Anyone play the new SimCity yet?

[Legodog]

Not Lego related but I was wondering if anyone has played the new SimCity yet? I have been waiting forever for it to come out and now that it has I just haven't had time to get it yet (no free time since I found BP).

[Brynanm1213]

Not yet. The Mac version not out yet. Looking forward to it though.

[tonysbricks]

From what I read no one is playing it, servers down all the time. They fooled me with Diablo 3, no way I am going to touch SC5 until it hits Steam.

[Darth Lego]

Not Lego related but I was wondering if anyone has played the new SimCity yet? I have been waiting forever for it to come out and now that it has I just haven't had time to get it yet (no free time since I found BP).

I got accepted to play the demo version for one weekend. I applied via email a couple of months before. The servers were not working and I only got to play 6 hours. Other than the server problem, it was awesome. My Simcity 4 looked very outdated in comparison. Since it was a Beta, they didn't have all of the features included. If you want more information about the game, feel free to PM me.

[cflannagan]

I played tons of Simcity 2000 back in the days (what I consider "golden age of computer games"), and had interest in the new Simcity, until I heard you cannot even play single-game unless you were online (wtf?), and as if that was not bad enough, their servers isn't working that well either. Of course, I kinda expected that with EA. EA has ruined a lot of things in the computer gaming world. EA of today is nothing like EA of old (I loved EA a long time ago, before they came too "commercialized").

[cflannagan]

And the backlash continues.. I saw this minutes after my last post: http://www.geek.com/articles/games/following-800-poor-reviews-amazon-stops-selling-download-copies-of-simcity-2013037/

[TheOrcKing]

And the backlash continues.. I saw this minutes after my last post:

http://www.geek.com/articles/games/following-800-poor-reviews-amazon-stops-selling-download-copies-of-simcity-2013037/

Now that's pretty bad! 800+ highly negative reviews, sheesh. You would hope that somebody in the corporate world of gaming would take this seriously and see it as reason to make a better product, but that won't happen will it?

Bugger....

[cflannagan]

And not to harp on this topic but I just realized something.. how long is EA going to maintain those servers? One day EA's going to decide to take Simcity servers out of commission.. then we won't be able to play Simcity anymore! (unless EA releases a major patch that changes how the game's DRM setup works as they near to EOL of the game, but I've not heard of any precedence like this with any other games.. I'm also skeptical they'd do something like this). All this negative press in name of DRM. I wonder if they're losing more $$$ with this horrible setup "in name of DRM" than they would have lost to piracy if they go with a "lesser intrusive" DRM setup. *shaking head*

[TheOrcKing]

And not to harp on this topic but I just realized something.. how long is EA going to maintain those servers?

One day EA's going to decide to take Simcity servers out of commission.. then we won't be able to play Simcity anymore!

All this negative press in name of DRM. I wonder if they're losing more $$$ with this horrible setup "in name of DRM" than they would have lost to piracy if they go with a "lesser intrusive" DRM setup. *shaking head*

Those points you've brought up are exactly what is wrong with the whole setup.

Persistent internet connection to even play a single player game (if they truely still exist anymore), limited number of installs even on the same computer (which you have to go through a number of hoops to re-register it usually by phone), the chance that on any given day the company can shut down all the servers and prevent you from playing that MMO you've invested over a thousand dollars collectively to play (between introduction fees, monthly subscription renewals, other add-on fees), buy the game and then forced to pay so you can download the rest of the thing you should have gotten in the first place, so on & so on.

I really hate being THIS negative, but what can I say. Things have gotten to the point where it's almost like your paying a bundle just to 'look' at the game. To be fair, there are similiar problems with a selection of downloadable indie games but I still don't have this much hassle with any of those as of yet.

The fact is in my opinion, the DRM creates as many 'pirates' as what the system is supposed to protect itself from. You have average people that typically abide the rules turning towards hack sites for a decrypted version of that game they keep getting stuck shelling money out for again & again so they can actually do the very thing it is supposed to do in the first place.....Play a game.

[Fcbarcelona101]

Man, I have been dying to get this game for a long time, and even now with the terrible issues it's been having I find it hard to resist the temptation to get it!

[Yellow]

I remember the original and playing it on SNES. I loved the cheat code where you would receive a large sum of money and being able to build whatever you wanted too!

[Fcbarcelona101]

Finally got it and have been able to play a couple hours without issue. To me it has a completely different feel than SC4. Graphics are really good and there are a lot of new things to discover, but I also feel we have lost a lot of the control we had on previous games over various aspects. Still need to play more to make a more informed opinion, but I can say I have really enjoyed it.

[Grolim]

Was keen to give this game a go, but after hearing about the issues and needing a constant connection etc I'll give it a miss until it hits the discount bin I think.

[pickleboy]

They screwed themselves and the franchise soooo bad by launching without it working... Amateurs...