SimCity SimSucks

This is just a stream-of-consciousness, off-the-cuff review of SimCity.

Okay, I’m not going to follow the trend of making this a multi-paragraph rant against Always-Online DRM.  I will say this, however: the benefit of it is access to your data from any installed instance of the game, the downside is just about every other thing that comes along with it.  These features include, but are not limited to: Inability to access your game-saves due to server issues like traffic and downtime, data loss due to stability issues with the game client or network and inability to even play the game at all without a connection to EA’s servers through of the very suspicious Origin client.  That is how I feel about Always-On DRM on the whole.

The DRM for SimCity led to the game being inaccessible for many players for a large part of the servers’ uptime due to load and a problem with activation of the game through Origin for players (such as myself and fellow RA-contributor Craig) at the midnight launch.  I was not able to play the game until roughly 4am EST.  What was worse for me than the obvious technical fuckup on EA’s part was their response to the issue, or rather, lack of response.  There was little to no feedback from anyone on EA’s end regarding the activation issue and we did not hear a thing from any official sources until Maxis finally posted a notice on their Twitter page on behalf of EA regarding the problem encouraging players to post on the message boards about the issue, which they did, en Masse. Thousands of posts flooded the message boards and comparisons to the flubbed Diablo 3 launch were unavoidable. The technical issues continue to today, two days after the failed launch, with a static 20 minute timer that you have to wait out if a server you play on is busy, no connection when it is available, you have to wait the full 20 minutes.  THAT is unacceptable, EA!

So with all of the problems with the game’s launch, was it worth the wait?  In a word: No.  I would actually go so far as to say this just may be the single WORST game in the series proper, excluding non-canonical titles like Societies and SimCity Social, and bad console ports like the Super Nintendo port of SimCity 2000.  SimCity 5 (as I will call it here to reduce confusion) is plagued by a combination of dumbed-down gameplay, a structure that does not encourage but requires cooperative play for full success, devastating technical issues and a restrictive building environment that limits and even sometimes flat-out prohibits creativity.

While just about every other title used a combination of building and management as the core structure of the game, SimCity seems to lean more towards building as just adding or altering services or structures is more-often-than-not the official resolution to just about any problem.  Gone are ordinances and funding options that you could use to properly budget your city, instead, everything is just sort of subsistence and reactive, based on fixed (and occasionally arbitrary) rules.  Follow these rules, do what the little pop-up bubbles say and watch your spending/earnings ratio and you will do fine, for the most part.  

SimCity 5 has a ton of highly questionable design decisions that will stand out dramatically to long-time players of the series.  First off, the game will hit you suddenly, often with no warning, with problems that usually stack.  This is not the result of “challenge” so much as arbitrary problems that are caused because everything is inextricably linked in SimCity.  So, for instance, you may get a notice that your water is polluted, even though all of your numbers may be just fine, however, since SimCity 5 THINKS there is a pollution problem you will get a ton of other problems linked to said pollution whether or not it was an issue in the first place.  The game seems programmed to slam you, as problems stack rapidly and usually the same linked issues come into place.  Resolving these issues usually comes down to the defacto-fix in SC5: build more stuff.

I had a pretty nice city going, with roughly 150k Sims occupying my trade city when all of the sudden, I was hit with water problems.  At first, there were no visible issues, just little yellow alerts and people leaving my city because of a lack of water, despite there being water.  The chain reaction began here, then all of the sudden my profits plummeted, and within literally seconds (SECONDS) water, health and budget were all red and I went from a safe 800k Simoleans to a big fat doughnut in less time than it took to create the city in the menus.  I had no way of reacting to the problem, no time to solve it, it all just went to shit in seconds because everything is linked by design.  The city died because it was programmed to.  This crap did not happen in the other SimCity titles because they were all well thought-out, high-concept games built on formulas that were tested and understood by the player base, while SC5 just seems to bombard you with intentionally-linked issues quickly to force you into their corner.  That corner is reliance on other players in the game’s much touted (and much hated) social aspects.

One online user described this as a $70 Facebook game and he was not far off at all.  I, honestly, could not put it more bluntly and more accurately.  This game is built on the flawed and poorly-conceived social games that are saturating Facebook and mobile gaming platforms, and these online multiplayer features have EA’s wretched stench all over them.  Keep in mind here, that EA has a storied history of gobbling up once-great franchises and then running them into the ground and with their obviously-forced shoehorning in of these ugly online features they seem to be well on their way to destroying SimCity as well.  However, I do want to offer some specifics here.

The multiplayer concept in SC5 is a good one.  I like having the ability to share a region with friends and have our cities interact and work with each other.  The problem is I never really feel like I’m in a subsistent world.  The maps are claustrophobic as all Hell and though I can look over and see a friend’s city on the map, I never feel like we’re playing together.  I sincerely believe that these features were added as an afterthought to justify EA’s DRM.  So now, you have a game that SHOULD work as a single-player experience but fails to because we have to share our region with other players because if you don’t, and you start having problems, there is little that can be done to fix the issue easily.  In fact, I will go so far as to say that the essentially-mandatory multiplayer features are the worst aspect of this already flawed game.  

Now, at the risk of sounding like a hater, I want to share a few positives before I close.  The game looks nice, it has a smooth Sims-ish style.  I like a vast majority of the building models and got a few snickers out of the randomly-generated business names.  I like the ability to get feedback from the buildings to see how you’re doing.  With a few exceptions, the map overlays that display data about your city are nice, though I particularly detest the clusterfuck that is the power grid design.  The city Specializations are cool, giving players options for directions they can take their city, though they are not very well-conceived and have a number of seemingly random problems, especially with tourism, which seems to randomly hemorrhage money for a matter of seconds, then it will just right itself.  There I go going negative again...

That is just it, though.  For every thing I can think of that I can say I enjoy about SC5, the problems just bleed through my opinion, making it impossible for me to get any enjoyment out of playing this game.  Add in the countless stability and network issues, lost work due to said issues and bad design decisions and I can NOT bring myself to recommend this game in its current state.  Now, it seems EA has announced that it is trying to “fix the problems with the game” but I will believe that when I see it.  SimCity 5 is a game that is severely flawed at a fundamental level that would require a massive overhaul to be even a fraction as good as its predecessors.  All in all, this just may be the most disappointing video game sequel since Final Fantasy XIII and is still getting positive reviews from official sources, where these reviews can even be found; evidence that EA is pulling some serious strings behind the scenes (as they are known to do).  Just look at Metacritic.  The difference between critic and user review averages is staggering and very telling.  Give this one a few months if you have to play it, as by then they may have worked out the bugs, but keep checking online for updates before making any final decisions if you haven’t already.

E3 2012 - Day 2 - Part 1: EA Press Conference

The EA press conference opened with the statement "Less like the Oscars, more like Sundance."  This coming from EA is more than a little comical, but the event continued with a straight face.  The first game shown was the third entry in the Dead Space franchise.  The graphics looked solid and the game featured a snowy waste with vicious monsters and the game promises drop-in-drop-out co-op!  The live co-op demo presented a dark mechanical deathtrap of a structure where a massive drill spun menacingly, flinging sparks and danger everywhere.  Trapped in a small, circular room with a deadly spinning drill whirring in random directions, the two fight off an ambush from menacing beasts and but the drill itself, which almost seemed possessed.  It was truly a spectacular show, and judging by this alone, Dead Space 3 promises to be a great experience.  Things didn't stop there though, as the two faced off against a massive, amazing-looking boss which sucked our heroes into it like freaking Unicron!  We watched as he is forced down the creature's digestive tract in the show ends with him facing off against a threatening form in what appears to be the beast's stomach.



The followup of that was was the obligatory EA Sports trailer for Madden 13.  Gameplay changes include the utilization of the Infinity Graphics Engine which will create all new animation possibilities and new ways a player's size and movement effects how they play and how they get hit. No longer does getting grabbed mean the end of your play as you will now be able to struggle a little further thanks to the power of the new engine.  Michael Irvine came on stage to present the career creation which allows you to start as a new player, embody a legend and even a coach.  The career uses RPG elements to "level up" your player as their abilities and strength increase.  There's a story engine that generates a history and story around you as you play.  Integrated Twitter and other social media elements and the ability to manage your team from your smart phone or from the Web increase the immersion in this great-looking game.



Up next is a presentation from Maxis for the introduction of a brand new Sim City.  The new engine creates randomized pedestrians and traffic that lives in your city and the new graphics are spot on.  This looks great and I'm a huge fan of the Sim franchise, Sim City in particular so I'm especially excited about this one.



Next up was a presentation from DICE and EA to reveal Battlefield 3 Premium, which offers new fetures to members including new expansions, stats, units, ect.  The 5 expansions featured promises hundreds of additional hours and are slated for a release over the next 9 months.  The service will cost an additional $49.99 and is already available!  For fans of the series with the extra scratch, who know they are going to get the use out of the service, this seems okay.  However, asking an additional $50 for a game that is already $50-60 is a little excessive if you ask me.  It does offer a lot though.  and if you consider an expansion costing $10, at five expansions, you're basically getting all of the other content free.



Star Wars: The Old Republic took the stage next to promise even more updates.  Including new PvP features, raids, species, and companions.  Increased level caps, character transfers and even a new planet round off the list of additions to the game.  It was also announced that the game will soon be available free-to-play up to level 15.  the trailer for the update was quite exciting, and I will jump on that free-to-play bandwagon (:D).


Medal of Honor: Warfighter is going to be one of EA's biggest games and the demo opens in an engagement with Somali pirates.  We aren't in Normandy anymore, people (God, I'm sure I'm not the first person to say that... sorry).  However far from France we are, however, our trailer still has us storming beaches of a crumbling city, under heavy fire from unseen forces populating a towering wreck a football field's distance away.  Flashes of gunfire flicker in a second floor window and progress to the building is treacherous indeed.  We get a preview of a slow-motion, bullet time system that allowed the player pick off enemies from in close-quarters quickly as you storm a room.  We then get a preview of the expansive ideas in the game when you take control of a rover armed with automatic weapons as you creep through cracks and low places, picking off enemies safely from a remote location.  This looks good.  So, so good.



We received a brief presentation from EA Sports covering their other popular franchises and introducing Madden NFL Social.  Following that we got a preview for the new FIFA highlighting the impact soccer has around the world.  EA Sports Football Club is a highlighted social aspect to FIFA 13 which connect soccer fans and it was also announced that Club members will be able to carry all their experience over to 13 from 12.  Additional, exclusive features and bonuses are all available through this feature.  Lastly a new iPhone app that connects to FIFA's growing network.  Legendary player Lionel Messi was the backbone of the new FIFA engine, which encourages more strategy and offers new offensive and defensive options.  The gameplay trailer showed stunning visuals and swift movement including a powerful new dynamic dribbling feature that allows precise and finessed movement of foot and body.



Next we got the trailerfor the upcoming EA/UFC collaboration that literally shut THQ down.  We got to see a teaser, but not much from the actual game.

Need for Speed: Most Wanted is back.  Most Wanted is arguably the best in the series so far and the open world driving game bringing us the best parts of Most Wanted.  Criterion already nailed the open world driving game with Burnout: Paradise and now they tkae their expertise to the next level with stunning graphics, an intense sense of speed and a high-tension time run through a brilliant urban landscape.  Touches of Burnout: Paradise are evident in the level design, and that is a positive.  This one is going to be awesome.



Crytek's presentation of Cysis 3 looks great, promising a multi-platform launch and a Feburary release date.  The event closed with this amazing presentation of a massive battle on a dam amid a fallen city.  Since it's Crytek, it looks awesome and the action seems perfectly tense and epic.



Thus closes the EA press conference, which showed some nice shooters and a few cool surprises.  Stay tuned for more throughout today and the rest of the E3 coverage.

E3 2012 - Update: EA - What to Expect

You can always count on EA to go big.  They've got the money and the power and they are gobbling up intellectual properties like the freaking Nothing from The Neverending Story.  This year, expect to see more of the same from EA in the form of returning EA Sports franchises and a few mainstay sequels.  However, I believe their big push is going to come in the form of product integration.  Using your smart phone, tablet, laptop or PC in tandem with your gameplay.  We've seen some of this in the form of a teaser trailer; planning plays in Madden on your iPad and executing them in game.

I believe this level of integration is the future of gaming and EA is going to be on the forefront of this.  I would like to see an end to their greedy online DRM and a little streamlining, as well as more availability on the Playstation Store and Xbox Live Arcade.  I wouldn't count too much on the latter two though.  EA is going to continue to be that big ugly, greedy blob that needs to be there (Yin and Yang and all) but really needs to lighten up.  Really.

E3 2012 - Update: EA and UFC

It was announced at an E3 press conference that E3 is teaming up with UFC to launch a brand new EA Sports franchise.  All we got to see so far was a teaser trailer with zero gameplay footage or in game graphics, but EA Sports is a solid developer and if anyone can capture that bone-crunching, high-tension action of MMA, it's those guys.  They did it with football, soccer, baseball, basketball, golf and boxing.  They made golf exciting!!!  Seriously!  I think MMA fans (and there are a lot of them) would appreciate an amazing high-profile UFC game starring all of their favorite celebs in the sport.  This is going to be a major blow to rivals THQ, who currently own the UFC brand in gaming but EA is a powerhouse and things don't look good for the little guy.  Stay glued for any more information about this game and I will keep updating throughout the week.