islingtonclaret Posted March 8, 2013 Share Posted March 8, 2013 OK guys, here we go... No, I haven't played it. No, I haven't paid for it. No, I don't intend to pay for it. No, I won't ever play it. Judging by the reaction that's starting to hit home, does anyone think that the consumer might be proved right on this one, for once? I mean, EA won't listen because they're an abomination to the video games industry, but this one should hit them in the pocket enough for people to take notice. The gamer having to remain connected to EA's servers even if they want to play a single player game, combined with the fact they poured no money into the servers themselves and the fact that all games are saved in the cloud is really taking the piss. When they pull the plug on the servers, your SimCity gaming achievements vanish with them. Contrary to what most people might think after reading this, I'm not a dinosaur and I do realise that the industry is moving in this DRM direction. However, you've got to get it right and get people used to losing control of their content in some sort of managed fashion. It's no surprise that EA are the ones pioneering this money squeezing, DRM controlled, micro-DLC stuff but my God as starting experiments in this go they've **** it up big time. In 10 years time, people will still pick up SimCity 3000 and SimCity 4 for nostalgia reasons and to remember how great they were and still are. In 10 years time, people will remember SimCity for being a big pile of shit that you can't even see anymore unless you pick up a pirated jailbroken copy. Thank God there is a pile of games for old platforms that I've yet to play to keep me busy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted March 8, 2013 Share Posted March 8, 2013 read some of the amazon reviews, seems like a lot of unhappy people out there! sounds to me like they've taken the ideas from simpsons tapped out and applied them to a £40 game Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davkaus Posted March 8, 2013 Share Posted March 8, 2013 It's no surprise that EA are the ones pioneering this money squeezing, DRM controlled, micro-DLC stuff but my God as starting experiments in this go they've **** it up big time. See Diablo 3 as an earlier example, I wouldn't be surprised if it encouraged EA to give it a try. Tonnes of people were outraged and planning to boycott it, it was ridiculous trying to login to play for a good few days after launch, and took a month or two to actually be reliable, and yet not only was it the fastest selling game at launch (about 6.5 million copies), it has gone on to sell well over 10. For all of the bitching on forums, nowhere near enough people are willing to vote with their wallet to stop this bullshit from being profitable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
islingtonclaret Posted March 8, 2013 Author Share Posted March 8, 2013 It's a shame, because I will pirate the shit out of games if they continue to push this horrible crap at me so badly. If something is attractively packaged and not far too expensive then I will buy it. I think Diablo III just about scraped through, but I can't see SimCity doing the same. When Blizzard's fiasco started on launch I don't remember Amazon pulling if off the (virtual) shelves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ender4 Posted March 8, 2013 Share Posted March 8, 2013 Loved Simcity & Simcity 2000 (and other city building games). Is it possible that a game like Sim City would get released on the PS3? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarewsEyebrowDesigner Posted March 8, 2013 Share Posted March 8, 2013 (edited) I loved SimCity 4. Won't be buying this simply because it isn't SimCity: no terraforming a whole region, city size limits are obscene, the need to be online to play (was SimCity ever a 'social' game? I always considered it a lonely pursuit - those hours upon hours of road maintenance...) and tragically it just doesn't look fun. Pity. I might pick up an old copy of 4 on the cheap. Edited March 8, 2013 by CarewsEyebrowDesigner Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hogso Posted March 8, 2013 Share Posted March 8, 2013 (edited) I'm not a dinosaur And here I was with this image of you in my mind's eye I am quite enjoying reading about the fall out of it's release in the US. My favourite stories have been the one about the guy who wanted a refund after being told he could get one, was then told he couldn't, and was threatened with being banned from the servers if he kept moaning. Plus there's Peter Moores (EA exec) e-fisticuffs with Videogamer after the story about Dead Space 4 being cancelled, which alludes to micro-transactions. Apparently the servers haven't been working well which is a slight problem if you are forcing players to sign in to the server, even for single player. Released here today I believe? Kept right up to date with the fuckery @simcity ! Oh, and here is allegedly the most accurate review on the net at the moment Edited March 8, 2013 by hogso Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Rev Posted March 17, 2013 Share Posted March 17, 2013 (edited) The car crash continues. EA have now put the customer support number into the swear filter on their forums so it will automatically censor itself for people who put the number in their posts. What utter words removed and clearings in the woods EA are. Oh, and here is allegedly the most accurate review on the net at the moment I wonder if that is the same John Cresswell who used to be one of the most active posters on this very forum? Edited March 17, 2013 by The_Rev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
islingtonclaret Posted March 17, 2013 Author Share Posted March 17, 2013 (edited) I've just looked at his picture. It's really not our Jon..! EA should get a slap from trading standards for this, people are being fleeced by a product with no service and no support. Edited March 17, 2013 by islingtonclaret Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hogso Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 I read a story late last week that a guy had got into the code and found a way to expand city limits, alter roads outside of cities, and got a single player game working offline. At the time, though, there was no way to avoid using the cloud to save/retrieve saves, but he thought it was definitely possible. It was most important for demonstrating EA's claim that the game had to be online, because the cloud works some of the computations whilst playing, is complete fabrication. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Rev Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 So, I understand the pathing AI is pretty shitty in this game? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyM3000 Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 I bought the game on release day, had no problem until the next day when I couldn't get on at all but since then it has been fine. The game is pretty enjoyable until you start to try and get a bit serious with it, I have played a lot over the last week or so but getting a bit bored with it now. A few of the problems.. My population was 100k and only 10k of them were working, the population number is basically a fake. Still no fastest speed option setting because the server cant handle it so they removed it. Once your city gets somewhat big it will stop growing because of traffic it is a real big problem and you need to have tons of public transport. Maps are way too small, I understand what they are doing with the region things but you just run out of room and you end up knocking down building in order to make way for more schools, car parks, police stations etc and power/waste takes up too much space. The AI is terrible. You have 5 fires, 9 fire trucks will go to the same place instead of having one take on each fire. Also with the traffic problems they dont even get there half the time. If you hit the EA forums or even YouTube you will see a ton more problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davkaus Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 (edited) The EA CEO has now stood down. This launch couldn't have been more disastrous if they'd intentionally set out to piss people off, and yet people will still give the words removed money. Blatantly lying to their customers about the reasons for, and necessity of online only Having a simulation that only works to a fairly small number, then invents stats Comically small cities relentless DLC Trying to compensate for a shit Facebook game impersonating Sim City, by offering their customers a free copy of Sim City 4. This game is a **** disgrace. People will still queue up for the annual FIFA release. Edited March 18, 2013 by Davkaus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Rev Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 People have been talking about Riccitello (EA's CEO) leaving for a while now. Sim City might be the straw that broke the camels back, but the main reason is Star Wars: The Old Republic. That probably cost EA $100m. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chindie Posted March 18, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted March 18, 2013 Yeah Riccitillo had been under pressure for at least 18 months, Sim City is just the final straw. I must admit that I'm amazed people are letting EA off with this - the entire thing is a debacle and inherently anti consumer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hogso Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 The offer they're doing of the free games for people who register the game before the end of the month seems a bit, well, lame to me..BBC coverage. ME3, Plants v Zombies, or Bejeweled 3. The blogpost mentioned and quoted in the article is worth a look, from the head of Maxis, Lucy Bradshaw. ...Ms Bradshaw said the always-on requirement was "fundamental" to what the company wanted to do with SimCity and it was "designed" with multiplayer in mind. The decision to do this had not come from "corporate and it isn't a clandestine strategy to control players" You're one of them, Lucy. YOU'RE ONE OF THEM! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ingram85 Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 Yeah Riccitillo had been under pressure for at least 18 months, Sim City is just the final straw. I must admit that I'm amazed people are letting EA off with this - the entire thing is a debacle and inherently anti consumer. Never underestimate the stupidity and ignorance of the general populace. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RunRickyRun Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 I still prefer the original to all the sequels. There aren't as many buildings and it doesn't look as good but the gameplay remains the most challenging. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
briggaman Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 (edited) I picked this up on release and managed to get the Limited Edition for £34.99 through Amazon. I think they had it priced wrong at the time, yet I'm not complaining. The game itself is quite good to an extent. The server issues were a pain at first and EA are a disgrace for letting this happen. They really should have been prepared and considered making the game playable offline. Anyway, I'm enjoying it overall despite the fact that it isn't as good as earlier Sim City games. It seems to have been simplified a little too much though. The area in which you can build is far too small and I quickly run out of space, without the option of having my tile run into another. This gets very frustrating and is very poor. The online mode is quite good at times though and the way the various tiles are linked is good to some extent, with the trading between cities and such. The gameplay is pretty similar to every other Sim City and is therefore entertaining as far as I'm concerned. If it wasn't for the little issues (plus the big one of needing to be online all the time) then I'm sure people would have been less hard on EA. There is afterall a decent game within this Sim City. It's just a shame that it's being held back by the greed of EA. Did people learn nothing from Microsoft and their Age of Empires Online mistakes?! I was happy to find out that EA are going to let people that have registered their game download a free copy of one of the following: Battlefield 3 (Standard Edition)Bejeweled 3Dead Space 3 (Standard Edition)Mass Effect 3 (Standard Edition)Medal of Honor: Warfighter (Standard Edition)Need For Speed: Most Wanted (Standard Edition)Plants vs. ZombiesSimCity 4 Deluxe Edition I've got Sim City 4 and Mass Effect 3. Which of the others would you choose to get? I'm leaning towards Dead Space 3. Edited March 20, 2013 by briggaman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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