Geek-Asylum.com Archive: 8/9/10

Operating System: Windows® Vista SP2/ Windows® 7
Processor: 1.8 GHz Quad Core CPU
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Hard Disk Space: 8 GB Free
DVD-ROM Drive: Required for disc-based installation
Video: 512 MB ATI 4800 series or better, 512 MB nVidia 9800 series or better
Sound: DirectX 9.0c-compatible sound card
DirectX®: DirectX® version 11

They look like someone at Firaxis has gone completely insane. I mean recommended tends to mean what you need to run with some settings on high and others not even close. Unless Civ 5 is an exception to this unspoken rule, Firaxis is telling me that I need a 512MB 9800 to make this game look more than passable...? I need a quad core to make this game run good...? I need to ditch XP, obviously (DirectX 9 is the limit on XP) to make the game good...?

The only part of this that makes any sense to me, as a fan of Civilization since I got the first one on DOS (on 3.5" floppies), is the RAM requirements. I mean Civ games are memory hogs with double digit civilizations running around with hundreds of units, dozens of cities each, and a huge map filled with vast wonders. I could even see the CPU requirements (to an extent), since it takes some horse power under a PC's hood to get all of this stuff to and from the RAM and to make some massive calculations. I can even see the HDD issue, since a Steam download of Civ 5 is obviously going to be a large monster of a program. However, video should not be pushed this far for a game like Civilization, which ran on my lame as shit laptop (with an ATI X300 Mobile...not to be confused with the X series that came out much later).

Luckily, I can handle this, even with a somewhat aged desktop. I mean I do have an 8800 GTS (not bad after all these years), an over clocked dual-core that rocks out to whatever I feel like pushing it to thanks to my fan and heat sink of pure doom, Windows 7 (thanks to the douches behind TDL3), and 4GB of RAM from the same age as the rest of my hardware (about 3 or so years old).

One thing, however, that worries me is the trend I've seen in requirement whores of sequels. Whenever I've seen a longstanding franchise come under a sudden assault of requirements that go beyond what one would expect, I have also seen a sudden drop in quality to go along with the boost in performance. For example, Oblivion required a shit-ton more than expected after what Morrowind needed...and Oblivion, while pretty, was a game lacking in substance. King's Quest 8 required far more than the average PC could handle at the time, versus sane requirements for prior KQ titles...and let's just say The Silver Lining (awesome project) only came about due to so much dissatisfaction with KQ8. Ultima 9 went beyond what was even possible for several years...and it was never stable enough to be ran by any normal PC after the technology caught up to the game. Doom 3 was a hardware slayer, and it felt like a linear attempt at forcing a plot where we only needed some mild exploration and massive doses of pure adrenaline pumping insane action.

I just have not seen a real good example, yet, of a game franchise suddenly boosting the requirement level of a sequel and still showing off quality in what is presented. I should say, I'm sorry but pretty visuals is not the quality I crave.

Recently I had seen a trend in mainstream games getting lower requirements recently. Many hyped titles have been dropping some of the hardware needs in favor of giving more quality in their games. I figured this was due to the economy, in part, and some common sense by developers. I mean you can't sell even a mainstream potential smash hit of a game, in a bad economy, if hardware purchases are a requirement. So, why would a game with more of a cult following, and a slightly more casual (as in laidback) of a following like Civ 5 get the hardware jumping-of-the-shark? I can't even begin to speculate. All I know is that this alone makes me a bit more hesitant of purchasing one of the three remaining games I was actually hyped for this year (the other two are Rock Band 3 with a pro-guitar, and LittleBigPlanet 2). At least LBP2 looks even better with each new bit of dropped info.

By the way, I will not even get into the actor to follow in Leonard Nimoy's shoes as the narrator. I will just say, from the clips available on that link, William Sheppard is no Nimoy.

Malik