Anyone else pre-order this game or try the beta? I was pretty impressed with what I tried out in the beta and I am excited for the game to launch tomorrow.
Have any idea what kind of specialization you want to try first?
I tried the beta and had a lot of fun with it (and then wrote about it for New Releases), but I wont be buying it until it's on sale. As much as I love it and want to play right now, I can patient, and I have a lot of other games to play.
I think Steam sales have spoiled me. a $60 price tag for any game, no matter how much I'm looking forward to it just seems crazyface.
Looking forward to playing tonight, don't know much about the game yet. The web (and not Origin) tell me there is no preload available and you can download and play at 9pm PST tonight.
I did neither, mostly because of the Origin and always-online requirements. Unfortunately it looks like there's more than just those two things that push me away from buying the game:
- Can't save/restore. No experimenting with something, finding out it didn't work, and going back. I realize this is a little more realistic but that's one of the fundamental elements of the series that was great. I don't want to have to start over just because I goofed on something an hour ago; I want to start from the point of my mistake.
- Early reports indicate city sizes are significantly smaller than previous games, making it difficult (if not impossible) to reach certain portions of the game without relying on the social aspect of the game. Speaking of which...
- The forced social aspect is not something I'm willing to deal with in a Sim City game.
- EA is the publisher. They've already stated microtransactions will become part of every EA release in the future. It's coming to Sim City. Maybe not in the initial release, but it'll get wedged in there.
That being said, I think there are some interesting features that brought needed improvement to the series: non-straight roads, building attachments, and the "service needs" displays come to mind.
I realize I'm hating (even speculatively on some counts) on a game that isn't released yet, but Maxis/EA took everything I enjoyed about the franchise and shat all over it, then tried to get me to pay $60 for it.
The biggest reason Sim City doesn't get my money: Tomb Raider comes out the same day. BioShock Infinite arrives around the time I'll be finished with Tomb Raider.
I did neither, mostly because of the Origin and always-online requirements. Unfortunately it looks like there's more than just those two things that push me away from buying the game:
- Can't save/restore. No experimenting with something, finding out it didn't work, and going back. I realize this is a little more realistic but that's one of the fundamental elements of the series that was great. I don't want to have to start over just because I goofed on something an hour ago; I want to start from the point of my mistake.
- Early reports indicate city sizes are significantly smaller than previous games, making it difficult (if not impossible) to reach certain portions of the game without relying on the social aspect of the game. Speaking of which...
- The forced social aspect is not something I'm willing to deal with in a Sim City game.
- EA is the publisher. They've already stated microtransactions will become part of every EA release in the future. It's coming to Sim City. Maybe not in the initial release, but it'll get wedged in there.
That being said, I think there are some interesting features that brought needed improvement to the series: non-straight roads, building attachments, and the "service needs" displays come to mind.
I realize I'm hating (even speculatively on some counts) on a game that isn't released yet, but Maxis/EA took everything I enjoyed about the franchise and shat all over it, then tried to get me to pay $60 for it.
The biggest reason Sim City doesn't get my money: Tomb Raider comes out the same day. BioShock Infinite arrives around the time I'll be finished with Tomb Raider.
The cities are not smaller. Every city slot is the same size, 2sqKM, which is as big as the second biggest possible city size in SimCity 4, and larger than any city size possible in any other SimCity title, so it only cuts out the mega-huge city size you could get in SimCity 4, which was, frankly, unwieldy and broken anyway. Besides that, the cities feel larger because all of the 'cities' in a particular region can interact as if they are one city in terms of industry and employment and so forth. You can do lots of cool things with multiple city slots in the same region, stuff that SimCity 4 pretended you could do, now you can actually do.
There is no 'forced social aspect', and I'm not sure where so many people got this idea. Yes, you play online, and your game is saved in the cloud - and if that bugs you, then you're not going to be doing any gaming at all in about five years, so whatever - but you do not 'have' to play with other people. If you want to control all the city slots in the region by your damn-self you surely can, and you can use those cities to contribute to a great work, and still complete it and benefit from it. Everything that people have said about being 'forced' to play with other people is completely wrong. That said, I think it'll be pretty damn cool to invite my friends to put cities in the other parts of my regions.
They've already said that any micro transactions will be for aesthetic purposes. You'll be able to buy things like a different looking bell-tower for your grade-schools or whatever.
They didn't shit on the game, they modernized it.
If you want to play SimCity 4, play SimCity 4. It still works on modern OSes. If you want to play SimCity as it can be with the internet and modern adveances n computational power, then play the new SimCity.
(source of info: I played in the beta and I get all the press releases)
The cities are not smaller. Every city slot is the same size, 2sqKM, which is as big as the second biggest possible city size in SimCity 4, and larger than any city size possible in any other SimCity title, so it only cuts out the mega-huge city size you could get in SimCity 4, which was, frankly, unwieldy and broken anyway. Besides that, the cities feel larger because all of the 'cities' in a particular region can interact as if they are one city in terms of industry and employment and so forth. You can do lots of cool things with multiple city slots in the same region, stuff that SimCity 4 pretended you could do, now you can actually do.
There is no 'forced social aspect', and I'm not sure where so many people got this idea. Yes, you play online, and your game is saved in the cloud - and if that bugs you, then you're not going to be doing any gaming at all in about five years, so whatever - but you do not 'have' to play with other people. If you want to control all the city slots in the region by your damn-self you surely can, and you can use those cities to contribute to a great work, and still complete it and benefit from it. Everything that people have said about being 'forced' to play with other people is completely wrong. That said, I think it'll be pretty damn cool to invite my friends to put cities in the other parts of my regions.
They've already said that any micro transactions will be for aesthetic purposes. You'll be able to buy things like a different looking bell-tower for your grade-schools or whatever.
They didn't shit on the game, they modernized it.
If you want to play SimCity 4, play SimCity 4. It still works on modern OSes. If you want to play SimCity as it can be with the internet and modern adveances n computational power, then play the new SimCity.
(source of info: I played in the beta and I get all the press releases)
I stated that I hadn't played the beta, so my information was coming from sources who had. On reading your comments, and then re-reading the reviews, it appears I misunderstood the multiple cities aspect. On first look it seemed that other players would occupy the neighboring city spaces and that collaborative gameplay would be almost required.
It's not so much the cloud aspect that bothers me. I'm quite fine with cloud saves and have found them quite useful - especially since I tend to play the same games on three different systems. My point is that I want to be able to save to and restore from an arbitrary point in which a certain set of decisions were made. For example, if I'm playing Civ V, I always save right before picking a fight with another civilization that has been particularly annoying. If it goes badly I usually know where the mistakes were made, so I go back and correct them. I realize this is an impossible course of action when playing with actual people, but when I'm playing a game solo there's no reason not to include it.
Yes, I realize that games are becoming more and more social. I also realize I have an aversion to the social aspect of video games. I further realize this means my gaming days may well be numbered. Board and card games are where I socialize. Stay the hell off my (virtual) lawn :P
Settle down, @CB. Not so much coffee in the morning
I would love to have SimCity V but with Suzy being off work for 6 weeks and us saving for a house my luxuries budget is just about nil. I have a ton of backlog of games though so I can hold out until my birthday in August.
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RahnalH102the Green Devout, Veteran Monster Hunter, Creature EnthusiastNew MexicoIcrontian
edited March 2013
Hilarious.
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BlackHawkBible music connoisseurThere's no place like 127.0.0.1Icrontian
I honestly don't understand all this 'Origin Bullshit' I've never had trouble with it only reason I dislike it is because I'd rather use Steam and it takes up extra space on my computer.
I honestly don't understand all this 'Origin Bullshit' I've never had trouble with it only reason I dislike it is because I'd rather use Steam and it takes up extra space on my computer.
This conversation should be its own topic. Unfortunately I don't know how to split threads.
My general disliking of EA aside, I've never used Origin because I don't want a thousand content managers on my system. The only other content system I've ever used besides Steam was Impulse. I got rid of it long before the GameStop buyout because of a few annoyances with the service, and didn't play any of Stardock's games again until they came to Steam. I'm very ...picky... about the things that go on my computers. I realize it's just one more content system, but to me adding "just one more" content system for gaming is like being told I can shop anywhere I want, but I have to allow a representative from each store to live with me. It's not a perfect analogy but it does convey how I feel about it. I had to draw the line at some point, and I chose to draw it at Steam-only for content managers. Everyone I play games with is on Steam. Steamworks makes multi-player gaming easy.
I purchase games from GoG as well. No (mandatory) download managers or content delivery systems, DRM free, awesome games.
The list of games available on Origin, but not on Steam: Battlefield 3, Crysis 3, Dead Space 3, FIFA *, Mass Effect 3, SimCity, and Syndicate. Am I missing out on something? Personal opinion is probably not; of those games, SimCity is the most compelling to me (despite my ranting above).
I understand that there's nothing really wrong with Origin. I'm told it works well and doesn't get too much in the way. There just isn't a place for it on my system.
Simcity was just one of the first games I ever played that really drew me in. I played the heck out of it when i was young. It would be hard for me to pass up playing the new one even with the price and the origin issue. Hopefully my amazon order arrives and I can check it out tonight.
Origin got a bad rep because they took games away from the steam platform, and when it first released, it was way worse than steam. It's improved, but the internet loves steam, so they hate any competition. I dislike origin for mostly this reason (and it's still not quite as good as steam).
Games based on origin seem to have a greater tie-in to origin/ea's hard on for DLC. I loaded up ME3 on sunday and it had to check in with ea's servers twice to see what DLC/other I could buy before I could even change the video settings in the game.
I am going to buy SimCity, maybe next pay check. Melissa and I are pretty anxious to try multiplayer Maybe I can convince her to join Icrontic some day.
1) North American servers are full 2) I can't create my own region on any other servers 3) I was able to create my own city in someone else's region 4) The game crashed shortly afterward 5) I reload the game and then it decides i need to play the tutorial 6) The tutorial level loads, but the tutorial never starts 7) I am stuck in limbo because i can't even play the tutorial and it is a requirement to play the rest of the game now.
I really did expect to buy my game and play it on launch day. In the world of cloud computing is that just too much to ask anymore?
1) North American servers are full 2) I can't create my own region on any other servers 3) I was able to create my own city in someone else's region 4) The game crashed shortly afterward 5) I reload the game and then it decides i need to play the tutorial 6) The tutorial level loads, but the tutorial never starts 7) I am stuck in limbo because i can't even play the tutorial and it is a requirement to play the rest of the game now.
I really did expect to buy my game and play it on launch day. In the world of cloud computing is that just too much to ask anymore?
I was burned pretty bad by D3 in the same way. I had some sympathy because I wanted multiplayer, but .
Maybe an IC person can invite you to their region?
I am not a big fan of the not being able to screw up the game in any and every way I want to. Minecraft and Torchlight has spoiled me for modifiable games. I don't like not being able to do what I want with what I own.
Comments
I think Steam sales have spoiled me. a $60 price tag for any game, no matter how much I'm looking forward to it just seems crazyface.
- Can't save/restore. No experimenting with something, finding out it didn't work, and going back. I realize this is a little more realistic but that's one of the fundamental elements of the series that was great. I don't want to have to start over just because I goofed on something an hour ago; I want to start from the point of my mistake.
- Early reports indicate city sizes are significantly smaller than previous games, making it difficult (if not impossible) to reach certain portions of the game without relying on the social aspect of the game. Speaking of which...
- The forced social aspect is not something I'm willing to deal with in a Sim City game.
- EA is the publisher. They've already stated microtransactions will become part of every EA release in the future. It's coming to Sim City. Maybe not in the initial release, but it'll get wedged in there.
That being said, I think there are some interesting features that brought needed improvement to the series: non-straight roads, building attachments, and the "service needs" displays come to mind.
I realize I'm hating (even speculatively on some counts) on a game that isn't released yet, but Maxis/EA took everything I enjoyed about the franchise and shat all over it, then tried to get me to pay $60 for it.
The biggest reason Sim City doesn't get my money: Tomb Raider comes out the same day. BioShock Infinite arrives around the time I'll be finished with Tomb Raider.
There is no 'forced social aspect', and I'm not sure where so many people got this idea. Yes, you play online, and your game is saved in the cloud - and if that bugs you, then you're not going to be doing any gaming at all in about five years, so whatever - but you do not 'have' to play with other people. If you want to control all the city slots in the region by your damn-self you surely can, and you can use those cities to contribute to a great work, and still complete it and benefit from it. Everything that people have said about being 'forced' to play with other people is completely wrong. That said, I think it'll be pretty damn cool to invite my friends to put cities in the other parts of my regions.
They've already said that any micro transactions will be for aesthetic purposes. You'll be able to buy things like a different looking bell-tower for your grade-schools or whatever.
They didn't shit on the game, they modernized it.
If you want to play SimCity 4, play SimCity 4. It still works on modern OSes. If you want to play SimCity as it can be with the internet and modern adveances n computational power, then play the new SimCity.
(source of info: I played in the beta and I get all the press releases)
It's not so much the cloud aspect that bothers me. I'm quite fine with cloud saves and have found them quite useful - especially since I tend to play the same games on three different systems. My point is that I want to be able to save to and restore from an arbitrary point in which a certain set of decisions were made. For example, if I'm playing Civ V, I always save right before picking a fight with another civilization that has been particularly annoying. If it goes badly I usually know where the mistakes were made, so I go back and correct them. I realize this is an impossible course of action when playing with actual people, but when I'm playing a game solo there's no reason not to include it.
Yes, I realize that games are becoming more and more social. I also realize I have an aversion to the social aspect of video games. I further realize this means my gaming days may well be numbered. Board and card games are where I socialize. Stay the hell off my (virtual) lawn :P
Settle down, @CB. Not so much coffee in the morning
Hilarious.
Sorry EA, you'll have to do much better than that.
And by the way @Mertsan - DLC stuff's already long since been announced to be available from the starting pistol, just FYI. It's EA/Maxis, if after The Sims you're not expecting them to charge for additional stuff, then I dunno what to tell you.
@Primesuspect, @CB, @basil, and I had a conversation about this yesterday.
My general disliking of EA aside, I've never used Origin because I don't want a thousand content managers on my system. The only other content system I've ever used besides Steam was Impulse. I got rid of it long before the GameStop buyout because of a few annoyances with the service, and didn't play any of Stardock's games again until they came to Steam. I'm very ...picky... about the things that go on my computers. I realize it's just one more content system, but to me adding "just one more" content system for gaming is like being told I can shop anywhere I want, but I have to allow a representative from each store to live with me. It's not a perfect analogy but it does convey how I feel about it. I had to draw the line at some point, and I chose to draw it at Steam-only for content managers. Everyone I play games with is on Steam. Steamworks makes multi-player gaming easy.
I purchase games from GoG as well. No (mandatory) download managers or content delivery systems, DRM free, awesome games.
The list of games available on Origin, but not on Steam: Battlefield 3, Crysis 3, Dead Space 3, FIFA *, Mass Effect 3, SimCity, and Syndicate. Am I missing out on something? Personal opinion is probably not; of those games, SimCity is the most compelling to me (despite my ranting above).
I understand that there's nothing really wrong with Origin. I'm told it works well and doesn't get too much in the way. There just isn't a place for it on my system.
Games based on origin seem to have a greater tie-in to origin/ea's hard on for DLC. I loaded up ME3 on sunday and it had to check in with ea's servers twice to see what DLC/other I could buy before I could even change the video settings in the game.
Say it ain't so!
EDIT: EeeeeeeYIKES. I've been reading about people's experiences with the actual game itself. Not many good words to be had, yet.
1) North American servers are full
2) I can't create my own region on any other servers
3) I was able to create my own city in someone else's region
4) The game crashed shortly afterward
5) I reload the game and then it decides i need to play the tutorial
6) The tutorial level loads, but the tutorial never starts
7) I am stuck in limbo because i can't even play the tutorial and it is a requirement to play the rest of the game now.
I really did expect to buy my game and play it on launch day. In the world of cloud computing is that just too much to ask anymore?
Maybe an IC person can invite you to their region?