Sim City 5

[Jeff7]

Yup. The game uses a special kind of DRM that requires your PC to be constantly connected to the internet, and if you get disconnected, you will be booted out of the game (regardless of whether you're playing with other people or not).

Joy.
It did sound like an interesting game.

This. The game will be fun for awhile and then I have a feeling the small city size will really kill my interest. It doesn't help that I strongly suspect that EA will release a "big cities" DLC. I don't feel like getting screwed by EA.

The always online DRM put the final nail in the coffin though. In SC4, I really enjoyed saving my city and then trying something drastic. Not sure I like the "permadeath" idea and I really don't want my gameplay experience to be dependent upon EA's servers and my often-less-than-reliable internet.

Give me bigger cities for free and let me save and play locally and I'll buy it.

Well I actually got to play for a bit after the stupid waiting time. My observations are that in many ways, as a longtime SimCity fan, this game is a step backwards.

-The maps are ridiculously small - you can fill one in less than an hour.
-No Subways? The amount of transportation options pale in comparison to SC4
-Graphics are fine
-I liked the tedium of laying water pipes and electric grid removed
-Lots of random bugs where sims complain about infrastructure which is just fine

Huh.
Bummer. Yes, please, let's make it more unappealing. And seriously, no subways? Why? All of my cities, in Simcity 2000 and Simcity 4 had extensive subway systems. 0 pollution, and it freed up a lot of precious land for other construction.

I wonder how long it'll be until the concept of an offline single-player game is dead and gone? Let's all shuffle into the room with the big two-way mirror where the developers and marketers can simply...observe.

Overall it feels like a watered down, simplified game geared towards the casual gamer. That's all EA is good for nowadays.

I was worried back when EA bought Maxis.
Gotta maximize those margins and try to scrape up every last possible player.

 

[Hoober]

I'm really enjoying the game. I played for several hours today without any issues. However, this evening, I've gotten a good deal of crashes to desktop, specifically when navigating between cities in the region view. I don't know if it's simply a matter of load on EA's servers, or what, but it's disappointing.

 

[waterjug]

And it's Diablo III all over again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUl_Cj2_KWU

GREAT link. The gaming industry is being destroyed by this shit. Idiot kids will buy anything, it's too bad discerning consumers don't have anything of polished quality to play anymore. We get horse-shit like Diablo 3, Simcity 5, and Civilization 5; the first & third in that list are absolute stillborn abortions.

 

[TheVrolok]

Just got my 3rd consecutive 20 min timer to connect... lol. Sitting in line to play a game I bought. Joke's on me.

 

[Kneedragger]

Its amazing in this day and age how this happens. They try so hard to nickle and dime us with gaming, they should really start trying to make launch day gaming a normal thing with no hiccups...

 

[TheVrolok]

Just got my 3rd consecutive 20 min timer to connect... lol. Sitting in line to play a game I bought. Joke's on me.

4th.

 

[RockinZ28]

Yea this really is pathetic. First game I buy in over a year before it drops sub $20, and this is what I get.

If someone could pull off a miracle and create a crack for this game right now for offline play, they would be an absolute god and really shove it up EA's ass.

 

[TallBill]

Yea this really is pathetic. First game I buy in over a year before it drops sub $20, and this is what I get.

If someone could pull off a miracle and create a crack for this game right now for offline play, they would be an absolute god and really shove it up EA's ass.

From what I understand it would require a server to be set up. People have done this for mmo's so its possible but I wouldn't expect it quickly.

 

[Franz316]

I'd imagine whatever hacker group tries to crack it will have to create some simulated server process that tricks the game into believing its online.

 

[TallBill]

We shall see. They'll figure it out.

 

[Craig234]

GREAT link. The gaming industry is being destroyed by this shit. Idiot kids will buy anything, it's too bad discerning consumers don't have anything of polished quality to play anymore. We get horse-shit like Diablo 3, Simcity 5, and Civilization 5; the first & third in that list are absolute stillborn abortions.

I disagree with you about Civ 5. I think it was a good game, even if it wasn't what all players like. Haven't played the other two.

 

[tdawg]

Really enjoying this game. Big change from SC4, but it's fun in a new way.

No server issues for me at all. Game is quite addicting; meant to play for an hour, but ended up playing for 2.5 before forcing myself to turn it off. Getting up for work in a few hours is going to be a bit painful.

 

[T9D]

Geez I played for like 8 hours today

Almost about to build the space shuttle

 

[Anonemous]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKs6x-SA_mA&feature=player_detailpage#t=2252s

Ouch, spend a couple hours building city, it corrupts and you can't roll back/abandon the city...

 

[Maximilian]

Professional review sites are jokes. Let's look at two recent disappointments:

Civ 5
http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/sid-meiers-civilization-v

Reviewers: 90, Users: 7.1

And the users were still being a big generous given the state of Civ 5 at release.

And another attempt to "Simify" a promising concept by Maxis/EA... Spore:

http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/spore

Reviewers: 84, Users: 4.7

It's clear that reviewers have drastically inflated their ratings.

Indeed, and its dropped to 2.9 now for simcity, people are pissed at this excuse for a game. Looks like an even more catastrophic launch than spore was

 

[Acanthus]

I would just like to say that with the gods and kings expansion, and the huge mod community, civ5 is now acceptable as a game in my opinion. I wasn't happy at launch but it has grown into a good title.

 

[Genx87]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKs6x-SA_mA&feature=player_detailpage#t=2252s

Ouch, spend a couple hours building city, it corrupts and you can't roll back/abandon the city...

Haha nice QA.

 

[obidamnkenobi]

I would just like to say that with the gods and kings expansion, and the huge mod community, civ5 is now acceptable as a game in my opinion. I wasn't happy at launch but it has grown into a good title.

ok, but even so; why? When civ 4 is still awesome, and by all accounts better. Being "acceptable" would be great if it was the only civ game in existence, but when there are others I see no reason to bother. I still didn't pick up civ 5 on the $7.50 steam sale last week.

 

[Acanthus]

ok, but even so; why? When civ 4 is still awesome, and by all accounts better. Being "acceptable" would be great if it was the only civ game in existence, but when there are others I see no reason to bother. I still didn't pick up civ 5 on the $7.50 steam sale last week.

I mean that it is a better title than 4 now, in my opinion.

 

[imaheadcase]

They should have a kickstarter for hackers to bypass DRM for games, or improve them. I would pay good money to remove all games from origin completely. Damn it, now EA is going to read this and offer a "offline no origin pack" for $500.

 

[notposting]

Wait...so part of the processing is on their servers too? So long-term...it's a freaking rental game. EA will turn these servers in 3 years I bet...tops.

 

[Aharami]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKs6x-SA_mA&feature=player_detailpage#t=2252s

Ouch, spend a couple hours building city, it corrupts and you can't roll back/abandon the city...

man I am so glad I didn't buy this shitty game!

 

[Aharami]

Wait...so part of the processing is on their servers too? So long-term...it's a freaking rental game. EA will turn these servers in 3 years I bet...tops.

yea a lot of the simulation processing is done on the servers. A nice way to stop pirates I guess, but sucks for people who paid for this game because they wont be able to play anymore as soon as EA shuts down the servers

 

[Maximilian]

Heres the city i built:

 

[SpatiallyAware]

Got home yesterday and finished 'processing files' I mean downloading the game.

Played the tutorial, and started my own city.

It does feel a little bit like a watered down 'sim city'. Almost consolized or something, but honestly I have only really scratched the surface so it's a bit early to judge.

After 3 hours I exited the game to test my save.. And my city is gone. I go to the resume game it says there are none... Only create new or join game. I tried to browse and 'find' the region (since you can't search..) with no luck.

I went to start a new city and got disconnected. Closed the game, reopened, and got the 20 minutes timer, so I just went to bed.



I am fairly impressed with the game itself, but this internet always up requirement is a 'valid' huge headache. I will never buy another game that requires this.