Simcity SimCity 2000 Special Edition (Jewel Case) - PC

Simcity SimCity 2000 Special Edition (Jewel Case) - PC

Simcity SimCity 2000 Special Edition (Jewel Case) - PC

 SimCity 2000 Special Edition (Jewel Case) - PC by Electronic Arts
Simcity SimCity 2000 Special Edition (Jewel Case) - PC

Simcity Deluxe 1

Simcity Deluxe 1

 

I have a special place in my heart for SimCity4, and really the entire SimCity series. I've been playing it for eight years on a pretty regular basis. That's why, after attempting to play the travesty that is SimCity5, I knew I had to get online and try and prevent anyone else from spending any money on it. PLEASE - Do not buy this product.

If you're like me, and you just want to see what the next iteration of this iconic gaming series to judge for yourself, you're probably thinking to yourself "Yeah, but can it really be that bad?" Yes. I'm sorry. It's true. It may be one of the most anticipated games of the year, as advertised, but it is also one of the biggest letdowns of the DECADE.

Because here' the thing. You're not going to be able to play this game. As other reviews have indicated, you MUST be online to play. When you first launch the game you are asked to pick a server. In my experience, I had a choice between 3 servers in the US, or 3 servers somewhere on the other side of the globe. And the US ones were busy. So what the heck, I guess I'm connecting to Eastern Europe to play this game. I was assuming/hoping a lot of the processing would be happening on my machine, with only occasional trips to the server to sync with the live game. Nope - From the moment the title sequence starts playing, the video and sound are extremely choppy, and the cursor is extremely difficult to move, as presumably every time the machine cycles, it is pushing data back and forth to the Hague. My first thought is, my goodness EA, is this really the first impression you want someone to have of your game?

But hey, it's only the title sequence, right? Let me just get into the game, I just want to have the experience of putting up a few buildings before heading to bed. Read more

Simcity Deluxe 1

It is unfortunate that the Sim City franchise

It is unfortunate that the Sim City franchise

It is unfortunate that the Sim City franchise has put out a product that is so full of bugs that many users are unable to play the game at all. The Sim City forums are full of reports of technical problems, ranging from system crashes, to memory leaks.

Here are some things to be aware of if you have the game or are considering it:

1. there is already a patch available from EA, however, this patch does NOT resolve any of the reported crashes or memory leaks
2. there are a myriad of bugs, one of which is incredibly silly - if you use a particular type of road (the most common one) the game basically grinds to a halt, but if you always use county roads (a dirt road), the panning/scrolling is as normal
3. there is a mod available which unlocks some features and enhances game play, but again, crashes and memory leaks abound
4. if you have an ATI video card, there is a known issue with the latest THREE versions of the ati catalyst driver and this game - you will have to revert to a version that is approximately 4 versions old in order to maintain any level of game stability

That's enough for the technical issues, let's talk about game play.

The game is beautiful, and highly adaptive. You can finally play in a "free-for-all" mode that gives you unlimited money and basically lets you build the city of your dreams - you had to use a cheat to do this in previous sim games. The graphics are splendid and you can customize the level of detail for just about any aspect of the game, but keep in mind the higher detail, the slower the play, even on a fast computer. Adaptive means that depending upon the type of buildings you most often build, the "environment" will adapt and change, including the music and sim behaviour. This part is VERY cool. Read more

Fundamentally, SimCity has always been a 'software toy

Fundamentally, SimCity has always been a 'software toy

Fundamentally, SimCity has always been a 'software toy'. That means that there's no real end state, no way to win. It's just a thing that you play and experiment with. You build, and tinker, and mess around. It's a toy, not a game; it's a sandbox, not baseball.

So, in this iteration of the game, you don't even get to buy your toy. Rather, you rent a toy from EA, who lets you play with it only in very limited, circumscribed ways, only on their servers. So you have to have a live Internet connection at all times, and their servers have to be up, and have to have space for you. And the rules for play are draconian. If you want to, say, build a city, save it, blow it up with something terrible, and then restore from save, you can't do that anymore. That's an unauthorized usage of their toy. And if you figure out ways of using their toy that they don't like, they'll ban you forever.

All third-party modding is shut out. One of the best parts of SimCity 4 and The Sims is that users can create and share content among themselves for free. You will no longer be able to do this. You will be required to run only Official Authorized Content.

Further, you're not getting the whole game for your $60 or $80, depending on what version you're buying. EA's plan is to sell you Simcity 5 over and over and over. They've directly admitted that they already have it running with larger cities, but they're not releasing that now. They claim it's because it "won't run on Dad's PC", but the real reason is so they can sell it to you again later. Want subways? That's gonna be $20. Want railroads? Another $20. Bigger cities? Oh, that's in the $30 expansion.

Right now, if you look at The Sims 3, the game costs $30. Read more