
Planning Woes; Urban Development 101 Is In Session
The meat of the game is all SimCity; management, zoning, planning, and the new supply chain elements run counter to EA's Always-On philosophy. Avoid till server problems are fixed.
Our Rating
Games
SimCity Genres SimulationStrategy Platforms
PC Tags
citydrmonlineoriginsimulation games
Source metacritic.com
Source metacritic.com
Published Mar. 7th 2013
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Love this - fair, but totally honest.
"I personally, have been unable to play the game from two different residences with stable internet connections for more than ten minutes each on day two." - Ouch...
I also snort-laughed coffee when I got to your STP line. When I read your next piece, I'm putting down my drink first. ;) -
A... Sim City option, if you will.
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I know, which is why I couldn't give it the full eight. The biggest problem with Always-Online DRM, at least when it comes to reviewing, is that you are buying a service as well as a product... And it's difficult to review a service on the same basis as a game. That being said, I think it's fair to partition out part of a review for the service itself (Here I grabbed three points for game-breaking server problems on and after launch. I can see how one would consider this to be arbitrary, but you've got to consider three points pretty lenient for a game that was nigh unplayable)
I grabbed two points for the 'broken' parts... The simulation is off at times, at night I find my police cars driving a straight line down my main avenue pursuing the same criminal. I keep getting warnings of a crime problem, but twenty cars... Forty officers chasing one suspect is ridiculous.
The second point from the game itself came from not having the option for cities to run concurrently. As it stands right now, you or a friend needs to be working inside a city in order for it to produce raw materials or goods to ship, so you've got to be shifting cities constantly if you're playing a private session. It's more annoying than anything, and I feel it could be fixed easily with a Simulate City tickbox. -
The core game *is* quite good. It has warts too, but they are sort of part of the fun of the simulation and they will fix the worst offenders. The server issues are just... uggh