Sim City 5

[MrSquished]

Really? IMO, it looks like they included a pretty good variety of games there. You don't like shooter games? Or puzzle games? Or horror games? Or racing games? or RPGs?

It's free dude. Then again, I don't know what else I expected; the gaming community is the only community I know of that will actually whine and bitch about getting free stuff. EA trying to apologize to people by offering a brand new, $60 game, for completely free? "FUCK YOU EA." Yup, that sounds about par for the course.

I'm not trying to defend SimCity. I know it's a disaster. But it just bothers me when people get worked up and pissed because they're getting stuff for free. I guess I'm just ranting about obnoxious people in general. It's shit like this that makes me embarassed to tell people I'm a "gamer".

Sorry you'll have to suffer through your free game. Really, really sorry.

you sound just as bad as someone that whines about anything free.

NO MATTER WHAT TAKE WHATEVER THE HELL A CORPORATION GIVES YOU AND SHUT UP! IT'S FREE THEREFORE GOOD!

as opposed to

NO MATTER WHAT I AM GOING TO BITCH ABOUT IT CAUSE I AM A WHINY GAMER!

 

[Dankk]

you sound just as bad as someone that whines about anything free.

NO MATTER WHAT TAKE WHATEVER THE HELL A CORPORATION GIVES YOU AND SHUT UP! IT'S FREE THEREFORE GOOD!

as opposed to

NO MATTER WHAT I AM GOING TO BITCH ABOUT IT CAUSE I AM A WHINY GAMER!

That's not what I meant at all. Is the whole SimCity debacle inexcusable? Yes. Should they fix it? Yes. Does giving out free games help rectify the situation? No, but it's a step in the right direction. Someone at EA/Maxis must have at least a shred of respect for their customer base, otherwise they probably wouldn't be doing this. Given the negative attitude some people have toward things that can do nothing but good, it's a wonder they even bother.

Saying "NO MATTER WHAT TAKE WHATEVER THE HELL A CORPORATION GIVES YOU" is completely silly, and a gross over-generalization of what I said.

NO MATTER WHAT I AM GOING TO BITCH ABOUT IT CAUSE I AM A WHINY GAMER!

I know you're exaggerating here, but to me, this is what 99% of the gaming community feels like. It's mostly inhabited by leagues of angsty 14-year-old kids who throw tantrums and start making death threats because their heavily-anticipated game isn't flawless. Go onto the Steam forums anytime a new game is released, ever - regardless of how good it actually is - and the rage threads are incredible.

I know I'm still kinda ranting... it's not really related to here (AnandTech is generally pretty decent) but it just bugs me.

 

[TheVrolok]

Really? IMO, it looks like they included a pretty good variety of games there. You don't like shooter games? Or puzzle games? Or horror games? Or racing games? or RPGs?

It's free dude. Then again, I don't know what else I expected; the gaming community is the only community I know of that will actually whine and bitch about getting free stuff. EA trying to apologize to people by offering a brand new, $60 game, for completely free? "FUCK YOU EA." Yup, that sounds about par for the course.

I'm not trying to defend SimCity. I know it's a disaster. But it just bothers me when people get worked up and pissed because they're getting stuff for free. I guess I'm just ranting about obnoxious people in general. It's shit like this that makes me embarassed to tell people I'm a "gamer".

Sorry you'll have to suffer through your free game. Really, really sorry.

I would have drastically preferred a working copy of the game I purchased and would be happy to forgo a "free game" for that experience.

Own it. •Battlefield 3
Really? •Bejeweled 3
Loved 1, 2 was meh, reviews of 3 are more meh.•Dead Space 3 (Standard Edition)
Own it. •Mass Effect 3 (Standard Edition)
Played it. •Medal of Honor Warfighter (Standard Edition)
Just don't like the genre. •Need For Speed Most Wanted (Standard Edition)
Own it. •Plants vs. Zombies
Own it. •SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition

So, really, great list of free games? Because I've been a good customer, I have a fairly limited selection. I'm down to Bejeweled, DS3, and NFS:MW. 2 games from genres I have 0 interest in, and a lackluster sequel to a sequel that I had planned on passing on entirely. Essentially what you're saying is it's ok for EA to have totally, awfully, abysmally fucked up a game I had been waiting for, and preordered because they gave me a free game off a list. Not only is it ok, but I should be happy (grateful?) with what comes down to be a choice between 3 games I would never have played otherwise, and only 1 in which I have any interest. Come on now. That's a little anti-consumer, no?

 

[Stuka87]

I know you're exaggerating here, but to me, this is what 99% of the gaming community feels like. It's mostly inhabited by leagues of angsty 14-year-old kids who throw tantrums and start making death threats because their heavily-anticipated game isn't flawless. Go onto the Steam forums anytime a new game is released, ever - regardless of how good it actually is - and the rage threads are incredible.

I know I'm still kinda ranting... it's not really related to here (AnandTech is generally pretty decent) but it just bugs me.

This is the main reason I stay far away from most gaming forums. I come here as AnandTech seems to have mostly adults on it, as apposed to kids. Although some of the adults here certainly act like kids. Especially in this thread.

To me, I was a bit annoyed to have issues that first day, but it was by no means the end of the world. I am certainly not going to complain about them giving me another game.

 

[maevinj]

I think the complaints are more about the selection of the free game, vs getting a free game. I know when they made the annoucement, it almost sounded like you would be able to pick any game from the origin catalog, not a selected few.

 

[Dankk]

I would have drastically preferred a working copy of the game I purchased and would be happy to forgo a "free game" for that experience.

Own it. •Battlefield 3
Really? •Bejeweled 3
Loved 1, 2 was meh, reviews of 3 are more meh.•Dead Space 3 (Standard Edition)
Own it. •Mass Effect 3 (Standard Edition)
Played it. •Medal of Honor Warfighter (Standard Edition)
Just don't like the genre. •Need For Speed Most Wanted (Standard Edition)
Own it. •Plants vs. Zombies
Own it. •SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition

So, really, great list of free games? Because I've been a good customer, I have a fairly limited selection. I'm down to Bejeweled, DS3, and NFS:MW. 2 games from genres I have 0 interest in, and a lackluster sequel to a sequel that I had planned on passing on entirely. Essentially what you're saying is it's ok for EA to have totally, awfully, abysmally fucked up a game I had been waiting for, and preordered because they gave me a free game off a list. Not only is it ok, but I should be happy (grateful?) with what comes down to be a choice between 3 games I would never have played otherwise, and only 1 in which I have any interest. Come on now. That's a little anti-consumer, no?

I understand. I didn't really consider the possibility that you already own half those games.

 

[TallBill]

I think the complaints are more about the selection of the free game, vs getting a free game. I know when they made the annoucement, it almost sounded like you would be able to pick any game from the origin catalog, not a selected few.

I'd bet that it comes down to rights. They're not going to pay to get you a game.

 

[SpatiallyAware]

This is the main reason I stay far away from most gaming forums. I come here as AnandTech seems to have mostly adults on it, as apposed to kids. Although some of the adults here certainly act like kids. Especially in this thread.

To me, I was a bit annoyed to have issues that first day, but it was by no means the end of the world. I am certainly not going to complain about them giving me another game.

Issues that first day? You have got to be kidding.

 

[KentState]

In all honesty, I will gladly take a free game. The only one I haven't played on the list is Dead Space 3. Regardless, I'm more interested in the bugs being worked out of the current game. To say that the issues are only from the first day is b.s. After you put in a considerable amount of time playing, you are stuck with game breaking bugs. While they are not the end of the world, they do make a $60 purchase hard to swallow.

 

[HarvardAce]

Anyone see/try this?

http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/1ahk0t/simcity_offline_mode_now_available_to_the_general/

Sure, you can play offline indefinitely, but you can't start the game without being online, you can't exit the game if you want to save your city without going back online, and none of the region interaction stuff will work very well (it basically caches the last state when you left and uses that until it gets a new update from the server).

 

[PowerYoga]

This is the main reason I stay far away from most gaming forums. I come here as AnandTech seems to have mostly adults on it, as apposed to kids. Although some of the adults here certainly act like kids. Especially in this thread.

To me, I was a bit annoyed to have issues that first day, but it was by no means the end of the world. I am certainly not going to complain about them giving me another game.

If you go to a restaurant, order a burger and they make you wait 2 hours before serving you a burnt piece of meat with some soggy bread and then refuse a refund, would you go back to the restaurant if they offered you a free meal? I know I wouldn't waste my time.

 

[Stuka87]

If you go to a restaurant, order a burger and they make you wait 2 hours before serving you a burnt piece of meat with some soggy bread and then refuse a refund, would you go back to the restaurant if they offered you a free meal? I know I wouldn't waste my time.

This is not a good analogy.

It would be more along the lines of if I ordered a pay-per-view movie in the comfort of my own home, and it did not play until the day afterwards, and then had some scenes removed to allow the streaming to work, and they then offered me a free movie later. Which I would gladly take.

I was at home, the game could not connect, so I simply went and did something else. In this case, I played another game. Next day, the game worked, minus a few features, but I was able to play. It was certainly nothing to get worked up over.

 

[HarvardAce]

Has anyone encountered the bug with trade ports (not depots) where the ports eat your local deliveries? I plopped two ports down on my city that I was starting with processors and was going to turn into a huge TV processing plant. As I'm trying to build up my cash, I switched from depots to ports because my depots couldn't keep up with my 5 processor plants. However, every time a truck carrying processors stopped at my port (which has processor bins), it would do a weird animation and then drive off with the processors still in the truck (which would eventually despawn without delivering the processors anywhere, destroying them in the process).

I'm having the issue with both of my two ports, even tried blowing them up and replopping them, same issue. I've seen other people have the issue and others not have it, has anyone found a workaround that involves something other than just using a crap ton of depots?

 

[Stuka87]

Issues that first day? You have got to be kidding.

Yes, you have made it clear that you had the worst experience known to man by constantly ranting about it.

personally launch day is the only day I was not able to connect. Since then I have been playing on US West 1 (I am in California) without any issues. Every now and then the I would get a "Disconnected from server" but it would always reconnect. And once I got an alert saying the game was not running right, so it rolled back 20 minutes to a previous state. That last one was a bit annoying. But it was not a game ending experience.

 

[zinfamous]

Yes, you have made it clear that you had the worst experience known to man by constantly ranting about it.

personally launch day is the only day I was not able to connect. Since then I have been playing on US West 1 (I am in California) without any issues. Every now and then the I would get a "Disconnected from server" but it would always reconnect. And once I got an alert saying the game was not running right, so it rolled back 20 minutes to a previous state. That last one was a bit annoying. But it was not a game ending experience.

the server connection issues, as it turns out, are only a minor issue with this game.


the game is flat out broken form a design standpoint in terms of what it was advertised to be: a simulation game.

From the evidence people have posted, it turns out that the core functionality of this "advanced simulation game" are no more complicated than what you would get in a $1 app from iTunes or Android market.

Considering the vaunted history of the best of all Maxis games, this really is a travesty as far as gaming is concerned. It is also false advertising.

 

[zinfamous]

This is not a good analogy.

It would be more along the lines of if I ordered a pay-per-view movie in the comfort of my own home, and it did not play until the day afterwards, and then had some scenes removed to allow the streaming to work, and they then offered me a free movie later. Which I would gladly take.

I was at home, the game could not connect, so I simply went and did something else. In this case, I played another game. Next day, the game worked, minus a few features, but I was able to play. It was certainly nothing to get worked up over.

the core code of the game is broken, however. and there is no removal or addition to fix some of these problems. You were misled into buying another product, more or less.


It would be like ordering "The Dark Knight" on Pay-per-view, and they sent you a Uwe Boll turd instead. You complain that this is not "The Dark Knight," but some attempt to make a movie out of this..."BloodRayne? wtf is that?"
After complaining for long enough, they offer you a free download of one of the Spider-Man or X-Men movies, all of which you have already seen dozens of times. But, sorry, "The Dark Knight" that we sent you is "The Dark Knight" that you ordered, please enjoy one of these complimentary downloads if you are not satisfied.

 

[Stuka87]

the core code of the game is broken, however. and there is no removal or addition to fix some of these problems. You were misled into buying another product, more or less.


It would be like ordering "The Dark Knight" on Pay-per-view, and they sent you a Uwe Boll turd instead. You complain that this is not "The Dark Knight," but some attempt to make a movie out of this..."BloodRayne? wtf is that?"
After complaining for long enough, they offer you a free download of one of the Spider-Man or X-Men movies, all of which you have already seen dozens of times. But, sorry, "The Dark Knight" that we sent you is "The Dark Knight" that you ordered, please enjoy one of these complimentary downloads if you are not satisfied.

Yeah, that is a valid point. The game isn't as advertised in regards to some of the features it was said to of had.

 

[fixbsod]

This just broke :


Electronic Arts CEO steps down, takes blame for missed targets"


http://news.yahoo.com/electronic-arts-ceo-step-down-202418535--sector.html

Satisfied?

 

[Stuka87]

This just broke :


Electronic Arts CEO steps down, takes blame for missed targets"


http://news.yahoo.com/electronic-arts-ceo-step-down-202418535--sector.html

Satisfied?

EA's stock has been steadily going down since he took over in 2007. And after he steps down, the stock suddenly goes up! With any luck they find a new CEO that is actually concerned with what gamers want.

 

[fixbsod]

A bad CEO can do that. I **LONG** for the day Ballmer finally departs from Microsoft and a new CEO can step in. I **GUARANTEE** you MSFT will be up whenever this (long overdue) happens.

EA's stock has been steadily going down since he took over in 2007. And after he steps down, the stock suddenly goes up! With any luck they find a new CEO that is actually concerned with what gamers want.

 

[BrightCandle]

Its going to take a lot more than the man at the top to fix EA. A whole lot of bad decisions went into making EA the hated organisation it is today.

Still its welcome to see someone go, although I doubt it will save them as a business from gradual decline.

 

[waggy]

This just broke :


Electronic Arts CEO steps down, takes blame for missed targets"


http://news.yahoo.com/electronic-arts-ceo-step-down-202418535--sector.html

Satisfied?

It's a good start. someone else in charge EA could do wonders. the company has some great IP and can make a ton if they actually cared about the gamer a little.

 

[Slew Foot]

This just broke :


Electronic Arts CEO steps down, takes blame for missed targets"


http://news.yahoo.com/electronic-arts-ceo-step-down-202418535--sector.html

Satisfied?

Thats the best news I heard all day

 

[TheVrolok]

the core code of the game is broken, however. and there is no removal or addition to fix some of these problems. You were misled into buying another product, more or less.


It would be like ordering "The Dark Knight" on Pay-per-view, and they sent you a Uwe Boll turd instead. You complain that this is not "The Dark Knight," but some attempt to make a movie out of this..."BloodRayne? wtf is that?"
After complaining for long enough, they offer you a free download of one of the Spider-Man or X-Men movies, all of which you have already seen dozens of times. But, sorry, "The Dark Knight" that we sent you is "The Dark Knight" that you ordered, please enjoy one of these complimentary downloads if you are not satisfied.

Nailed it. Good analogy. That's basically how I feel, and why the "free game" has left me still rather unsatisfied.

It's a good start. someone else in charge EA could do wonders. the company has some great IP and can make a ton if they actually cared about the gamer a little.

Agreed.

 

[dagamer34]

A bad CEO can do that. I **LONG** for the day Ballmer finally departs from Microsoft and a new CEO can step in. I **GUARANTEE** you MSFT will be up whenever this (long overdue) happens.

Because what would any other Microsoft CEO be doing that Ballmer isn't. Catering to your wishes? :whiste:

Replacing a CEO doesn't let you do over mistakes, otherwise I would be right there with you. And even a person like Tim Cook who was groomed by Steve Jobs himself for several years hasn't fixed what's ailed that company (loosing almost 1/2 your share value in 6 months should mean we cut off his head too).