SimCity - Rebooted for modern times...

[thebruce44]

I thought this deserved its own thread since this latest release has a ton of additional issues associated with it beyond just being excited about a new game.

 

That being said, the SimCity series was, and always will be, my favorite line of games and represent everything I want an interactive media to be.

 

Its hard to believe its been a decade since the last release and a lot has changed for Maxis since their early days. The company was initially founded by Will Wright as an independent game company. They were purchased by EA right before the release of SimCity 3000, but their success with that title and then with The Sims allowed them to operate somewhat independently from their parent company. As expansion after expansion for The Sims came out, it was becoming more apparent that the company was moving away from being creative and taking risks to making money.

 

And this brings us to SimCity (2013). It was released today with reviews just starting to trickle out. Most sites have held off on their reviews because this seemingly single player game relies on DRM (digital rights management) to work. I have to admit, I wasn't very familiar with DRM until now, since this is the first game I've wanted to play that is effected by it. Here is an analogy that hit the front page of reddit today explaining DRM as if it is soup:

 

DRM stands for Digital Rights Management, which is basically a way for a game company to make sure that the people who are playing the game actually paid for it. DRM isn't bad in of itself, in fact it's understandable as to why it exists. The problem is when that DRM prevents us from enjoying the game we purchased. DRM that requires a constant internet connection is one such DRM.

Imagine you go out to buy some soup (a game). Now depending on where you go, you will often get the choice of ordering the soup for take-away (singleplayer) or decide to eat there at the restaurant (multiplayer). Let's say that you enjoy sitting at home to eat your soup, so usually you just go to the register where you order a bowl of chicken noodle and they hand you a receipt (DRM). You then proceed to show that receipt to the server who then gives you your soup since you have proof that you bought it and you go on your merry way.

Now the DRM that is in this version of SimCity would be akin to being forced to eat your chicken noodle at that restaurant. Sure you can go sit in the corner, eat there, and not talk to anyone. But you came in a pair of pjs with a rip in the crotch, so you much rather be home. The restaurant tells you at the counter that they will be serving your soup to you at your table one spoonful at a time, and if you do not recite your receipt number when they come to you with each and every spoonful, they will assume you did not pay and kick you out of the restaurant (You must stay online to prove that you paid. If you get disconnected, they will assume you didn't pay and kick you out of the game).

Now they say that they do this service for everyone just in case someone doesn't have the ability to feed themselves (calculations are done server-side so people with out of date computers can play the game). So you appreciate the gesture, but you feel that you are more than capable of feeding yourself. A couple bites in, you find that the carrots that are usually found in chicken noodle are nowhere to be found. You ask the server and he says that the carrots were prepared that the same as the soup and if you'd like, he can go ahead and add them for an extra charge (day one dlc/micro transactions). You begin to suspect that this may have been an attempt by the restaurant to make you pay more for the soup, as you probably could have just added carrots at home (game modding). A bit of time later, your friend Jonathan come over and gets some soup. The soup is now cold, so they have sold it to him at a lower price (discounts due to the age of a game). He goes to sit down and receives two spoonfuls of soup when the manager decides to kick everyone out and that they will not be selling that style of chicken noodle again (servers for the game are closing). Everyone who is there is complaining that they still wanted soup, and the manager says to come tomorrow when they will have a new recipe of chicken noodle that features white meat instead of dark meat (SimCity 2 with any improvements it comes with). While people start saying how much better white meat is for you, you will always miss having your dark meat chicken noodle. And you end the day thinking "If I was able to bring a bowl home with me, I'd be able to eat leftovers tomorrow..."

 

The reviews and comments I have read so far amount to a ton of people unable to log onto the server, people losing their cities when the saves become corrupted on EAs servers (you can't save on your own HD), and people with spotty internet routers running out to the store to upgrade since a blip of internet coverage ruins the game.

 

I was planning to purchase this tonight, but now I'm not going to hold off. I was so excited for this game, and I'm sure its fantastic, but it sounds as though EA has all but ruined it. Maybe the problems will be fixed, but all I know is right now I'm not going to pay $60 for a game that may or may not work out of the box for me.

 

Has anyone else purchased it or planning on it?

[fondybrewfan]

I have always been a big fan of Sim City as well. The old version is still on my desktop. I certainly would be interested in this but having to play it online and save it somewhere other than your own computer makes little sense to me. My internet; while it isn't prone to cutting in and out; isn't especially fast either. If I have to upgrade that equipment just for this game to work probably will keep me from buying it. If they would just release it as a normal PC game I would love it.

 

Since when has requiring a Product Code when you install the software not good enough for purposes of correct licensing? Seems kind of dumb.

[thebruce44]

Here are the metacritic reviews coming in so far. Critics who reviewed the game itself on EA's testing servers seemed generally positive on everything except the smaller city plots (its speculated that future expansions will increase the size).

 

Regular people who have purchased the game seem pretty negative, though the vocal minority can often seem to be the majority. In a sense though, if even a single person who purchased this game can't play it because the servers are overloaded its a problem.

 

http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/simcity/user-reviews

[Baldkin]

EA has been using this DRM crap for years now and it's why I haven't bought a PC game of theirs in 4 years. Going all the way back to the DRM issues with SPORE.

[NeedMoreFans]

This makes me sad. I was seriously contemplating buying a new computer specifically to play this game. Now I'm not so sure I will.

[RobDeer 45]

I have loved Sim City for a long time. I got really excited when I saw this came out but man does it seem like a big mistake. I'm sure they will get things ironed out, but it really sucks that they are having all these issues.

[Patrick425]

Ok, sorry, not much of a gamer (not any more anyways - my wife and I had a short lived addiction to Mario when we first got married 20 years ago). However, can someone please explain to me why they release multiple games on the same day? My son has always loved MLB The Show and he always wants us to get it for him as an early b-day gift (his b-day is in April). I pre-ordered it and went to get it last night. I had to wait in line with everyone who was picking up SimCity.

[thebruce44]

Ok, sorry, not much of a gamer (not any more anyways - my wife and I had a short lived addiction to Mario when we first got married 20 years ago). However, can someone please explain to me why they release multiple games on the same day? My son has always loved MLB The Show and he always wants us to get it for him as an early b-day gift (his b-day is in April). I pre-ordered it and went to get it last night. I had to wait in line with everyone who was picking up SimCity.

 

For whatever reason, games seem to always be released on Tuesdays. Must have something to do with distribution.

 

Anyway, thats all about to change. More and more people download their games now, and this will be the norm for the next generation of console games.

[thebruce44]

Ok, full disclosure since I started the topic. My plans got cancelled last night and there was a snow storm here in Chicago, so I just had to see what all the fuss was about. The game downloaded from EA's servers pretty quickly. I had some initial hickups getting on a server, but I tried one that said busy instead of the ones that said open and for whatever reason that worked.

 

Long story short, I was up until 2am playing. Its SimCity again, just with the constant threat of losing your work when your router or their servers hickup.

[fondybrewfan]

So is there really no hope of this coming out as a standard PC based game in the future? Also if the city plats are really as small as the reviews say they are then that doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun. With this new game I was just hoping for a bunch of new architecture and other cool city building stuff. I have yet to see any reviews that says there are a bunch of new features other than the city building process being "dumbed down". I am really skeptical of buying this game but I really wanted to like it.

 

I still really enjoy the previous Sim City version. I think I might stick with that for now until I am convinced that Sim City 2013 is really worth it.

[thebruce44]

No hope. You basically have to pay for a subscription to EA's game instead of owning it.

 

The plats are small. It's interesting, the idea of working with other cities can still work if you think of your plats like neighborhoods. You have your suburbs, industrial areas, and a downtown, its just that you don't have all of them together on one map. It works from a gameplay point of view if you just go with it, but I'm a Transportation Engineer so its a big letdown for me. The public transit options are also a step back from previous games.

[fondybrewfan]

Is Cities XL a good alternative to Sim City or is it vastly inferior from a gameplay perspective? A new version of that came out in 2012 and I understand that this is a standard PC game. It might be more worthwhile for me to purchase that.

[thebruce44]

Well, SimCity is unplayable at this point. There is nothing else to say besides the game is a massive failure. It also appears EA is not offering returns. I strongly suggest not purchasing if you haven't already.

 

A patch went out yesterday or the day before that removed the fastest speed setting. Its also become apparent that saves are located on the server you played on. I don't remember which server I played on first, and it takes a lot of time to actually get on a server, if you can at all. So you more or less can't save your games. And switching servers makes you replay the tutorial... every time.

 

Amazon actually stopped selling for a while. Its up again, but with a warning about the server issues. Still, its on pace to be the worst reviewed Amazon product of all time. Polygon.com initially reviewed their review copy at 9.5. Its been dropped to 4.0 and they don't recommend a purchase. This has probably been the worst video game launch ever, and everyone saw it coming. If it had just been a single player offline game, it would have been incredible.

[fondybrewfan]

Damn; I saw that the reviews were bad but didn't realize it was getting killed that badly. The Metacritic critic reviews are actually pretty good although obviously the user reviews are horrendous and are almost entirely due to the DRM, servers, and small city size

 

I just hope upon hope that this massive failure might spark the company to provide an offline option.

[adamb100]

If you want an alternative to Sim City, check out Tropicio 4. It's on sale on steam too: http://store.steampowered.com/sub/19282/ It's like Sim City in alot of ways. You basically play Fidel Castro and control and island and must build on it and make sure the residents dont overthrow you.

[RightFieldCoder]

Ok, sorry, not much of a gamer (not any more anyways - my wife and I had a short lived addiction to Mario when we first got married 20 years ago). However, can someone please explain to me why they release multiple games on the same day? My son has always loved MLB The Show and he always wants us to get it for him as an early b-day gift (his b-day is in April). I pre-ordered it and went to get it last night. I had to wait in line with everyone who was picking up SimCity.

The same reason movies come out on the same weekend. Part to steal the thunder from other games. Part because that date was targeted as a great date to release (based on holidays and other events). They are always on Tuesdays because that is the same day the DVD's, CD's and other digital media arrive at stores.

[berniebrewer4life]

If you want an alternative to Sim City, check out Tropicio 4. It's on sale on steam too: http://store.steampowered.com/sub/19282/ It's like Sim City in alot of ways. You basically play Fidel Castro and control and island and must build on it and make sure the residents dont overthrow you.

 

I was just coming here to suggest this. Tropico is an excellent series.

[thebruce44]

Ok, now that I actually was able to play the game, I'm sad to say its actually incredibly shallow. I've played for probably a total of 8 hours and more or less am done at this point. I've built several maxed out cities with huge incomes and I've also discovered the AI is simplistic and bugged. The traffic makes no sense, cars just follow the shortest path regardless of gridlock or street size (avenue vs dirt road).

 

People commute to a different house each night and a new job every morning, so the entire city moves like a pack, clogging any intersection and blocking utility vehicles. If you have 6 fire trucks and 2 fires, all 6 trucks go to put out the first fire while the second one spreads...if they can even get through the gridlock of the daily commute. Mass transit (busses and railcars) don't work properly.

 

The RCI system doesn't work either. You can zone an entire city as Residential and if you provide enough parks the city will fill up.

 

 

 

In short, the game itself beyond the DRM and server issues, isn't just one of the most disappointing games I've ever come across, its one of the worst games I have ever purchased. I can't believe this was released. It makes me wonder if they didn't put up enough servers knowing people would only play for a week or so...seems like EA just wanted a cash grab off of the SimCity name. I feel duped and plan to seek a refund.

[fondybrewfan]

I have a pretty nice City going on in Sim City 4 right now. While I would love the updated graphics from Sim City 2013 it sounds like the city building isn't nearly as fun as with SC 4. I will give SC2013 a chance if it is improved on in the future. Offline may not happen but I could live with that if the gameplay is vastly superior to SC 4. As of right now that doesn't appear to be the case

[thebruce44]

I have a pretty nice City going on in Sim City 4 right now. While I would love the updated graphics from Sim City 2013 it sounds like the city building isn't nearly as fun as with SC 4. I will give SC2013 a chance if it is improved on in the future. Offline may not happen but I could live with that if the gameplay is vastly superior to SC 4. As of right now that doesn't appear to be the case

 

As of today, its already been modded to run offline, but you still have to use the servers to save. Its also been modded to build highways outside of your zone, showing that the in between area of your region contains a grid (in my mind this indicates citysize increases are just part of EA's plan to sell me additional stuff). I'd imagine EA will disable all of this in their next patch.

 

At the rate the upset and very motivated fanbase is going, I would guess they have an offline version that increases citysize to pirate in a month or two. Hopefully by then Maxis will have fixed some of the traffic bugs to make it playable.

 

I got a refund from Amazon. I'm not sure if I will buy it again when things are better. I'd rather give my money to the modders who will actually fix the game and not to the company that went out of its way to lie about the need for servers and citysize.