So, SimCity and EA

Has anyone tried to buy it?

How bad is it?

Everything I've heard in a nutshell:

Awesome game.
Terrible launch.
Would like bigger maps.
DRM sucks.

I heard that it has absolutely shitty Ai/Pathfinding for the Sims.

I.E. They would simply go to the nearest available house, job or school.
Every Cop in the city would flock to one crime-scene, no matter how evenly spread the police stations are.
Apparently the best map design is currently using one long winding road with a lot of wide avenues so that the Fire department/Police never get lost.

I only saw this one one article so I dunno if it's true.

Tl;Dr: Buy Cities XL Platinum, some perf issues but what everyone thought SimCity would be.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZEa6M4na2E


you might or might not have seen it.

He makes points that don't have to do with the conexion issues so you might get something out of it.

I personally heard that the game is playable now. But don't quote me on it

Avoid EA if possible.

It's playable and I'm having fun with it. I expect some fixes coming soon so I'd wait for those to come out before buying it.

Aside from the DRM, the game is pretty good.

I'd say map size, AI issues, and limited water are my biggest complaints.

If they fix Sim AI, get rid of the online requirement, and make it possible to increase the city size, I might pick it up.

by AI do you actually mean teh way the sims and vehicles move around the map? does that affect gameplay?

It does, but it affects the simulation even more.

Had no issues with the game up until 20 minutes ago where it kicked me and now refuses to load my regions.

Game's awesome though

I dunno what EA does, I just hear stuff like where people buy a game for 50$ and after a bit 500$ of DLCs come out, also this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-LE0ycgkBQ.
To be fair I enjoyed games like lord of the rings, the very first one ( i think ) because the last ones are kinda bullshit, need for speed underground 2 and a few others.
SimCity seems like a good game.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/vi ... ks-Offline
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/vi ... paign=news

If you liked previous Simcity games, stick with Simcity 4 (plus mods). Simcity (5) improves upon too few things to make up for the depth that it loses from its predecessors.

If you're new to the series, it's probably easier to start out in, but do you really want to support EA's policies with your cash? There are better alternatives out there. Ones that don't treat the customer like a criminal.

It's good, but only playable if you pirate it.

Oh, the irony...

Well... as an apology, EA is giving anyone who activated a copy of simcity a free game from this list...

Battlefield 3 (Standard Edition)
Bejeweled
Dead Space 3 (Standard Edition)
Mass Effect 3 (Standard Edition)
Medal of Honor Warfighter (Standard Edition)
Need For Speed Most Wanted (Standard Edition)
Plants vs. Zombies
SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition

I've already got Battlefield, what do you guys recommend I choose? I'm leaning towards Deadspace, Mass Effect, or SimCity 4.

Also, I'm wondering what you guys think. I know it's just a PR move to make up for what they botched and their refusal to remove DRM... but as a customer, I actually do think a tad higher of EA now. I mean... the games on this list, from what I've heard, aren't half bad.

Mass Effect's good if you've played the earlier ME's first, all multiplayer DLC's free.

that's too bad, haven't played the first 2. Is Deadspace something you need to play the predecessors to enjoy too?