Sim City 5

[Guest High Plains Flyer]

The current trend seems to be that companies now want to rent the software, but still charge the purchase price for the cost of the rental.

 

Just be thankful that flight simulators did not adopt this model.  Imagine what would have happened if Microsoft would have adopted a similar model for its flight simulator.  For example, to play flight simulator you would have to log onto Microsofts's servers and remained logged on for your entire game session.

 

When Microsoft decided that it no longer wanted to support flight simulator, it would shut down its servers and you could not been able to play anymore.  Those wanting to play FS9 would not habe been able to do so, because Microsoft would hae shut d own the FS9 servers once FSX was released.  But today, even FSX servers would have been shut down after Microsoft lost interest in its game.

 

But at least we would not have been spending a bundle on addons.  Because under this system, there are no mods and no addons.  Instead, we would be playing with the default scenery and the default aircraft, just as Microsoft desirned them.  That means, no Aerosoft, no PMDG, no ORBX, no Fly Tampa, and so on.  It also means no advanced aircraft like the 7575, 767, 777, Dash 8, and so no.  It also means no non=fictional liveries;  World Travel Airlines, yes;  United Airlines, no.  It means no virtual airlines, no independent air traffic control.  A rental model means we are stuck with Microsofts default game.

 

So, I am quite happy EA's experiment in screwing over customers is meeting a disastrous end.  So far, Sim City 5 is meeting the same fate as the Edsel and the New Coke as a first rate marketing disaster.  Great!

[tonywob]

Just be thankful that flight simulators did not adopt this model

 

MS Flight was halfway there. Downloadable content, achievements, no third-party support etc.

 

EA don't care about their users and will continue to screw them over. They've said they have no interest in ever taking the game to an offline mode. Unfortunately somebody at the top thought they knew better and saw how easy it is to make money by charging people for addons. I guess you can't blame them for thinking so, they get free advertising from people posting to Facebook and Twitter, people being forced/pressured to pay for DLC if they want to keep up with their friends and get higher scores, etc. To me it's sad, and no amount of I moaning from me or anyone else is likely to change it. I'll simply take my money elsewhere, but looks like EA have won, in that they already have thousands of users who just want to play the game and are accepting it.

 

This will all blow over however in a few weeks, and EA will have won and will continue to release all of its future games with DLC and DRM. For city builders, I have my fingers crossed that Cities XL will be fixed or the crowd-sourcing projects will come to life.

[g_precentralis]

EA pulls SimCity from Indian Origin store following technical exploit.

 

http://n4g.com/news/1189979/ea-pulls-simcity-from-indian-origin-store-following-technical-exploit

 

Too bad, planned to buy it today via that way, I guess Ill spend my money at Arma III then.

[gizmosellsbunnys]

guess pre-2006 games will be the ones I play.  SC4 is very good all install, always Tropico lollolololol where I can play crooked poltican and fill my swiss bank account. Got Wii for the retro nintendo games from 20 years ago downloaded.

[Guest]

I stopped playing the game for now. No, let me rephrase that: I stopped TRYING to play to the for now. I have not yet been able to get on 'my' server without getting a message I will have to wait for something like 18 to 55 minutes... And when I enter the game using another server, I always end up with messages that the servers are offline... Or I get a CTD.

 

The game is unplayable right now and I am getting very tired of looking forward to playing and it only to find out I can't. I will check in again in some weeks time to see if things have improved but as it is now, it isn't worth the trouble...

 

I truly regret buying it. Hopefully I will be able to enjoy it in the future...

[Lowflyer]

Childish or not, people are angry that they bought the game and couldn't play it. Quite rightly they gave it 1 star.

As I stated in a previous post those people are not rating the game, they're just venting their frustration with EA by giving the game the minimum score which in my opinion is rather disrespectful towards the people at Maxis. Also, when people set low scores out of spite it defeats the purpose of Metacritics.

[g_precentralis]

I'm sorry, I disagree, when you rate product, you rate whole product:graphic, sound, gameplay, protection... that's just regular low scores with a good reason.

 

Its maxis' fault as they agreed to release games under EA.

[Lowflyer]

I'm sorry, I disagree, when you rate product, you rate whole product:graphic, sound, gameplay, protection... that's just regular low scores with a good reason.

 

Its maxis' fault as they agreed to release games under EA.

And in what way is graphics, sound and gameplay in SC5 so bad that the whole game deserves the minimum score? The only complaint I've ever heard as far as gameplay is concerned is that the area available for each city is rather small compared to previous games, and that you can't mod it. I'll stick to my belief that people are just giving low scores out of spite without giving any thought to how good the actual game is.

 

And by the way, Maxis hardly knew this was gonna happen when they signed with EA years ago.

[Lowflyer]

Delete

[greggerm]

On the topic of SimCity...

 

I picked it up a day or two ago (download) and have been horsing around with it during the FSEconomy server outage.

 

Connectivity and Server Availability: No issues whatsoever for me. I'm not discounting the issues which occurred during the entire first week of it's release, but it does seem like they have/are correcting for the issues which plagued them earlier. I play in primetime east-coast USA gaming times, so I was almost expecting an issue... so far, so good.

 

Program Speed and Response: No issues - very responsive. Moving between screens and areas is quick and smooth.

 

SimCity Philosophy: If you've been a fan of SimCity since version one, you've noted a steady increase in the complexity of the program and your cities from version to version. This edition changes that. You are no longer responsible for intricate power, plumbing, and transportation networks, as the sim takes care of that for you to some degree. Instead of being a true micromanager of everything, you're duties are a little more high level... I find this to be a refreshing change. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but this version of SimCity feels like a reboot of the original version, where things were a little simpler.

 

Multiplayer/Multicity Philosophy: I'm still undecided if I like this. On the one hand, for a city plot to truly flourish, you need another city nearby to work with. This can be a city of your own making, or a multiplayer city. It's a wholesale change from the time when everything you needed could be within your one city's limits. It's less convenient if you want to create one blissful metropolis, but it certainly opens new doors when you can isolate your criminals and drunks to the nasty, dump and sewage ridden hellhole that is "the other city" while keeping a showpiece city gleaming.

 

City Size: Yeah. It's small, but that's the nature of the multiplayer/multicity idea... they don't want one city to hold everything you need anymore. I won't be upset if they add a few more square miles to the cities, though.

 

Bottom Line: I'm not ready to 100% recommend it to all, but I am enjoying my time learning its ropes. I need to spend some more time either in a multiplayer region or creating a partner city. If that goes well (*and I think it will), I'm sure I'll spend many more hours enjoying the SimCity world.

 

-Greg

[g_precentralis]

The size is not actually a big problem as ugly square lots. They could make natural boundaries for each city and not that perfectly aligned white lined boundary.

[Kaboki]

The size is not actually a big problem

 

Map size is the only thing that bothers me with this game. It's just to small to make the layout of the city the way I want, forces me to make everything in a grid pattern just to save space and even then I cant have all the things I want in my city.

 

I want to make the city with some open spaces and maybe have some slum areas, some areas with lower buildings, have solar electricity,  and have curved roads and maybe an airport but it's not enough space to have it all. Recreating an european style citys is just impossible.  Would also liked to have a railway and stuff but can't find enough space to make it through my city...

 

Every city ends up just looking the same and makes this game boring for me in the long run.  A 20% increase in the map size and I would have been satisfied..

[g_precentralis]

Dont worry, there will be DLC with bigger maps for just 19.99$

[Kaboki]

 

Dont worry, there will be DLC with bigger maps for just 19.99$

 

Are you sure about that?source?, that would be nice. Tell me your not kidding

[tonywob]

 

Are you sure about that?source?, that would be nice. Tell me your not kidding

 

I think it's pretty obvious based on their history of doing such things, e.g. In the Sims 3, etc that it will be a chargeable add-on. It would be a nice gesture on their part if they released this for free, but I wouldn't hold you breath. They've already said on their official site and Q/A on twitter that they will be eventually allowing bigger maps when things calm down, but they didn't mention it would be free.