Yep, same here. Personally I've reported lot of CTDs while I was betaing EWoM, and all of those have been fixed, so basically I don't have any CTDs now. + I never had any problems with the tactical battles. [White screen?] The problems mentioned in the PC GAMER article are specific hardware related issues. [My system: E8400+GTX260+x64 Vista]

Agreed. ad such problem ALWAYS happen on release, in many cases it's drivers or user hardware to blame, however, in this case problems (different levels of severity) happens at more then 50% of users which is not acceptable.

And it just emphasize my argument that game was not tested well enough.

I wouldn't say that.

Normally I would agree that the wide variety of hardware and drivers cause problems, however, look at the change log here http://elementalwarofmagic.wikidot.com/change-log and search on the word "crash".  I see 5 bug related crashes, 1 caused by certain hardware (video cards), and 1 that could go either way.

# Fixed a crash related to city tiles on DirectX 11 based setups with a game within a game

# Fixed a crash related to children being born during a reloaded saved game that could cause a crash on 64-bit machines

# Fixed a crash related to reference counting on the Dynasty screen that happens on 32-bit Windows XP machines

# Fixed a buffer overrun issue that caused random crashing on SSD SATA drives while saving a game.

# Fixed crash related to very very fast machines loading up data.zip before initialization causing data to not be fully enabled which would result in a crash when the object in question was accessed.

# Fixed some crashes on load from if a unit type was retired while a unit of that type was in a training queue, since the unit type would be removed from the global vector but some things would still be looking for it on load. Now the function to remove a retired unit type checks the training queues of all the cities, too, and when the AI retires a unit type, it removes it from its list of designs.

    * I think this also fixes some crashes on load from the testers downstairs, where I would see units looking for AI designed unit types that weren't in the unit type list anymore, as well as the loading in of the AI designed unit type vector, but I'm just making an educated guess based on the fact that the AI automatically retires unit types it designs itself. This does fix a reproducible crash related to training units at least, though.

# We finally found and killed a battle engine related crash that we think was the cause of virtually all end of turn related crashes.

Anyhoo, a lot of this would have been found with a good beta, hence why I'm waiting to buy until things are sorted out.

I've personally seen some of the crashes (and some of the fixes to reduce it), as well as the slowdown and the bug where some AIs just won't do anything all game. That was last night, with the most recent version.

The crash issues are very much hardware, driver version, and even what you do dependant (alt+tab can trigger a crash).

It's how imbalanced the combat system gets in late game that really bugs me.

Ok but the WOW release problem was the server issues (holding times) the game itself was pretty polished once you were able to log in. And yes this is one of the exceptions. But I have seen far more where the games were released in a terrable state and they never really recovered.

It's hard to argue with PCG's article. My hardware isn't that exotic, and I know the importance of stable drivers and so on, but it just doesn't seem to cut it.

The one and only reason why I bought this game in such early state, although  one could argue that games should be stable when released in the first place, was the impact that Sins of Solar Empires gave me. I started to think that Stardock equals intuitive UI, great ideas, good quality control and fascinating games.I also agree with the policy of no copy-protection, which makes life easier for those who actually buy the game. I might emphasize it too much, but Ubisoft EA and others really gained nothing with their "fuck you" attitudes towards paying customers. The pirated versions are out there regardless.Regrettably I'm starting to feel like the schmuck I was when I bought Fallout3. Maby I just should try it again after six months or so and propably be satisfied with it, but it still doesn't take away the feeling that I've been had.

My message to the developers would be: Take your time, and don't cut corners. There is a pot of gold awaiting.

I'm not recommending this game to friends until I see more stability.  I'm fine with waiting around as the patches are pushed and looking forward to things, but I'm not going to tell a bud to pick this up not knowing how MP will work in action and knowing they will likely get random crashes or suffer performance issues like me.  I think I'm going to try to resist the urge to play elemental (it is fun and full of potential) until another patch comes out and see if that improves things for me.  I think PC gamer was a bit harsh, but I actually think its good of them to wait to review the game.  Imagine the review it would have received on their magic, crashing every 10 minutes systems... it would be like a 50 out of 100... so - good of them to at least hold off on the review for now. 

Ok as I have said before I like the game but your blindness to the flaws of the game speaks of extreme fanboism which hurts the company more than helps.  Please stop defending SD it makes them look bad 

The best way to improve a RTS game into something superior is to make it into a TBS game.

Well... Unfortunately, I really have to agree with PC Gamer at this point. I don't think Elemental was ready for launch. I say this as someone who bought it and has been in it since Beta 1.

The idea of the game is great, and the foundation is wonderful. It is a solid engine that is really modifiable which is my #1 concern with TBS games since I find the mods people make for them are as interesting as the game itself, certainly was with Civ 4 at least. Also I really like some of the creative choices like the graphics style. The hand painted look is great, and it is a nice change. I get tired of every single game going for photorealistic looks when graphics cards do such a good job of more fantasy looks.

Thing is, it just isn't ready for launch. Based on the original beta timeline, this should be beta 3 or 4 maybe. It is coming together, but still has bugs and too much is missing.

I was concerned when some of the later betas were released and they committed to a street date. It didn't seem to me like there was enough time to get the game up to spec. However, I did understand that not everything was necessarily being shown in the beta, that maybe there was a whole lot more that we all weren't seeing.

However it seems that really isn't the case. The game just isn't ready. It is a late stage beta, but still a beta IMO.

The problem with that is I think it means it is really going to get creamed in the reviews, and creamed by Civ 5. The game will probably be solid in 3-6 months, but by then it will have been written off by most people.

I think the top half of the review is fair. I won't comment on the personal back-and-forth that goes on at the bottom.

Elemental, in it's current state, isn't worth buying (for me), since I'm still experiencing the white screen/game slows to a crawl every tactical battle after the first. The author isn't trying to convince people to never buy Elemental, and he's obviously a fan Stardock's previous titles. He's generous to delay reviewing the game until the stability issues are fixed rather than immediately after the day-0 patch was released. 

I really think that you guys and the PC Gamer writer are over reacting.  I have had virtually no problems with the game since the last beta and to claim that the majority of people are experiencing game breaking problems is just wrong.  Maybe the majority of people who post in these kinds of threads legitimately experience problems, but the vast majority of people have little to no problems.  People who have problems, even rare ones, are vastly more likely to post about it, giving the illusion that the game has many problems.  I have seen this before in other game releases.

From what I can see most of the problems mentioned by the article writer and others are hardware issues, which is only partially in Stardock's control.  Brad posted before that he had been contacted by AMD to say that some of their drivers had memory issues, causing slowdown and crashes (so always update your drivers!) and not all computer configurations can be tested.  Once release comes Stardock has access to even more configurations than available before, even with all the beta testers, so I have confidence even these hardware issues will be ironed out.

And CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS are not?   Yea right.

I'm really tired of people making excuses for these companies releasing broken games at $50 a pop. "Long term support" is not a given, and small companies--like Stardock--are known for shutting down at a moment's notice. The product should be in working condition as soon as you pay for it; no waiting for the developer to get "some rest before activating and supporting that feature."

Raise your expections and stop being satisfied with shotty work!

Everyone knows that The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are the more informative than the actual news networks!!! xD

Didn't galactic civilizations 2 get an update a couple of months ago?  It was released in Feb 2006 and was developed and published (?) by Stardock.  I'd say that track record alone should provide some insight as to the level of support and patching we can expect from SD on elemental, a game they personally develop and publish.  Re: all of your other points, I expected more at launch as well and was disappointed, BUT - I have no doubt in my mind that the game will receive the support it needs.  There's no third party involved here. I expect we'll see alot of patching for the next 2-3 months followed by monthly or quarterly updates.  Should it need that many patches after being released?  Should MP be available at launch?  Etc etc.  I think those questions are rhetorical. 

It might nto be as polished as alot of other agmes but its way more ambitious and its tons of fun to play as is.

I would spend 100$ on thsi game to be honest. Its just a perfect game for me.

It'd be cool if PC Gamer had the balls to issue a retraction now that most of the major issues have been patched. 

They are actually doubling down:

http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/08/27/elemental-now-works-old-savegames-now-dont/

It's the ol' "Sorry you feel that way" kind of apology.

To be fair, that follow-up is considerably less acrimonious than the "Stardock just killed my dog" tone of the initial article.

PC Gamer is a great mag...while the tone of the initial article was more emotionally charged than I would like, it's hard to argue that the majority of what was said isn't true.  I think the author felt the same sting of disappointment as most everyone else, and that found it's way into the article.

Anyways, been reading the mag for like 10 years (maybe longer?) and it's the only gaming related material I read while I'm on the shitter

I think what annoyed me about the first article is that writer apparently thought his experiences and opinions were universal, which is not the case.

I stopped reading when Greg Vederman left.  In my opinion the quality took a huge dive when he left.  Though arguably it had begun its downward slide before he took over as editor in chief, and he was given the thankless task of trying to hold back an avalanche, which to his credit he largely succeeded, but there was nothing to stop it once he resigned.

I think the mag is relatively the same as it's always been, though admittedly for a while it was sliding somewhat.  Even then it was still a good informative magazine to read.  In recent months they seem to be recapturing the magic of the older issues and better editorials and are even giving space to some indie titles too.  I was REALLY surprised to see Din's Curse in an issue couple months back.

Regarding the initial article...I think the problems were severe and widespread enough that it's warning was warranted.  A game having 5% of it's user base experiencing sever bugs is one thing...when you start getting 20...30...40% or greater that's a pretty big deal.

I won't pretend to know what percentage it effected, but judging by these forums and the forums of other sites it's gotta be really high...

Dude, seriously?

Shards still don't work. The combat system is utterly mangled. People are whomping maxed out AI with all factions due to game crushing imbalances. There are a million other gameplay issues.

People are still reporting serious issues with 1.06 even for tech stuff? You think the major issues are addressed? Not even close.

We just entered the Gameplay Beta. The reviews I have seen are extremely generous.