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Gaming SimCity (2013) review

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Meanmotion, 8 Apr 2013.

  1. Meanmotion

    Meanmotion bleh Moderator

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  2. damien c

    damien c Mad FPS Gamer

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    A few friends of mine have this game and nearly all of them hate it due to the always online connection being required.

    1 of my friends has had his city wiped every night for the last 2 weeks and is now at the point where he has uninstalled the game and won't be playing it again.

    I was looking forward to playing this as it looked and sounded fun to play but since all of these issues have happened and the likes of cities being wiped overnight etc, I just don't think it's worth the money being asked for it and if it became a Free To Play game I probably still wouldn't play it.
     
  3. will_123

    will_123 Small childs brain in a big body

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    Really think this game earns more than 40%. Its the first game in a while i have started and realised its like 2am before i know it! Truely addictive, with a few more patches I feel this will keep getting better. Needs a few kinks ironed out I agree with that. But 40% is very harash in my opinion. I waited a week before buying it and have not experienced any problems with servers at all. Surely the game should be judged on its content and not the problems with launch...?
     
  4. Bogomip

    Bogomip ... Yo Momma

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    Ill be honest, I really dont get what all the fuss was about. I bought it after I read all about the massive problems with servers and stuff (but enough time so they had been fixed). The small cities were complained about etc, forced multiplayer...

    I havent had a problem at all - I picked a little place to build and made it private (nobody but me can build in bogland :)), selected a town and had fun building it up - now im working on making it higher density, more populous and so more profitable. After its denser im going to start on one of the other plots in my little area to provide more business for my sims in the first town to work at.

    The always online I disagree with in principle, but in practice I have had no issues whatsoever (edit: like the guy above) - my internet IS always on. I hate EA for lying about it but everybody knows they have poor business practice anyway so no change there.

    The one thing im not so happy about is the ease of it. In SC4 the first city you built in your area would be really difficult because there was nothing in the area to support you, but my first city here was actually really easy to build. It might also be nice if the blocks you can build in were a little bit closer, more like a grid, to make it more metropolis like on the map - but thats neither here nor there if the sims dont mind driving :)

    40% seems very harsh if im honest for what is actually fundamentally an interesting game, and what is a more detailed simulation than previous incarnations. Its more gamey too than previous incarnations because, if you are multi-playering with yourself, like I am, then setting up your cities becomes a strategic decision - as well as what you put in them. Its just hard to see how you can justify 40% when you give some games 99% and list some issues you have with said games.
     
  5. Pieface

    Pieface Modder

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    40%?

    Bit-Tech trying to jump on the bandwagon or something? Or trying to be cool and be anti-EA?
     
  6. fdbh96

    fdbh96 What's a Dremel?

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    Took your time getting this review out...
     
  7. sotu1

    sotu1 Ex-Modder

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    EXACTLY what I was thinking....

    Having played the game, my guesses are that it's currently around the 80% mark. A few bug fixes and tweaks and it's in the 90% range. Considering it'll continue to get supported with new content and updates over the next few years I can see it getting fixed, even under EA time.
     
  8. blacko

    blacko What's a Dremel?

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    can we have a rating systems for articles?
     
  9. Shirty

    Shirty W*nker! Super Moderator

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    Perhaps Mat just doesn't like it? I can't play a game requiring always on internet anyway (rural copper ftl), but the consensus seems quite mixed on this one. If you don't believe the negative reviews then buy it and play it. You might like it, you might not.

    Reviews ain't gospel.
     
  10. XXAOSICXX

    XXAOSICXX Minimodder

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    I don't get the hate about this review and I think people are so used to seeing scores in the 80-90% brackets that they now think that anything less is unthinkable.

    For a game to be 80-90% it would have to be stunning, in my opinion - a "must have" game - perfect in almost every way.

    If a game is average - a bit of fun but ultimately not GREAT - it should score somewhere around the 50% mark. If it's below average, which the reviewer clearly believes it to be, then it should score less.

    This all sounds very obvious, but everyone seems to think that because they've had some fun with the game it shouldn't be given any less than 80% - this is nonsense.

    If the game has limited long term appeal, puts barriers in the way of the user enjoying it and is "fun, but i won't play be playing it for long" it deserves a below average score.
     
  11. Silver51

    Silver51 I cast flare!

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    And yet, I really enjoy the game. I haven't played a title to 2AM on a work night in a while.

    If you're having trouble with the game not saving, avoid cheetah speed for now. From personal experience it seems to desync the game and you'll end up losing stuff.


    The always on aspect; suck it up? Software in general is moving to a subscription model with clouds and Internet dependencies for 'our convenience', which is in no way a system to milk users for monies.
     
  12. Roskoken

    Roskoken What's a Dremel?

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    40% is still too high for this piece of ****.

    **** EA.
     
  13. stanonwheels

    stanonwheels What's a Dremel?

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    Agree with the review. My biggest gripe with the game is it feels so restrictive. Sandbox, god games should make you feel like a god, not some hapless planner in Swindon town council. No fun when the latest version of your favorite game has all the good bits stripped out and replaced with Nissan Leaf ads.
     
  14. Bogomip

    Bogomip ... Yo Momma

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    Constructive, nice to see you really have a good idea of why you dislike it and well done for communicating that point so very eloquently ;)

    At the end of the day - 40% is below "average" which bit-tech says is 50%. It isnt a below average game at all. There are a few design choices Maxis made that people dont agree with, such as having multiple cities for your empire as opposed to one, but dropping it a substantial amount for the bits you have pointed out doesnt make sense.

    I refer now to this post I made relating to the 99% score given to CS:GO: http://forums.bit-tech.net/showpost.php?p=3144076&postcount=9

    Two things drop down 1% from a possible 100%. CS:GO is a good game I would wager but how does it really build upon what had come before except having fancier graphics? CS was great at what it was which was part of the reason why it was so persistently played.

    I guess what im saying is how do you even decide upon these scores? :S

    edit: also not saying it shouldnt be a 40% if thats what you believe, I just cant fathom it :)
     
  15. rollo

    rollo Modder

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    Having played it for a while now and completed my first 3 city plot + 1 expansion thing. Ive had alot of fun played 50hrs + now and even got a free game from EA to boot lol.

    First title in a while were ive lost track of time and relised its morning then needed to go to work after been up most of the night building and planning a city.

    Game has some issues but not to 40% mark. id of give it 70% personally and it will rise in time. Arma 2 had a worse launch and it scored 80% so something not entirely correct here.

    Always online makes no difference to me im always on anyway. Unless you live in the middle of nowhere i dont see how an always online requirement makes alot of difference.

    Starcraft 2 has a similar requirement did not see it get brought up for it. Most of the big pc sellers are online games or online only. ( WOW BF3 SC2 + heart of swarm) Thats the future people time to go console if its such a big problem. ( enough the next xbox is not available to you as its online only too)

    PC piracy brought this on to legit pc gamers, Want to blame someone talk to your m8s that dont pay for games as thats whos brought this on.
     
  16. Shirty

    Shirty W*nker! Super Moderator

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    AFAIK Joe gave up on scores a while back before leaving games journalism altogether. Hence some pretty zany percentages. The idea being that assigning a subjective number to a game detracts from the time and effort spent writing the review in the first place.

    Let's be honest most of us skip to the score first, then if that piques our interest we read the review more thoroughly. What better way to get people looking at a review and discussing it than giving a game a silly, arbitrary score?

    Joe's not here any more though, and I'm sure Mat can fight his own battles. Whether he will or not remains to be seen.
     
  17. DXR_13KE

    DXR_13KE BananaModder

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    IIRC pirates have already cracked this always on DRM, so... DRM is really effective at killing piracy.
     
  18. Tomrh99

    Tomrh99 What's a Dremel?

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    I think this game deserves the 40% it got. Aside from the awful DRM which cripples the game as a whole, the poor AI makes road managing and building managing really poor (they will always take the shortest road route, even if it is full of traffic). The online play is not really needed and is less fun in a lot of ways than if you had just one big city. It also apparently is not fun after about 10 hours for many people, which limits the playtime a lot compared to previous editions.
     
  19. GeorgeStorm

    GeorgeStorm Aggressive PC Builder

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    Whilst this review doesn't make me want to play it, watching people actually play it (both IRL and on youtube) really does.
    You can see the bugs etc and it's still a fun game, with a lot of potential, the worst part for me is the possibility they'll be a million DLCs making the game cost even more than it already does...
     
  20. fdbh96

    fdbh96 What's a Dremel?

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    Hopefully they'll do a bf3 type premium thing so you can pay for it up front.
     
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