I've got an 1.5 year old, fairly standard i7 920, 6g RAM, gtx260, win7 x64large raptor system.  Prior to I 1.06 didn't play more than a few minutes, and the only stability issue was 1 white screen during tac battles.  Currently playing a large map, 5 foe, ridiculous difficulty, all settings maxed but only 1024x768 game, and just hit turn ~300.   Things were pretty smooth until last night starting ~turn 200.  Got a few 'generic' crashes, then after an ~2hr stretch with no crashes, all of a sudden got the 'stutter' in framerate.  Immediately tried to save and before it could do that got an OOM crash.  Wasn't more than 5-10 seconds max from the first sign of low memory to the crash, so whatever the cause it wasn't a relatively slow buildup.  Restarted and ~10 minutes later it repeated.  Haven't played since to see if it's going to be a regular thing from this point on.  Am hoping not, as I'm still really in the early stage of the game.  Reading this review I didn't see mention of how far into a game he got, size of the game, etc., to judge if he'd played long enough to encounter this type of problem.

While I played a friend I bought the game for finally got it installed and he played while I guided him along over voice comms.  He had an ~4 hour run before it crashed (small map, low settings, 1 foe, I think easy difficulty) which wasn't bad, especially considering it was unplayable for him during beta.  He (also) likes the game and we're looking forward to MP (with a few others in our group) -- especially MP with the option to include tac battles.  Him having someone to answer a few basic questions made getting started a lot easier/funner.  He especially liked the graphics, something I think gets overlooked in the reviews here and on the net.  The graphic look is very nice, and the artists should be commended.  It's a unique look, impressionistic without being 'cartoony'.  He also liked the general design (gameplay/etc.), and like me hopes the improvements will continue and bring the game up to where it shows what SD is capable of.

Yep ... art style is currently the BEST thing about the game. Seriously.

I see several feeling the game is 6/10... I can't even give it a 4/10 at this point. Brad himself said it's mostly intended to be a single player game, and it's just too easy to beat it.

I've hardly ever even lost an army in this game, much less ever felt challenged. If the goal of the game is to give a challenging singleplayer experience, for me, it currently doesn't do that at all.

Sadly, it will have to be shelved until the AI is smarter than a 2 year old who was slipped a bottle full of brandy.

Congrats on the review, but it is my humble opinion that that reviewer was under the influence of some sort of drug. Elemental is in no way a 9/10 and needs quite some work to get there. I believe it WILL get there or even better eventually but dont try to tell me its a 9/10 as of this moment, that is pure bs. I'll remember to avoid that site for good/precise/honest reviews .

Game definitely hits a wall around this time, OOM-wise.

I agree 100% with this review. The game is awesome in its current state. My 2 sons and myself can't stop playing it. Just imagine how it will be in a few weeks or months !!!

Well done guys !

By te way, I'm half way trough the Destiny's Embers book. I love it too...

Raven....no, some reviews just demonstrate ignorance of detail which qualifies the review's standard/competence.

This happens in anything 'reviewed' not just games...

I read the review. I want some of what he's been smoking.

No doubt the worst problems will be fixed in the next 2 weeks or so. After all, many are just typos in the unit stats or other trivial crap.

But such a hot recommendations for "normal" users just yet? I love the game but I'm a bug-hardened veteran, steeled through literally decades of buggy releases.
Crash bugs? Laughable. That's what autosave is for.
Unbalanced gameplay and broken magic? I use the parts that work.
Cheating AI? I cheat right back.
What's the problem?

But what if someone just wants to play a game for an hour here and there? Someone spoiled by far more simplistic but working games? Then this game is hell.

But grats on good press. HEHEHE

I have never felt the need to add my opinion to a forum such as this, but reading some of these comments compels me.  War of Magic is the best new game to come out in years and I've been playing computer games since their inception.  Anyone who doesn't see the quality and depth of this game is fooling themselves into thinking they know a good game.  Seldom do modern games show such variety, attention to detail, and true effort from the developers.  This game will eventually be given the accolades it deserves.  For all you short sighted sheep out there, go play a pretty finger twitch game on a console. 

          Kublacron

You've evidently missed the last five years of PC gaming then, even if all you like to play is 4x. 

So your conception of attention to detail is a heavily bug ridden release with multiplayer disabled, and numerous unfinished and/or broken game mechanics that weren't tested properly?  Yeah, they really went over Elemental with a fine toothed comb.  What variety, exactly?  There aren't that many techs, build order is negligible, and everyone will basically end up in the same place.  You can only level through combat, all the playable races at this point are human, and diplomacy does nothing.  Most of the quests you get are to go to someone's lab and retrieve an item, or to bring them back a few stones so they can make a new weapon or piece of armour.  Units lack specialization, and Defensive and offensive characteristics all get combined into 2 statistics, and dynasties don't work. 

And as far as other developers not putting "true effort" into their products...well...speechless, honestly.

Yes, yes it will...as soon as it actually does deserve it.  No one here is short sighted, we just don't like reviewing a product based on what it might become a year from now.

And I just want to add a qualifier here: my above comments probably make it seem like I'm one of the ones who think the game is complete trash and unplayable.  It's playable, and it's fun even as it stands, and I do like it...a year from now I fully expect to have my social life sucked away by Elemental obsession.  I just don't understand how some people here think Elemental is Stadock's gift to mankind considering all of the things that need to be fixed, completed, and added.  It's extremely possible to be happy with the game as it stands now, but I think you're misleading yourself if you look at Elemental and think that it is anywhere close to where it could have/should have been, think it is a polished product, or deserves 90% reviews as it currently sits.

Fallout 1,2 & Tactics not The restart 3rd person Fallout that came out recently. I kinda agree but the battles are no way as intense as Fallout 1&2 yet, the stakes were very high and every move counted, even late game when you had OP guns suome goon could kill you with a few lucky shots. Now if we could get some deep customisation of tactical battle skills,spells abilities and the AI gets the same treatment then the battles would be alot more intense, varied and enjoyable

I am one of the rare ones that have almost no slow down late game and super rare crashes I've been playing without stylished lighting since the beta because i think it looks better maybe thats why?

9/10 is a high core but i can only imagine he really liked the game and as these forums show, people either love or hate the game as it is now fanboyism and haterism aside. I would give the game an 8/10 and i can see this evolving and becoming an all time fave just like Galciv2 did. Anyone who thinks this game is under a 6/10 needs to stop wasting their time playing this game and posting on this forum as there are plenty of good games out there.

Its good to see a positive review for this game.

I give the game a 9/10 also, I was expecting a 5 or 6/10 game from all that I was reading but man thsi game is tons of fun.

It coudl be a 9.5 or 10/10 if the late gaem slowdown gets fixed and some of the ai gets worked out (:

Its got nothign to do with me being a stardock fanboy, I have only bought 3 of there games and have enjoyed 2 out of those 3.

Yes it has problems but to me PERSONALLY.. this is the best game in years and years FOR ME!

Tell me something. With all of things on that huge master list that need to be fixed, how in the world can anybody give this game a 9/10? It doesn't make sense. This game has potential but you can't review potential. You have to review what's there and there's no way that reviewer can honestly say that what came in 1.0 and is now in 1.06 is anyway near a 9/10. Maybe a 5. A 6 if you want to be generous. Stardock should be ashamed to advertise or link to that review. It's not objective and more importanly it's not truthful.

Before anybody starts flaming calling me a "hater", I'll just say one thing. I don't hate the game. I hate the way in which it was released. I hate being sold a half finished, unpolished product especially from a company that I trusted. Most of all I hate the fact that I've paid to do what should have been done before release which is beta test. I'm neither a hater or a fanboy. I'm a consumer who expects value out of their purchases and so far Elemental doesn't give it to me. Your mileage may vary but in no way does that make you right or me wrong. This 9/10 review does a huge disservice to the gaming community by not being truthful and objective. Like I said, Stardock should be ashamed to even link to it.

You obviously had bugs I did not when playing the game.  You state at the end of your rant that the game will "suck your life away when it is fixed" ,yet you seem offended that it is not up to your standards now.  I think you just like to bitch and think the world owes you your perfect gold standard.  I think you should make a complex and difficult to program game yourself since you' re so fucking good.  Asshole!   For Master thief if anyone wonders.

In recent days there have been so many ranty posts about reviews I've avoided adding, but feel compelled to add a comment on here agreeing with the other level headed ones:

- We all anticipate EWOM will be great. It's good now. I'm certainly enjoying it, and keep restarting despite the variable experience and bugs.

- Sadly, the game does not however yet merit a review of 9. For it to be there, we have to wait. It's just not right to review now based on what is anticipated.

- That review is off-mark and should not be encouraging gamers to spend money on EWOM yet. It's particularly wrong on i) Tactical battles which are still neither fun nor challenging tactically and ii) The Campaign which is so weak it would have been better left out. Seriously, both the story and scenario design (and the 'optimism' of calling 1 scripted map and a couple of moving-still cinematics a 'campaign') felt 'amateur' - entertainment of any quality stripe it was not - I almost uninstalled at the end - Just glad I held in there for sandbox mode, which is a totally different beast.