Well, Civilization 4 is out. And boy am I excited, it's Civ4 for crying out loud!
But there's this problem... well, everything terrainy is black and all. Plus animals don't show up, only their shadows. And leaders look like they've read Alice in Wonderland a bit too many times. And that's not all.
From what I gather, the problem is with hardware T&L support of my card. Or, in fact, whether my card supports the vertex and pixel shaders properly. If you didn't understand that, I don't blame you. It's the same with me, you know. I just want to play Civilization 4, not a crazy game of Hardware Update that certainly doesn't come with a manual.
Now I agree my computer isn't very high-end. I accept the fact that I just can't to buy tEH mEgA-KiCkAsS GaMeZoR 3000 and expect it to work. And, to tell you the truth, I coudn't care less! That's why I don't have Radeon X1800XT or any other card that has pictures of supersonic fighter jets on the box and has cooling fans on the card the size of a small apartment because it just runs as H-O-T as the girl next door. I don't care.
However, this is Civilization. Sid Meier's Civilization.
Even though it's not very high-end, my computer, a laptop, isn't very old. I should be able to play this. This is turn based strategy, not RTS, FPS or such. I don't care if it runs a bit slow, it doesn't matter. But it should run.
It's not like I want to stop technological advancement. I do think games should update their graphics and interface with each version. I tried playing the original Civilization a week ago, and while I indeed could see the terrain, it sure didn't look good. But what's happened here is not just update in graphics, it's a leap to the so-called "bleeding edge" of 3d-crap. Sid Meier's Civilization should not be about that.
If it was indeed only the graphics that were updated (as it seems to be with quite some games) I'd just put my Civilization 3 CD back in, and stay happy playing. But really, what I've read from the high-point reviews, it's not the graphics they're talking about, it's the gameplay. Civics, diplomacy, combat, religions... there's a lot of new stuff, and from what I've read, they've actually even tweaked the old stuff to work better. So sorry if I repeat myself a bit, but the point is I don't want to look at the pretty graphics nobody ever mentions - no, I want to play the game everyone is writing about. I admit, some interface imporvements are graphics related. For example I do appreciate the ease of conceptual interface I get from zooming to planet-size view to look at the map. But you know what - my low-end computer can handle that. It's the pretty-but-useless eye glitter what's the problem here.
It is of course a relative opinion which should be a good enough system, and which should not. Certainly a 486 with 66MHz power doesn't need to run the game. But it is my humble opinion that Civilization 4 requirements are way too high for a turn-based strategy game appreciated for it's game mechanics, and I think many would agree with me. Come on, I am able play World of Warcraft, but not Civilization 4? I understand that if you've just bought a new extreme 3d-card, you want to defend yuor position and want games to use your card too. But tell me the truth, did you really buy it to be able to play turn-based strategy games?
This modern "gamer" world of spending all your money for the latest Athlon and GeForce (and why not Mach3 razor while we're at it, that's bleeding edge for sure) plus 3 hours of messing around with hardware configuration - it's not for me. I thought it wasn't for Sid either. Again: Sid Meier's Civilization should not be a game made to sell more video cards that cost a fortune.
Oh, and I did I mention yet mention that my video card is specifically listed in the minimum requirements to play the game. Yes, it is, and being quite afraid to buy new games, I did even check all that before buying Civ4.
I don't know the employer amount at Firaxis, but I bet it's quita a bit more than two or three. And you know what would be the first thing I'd do even in the smallest company if there would be an obvious mistake in the minimum requirements listing? You guessed it: apologize! I'm all for good PR image, but if keeping a clean face comes before caring for loyal customers, then screw the PR, I say. Publish the apology. Do it now, Firaxis, right now. And you don't have to write it with 3d-letters using vertex shading, simple text will do.
The second thing to do: listen to the customers' complaints, check that the problem exists (there's has to be a Radeon 7500 lying around somewhere near the Firaxis office) and publish the acnowledgement of the problem and what is being done. Yes, do that even if you don't yet know what's being done. What I was searching for when I typed www.civ4.com to my Firefox was a message labeled "The black terrain problem" under the support section. The message doesn't need to be anything fancy, only a short description of the problem. You could even hand a gift to the PR-people and call it a "problem with a certain low hardware configuration", whether you're lying or not. I'd just be happy to know you're not living in a bubble thinking your game works. And at the end of that message there should be at least "Currently: We're looking at the problem - no information yet if it's going to be fixed or not, or when."
But no.
Instead I'll have to read at a clumsy fan site that there might be a patch coming next week. Great job, Firaxis, well done.
And have you looked at the support section of 2K Games? I study usability at a university, and I would laugh at - no wait, I actually did laugh at it when I saw it. There didn't even read "Civilization 4" anywere. (Does now, though.)
Also, when technical difficulties show up at the release of a game, I don't expect a "Developer blog" to only have some marketing praise about the game. If you don't know what a blog is, plase don't try to be trendy by using the word in your otherwise interesting Learn About Civ4 -section. You only end up looking annoying and stupid, and that's not really what you want to look like to a disappointed customer. Go and say that to the PR-folk too, who knows, a miracle might happen and they might even understand that.
I know my rant not just about Civ4, it's about the current gaming ideals in general. But I never did really care about them before that much, let them have their world of S3TC, HCT and MRTs - until now. Firaxis has poured the pixel shaders and whatnot down my throat. I thought I was safe with my beloved turn-based strategies, older games and occasional shoot-a-lots and such from It-Just-Works XBox. A betrayal, that's what this feels like!
Maybe it's just me, but I prefer my computer working and my games with gameplay prioritized first. And for all you who don't get it, that means the the game should work first, and only then be pretty.
Well, the Civ community has indeed found some so-called "fixes" to the problem. For example, if you reveal the complete map, you actually get to see it. And if you move a unit to the center of the map, the fog of war even lifts a bit! Well, this all has the side-effect of revealing the complete map, and the fog of war isn't displayed. But, so, um, this does prove that my display card is in fact capable of displaying these effects. (Problem could still come from a poor support for them, though.)
And there are still some ugly darker overlay spots at the screen (and that's not about my screen being dirty). Oh, and did I mention that only food is displayed on the city screen. The water is seriously messed up too, although if I zoom into it when there's a unit, it suddenly stops animating and even the fog of war is displayed correctly on the ocean. I do sincerely thank the Civ community for these "fixes". It's quite interesting to see the effects, and it has let me try out the game a bit. I've enjoyed that, it's been even quite hilarious at times. However, I would hope nobody to call them fixes or even workarounds, beacause the game really remains pretty much unplayable. They're only experiments about how the error actually works, and make it possible to at least try out the game a bit. I'd call them hacks.