SimCity... Why not to play it!!

[Amberlee]

Read this before you buy this arse of a game..
https://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/arc ... dline.aspx

[Zhar]

http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/8/408001 ... o-the-same

To sum it all up:

[Eowul]

While the server issues are bad, i have enjoyed the game thus far. Conversations like the above are just people crying for attention.

[Zhar]

Well, I have yet to see a truly positive review for the game. So far all that's out there is full of negativity. Game reviewing sites like gamespot rate the game 5/10 because bad things overshadow anything good in it. Metacritic one is funny though: 71/100 based on 19 critic ratings, 1.5/10 based on 2500 user ratings.

Overall it's a massive PR blunder from EA. You shouldn't release the game that isn't working as intended and expect people to love it. Most people were posting for refunds, Amazon even ceased selling the game due to excessive complaints etc. etc. And it's not the first time EA fails when launching the game (does anyone remember Mass Effect 3 with "Day 1 DLC" for which all the content was already on the DVD and you had to pay premium to unlock it?).

[Amberlee]

EA is a disease on the gaming world.
They rush things, ruining good projects all in the name of a quick payday.
Good to see that some game developers are getting some sensibility and self respect and start distancing themselves from them though

[Zhar]

EA is a disease on the gaming world.
They rush things, ruining good projects all in the name of a quick payday.
Good to see that some game developers are getting some sensibility and self respect and start distancing themselves from them though

What we're seeing in the current gaming world is the reverse of a previous course of action. Somewhere around the end of 90's and beginning of 00's smaller studios started merging into big ones (EA, Activision etc.) in order to combat piracy by having more resources at their disposal and being able to cover their losses more easily. Right now it looks very much like resurgence of small indie developers. I guess people got tired of continuous rushed sequels, prequels, expansions and DLC being churned out at insane rate in order to gain some quick buck (I wonder what will happen to SimCity 5 when EA shuts down the servers after a year or two, like they did with Armies of Exigo). There's jur recycled stuff popping up all over the place, and most of it fails to meet the hype.

But look at the other side of the fence, where small studios are releasing DRM free and cheap titles. Cheap doesn't necessarily mean bad, just look at the reviews for some of the games:

Machinarium
Primordia
Botanicula
Frozen Synapse
Faster Than Light
Uplink
Defender's Quest
Trine
World of Goo

Each is a completely different type of game and each has provided me with more fun than titles like StarCraft 2, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim or Diablo III (which were all a huge letdown for me, even though you could probably buy all of the above mentioned games for the price of just one of those AAA titles).

[Icarus]

Steam does have a system to combat the piracy, which doesn't require them "screwing with the pleasures". Yes, you do need a connection to play the game, but you don't need to send vast amounts of data back and fourth to play their games unless you actually play online versus friends (or randoms).

Yes, yes, pirates may hack this and make you able to play without even a steam account, sure... But hey, you don't need a WoW account either, pirate servers exists, you could even run your own if you like.

[Kas]

Expect a couple of days with lack of connection when a major title is released. Blizzard had also issues the first days when Diablo was released, so it's nothing new.

I love Simcity though, competing with my gf building the better city. Awesome game(until I tire of it) so far.

[Cherek]

I really dont understand the anger. Everyone knew before that it would be a mess because everyone HAS to play it the second its released. Everyone knew it, yet they burst out in anger anyway. Did anyone really expect it to work perfectly when hordes of people wanna play at the same time? Why not just a week and play in then, when stuff is working?

Like Kas said, its the same with most major game releases. Just chill and you'll be fine, and less angry.

I completely understand they wanna fight piracy. Multiplayer games dont suffer as much from this, since you need to pay to play on the official servers, but a single player game will probably suffer more from piracy. So you need to be connected to play. Makes sense to me. I mean who's got an offline computer these days anyway? And the servers will probably be working 99.9999% of the time when the initial rush is over.

Now people worry about not being able to play the game 10 years from now, in case of servers getting closed. But who's to say that restriction wont be removed if the servers are closed one day? It would actually make sense to do so, since a 10 year old game wont cause them much loss in sales due to piracy anyway, and they would make their loyal fans happy.

[Windemere]

I agree with Kas and Cherek here,

I've had games that I've played that were online only that when they decided to shut them down a patch was released to allow for offline play. Even Diablo 3 is going to have offline gameplay for the PS3/4 version of its game and so the ability is there.

One of the biggest reasons, besides piracy fighting, and I would say even bigger because you can not beat Pirates, is two fold.

First, online only allows for a significant amount more of the social interaction/competition between friends and strangers. You have the ability to interact and play with people much easier, or play solo should you choose. No more of this online city/offline city. I mean to be honest, who really played Diablo 2 single player?! Being on Battle.net was important!

Second is the ability to "hack" the game. When a character and information is stored online it makes it more difficult for players to cheat in the game. Obviously it is still possible and developer cheats will always exist, but for example in Diablo 3, you have a much more difficult time creating hacks for the game when it is entirely on a server.

Still, I bought the new Tomb Raider, it has a required persistent connection to be able to play, but even on launch day there was not a single issue. Same with Star Wars the old Republic, minor issues, quickly solved. Dragon Age II, persistent connection, no issues, Mass Effect 3, persistent connection, No issues either.

It is not guaranteed that a persistent connection will result in horrible issues. And often when it does, free games ensue. Like in the case of Sim City, EA has ponied up and sent free game vouchers to a good number of people!

Windemere