BortiiS, The
11-16-2003, 11:57 PM
Just got done playing hours of Galactic Civilizations.
A bit disappointing, mostly from the production values.
I didn't have any CTDs, but the game is very shoddy and rugged.
Rather crude even, in that sound FX seem to be missing.
The CGI-movies, almost seem like "stock-footage" taken from other games!!! HAHAHAH!
Uh, rather disappointing in that MOO2 is still a waaaay better game.
I liked a variety of things introduced in Galactic Civilizations, but a post-2000-era PC game that looks like it still uses VGA graphics, but runs like M002 on a 286.
Pitiful.
In short:
-A few small bugs, an uncomfortable interface, a horribly useless manual that is a more a summary description of the "features" in the game, rather than explaining how you get them to work via the interface in the game, which is what a manual is suppose to do---duh----, as well as a mysteriously mindless online community.
About the latter, yes. I got to the game's website, and go to the forums, and got the impression that everyone was on dope.
The forum was not organized, there were no "sections" for anything, but rather, just a giant list of headers of people talking about whatever.
Supposedly, this game has a big community, but I couldn't tell by the whopping 2 pages of posts.
I went to another site, and it had organized forums...or were they?
It seemed to have the same forums at least twice and confusion under the guise of organization.
For example, there were no "help" sections.
There was a troubleshooting-like section, but it was called something else, but no one posted there about problems with the game, but rather, problems with some mod-related issue.
YET, there was a seperate section for mod-related issues, specifically.
All the forums seemed to just blend through each other, and thus, was useless.
Another site, required membership/registration, JUST TO VIEW the forums and seemed to "hold hostage" things like "screenshots", guarding seemingly worthless things. I wasn't sure if it was approriate to laugh when I say,"You are trying to access a restricted area. Members-only." when I tried to look at their game FAQ.
What's the big secret???
Also, I tried to register on the main game's site, so I could post to their forums, but I'm still waiting for an email to send me one of those "confirmation-link"-things, or whatever.
It's been hours now.
Also, to get the patch, you have to register with them and give them the CD-key for the game.
It seemed a bit over the top, are these people paranoid or something?
They are owned by some company called StarDock, which almost seem like one of those half-scam marketing companies, that someone there must be a big sci-fi fan, and decided to invest in some company that made Galactic Civilizations.
I already have problems with stupid spam, I have this aweful feeling they'll sell my email to some crap-companies who'll bombard me with spam and ads and crap, or put me on their lame mailing list.
They said the "expansion pack" was included with the patch/update, and it was "free"...YEAH RIGHT, now that I think about it, I had to register with them to get it, I had to give them my email address...crap...probably get alot of spam now!
Worse, is that I couldn't tell if I really got the expansion pack!
The game looked just the same, played the same, starting a new game...all the same!
Only a couple new menu features in a couple game screens, I think, that seemed to be about it.
In any case, this is only a $20, at the most.
I'll still stick with it, I think it might have some interesting things to offer.
I also must add, that I couldn't find any help-files, or community support, or any tech support, ANYWHERE.
It's like some one with an invisible ray-cannon zapped that whole section of the game's community into oblivion.
For example, the game as a terrible issue, where whenever some alien race builds a building, YOU get a pop-up telling it to you.
There is no way to turn this off.
In Master of Orion 2, you can filter this junk out, the same with Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri.
But not in Galactic Civilizations.
YET, when I started a new game later, I didn't get this problem, in fact, I stopped getting GNN news reports, or reports on anything.
I went looking around online to find tech support on this issue, and couldn't find tech support on any issue.
I see all these mod-related things, yet, now information on how to mod yourself, or really where that "heart" of the community is, where you can find out "everything"...at the very least, find a fricken FAQ or a few posts on technical support!!!!!!!
Weird, very weird.
A bit disappointing, mostly from the production values.
I didn't have any CTDs, but the game is very shoddy and rugged.
Rather crude even, in that sound FX seem to be missing.
The CGI-movies, almost seem like "stock-footage" taken from other games!!! HAHAHAH!
Uh, rather disappointing in that MOO2 is still a waaaay better game.
I liked a variety of things introduced in Galactic Civilizations, but a post-2000-era PC game that looks like it still uses VGA graphics, but runs like M002 on a 286.
Pitiful.
In short:
-A few small bugs, an uncomfortable interface, a horribly useless manual that is a more a summary description of the "features" in the game, rather than explaining how you get them to work via the interface in the game, which is what a manual is suppose to do---duh----, as well as a mysteriously mindless online community.
About the latter, yes. I got to the game's website, and go to the forums, and got the impression that everyone was on dope.
The forum was not organized, there were no "sections" for anything, but rather, just a giant list of headers of people talking about whatever.
Supposedly, this game has a big community, but I couldn't tell by the whopping 2 pages of posts.
I went to another site, and it had organized forums...or were they?
It seemed to have the same forums at least twice and confusion under the guise of organization.
For example, there were no "help" sections.
There was a troubleshooting-like section, but it was called something else, but no one posted there about problems with the game, but rather, problems with some mod-related issue.
YET, there was a seperate section for mod-related issues, specifically.
All the forums seemed to just blend through each other, and thus, was useless.
Another site, required membership/registration, JUST TO VIEW the forums and seemed to "hold hostage" things like "screenshots", guarding seemingly worthless things. I wasn't sure if it was approriate to laugh when I say,"You are trying to access a restricted area. Members-only." when I tried to look at their game FAQ.
What's the big secret???
Also, I tried to register on the main game's site, so I could post to their forums, but I'm still waiting for an email to send me one of those "confirmation-link"-things, or whatever.
It's been hours now.
Also, to get the patch, you have to register with them and give them the CD-key for the game.
It seemed a bit over the top, are these people paranoid or something?
They are owned by some company called StarDock, which almost seem like one of those half-scam marketing companies, that someone there must be a big sci-fi fan, and decided to invest in some company that made Galactic Civilizations.
I already have problems with stupid spam, I have this aweful feeling they'll sell my email to some crap-companies who'll bombard me with spam and ads and crap, or put me on their lame mailing list.
They said the "expansion pack" was included with the patch/update, and it was "free"...YEAH RIGHT, now that I think about it, I had to register with them to get it, I had to give them my email address...crap...probably get alot of spam now!
Worse, is that I couldn't tell if I really got the expansion pack!
The game looked just the same, played the same, starting a new game...all the same!
Only a couple new menu features in a couple game screens, I think, that seemed to be about it.
In any case, this is only a $20, at the most.
I'll still stick with it, I think it might have some interesting things to offer.
I also must add, that I couldn't find any help-files, or community support, or any tech support, ANYWHERE.
It's like some one with an invisible ray-cannon zapped that whole section of the game's community into oblivion.
For example, the game as a terrible issue, where whenever some alien race builds a building, YOU get a pop-up telling it to you.
There is no way to turn this off.
In Master of Orion 2, you can filter this junk out, the same with Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri.
But not in Galactic Civilizations.
YET, when I started a new game later, I didn't get this problem, in fact, I stopped getting GNN news reports, or reports on anything.
I went looking around online to find tech support on this issue, and couldn't find tech support on any issue.
I see all these mod-related things, yet, now information on how to mod yourself, or really where that "heart" of the community is, where you can find out "everything"...at the very least, find a fricken FAQ or a few posts on technical support!!!!!!!
Weird, very weird.