Sorceresse

Keep in mind what a StarDock Archont has stated on a few threads, during the past 1½ month : The Beta is not meant to be "fun". Each of its phases targets specific technical testing objectives. Many gameplay features are withheld, and some technical issues are created on purpose to test arcane parameters that only SD & GPG software engineers can figure out. I don't think the reported slowdowns are surprising them ... but it's better t

[quote who="planeswalker2001" reply="7" id="1907334"]I would love to play more, but having played twice recently with the latest beta 1A, the slowdowns mid-lategame becomes too much. I only played twice on beta 1 but it ran beautifully with no slowdowns at all.[/quote] Thanks for the feedback (but you did not specify if those Beta 1A slowdowns happened to you on both maps). The SD & GPG devs should be made aware of that issue, with insistence.

[quote who="GCFL" reply="16" id="1907168"]I do not agree with much Ms Salvatore writes in the first place so she is a quak in my opinion. Not because I disagree with what she writes but because what she writes is generally discounted my a majority of readers I know.[/quote] I, for one, discount whatever pseudo-review she writes. She should stick to counting the $$$ revenues (and the perks, freebies & parties) "her" magazine receives from rich & powerful gam

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[quote who="Sigol" reply="4" id="1906435"]This is still a technical beta, once most everything has been found, there's no point to keep playing. I'd have liked to get a few more games in on the new map, but the slowdowns prevent this[/quote] No point ?!? For a not-supposed-to-be-fun (according to [e digicons]:frogboy:[/e] ) "technical beta", I still am having fun on the 3 v 3 map -- especially when trying out the Beast. But I can understand that those of you

After reading Mizz Kristen Salvatore' s fluff-piece, pseudo-review of SPORE , in the November issue of PCG, I would not take anything she writes seriously. She's the editor-in-chief of a big magazine which desperately needs the advertising revenues & special perks which emanate from big game-publishers such as EA. Her magazine makes much more money with corporate advertising than with subscriptions coming from gamers. Consideri

Thxxx for the link to the Women Gamer 's article. I particularly liked this part : « EA has a reputation. They are a megalithic corporate entity with the bureaucratic structure that goes with it, as attested to not only by a myriad of ‘bad experience’ consumers over the years but also by those who have partaken of employment there. » Recently, I did not purchase their SPORE game because of its very intru

I only played once on that map (yesterday evening), and it also happened to me. On the other (3 v 3) map, I had never experienced any significant slowdown. Yesterday evening, on the 2 v 2 map, suddenly, with no apparent reason, the game dropped to a crawl -- even though I had the same general settings than on the other map. I was a level 16 demigod, then.

Yes, it can be done. My dad recently had it done by [email protected] -- the busy bees, there, were fast & efficient in executing his wish.

My computer's processor is a 4¾-year old, single-core Pentium 4 @ 2.8 GHz. For the past 1½ month, it has experienced no difficulty running DEMIGOD with decent framerates, on the Waterfall map, with 6 players. All the settings are on HIGH, in a 1360 x 768 window (1440 x 900 desktop), but I disable v-synch & shadow fidelity. Sound is great and never stutters, with my good, old SoundBlaster Live! soundcard (2002 drivers, on

[quote who="Weidbrewer" reply="9" id="1905140"]*Rushes in panting, out of breath* As per usual, I am late to the party. [...] I know, this post rambled all over the place, but I wanted to put my 2¢ in.[/quote] Welcome to the party ! [e digicons]:beer:[/e] I, for one, am not bored by this thread ... even though some feel that it has reached a Mexican standoff. "Rambled all over the place" ?! I didn't perceive that : you were o

DO NOT CLOSE THREAD Closing a thread where critical opinions against the forum's owners are expressed would have all the appearances of intolerance & censorship. It is in StarDock's interest that those negative opinions are freely & fully expressed, so that SD can measure the length, width & depth of the problem. My family has been regularly beta-testing & buying stuff from SD for the past 8 years : we have no complaint w

[quote who="DeadMG" reply="17" id="1903979"]as Kryo said, a pre-order is a declaration that you WILL buy the game, and SD have lost out when you go back on that.[/quote] TRUE : By subscribing to the StarDock business proposal of a pre-order-plus-beta-participation package, one has agreed to such a "contract". But it's not all customers, especially if they are new to how StarDock operates in such matters, who will understand that "pre-ordering", in

Thxxx for the feedback ... but that is a very well known « bug », since the very beginning of the pre-order beta -- 5 weeks ago. It has happened far more than once, to many of us : Sometimes, during a game, one or more of the A.I. demigods stop participating to their team's offensive drive and passively "loiter" in the back, at the life crystal. If they perceive a nearby attack, they usually respond ... but by then, their team is most often close to defeat.

[quote who="CrimsonTears88" reply="3" id="1902397"]Stardock can go against the mold, but people need to be told how it works.[/quote] Before reading all of the replies posted on this thread, I had a 100% trust in StarDock . Now , I still have that feeling of total trust ... but I must admit that some critical observations, such as yours (and the ones

[Allow me to reproduce a post that I recently made on a Civ 4 forum, in a thread which concerned SPORE. Here, as stated in my reply #41, it concerns the fact that if people perceive that a radical form of DRM could interfere with their computer's operations, they will be tempted to download a game in an "alternate" form.] There are non-damaging forms of DRM programmes, and on the other hand, potentially very damaging forms of DRM programmes. I have a lot of games

[quote who="CrimsonTears88" reply="6" id="1902622"]Very well said, and I agree.[/quote] [e digicons]:blush:[/e] Thxxx for the generous feedback! It took me a whole hour to compose & edit my post -- taking into consideration that my day-to-day language for communication & study is french. P.S. > @ Trigeminal . My real-life picture is used for my Sorceresss avatar on this Civ 4 forum, such as on this webpage : <a href="htt

[e digicons]8C[/e] I've read each & every line of each & every of the 54 previous replies on this thread, and I must recognize that there are good arguments on both sides of the issue. To simplify this complex debate : On the one hand, it is true that « I » (in fact, my dad's Visa!) have paid full price for a very incomplete game : for example, when « I » paid, only 1 map & only 3 demigods w

[quote who="bss08380" reply="14" id="1902033"][...T]here are justifiable reasons for downloading games illegally:[/quote] You forgot another "justifiable" reason, in your list : 7. A game's installation programme installs deep into your C:\ drive, sometimes without your knowledge & consent, a piece of DRM malware (such as the SPORE form of SecuRom) which can screw up the normal operation of your computer (outside of the protected game) and which (sometimes) canno

I "own" (in fact, my dad's credit card does!) a lot of games downloaded from Steam, StarDock, Gamer's Gate. The latter 2 have a great "business model" -- especially SD's Impulse . I really wanted to "purchase" SPORE ... but the exxxtreme version of the SecuRom DRM-programme EA imposes is a big no-no (like Starforce). It potentially can (even if it doesn't always do it) cause deep, deep **** in a gamer's C:\ drive. Also : EA Support is 99.9%

[quote who="Frogboy" reply="1" id="1899560"] Good feedback ![/quote] Ummm ... there's a lot of « good feedback » on the other, recent Beta-1A threads ! It's an OK post (but why did he insert part of his DxDiagnostic text-file ?!) ... but there are a lot of other « good » posts on the other threads. It would have been more interesting & informative, Frog Boy , if you had precisely explained what you found soooo

[quote who="Servius" reply="6" id="1891627"]To bad it has starforce.[/quote] The retail, full game is NOT protected by Starforce ! The demo was originally protected by SF, but it seems that it was somewhat disabled in its recent version. When I uninstalled the demo, a SF removal programme did not find any trace of SF on my system. Believe me : I would not tolerate SF on my computer, in any form. <p

[quote who="lordkosc" reply="4" id="1891461"] from what I read , neither seem that appealing to me[/quote] I agree. Except for the OP, the other posts are very thin & childish niaiseries . I purchased it direct from Atari (because Amazon Canada has delayed its own release date), and I somewhat enjoy it. I must admit that Mr Apple-and-Oranges was partially right (refering to another thread) : the visual quality is better than HM&M 5 -

[quote who="particlewave" reply="5" id="1882658"]I'm looking forward to reading the reviews for Civ4: Colonization.[/quote] PC Gamer (USA) magazine has a review in its recently released "November" 2008 issue.

[quote who="strikersgun" reply="8" id="1885834"] friggin edit button [/quote] Tell me about it ! Earlier today, I tried to edit a post a few milliseconds after posting, and pressing the edit button (then still available) did not allow me to edit anything. I would have had to double post to "edit". Kryo ooooooooooooooooo ... Can your Web Master (or Mistress) fix that post-edit function ?