SimCity (PC) review

[Dogg Thang]

For me, it's not just the DRM. The more I read about it, the more it seems stripped down. Now, I'm saying that having not played it of course (and I likely never will with it being online only) but reading the features and about the size doesn't make it feel like it could possibly compete with 2000 in any way except visuals. It's a shame. It's a shame if I'm right because it means the series peaked so long ago and a shame if I'm wrong that the combination of the DRM and the total service/PR fail prevents me from giving it a go.

[Family Fry]

Well for ?18 I'm willing to give it a punt, it's as cheap as it will ever get and it's only a few days after release.
Also after seeing it, it's about as casual as I can handle for a sim game. I'm still confident my brain will melt even playing thi version though.
Will also say I don't have principles when it comes to gaming, DRM or any other stuff people decide to combat. If I fancy it or it's the right price I will give it a shot.

[dataDave]

F2P if DRM is involved, for me.

[25.05.2005]

1 for me.

DRM is just too much.

I'll stick to playing the excellent Sim City 4 Deluxe with expansions. Superb game.

[originalbadboy]

Thing is though the game is like ?30 ... in the great scheme of things as long as you get your monies worth out of it, does it really matter if you cannot play it in 10 years time?

All those poor saps paying for MMO's every month, and the five years down the line the servers get shut down will have spent a lot more money in the end. I mean if someone had been playing WOW for the last ten years they would have spent will over ?1000 on subscription fees, and at any time Blizzard could call an end to it ..

In that regard ?30 really isn't all that bad as long as you can actually play it.

[EvilBoris]

I think as per usual, the people who are berating it haven't actually played the game so don't actually understand why it is online.

It's a Maxis game anyway, they will pump it with expansion packs for the next 8 years anyway, so the servers will be around for quite some time.

[Dogg Thang]

I think as per usual, the people who are berating it haven't actually played the game so don't actually understand why it is online.

Yep. And like I said, that's a real shame but I'm not about to take a punt in the hopes that it all becomes clear. If this is all rosy (and it really doesn't sound like it is), they have done a poor job communicating that.

[EvilBoris]

It has been communicated, but the mainstream gaming press would rather feed the internet's hatred of games needing the internet to work.

There are a couple of blog posts about it here

http://www.simcity.com/blog/article/SimCity-The-Connection-Between-You-and-the-World

http://www.simcity.com/en_US/blog/article/The-Benefits-of-Live-Service

Even though now the number of servers is 4x what it was this time last week are functioning properly and the game can be had for 50% of the RRP people are still going to refuse themselves the pleasure of a great game because it has been designed to take advantage of a technology that we are all using right now.

I think there is both an element of the game NEEDS to be online to work properly and that EA as a business want to cap piracy/secondhand sales also.
There are other things to consider too, I suspect that at some point this will show up on iPads and the like, they don't have the computational power to make the calculations and run the game nor do they have the storage capacity to hold the entire 12GB game data (which the PC version actually downloads as you go along).

The same goes for many other laptops also, my latest one doesn't have a DVD drive in it, so even if they had made it so the game data itself could be streamed from a disc and not just by installing itself onto it's tiny SSD I wouldn't be able to do that either. It's not out on Mac yet, but that in itself is an issue for Mac users who may only have a 64GB drive.

There are loads of technical and hardware demographic reasons why they will of opted to do this, but people are only looking at the sinister reasons. If it was really purely for evil reasons then every origin game would already be like this, not the apparently undemanding SimCity game.


I wouldn't worry about being someone who "supported" it being online now anyway, it debuted at 2 in the Charts. The future marches on whether you agree with it or not.

[Dogg Thang]

Even though now the number of servers is 4x what it was this time last week are functioning properly and the game can be had for 50% of the RRP people are still going to refuse themselves the pleasure of a great game because it has been designed to take advantage of a technology that we are all using right now.

I think there is both an element of the game NEEDS to be online to work properly

Well the game didn't seem to work properly. It may work better now. Did Yesteryeargames get his city back? Would be encouraging if he did.

Regardless of the future, in the here and now I can not always rely on having an internet connection. Sure, it works most of the time. If I have an issue, I don't want to be unable to play a game as a result. If I lose connection, I don't want to lose my progress. Sure, perhaps in the future. Today, that's not a risk I'm willing to take. But you already know all those reasons, they have been shared by others.

As for refusing ourselves the pleasure, buying any game is a punt. I have refused myself the pleasure of thousands of games, may of which may have been great. This is a regular occurrence. A lot of us (well, I can only truly speak for me) can't afford to buy every game. So DRM or no DRM, there will always need to be a sale to be made and there will always be reasons not to buy a game. I guess the bottom line with this one for me personally is that the case for a sale has not been made (not impressed with seemingly fewer features than much older SimCity games or city size) and the reasons not to buy are just that bit too strong.

[EvilBoris]

All of my cities came back , I know that much. I have so many now I don't know which one on carry on with.

[Dogg Thang]

Well that is genuinely encouraging. Hopefully all is sorted. I haven't completely written off the game forever - I'll keep an eye on it.

[EvilBoris]

YOU BETTER!

[25.05.2005]

I think as per usual, the people who are berating it haven't actually played the game so don't actually understand why it is online.

Kerching! They've caught another one.

[Family Fry]

Kerching the game is No.2 in the UK all formats this week.
They caught a LOT of people, because they wanted to play it and so those people bought it.

[25.05.2005]

Thing is though the game is like ?30 ... in the great scheme of things as long as you get your monies worth out of it, does it really matter if you cannot play it in 10 years time?

All those poor saps paying for MMO's every month, and the five years down the line the servers get shut down will have spent a lot more money in the end. I mean if someone had been playing WOW for the last ten years they would have spent will over ?1000 on subscription fees, and at any time Blizzard could call an end to it ..

In that regard ?30 really isn't all that bad as long as you can actually play it.

Definitely see your point regarding MMO players. But suppose you're paying for a service with that, and you know what you're getting in to before purchase. So it's a little different.

Your comment on does it matter if you can play it in 10 years time is way off though in my opinion. Case in point...Sim City! Sim City 4 released just over 10 years ago...and I'm still playing it today. I'm still playing Civilzation 4...that's 8 years old...I still play PES6...6 years old....not to mention my huge retro collection...are you willing to let retro die!?!

Because that's what we're talking about here. We're moving away from physically owning something and instead renting it from the publisher (which if you read past EULA's, that's what they've wanted for years.) So yes, IT DOES MATTER!

And second hand sales too...should everyone be forced to purchase a brand new game with absolutely zero possibility of selling it on when finished? Unless game prices are reduced to a reasonable level, that's just greedy and controlling. But that's what publishers want and without doubt that is something we should be fighting.

Kerching the game is No.2 in the UK all formats this week.
They caught a LOT of people, because they wanted to play it and so those people bought it.

Those people probably don't even know what DRM is...or why we should be fighting it.

...and if you bought it and you do know...well, more the fool you I'm afraid.

That's all I'll say on the matter as there really isn't any point arguing, as it's been done countless times before on a thousand different sites.