TheMightyEthan Posted March 7, 2013 Report Share Posted March 7, 2013 EA's adding more servers over the next couple of days. Their promise that the servers would be stable for the European launch apparently proved less than accurate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mal Posted March 7, 2013 Report Share Posted March 7, 2013 Now I am wondering... game wise, WTF are they running on their servers? What are running on our machines? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted March 7, 2013 Report Share Posted March 7, 2013 (edited) idk, but they say they've also removed leaderboards and region locking on servers to try to reduce the load. How much load do leaderboards really add though? It is cool that they're making it not region-locked, and that also suggests that whatever's running on the servers isn't too latency-sensitive. *Edit* - The exact words they used were "region filters", which I assumed meant region locking of servers, but just realized it might instead have something to do with in-game regions. Edited March 7, 2013 by TheMightyEthan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister Jack Posted March 7, 2013 Report Share Posted March 7, 2013 And I have to ask myself yet again just why this game needed to be always online. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted March 7, 2013 Report Share Posted March 7, 2013 Maybe this will become enough of a nightmare that they'll patch the requirement out? If they do (which I know is EXTREMELY unlikely) I'll buy the game in a heartbeat. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madbassman39 Posted March 7, 2013 Report Share Posted March 7, 2013 Amazon pulled the game from their digital downloads. They won't sell the game until EA can fix the issue, because they can't guarantee that the product you bought will work. I really hope that this proves that an Always Online experience for a game that has single player content doesn't work today. I would rather it never happens, but if it does I hope they only do it when they can guarantee that they will have no problems on launch day, or the next three days as in the case with this game. I hate to jump on the EA hate wagon, but EA screwed the pooch on this one. Three days and still no solution + temporarily removing a portion of the game to add minor stability. http://www.destructoid.com/amazon-has-pulled-simcity-from-its-store-248072.phtml?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Destructoid+%28Destructoid%29 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted March 7, 2013 Report Share Posted March 7, 2013 (edited) Obviously I can't swear that's real. *Edit* - I especially love the part where the person says "that's correct, this is where you request a refund, it's not a lie, we just don't give refunds." *Edit 2* - Though as some of you may recall from my experience last year with the supposedly discounted Kingdoms of Amalur, EA marketing/PR apparently enjoys lying through their teeth. Edited March 7, 2013 by TheMightyEthan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted March 8, 2013 Report Share Posted March 8, 2013 And now Polygon has changed the review score to a 4/10. Arguably their handling of this has been even worse than EA's. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted March 8, 2013 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2013 http://botherer.org/2013/03/06/keep-up-to-date-with-polygons-simcity-score/ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. GOH! Posted March 8, 2013 Report Share Posted March 8, 2013 The game, even if it's working, seems more worthy of middling or low scores than the hyperbolic accolades it's gotten in reviews before the launch fiasco. These high score reviews must be written by folks who like restricted social gaming garbage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister Jack Posted March 8, 2013 Report Share Posted March 8, 2013 Yeah, I gotta wonder, how did this game ever get a 91 on metacritic in the first place? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. GOH! Posted March 8, 2013 Report Share Posted March 8, 2013 Because reviewers had low expectations and largely come from a generation enamored with shallow multiplayer social bullshit and spiffy GUIs and games they can play in five minute chunks. No appreciation for depth, just flash. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted March 8, 2013 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2013 Of note is that most of the 91-rating comes from sites that got and reviewed pre-release code at a review event hosted by LA. The lower scores coming from those that held off and reviewed post-launch (either principle or because the game isn't out in their region yet). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. GOH! Posted March 8, 2013 Report Share Posted March 8, 2013 (edited) Yes. The always-on shit is awful. My position is that even if the servers worked perfectly, Sim City would still be social gaming trash and horribly limited in scope and customization. It's casual. It's social. It's not a robust and deep city simulation. It substitutes player enjoyment from interacting with friends for enjoyment from interacting with an interesting and deep simulation. I mean, fuck me; I like my friends, but I can do much more enjoyable things with them than play a crippled simulator. It's cheap development when a game relies on players' friendships rather than strong gameplay. Edited March 8, 2013 by Mr. GOH! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mal Posted March 8, 2013 Report Share Posted March 8, 2013 Here us how I see it: SimCity has (had) so much potential. I can see it but god damn. The flaws are huge and it completely kills the good. If there ever will be a SimCity 6... I hope it can learn from these fatal flaws of this one. I'm just disappointed. I want to find a reason to love it but GOH and you others set me back into reality... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted March 8, 2013 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2013 Simcity Societies 2? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister Jack Posted March 8, 2013 Report Share Posted March 8, 2013 So seeing that this game is such a train wreck and I myself have only played one Sim City game, I'd like to ask the die hard fans of the series: which one is the best? The original? 2000? 3000? 4? Some other obscure version I don't know about? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madbassman39 Posted March 8, 2013 Report Share Posted March 8, 2013 I bought 4 a while back on steam. Here is a decent article to read about Simcity substitutes: http://www.destructoid.com/ranked-the-five-best-city-builders-248031.phtml They chose 4 over 2000. I haven't played them since I was a kid and gave Simcity 4 a try its alright. I'm not sure if its for me, but I like the idea of it, so the new Simcity I feel I would have really liked. I still have played it for four nights straight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister Jack Posted March 8, 2013 Report Share Posted March 8, 2013 Every fucking time I would try to play Sim City 2000 I had a water shortage, no matter how many pipes I laid. To this day I don't know what I was doing wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. GOH! Posted March 8, 2013 Report Share Posted March 8, 2013 (edited) I like 4, but some folks swear by 3000, and others 2000. If you get 4, there are a number of mods that greatly improve the experience. There is also still a robust community making new buildings and such for the game (SC4 supported user-made buildings to a wonderful degree). Edit: I highly suggest the NAM. It makes the transportation networks in SC4 even more robust. http://community.simtropolis.com/topic/25419-faqs-and-download-links-for-nam-rhw-and-nwm/ Edited March 8, 2013 by Mr. GOH! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waldorf and Statler Posted March 8, 2013 Report Share Posted March 8, 2013 Duke showed me this and I spit out my metaphorical drink with laughter. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted March 9, 2013 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2013 I take screenshots with a grain of salt. Inspect Element and Firebug do exist. I quite like 3000, not much experience of 4. 1 and 2000 are a bit too old I'd say. 4 is a lot more recent and Mod supported as GOH says. In modern sense, depends what you want. Tropico is pretty fun and currently on sale, even smaller than SimCity, but also more economically driven (since you build the specific farms, rather than them being auto-picked by your taxes/quality of life n all that as in Simcity games). There's CitiesXL, but it's kind of a cheap knock-off. But it's also kind of the proto-Simcity 5 in that it came out first with bendy roads and linked towns in MP, but it dropped that (and..well the entire publisher and developer) very quickly so latest version is SP-only. It's also not TownsXL. Also in SimCity V news; they've stopped advertising campaigns of it and told affiliates to stop promoting it (alongside Amazon already not selling it). The whole refund side of things is pretty murky though. Some reckon they've got refunds, many don't, some it's through Origin some through Amazon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister Jack Posted March 9, 2013 Report Share Posted March 9, 2013 So does Sim City IV work with Windows 7? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dee Posted March 9, 2013 Report Share Posted March 9, 2013 Olol, oh look, an update from EA."And to get us back in your good graces, we’re going to offer you a free PC download game from the EA portfolio. On March 18, SimCity players who have activated their game will receive an email telling them how to redeem their free game." If this game is shit, it'll be a slap in the face to an already furious fan base. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted March 9, 2013 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2013 @misterjack: I've not played it recently enough to say, i'd guess so. Actually 3000 works on my win7 netbook so 4 should. @dee no doubt many will say "you're getting something free, they didn't have to so be happy with whatever". The problem being EA have now decided to take the path of giving gifts to appease, and I'm pretty sure after a scrap with other half a drooping bouquet of forecourt flowers only leads to making things worse. I don't expect they'll be giving away Crysis 3, but a game from their discount bin will likely only further enrage. And in two weeks when it'll likely have calmed down. (Should really give it now, pulls people from the game n speeds up server recovery) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.