SimCity Review Thread - the curse of reboots to strike again?

http://penny-arcade.com/report/edit...-always-poops-needs-water-and-more-electricit

Maps are also constricting, and it will take one or two tries before you get a sense for scale and how far apart your roads really should be from one another. My city started out looking like a nice, spread out little village, but once I started adding higher density streets and the zones began to evolve, city-puberty hit me like a ton of bricks, and I could see my layout for what it was: awkward and half-grown, with too many blemishes.
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scurker said:
It's DRM if the game doesn't really warrant online play.
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The game was completely designed around online play, so in this case it's not DRM, it was not done to prevent piracy but to enable the new play style. If you don't happen to like that play style, fine, but because you personally don't want to play an online game doesn't make that game an offline game with DRM. People who are saying EA/Maxis only did this for piracy reasons need to look at what's been going on with SimCity in the past. I mean, the SimCity games have been evolving ever more and more social, starting with SimCity 4 which had a VERY early version of the interconnected city multiplayer. Looking at those previous games it's easy to see how the game evolved to being an online game that requires multiple cities being built at the same time to thrive.
 
Gooster said:
Happened to notice a Twitter chat between Jeff Gerstmann and Alex Navarro. Seems like they're enjoying it but regional restrictions are kind of a pain.
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Does it run like complete garbage on your machine? The frame rate over here is painful when you turn the game speed up.
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Oh, there are problems, to be sure. The expansionist in me is being driven nuts by the lack of space allotted.
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And OH MY GOD the bug-like state where I'm buying a lot of out-of-town water but some buildings refuse to acknowledge that.
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I had the same issue with power. The thing just does not react as quickly as it should to fixes.
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OK, I think I'm done. Kinda hate that I like that game.
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I don't hate that I like it. I just think the vision for this game doesn't always line up with how people will WANT to play.
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Damn. :\
 
ultron87 said:
I don't really see how them working with a publisher to do a review on terms that they feel is more fair and being transparent about that fact is somehow more suspicious than just going to the event, but whatever.
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Important to note though, that that was not only for Polygon. It seems like EA made a compromise and gave every reviewer the option to play on development servers. Still most sites prefered to wait until the live servers are online. Ben Kuchera explains it pretty well on Penny Arcade Report http://penny-arcade.com/report/editorial-article/why-you-shouldnt-trust-our-simcity-review
 
depths20XX said:
Are we sure you can't save? In that Ars Technica review they were playing in a region with each other. It would make sense that you wouldn't be able to save and load because that would screw shit up for other players. I wonder if you can save in single player regions.
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You cannot save and load in single player regions.
 
Dreamwriter said:
The game was completely designed around online play, so in this case it's not DRM, it was not done to prevent piracy but to enable the new play style. If you don't happen to like that play style, fine, but because you personally don't want to play an online game doesn't make that game an offline game with DRM. People who are saying EA/Maxis only did this for piracy reasons need to look at what's been going on with SimCity in the past. I mean, the SimCity games have been evolving ever more and more social, starting with SimCity 4 which had a VERY early version of the interconnected city multiplayer. Looking at those previous games it's easy to see how the game evolved to being an online game that requires multiple cities being built at the same time to thrive.
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Then why does the system fail closed instead of open? DRM may not be the only factor in their always online decision but it's a large one.
 
Quentyn said:
Important to note though, that that was not only for Polygon. It seems like EA made a compromise and gave every reviewer the option to play on development servers. Still most sites prefered to wait until the live servers are online. Ben Kuchera explains it pretty well on Penny Arcade Report http://penny-arcade.com/report/editorial-article/why-you-shouldnt-trust-our-simcity-review
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Ah cool, good to see that it sounds like a lot of reviewers were like "hell no" to the at EA offices review event.
 
munroe said:
Even though polygon gave the game a 9.5, they did mention in their review that they had server problems. If you read the SimCity backstory review they mention that they were using development servers at the time and that when the game is fully launched, they may alter the score pending on how well the servers hold up to full commercial release.
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Sounds great for Polygon.

Because Metacritic doesn't update scores on their site even if the review is updated. No publisher relationship will be damaged as a result. Yay.
 
benny_a said:
Maybe the other outlets are actually standing up for bullshit review requirements and don't do it before it isn't a review based on the product that the customer also receives.
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Yeah, that's what I was suspecting: P****** doing what's in the best interest of their traffic, not their readers.
 
NJBorn said:
Kotaku posted their highs and lows

http://kotaku.com/5988286/simcity-w..._source=Kotaku_Facebook&utm_medium=Socialflow
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Totilo's comment below is worth noting since he was Fahey's virtual neighbor:

I'm still fuming at Mike for destroying his city and therefore ruining mine. It killed the fun I was having with my city and got me worrying that this game, which more or less requires that you cooperate with neighbor cities could be ruined by griefers who pull the plug on your cities to screw you over.

You can't have a great time just running your own city independently. You'll have to set up some connections with other cities. I was depending on Mike for power, as he noted; I was supplying our region with a university, though once he destroyed his city, I lost a ton of revenue from out-of-town students.

One of the EA PR people on this game told me that other players can take over abandoned cities. And you can manually abandon a city pretty easily. I'm more worried about people who let their city crumble and don't fully abandon it.

It could be a drag, especially because you need other players to pitch in when making great works in your region. I'd just started the great work of making an Arcology in a valley between our two cities (we were playing on a map made for three cities), but without Mike pitching in, I couldn't build it, which pretty much put me at my internal population and economic limit. The ideal, I think, would be to have at least three engaged players, with their respective cities helping each other's out. The game is clearly designed for this, as many of the buildings you construct have regional benefits and enable upgrades across the map.

We'll be able to judge all this better once the game goes live to the public and we can see how well all this networked stuff works.

NOTE: Just to be clear... you CAN run all the cities in one region yourself in a private mode. It's possible, just doesn't seem like the way they intended for you to play. I'm going to give that a shot and see how that goes, too.
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partyphone said:
Then why does the system fail closed instead of open? DRM may not be the only factor in their always online decision but it's a large one.
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microtransactions work better in terms of revenue generation in a social setting. That is, people are more apt to buy things (e.g. hats) if other people are going to know about it.
 
It seems like there's a great game in here somewhere but it's being held by back by some really annoying, arbitrary design decisions and flaws that are detrimental to just simply enjoying the game.
 
Untalkative_Bunny said:
microtransactions work better in terms of revenue generation in a social setting. That is, people are more apt to buy things (e.g. hats) if other people are going to know about it.
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Exactly. Like I said it was built solely to force these shitty practices easier than a normal game would allow. There's a reason why most F2P games that have a ton of microtransactions aren't built to be like most games we play on a normal basis.
 
Wait, we can be in multiple regions right? Say, I'm in the GAF one, and I make another one for solo play or with another group of friends, that'll be fine?
 
partyphone said:
when you lose your internet connection while playing you can no longer play at all.
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Exactly, that's what I'm saying, it's an online-only game, it was designed entirely around online play. If you are playing World of Warcraft and you lose your internet connection, you can no longer play that at all either. It's not DRM, it's an online game.
 
Derrick01 said:
Exactly. Like I said it was built solely to force these shitty practices easier than a normal game would allow. There's a reason why most F2P games that have a ton of microtransactions aren't built to be like most games we play on a normal basis.
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yup. I think also it is a great way to ensure that the mods that happen are official paid for mods. DRM is part of the equation, but the end goal is maximum revenue. And they way they have designed this game, it looks like it is going to work pretty well for them.

Full retail game with very effective DRM, microtransactions, and a Sims level of potential addon packs. Really well designed in terms of potential $/user.
 
You know, with the no save/load feature combined with reliance on neighbors, I could totally see a parody song from "Gangstas Paradise" to "Griefers Paradise."

It is going to happen and some people are going to get a kick out of it by making a city that all the neighbors are relying on, and then "nuking" the town, taking out all neighbors in the process.
 
Raide said:
Does it disconnect you and kick you back to main menu?
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from what I've been reading it either kicks you to the main menu or just sits there doing nothing waiting for the server to respond. but this is from reviewers who have pre-release code connected to a private server EA set up just for them. so we'll have to wait and see how it behaves in the wild.
 
Raide said:
Does it disconnect you and kick you back to main menu?
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Main menu:
Polygon said:
More problematic (for me) was my home network set-up and a wi-fi router that has taken to dropping connections of late. If you lose an internet connection while playing SimCity will most likely stop and you will be forced back to the loading screen. Sucks to be whatever sims you may have been trying to help or rescue. If you do not have a connection when you try to start playing, the game will not start.
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Untalkative_Bunny said:
Because these 'agreements' are never ever made public, so nobody knows what they are, so they are NOT transparent. All you get is some tweet or some statement, never the actual agreement.
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I really wish HBO/Sky/Netflix/Virgin/Comcast/Sony Television would publish all of their contractual documentation for premieres/review tapes.
 
Dreamwriter said:
Exactly, that's what I'm saying, it's an online-only game, it was designed entirely around online play. If you are playing World of Warcraft and you lose your internet connection, you can no longer play that at all either. It's not DRM, it's an online game.
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Man. If only there was some way to simulate your neighbors should you briefly lose internet connection. If only every PC had 8GB of GDDR5.
 
partyphone said:
Man. If only there was some way to simulate your neighbors should you briefly lose internet connection. If only every PC had 8GB of GDDR5.
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I don't know whether to laugh or ridicule because I'm not sure what level of sarcasm your bringing haha

That would be cool to do a simulation while you're out but I never worry about internet unless you know.....I didn't pay the bill lol

Something which is never an issue.
 
partyphone said:
from what I've been reading it either kicks you to the main menu or just sits there doing nothing waiting for the server to respond. but this is from reviewers who have pre-release code connected to a private server EA set up just for them. so we'll have to wait and see how it behaves in the wild.
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I see. That is a little annoying. That is the main reason for online DRM being a pain. I wonder if they will patch it at some point.
 
eznark said:
I don't. But I do wish all product reviewers would.
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It would be nice. It would also be great if they had to include as part of the review how much revenue the site/blog/magazine/newspaper etc received in advertising from the product maker.
 
Reading that PA review the reviewer didn't notice that adding more squad cars to a police station adds to the daily budget cost of police. So the game does still involve "increasing funding" to improve things, it just hides it.
 
Untalkative_Bunny said:
It would be nice. It would also be great if they had to include as part of the review how much revenue the site/blog/magazine/newspaper etc received in advertising from the product maker.
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Yeah, do that and you can call yourself "transparent." Vaguely referencing a non-specific deal you cut with the publisher to be able to have an early review is hardly transparent.
 
ultron87 said:
Well they are dependent on those producers if they ever want to review something before it is released. So in some sense they must be.
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Fair enough. I think though there would be a real shit storm if some movie producers demanded any pre-release review having to be 4/5 stars or not be printed. I really doubt Ebert or the Times would agree. And if someone did try that, you bet it would be a story the next day. Yet that seems to be de rigueur in the gaming press.
 
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