of that?

[MrLeN]

quote: Originally posted by Spiker22 on 01-06-2001 03:00 AM Maybe they only tested it on Intel processor based systems. I've been playing this game for more than a month now and it didn't crash even once on my PIII 800.

well WHOOOOOOPY DOOOOO, who's da man???

------------------
It's better to close your mouth and let everyone 'think' you're stupid, than open it and let everyone 'know' you are.

[Savant]

I have played the game on a K6-3 and an Athlon and it runs fine. I have not had any hardware problems other than a CD-ROM related one that I easily fixed.



------------------
'Blood will run'

[riazk]

is it a problem with GeForce cards? I havent seen anything mentioned anywhere but I know a few people with Geforce cards who have it crash constantly. It certainly crashes constantly on my MX version. The only other 2 possibilities I can see is Direct X 8 or Win2k.. any ideas?

------------------

[Savant]

I do remember seeing other posts where people reported crashes and if I recall correctly, most of those also had GeForce cards also. If I was to hazard a guess, those may be responsible for some of these mystery crashes.

I wonder if you played with fewer colors (16 bit versus 32) if that would correct the problem. Oftentimes, it is the higher color setting that is associated with these problems. Anyway, 16-bit is just as good anyway for the most part.

------------------
'Blood will run'

[Spiker22]

quote: Originally posted by Savant on 01-07-2001 08:35 PM I do remember seeing other posts where people reported crashes and if I recall correctly, most of those also had GeForce cards also. If I was to hazard a guess, those may be responsible for some of these mystery crashes. I wonder if you played with fewer colors (16 bit versus 32) if that would correct the problem. Oftentimes, it is the higher color setting that is associated with these problems. Anyway, 16-bit is just as good anyway for the most part.

My graphics card is a 32MB non-DDR version of GeForce 256, and yes, I also installed Direct X8 before installing CtP2, but I've never had any crashes with CtP2 in 32 bit mode. Did have some problems with the opening movie, but they were solved after downloading and installing Indeo 5.11.

[This message has been edited by Spiker22 (edited January 07, 2001).]