SimCity is back, gaming is dead, RIP gaming.

[Outlawedprod]

Slumlord Millionaire!
http://i.imgur.com/xQod6yN.jpg

Apparently you can have criminals in towers. If there is no commercial or industrial then supposedly they do nothing bad.  EA has truly redefined the simulation genre.

[Sky]

Not to keep repeating myself on this....but those little square cities look so bad. Even without the broken stuff and lolnline, just bad.

[Nightblade]

Slumlord Millionaire!
http://i.imgur.com/xQod6yN.jpg

Apparently you can have criminals in towers. If there is no commercial or industrial then supposedly they do nothing bad.  EA has truly redefined the simulation genre.

So it's like Manhattan.

[Mithas]

Apparently they built an MMO. You can't make this stuff up.

http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/03/15/simcity-gm-in-many-ways-we-built-an-mmo/

[tgr]

"Always on drm" doth not an MMO make.

[Malakili]

I think a Minecraft server is closer to a sim city MMO than Sim City 

[Pennilenko]

I think a Minecraft server is closer to a sim city MMO than Sim City 

The minecraft npc villagers are certainly smarter AI than the sim city agent thingies.

[Xuri]

Apparently they built an MMO. You can't make this stuff up.

http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/03/15/simcity-gm-in-many-ways-we-built-an-mmo/

[Paelos]

The denial in this is delicious.

[calapine]

Sim City 6! Featuring a RMAH and micro-transactions: Buy a skyscraper for the low low price of $1.99!

[Malakili]

Sim City 6! Featuring a RMAH and micro-transactions: Buy a skyscraper for the low low price of $1.99!

No, that is already planned for this version 

[HaemishM]

Apparently they built an MMO. You can't make this stuff up.

http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/03/15/simcity-gm-in-many-ways-we-built-an-mmo/

Well, they've certainly got the "face-fucking octopii of failure servers" and "griefers left with more tools than This Old House" part of an MMOG launch.

[Outlawedprod]

Multiplayer region features in action.  Ambulance works hard to save people on world wide tour to nowhere.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G98AREOBTxA

City making millions with 0 population
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGofzHsPYVI

[UnSub]

Sim City 6! Featuring a RMAH and micro-transactions: Buy a skyscraper for the low low price of $1.99!

I've seen a screenshot elsewhere that offered a Port Facilities DLC for $14.99 for this game. It still had placeholder text, but it seems the plan here are for microtrans on new content.

[Morat20]

Does EA not grasp that "microtrans" are for games that are nominally free, and not for games you fucking pay 60 dollars for?

They're pushing it with their tiny-ass "expansions" that should be priced at about 5 bucks and instead sell for 20.

[tgr]

Sim City 6! Featuring a RMAH and micro-transactions: Buy a skyscraper for the low low price of $1.99!

I've seen a screenshot elsewhere that offered a Port Facilities DLC for $14.99 for this game. It still had placeholder text, but it seems the plan here are for microtrans on new content.

That would be on the previous page in this thread.

[tgr]

Does EA not grasp that "microtrans" are for games that are nominally free, and not for games you fucking pay 60 dollars for?

They're pushing it with their tiny-ass "expansions" that should be priced at about 5 bucks and instead sell for 20.

Just call it what I call it, "a stupidity tax".

[Bzalthek]

So, from what I gather that super impossible offline mode is now possible by changing two lines of code.  I don't know the veracity of the statement, but here's the link.

http://www.cinemablend.com/games/SimCity-Offline-Mode-Now-Available-General-Public-53739.html

This game just keeps delivering.  On accident.

[Paelos]

There are no words. 

[Rendakor]

According to the link you can play offline, but not save. Once someone mods that too maybe I'll actually try playing this a bit, just to see the hilariously broken AI.

[jakonovski]

Today's the day! EA will tell us Simcity renters which obsolete sports game we will get.

[Lakov_Sanite]

I'm gonna bet it's mass effect 3, without DLC of course.

[palmer_eldritch]

Multiplayer region features in action.  Ambulance works hard to save people on world wide tour to nowhere.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G98AREOBTxA

City making millions with 0 population
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGofzHsPYVI

In fairness the second video seems to show the regional aspect - and in particular the Arcology great work - working as intended. Ie, people can live in the arcology (which is in the region) and travel to work in your industrial hell-hole city before going home again once the day is over.

It also, by that token, illustrates that these are not really cities at all. The region as a whole is potentially a metropolis. The "cities" are more like neighborhoods.

Having said that, I'm assuming the game actually works and the cities actually interact in the way the game is telling you they interact. Which I wouldn't bet on.

[palmer_eldritch]

According to the link you can play offline, but not save. Once someone mods that too maybe I'll actually try playing this a bit, just to see the hilariously broken AI.

The game works just fine if your internet connection fails entirely in my experience, as long as you are already editing your city. If you quit the game before your connection comes back then I think it's safe to assume all your progress will be lost, although I haven't tested that.

[Sparky]

Today's the day! EA will tell us Simcity renters which obsolete sports game we will get.

Just to rub salt in the wound it will be Spore

[Yoru]

EA: If you have bought, or buy, SimCity by March 25th, you get a second game free.

The selection is, uh, interesting:

• Battlefield 3 (Standard Edition)
• Bejeweled 3
• Dead Space 3 (Standard Edition)
• Mass Effect 3 (Standard Edition)
• MOHW (Standard Edition)
• NFS Most Wanted (Standard Edition)
• Plants vs. Zombies
• SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition

"We're sorry you didn't like the half-baked dud we sold you! Would you like a 10-year-old city sim that actually works?"

[luckton]

Good god, did ME3 already hit the bargain bin?

[Jeff Kelly]

It's the standard edition.

This means that you'll have to spend an additional 50 bucks if you want the From Ashes, Leviathan, Omega and Citadel DLCs.

[Lantyssa]

"As a token of appreciation"

[jakonovski]

Dead Space 3 is on the list so I'm happy. Fuck you all, I got mine!  

[Lounge]

Dead Space 3 is on the list so I'm happy. Fuck you all, I got mine!  

You won't be when you play it.

[Ingmar]

Does EA not grasp that "microtrans" are for games that are nominally free, and not for games you fucking pay 60 dollars for?

They're pushing it with their tiny-ass "expansions" that should be priced at about 5 bucks and instead sell for 20.

http://store.thesims3.com/

They have plenty of evidence that this model works well, I suspect.

[Sjofn]

The Sims store is fucking ridiculous, it's true.

[Soln]

Bejeweled 3

   

On Sale For $9.98

 

http://www.popcap.com/games/bejeweled3/pc

[Simond]

"We're sorry you didn't like the half-baked dud we sold you! Would you like a 10-year-old city sim that actually works?"

Pretty much, yeah (as long as you get a couple of mods). Pretty funny how the most entertaining games on that list are either a decade old or a couple of 'simple' puzzle games where EA was just the publisher.

E: Oh my word, this is just beautiful: http://news.yahoo.com/sorry-ea-never-obliged-simcity-single-player-game-163023554--finance.html

EA was never, ever obliged to make SimCity a single-player game, nor do these accusations (accurate or no) from modders that the existing code is just a few steps away from being a single-player game hold much water when it comes to EA’s obligations. So what if the game could have been a single-player game. EA made its design intentions clear over a year ago and hasn’t wavered since — love it or leave it.

You can ask, you can even petition, but I’d like to think we’re not at the point where we’re now telling painters, musicians, writers and artists of whatever stripe — game designers included — what they have to do.

You can’t have it both ways. You can’t shake your fist indignantly and shout “but games are art!” then hold game designers to a different standard. SimCity may not be the game you wanted, the game my boss wanted or the game I frankly wanted, but accusing EA of lying and double-dealing and speculating like a bunch of anti-government conspiracy nuts just makes us seem petty and juvenile. No one’s forcing us to buy the game or making our sense of self-satisfaction contingent on SimCity conforming to our personal tastes (the latter’s all us).

Didn’t we just go through this with Mass Effect 3? Where does this entitlement mentality come from? Why isn’t it sufficient to vote with our wallets? Where did artists or designers releasing games that aren’t tailored precisely to our standards morph into a mandate to launch vulgar, ad hominem-laced screeds?