SimCity V

[LiVinGHeLL]

In theory, yes, but everyone I know with the game has been losing their saves at the moment. To not allow a local save is just disgraceful.

[dux]

Pulled from amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Electronic-Arts-41018ted-Edition2-SimCity/dp/B007VTVRFA/ref=cm_rdp_product

[Thrik]

Man, look at those scores. Some serious lessons are going to be learnt at EA over this. Also: firings.

Considering that Maxis's last game, Spore, kicked off massive DRM controversies and resulted in the game getting awful user reviews across the board as well as becoming the most pirated game of the year, it's incredible that this actually happened.

Third time's the charm?

[SamCom]

Oh man, I didn't think about Spore. I was giving Maxis/EA the benefit of the doubt, I'd forgotten about that mess. But in retrospect, at least you could play Spore. I guess I'm part of the problem.

Also, patch notes from today (http://answers.ea.co.../658556#U658556):

Patch 1.2

• Fix for crash caused most commonly occurring on servers experiencing lag. This crash would happen most often when claiming a new city when playing in a region.
  
• Fix for server select dialog not appearing on start-up if the server the player was last on is not available.
  
• Disabled Cheetah speed. Cheetah speed is is now the same as llama speed.
  
• Crash fix for finding closest points.
  
• Crash fixes in transport and pedestrian code.
  
• A fix cities having processing problems associated with helicopters.
  

I mean, come on. It's supposed to be temporary, but still.

I bought SimCity 2000 off GoG last night, and had a good time. Fun reliving some childhood memories.

Edited March 7, 2013 by SamCom

[Mazy]

[Thrik]

This has probably been the single most disastrous launch I've ever seen. After Maxis's last game (Spore) went through the same shit and became the year's most pirated game in addition to sparking off massive DRM controversies, how the fuck were decisions made within Maxis/EA that led to this?

I feel sorry for many of the developers because from what I can see there's actually a really good game beneath all this, that can scratch that simulation itch many of us have been feeling for some years since the genre disintegrated over a decade ago. But the game's had so many bad reviews as a direct result of these issues that it doesn't stand a chance of living up to its potential. How many people are going to hit the 'buy' button after seeing the 1000+ 1-star Amazon reviews?

I suspect what'll happen is EA will solve these issues, make dedicated fans happy with less intrusive DRM and bigger cities, then re-release the game either as a special edition or an iterative sequel in less than a year so they have another chance with the mainstream/casual buyers (who would ordinarily constitute a large part of a Maxis game's audience). Saving the review scores of this release is pretty much a lost cause.

[Hipshot]

I want to play this game so bad - but I'm just gonna wait until it's in the bargain bin and they removed the "online all the time" requirement, if that's possible.

EA shuts down servers now and then for older games, I suspect they will do the same with this in a not to distant future...

[Thrik]

I want to play this game so bad - but I'm just gonna wait until it's in the bargain bin and they removed the "online all the time" requirement, if that's possible.

EA shuts down servers now and then for older games, I suspect they will do the same with this in a not to distant future...

Exactly my concern. Online support for dozens of their older games has silently disappeared over the years. Considering that the longevity of previous SimCity titles has been so big — 10 years between this and the last one — what happens if people still want to play it after so long? It might seem stupidly irrelevant now but it's going to become a very real issue if going forward any online-enabled game just stops working after 10 years. That's a lot of gaming history down the pan.

[AlexM]

holy shit. Everyone was saying this was gonna be bad a year ago but no one though it was going to be this bad. Polygon just changed their review score from 9.5 to 4 (not just because of the net issues but because they removed features in an attemp to fix them.

Also this :

[Beck]

Wow, EA.

I am never buying from Origin.

But I agree that the online servers for older games being shut down is a real shame. Now, most of the games which have currently shut down their servers are still playable in a single player environment. What happens when they shut down the Sim City V servers in a couple of years? The whole game becomes unplayable. That is really sad.

It seems like a great game and I actually want to play it. But all this crap that's going on is preventing me from buying it. I wonder if Maxis was forced to go down this route by EA. Or if it was a "joint venture". I'm guessing EA forced this onto Maxis and to justify it they moved some of the simulation over to servers. But seriously, is it really too much for PC's to handle alone?

[syver]

But I agree that the online servers for older games being shut down is a real shame. Now, most of the games which have currently shut down their servers are still playable in a single player environment. What happens when they shut down the Sim City V servers in a couple of years? The whole game becomes unplayable. That is really sad.

This. Games like these won't take part in being cultural heritage. perhaps it's for the best, perhaps we can just forget they ever existed.

[Thrik]

lmao. Glad to see the community isn't disappointing:

I bet they're really regretting tying online play into this so much now...

[-HP-]

http://www.gametrailers.com/reviews/vfnz03/simcity-review

[Vilham]

When your failure has hit CNN and BBC you know your launch is shit.

[kleinluka]

Everyone looking at EA right now...