Wait til mid/late game when it slows to a crawl. I play on cloth map only with a decent machine and its sluggish. Been reading about how the game isn't even utilizing the GPU on some systems.

And also agreed that some problems with the game get blown out of proportion, but the problems are there.  Having a very modern, up-to-date pc and having to turn down the graphics settings in the hope of not getting a crash or having slowdown sucks a bit.  Anyway, lots of fun and I'm in it for the long haul as well, but the problems are there. 

I've been in between. The game crashes fairly frequently, especially toward end game. But I've been emailing the crash logs to support and browse the forums for a bit before going back into the game. The game needs a bit of smoothing out, balancing, and generally stabilizing, but Stardock is known for getting its products working beautifully over time.

I went into this game knowing full well what to expect as far as a release product goes. I also went into the game knowing almost nothing about it, so my expectations aren't nearly as high as alot of other peoples. Granted, if in a year alot of this stuff is still around, I might have a thing or two to say, but I'm confident that wont be the case.

Im one of those people who after 10-15 hours of playing is yet to see a single crash on max settings 1920*1200 with 4x AA. Yes ive seen plenty of little bugs in the game, but nothing to cry bloody murder over. There will always be people who cant get a game to work or the game doesnt run well on their system for whatever reason. Supreme Commander 2 for example after like 12 patches still has people posting that they cant get the game running at all.

Of course, the thing is, people keep talking about the graphical power of their systems... but that doesn't mean jack since I'm going to guess that a lot of the slow down is just from the game trying to 'think'. Ones graphics card can't do much to help that part unless Stardock is using something like CUDA and the equivalent for ATI.

Some of the problems people are talking about were fixed Tuesday night. Some of them only happen with ATI video cards. Some of them are just plain odd (like certain AI factions simply doing nothing all game).

And some of them are stuff like balance problems, which definitely exist but aren't as flashy as crash bugs.

I agree with you.  I've put in quite a bit of time with Elemental, and it's a really good game, and a lot of fun.  The problems IMO are minor and don't detract from the fun.

   Now people , or rather sycophants , pretending theres no problems are making me  aggressive. Theres several report in tech support and even saves uploaded, on medium maps and over  its slow down to a crawl ,download the saves and try .

   I am ok to help them  if they need me to test stuff , i can tolerate some bugs as the game has potential to become a classic but no its not in shape of a release game even with patch 1.05.Theres serious play testing to do,units, spells IA balancing, no just silly little bugs no one will notice. 

     It seems they got scared of civ5 and wanted to release early, but guess what i am no longer 10year old asking mommy to buy me a game,i bet the vast majority of potential buyers arent either,  i can buy both civ5 and elemental according they are released in a good shape !I dont even have to wait for christmas!

First fench review i 've read on gamekult get 3/10 theres maybe some issues no ?

I've had quite a few problems, though significantly less so since 1.05 and the hotfix.

Gold and 1.01 would crash anywhere from 10 to 30 turns in.  Consistently.

All versions crash when I tab out and back into a running game (though curiously NOT the menu even if I've already started or loaded an existing one).  This has been so since the original street version.

I have a fairly beefy PC (i7 920, 6gb, GeForce 275) and it manhandles anything else I throw at it within reason (I can make it buckle with Dragon Age and maxing the holy hell out of AA, anisotropic and other stuff).

As for actual gameplay?  It's feeling WAY less half-baked since 1.05 arrived, but it's still fairly spartan in quite a few ways such blandly fragile "heroes", repetitive and underpowered magic, inconsistent UI, etc.  Yes these will all be fixed by Stardock and/or modders but it still lends itself to complaints of not being ready for release.

I had my problems with the game early on, but the patches have heleped alot. I played a game on large map to about 200 turns and has not slowed down and that game have not crashed once. I only hope the AI will be improved because just because I¨m a few point better in regards to strength does not mean the AI can't kil me off easy, it just have to wait and strike at the right time and you gone, so I look forward to seeing better AI.

Problems differ also based on set ups.

FWIW, I have 6GB of Ram and I haven't seen the game slow to a crawl but it does become unresponsive later down the line.

Same with me man, I have played about 13 hours now and I just now had my first crash (playing Large map sandbox).

Sure there are some things that could be improved (it slows down in later turns quite a bit), but other then that there are no big problems for me.

I am having a hell of a time with this game so far, loving it to death. I am surprised just as you are to not be having more crashes or issues after reading some peoples posts.

Yes its rough around the edges but what is here is one of my favorite games in YEARS. This game really gets me and my gamign needs and I really think I have finally found MY GAME so to speak, its soo addicting.

One crash in 13+ hours? I dont mind that at all to be honest.