The Drunken Lizard Pub

For the past few weeks I have been really interested in the latest SimCity game. Homewer, I have heard bad things about it (such as small city size and always-online DRM torture) and it is quite expensive (60€ for the normal version). Is it worth buying?

I'm waiting for a full play-offline crack to be available before I buy it :)

From everything I've heard, the new SimCity has less features and less depth than the previous incarnation. The only thing the new SimCity has to offer that is new is the ability to purchase resources (electricity, etc.) from other cities online.

I'd recommend you be patient and wait for the price to drop a bit, I don't think it's worth full price at all, especially with the terrible DRM and lack of features and depth.

I have now made my decision: I didn't buy the new SimCity. But I bought SimCity 4. What a great game.

I think you made a good choice.

(I still have a copy of SimCity 3000 that I still enjoy to this day, now and again, personally.)

As excited as I was and ready to forgive EA for past transgressions (mass effect, Ultima, and Dragon Age) before Sim City was released I have to say blatently, NO. This Sim City will never be worth the money they charge even if its under $10. Seriously, if any company can screw up a series its EA. I now add Sim City to the list listed above of series they messed up.

Mass Effect 1 was a very very good game with unique gameplay. I loved it because of its RPG elements. NOPE, gotta remove those for 2 and 3.

Ultima 8 and 9. . .do I even need to mention what's wrong with them? Can we have some consistancy with the story? I can sum up the entirety of what's wrong with one question, "What's a paladin?" Yeah. . .the avatar says that.

To be fair I haven't tried Dragon Age 2, but from the looks of it they removed a lot of the RPG stylings for more action based gameplay. I'm an RPG fanatic, not an action game fanatic. So because of this I will never play 2. I loved Origins to death though, and put well over 70 hours into it.

So yeah, moral of the story: if EA has its name on it the game is most likely bad.

Can I have more specifics? Like: what's bad in it? So that I know if I ever reconsider.

Biggest number 1 issue: always connected to the net DRM. Besides that its the small city size and general lack of control you get over how you build your city. No control over zoning density anymore. It also forces you to reach out to others to get some of the resources that your city cannot provide (or so it seems).

It's not just the game is bad, either. It's the way EA has handled it.

They claimed that the game was 'designed' around online play, and couldn't have an offline mode without radical redesigns. Then some modders got a hold of it, and learned not only was it possible to play the game-offline, but the game was rigged to shut off if it detected your internet wasn't connected to it.

Not to mention the fact that no Simcity fan ever asked for online play, despite EA swearing they were just giving the fans what they wanted.

The truth is, the always-online thing was a DRM scheme, despite how much EA lied and claimed it was just a necessary feature of the gameplay. And they really thought their customers were too stupid to notice the difference.

But yeah, the always-online DRM aside, the game just isn't very good. You can read about it here, if you like.

It's funny how people joke about: "SimCity has become SimTown."

SimTown is a real game. It's like a kids' version of SimCity 2000 or whatever. I used to own it. Great fun when I was a child. And the city size in that is still like 4-times the size in SimCity 5.