They really need Sim Copter for a game like this where you can fly a helicopter over your city.
Or Sim Grand Theft Auto where you can drive a car through your city or start a crime/arson spree to test your law enforcement and fire fighting strategy.
Wasn't terribly well executed, never really made a splash.
But if there was a way to use the Grand Theft Auto 4 engine with a map generated from a Sim City 4 city, that would be amazing. I have some pretty epic SC4 regions that would be cool to see through the eyes of Niko Bellic.
I tried CitiesXL 2011 but it is just not as in-depth a simulation as SimCity 4 is.
CitiesXL 2012 has their trailer out, looks good, but again, if you're a bit of a simulation nut like me when it comes to this stuff, it probably won't fit the bill. But damn are the graphics superb.
I haven't played Simcity 4 in a long time, does it hold up well if I go and grab it from Steam? I noticed it's on sale for $9.99
check out http://www.simtropolis.com/ and have a look around. The modding community is very strong and they have done amazing things without access to source code. Take a look at the NAM, for example.
I also share your fear that EA is going to make a mess of this game, but I will pre-order anyway because, well, I can't help it.
I was going to buy this until I heard about the horrible DRM they are going to use. I don't know why companies do this anymore. Won't be purchasing, that's for sure.
While I agree that it only punishes legal users, I don't really get all the uproar, and certainly won't be refusing to buy the game based on it. My concern is just that years after its release, if they plan on shutting down their authentication system or whatever they have, they'd better patch the game to not require it.
My concern is just that years after its release, if they plan on shutting down their authentication system or whatever they have, they'd better patch the game to not require it.
This is a problem that has already been realized on other EA titles, particularly consoles.
Xbox Live typically required the games to use Microsoft's servers, but EA being EA demanded to use their own. I haven't found an old non-EA title for the Xbox 360 that doesn't still work on XBL, but plenty of EA titles are shut down within a year or two of a sequel coming out. This would be fine except now we look at a game like SimCity 5. The fact that this game requires online connectivity just to function in a single player context is a problem as far as I'm concerned. Planned obsolescence FTL.
Why buy a game with all that DRM? You could just pirate it and have a more open game that is playable however you wish to play it. Such a dumb idea EA.
Why buy a game with all that DRM? You could just pirate it and have a more open game that is playable however you wish to play it. Such a dumb idea EA.
My experience has been that EA/Origin makes pirating not even worth it. This game in particular is designed from the ground up to be multiplayer, and using a pirated game usually means you can't play multiplayer at all.
Until someone figures out a better way to stop piracy, this is what we are stuck with.
Why buy a game with all that DRM? You could just pirate it and have a more open game that is playable however you wish to play it. Such a dumb idea EA.
a) I'm not poor.
b) I don't feel put-upon because I have to be online to play. If I'm going to play something offline, it's gonna be Civ or old adventure games.
c) I'm not poor.
d) You can still buy a game and crack it on your laptop or whatever. Those things still work on legit copies you know.
e) If you don't like it, don't buy it. Continued piracy just legitimizes the use of DRM.
f) For all the bitching about Origin, I've been playing BF3 for a year and a half and haven't had any problems with it. People just like to bitch.
"Continued piracy just legitimizes the use of DRM."
This is completely false. More DRM leads to more piracy, not the other way around.
Highly debatable, and impossible to call completely false when there are hard numbers demonstrating exactly the opposite. I think its probably better to say that DRM will not deter organized piracy groups from finding ways to remove DRM. It probably does discourage casual copying though, and this regard, can be seen as protecting sales, rather than eliminating piracy. This is particularly interesting in terms of delaying the onset of piracy - in the day and age of pre-orders, midnight lineups, etc, if you can delay piracy during the peak selling periods immediately after release, you are again protecting crucial sales.
Quote:
Finally, on the contentious topic of DRM, aside from Spore whose audience may well have fallen victim to DRM-induced hysteria, the presence of intrusive DRM appears not to increase piracy of a game. For example Call of Duty 4, Assassin's Creed and Crysis all have no intrusive DRM whatsoever: they all use basic SafeDisc copy protection with no install limits, no online activation, and no major reports of protection-related issues. Yet all were pirated heavily enough to have the dubious distinction of being in the Top 10 downloaded games list. But strangely absent from the list are several popular games which do use more intrusive DRM: BioShock, Crysis Warhead, and Mass Effect. This indicates quite clearly that intrusive DRM is not the main reason why some games are pirated more heavily than others. We examine this issue in more detail in the Copy Protection & DRM section.
That's an enormous and thoughtfully written article worth reading in its entirety.
Quote:
Though PC gamers have laughed off the doom-saying surrounding the death of the platform, the piracy problem isn't going away. 2D Boy's excellent indie title World of Goo is suffering at the hands of the pirates, as the game's creators have revealed that the game has an alarming 90 percent piracy rate.
I tried CitiesXL 2011 but it is just not as in-depth a simulation as SimCity 4 is.
CitiesXL 2012 has their trailer out, looks good, but again, if you're a bit of a simulation nut like me when it comes to this stuff, it probably won't fit the bill. But damn are the graphics superb.
I've got Cities XL 2012. It's alright, I'm not sure I'd recommend it. It feels like it's lacking something and the funny thing is I couldn't tell you what. It's just not that much fun.
I've got Cities XL 2012. It's alright, I'm not sure I'd recommend it. It feels like it's lacking something and the funny thing is I couldn't tell you what. It's just not that much fun.
I know what you mean, I ended up trying it on Saturday. I think the interface really leaves something to be desired, and the feedback system has a tendency to provide contradictory information (eg: game says there's a lack of jobs for unskilled workers, yet your industries that require unskilled workers say there's a shortage of unskilled workers to employ - wtf).
