If you purchase it now, you may find yourself walking away upset with the things that do not work, or are not balanced.

There are FAR worse games out there. You have most assuredly purchased some of them in your gaming lifetime.

As many have stated, Stardock seems to be inclined to continue working hard on Elemental and getting it working right and maximizing its potential.

If you value a company that makes such games as Elemental and want to see this game succeed, you can speak with your wallet and buy a copy, knowing it will most likely be well worth your investment in the long run.

Or, you can choose not to encourage game companies to release games in such states by not purchasing it.

I personally do not regret buying the game and supporting Stardock. I do regret buying it on release, as it may have diminished my desire to play it for quite some time.

Except for CivNet, I have yet to experience a Civilization game that was anywhere close to being as shoddy and unfinished at release as Elemental is right now.

Agreed, I bought Civ4 on day 1 and while it had it's problems, it was years ahead (almost literally) of where elemental is now, even with 1.07.  Sorry, but that's the simple truth.

"worth" 50 bucks, well that is very subjective. I would say if you only have 50 bucks to spend on a game in the next month or so then no, wait for CIV5 (in the TBS realm). If the money is not as much of an issue I would say yes, for the most part it is worth it.

First let me say that I have not had the crashing issues so take that into consideration with what i am saying. Ive only had 2 crashes and because of the autosave every 5 turns i just reloaded and lost a cpl of turns.

I have played 4 sandbox games so far. the first 2 were kind of learning the ropes. Next 2 played till completion. I have about 20 hrs of gameplay in for those 4 games total. I have spent 60 bucks on console games that i have completed in 10hrs or quit after much less than that because of poor game elements. (silent hill homecoming anyone? Tom Clancy's EndWar anyone?)

So if i look at it in the terms of hours of entertainment i think it is probably worth it. Now i understand that the expectations of a good TBS is to get 100s of hrs and to be playing it yrs into the future (ala CIV4). Will that happen with Elemental after the promised updates? That remains to be seen.

I plan on playing again today and can see myself getting another 20 or so hrs out of it before i get bored of it in its current state. I do expect stardock at WORST to put out some updates that will add some new features that will allow me another 20 plus hrs (3-4 games) before i get bored of them.

I think the potential is there for an awesome game but I wouldn't spend 50 on potential. If 20 to 40 hrs of gameplay exploring a new and exciting 4x4 TBS, flawed tho it may be, is worth 50 bucks to you then yes. If the 50 is all you have for a while and TBS is your fav game genre, then CIV5.

$15 at most.

Really, $0.  It's not worth the time, heartache, or disk space.  Check back at first expansion.  Assuming Stardock is still in business at that point, of course.

King's Bounty: Crossworlds comes out in two weeks, and Civ5 a week or two after that.  Spend the $50 on those (KB:C is $20, and there will be a $20 discount on Civ5 at release in some stores).

Since you're not actually buying a product at this point, and are instead buying the promise of a maybe complete, maybe enjoyable product at some enigmatic time down the line that the echochamber of fanbois swear up and down is coming, you have two essential questions to ask yourself:

1.)  Do you want to bankroll Stardock's development?  Elemental is not finished.  It's not even halfway finished.  It's broken on a technical level, but worse, it's broken on a fundamental design level.

2.)  Do you want to support these business practices?  Stardock deserves to be punished, not praised.  Every dollar you give them is the same as saying "I am OK with what you did with this product."  If you're the type that thinks what they pulled is OK, by all means, throw money at them.  Hell, buy a few copies for friends and family.  Maybe you'll push their post-release sales into the triple digits if you do so.

I got it for $40. I've put Elemental up for now. Playing Tropico 3's expansion from the current sale while I wait for my Civ5 pre-order. I will get back to Elemental now and then.

Really??  Which stores?  I'd love to know.

A K-Mart representative on Cheap A** Gamer is talking about a "deal" for Civ5 the week it comes out.  Most every K-Mart video game deal these days is a $20 coupon that can be used on a future purchase.

Well, that's kinda the rub for me.  There isn't much to 'play'.  This is basically a tech demo at best.  The AI is so horrible that the only fun is finding new ways to win while handicapping yourself.  And with a severely gimped campaign and no multiplayer... well... there just isn't much 'play' to be had ATM.

I first tried this game when a friend of mine bought it at version 1.01, and we both could not stop playing it. I myself just purchased version 1.07, and don't feel ripped off in any way. I have been a fan of many Stardock games in the past, and I'm sure the company will make this game as incredible as Galactic Civ and Sins Of A Solar Empire. It's very rare these days to see a game company support their  customers the way Stardock does, and the game right now is so addicting, can't wait to see what they do to it ! The hell what everyone is saying right now, Brad, you will do the right thing !

We all recognize the issues with Elemental on release but I still think it is a hell of a lot of fun and have gotten my money's worth so far. I only expect more and better to come going forward and when the modders get to work there will be lots out there for this game.

The $50 question is subjective. I have felt it worth the money I spent.

Civ V

No way - just don't feel any need for another Civ title.  Just me though

50 was kind of steep for the condition the game was in & still is in, I mean a lot has been done with 1.07 but the game needs a lot of

work, is a very ambitious project, lots of information & concept is missing from the manual.