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Tag: SimCity

  • SimCity Can Finally Be Played Offline

    SimCity Can Finally Be Played Offline

    Publisher EA this week finally released a patch for SimCity that allows the game to be played offline. The feature had been requested from gamers since the game’s troubled launch.

    SimCity players will now be greeted with a “Single-Player” option that can be chosen. Once selected, the option will allow players to boot up and play SimCity offline, no internet connection needed.

    According to a blog post on the SimCity website, developer Maxis only began working on the offline fix only six and a half months ago. The post also indicates that SimCity code was written from the ground-up to rely on servers, demonstrating that the game’s DRM had been planned from the outset of development. Much of the game’s core was reportedly re-written to accomidate the new offline mode.

    The launch of EA’s SimCity just over one year ago was an unmitigated disaster. Even before the game’s launch industry watchers had warned that the game’s always-on DRM was antithetical to the series’ long-standing game mechanics.

    When the game launched a huge portion of the game’s early purchasers were met with error messages and long queues when trying to log onto SimCity servers. Even after the initial server blitz was settled long-time SimCity players were upset to learn that the game could not be played in situations where an internet connection was not present.

    In addition to the DRM fiasco the mechanics of the game itself were centered around building cities in cooperation with other players online. This led to some of the biggest complaints about the game such as the small maximum city sizes and the fact that players abandoning a game could ruin the experience for others still playing in a game region.

    Unfortunately, this week’s patch does nothing to correct the game’s most glaring mechanical issues. According to the blog post, playing SimCity offline will be a very similar experience to playing it online. Cities will still need to be specialized to help grow other cities in each region, which are required for maintaining individual cities. However, the new offline mode will support a “save as” function, allowing players to experiment with different ways of developing their cities and regions in classic SimCity fashion.

    Image via EA

  • SimCity Is Finally Getting An Offline Mode

    One of the biggest blunders of 2013 was the launch of EA’s SimCity reboot. The PC game required an always online Internet connection which the developers at Maxis claimed was due to the game using cloud computing to generate cities in game. It sounded good on paper, but the launch was plagued with connection time outs and various other problems that prevented players from being able to play game they just spent $60 on. Frustrated players demanded an offline mode, but Maxis said it was impossible.

    Funny thing – impossible doesn’t mean much when a developer needs to do something to reinvigorate its game.

    Maxis announced today that it’s finally adding an offline mode to SimCity. The new mode will be included in what Maxis is calling Update 10. This new mode is in the final phases of development with the hope that the team can get it in the hands of players as soon as possible.

    So, what will offline play look like? According to Maxis, it will be the same as online play, but with cities that are saved locally. There’s no word yet on if the offline mode will allow the creation and curation of larger cities. A central complaint of the original game was that cities were much too small, and an offline mode would theoretically allow for the creation of larger cities.

    If the offline mode doesn’t bring any major changes to the game, modders will pick up the slack. Maxis originally announced limited mod support in 2012 that would only bring aesthetic changes to the game for fear of breaking the online game. With an offline mode, those modders are now set free to do what they want within the confines of the offline game. As for online game mods, you’ll still have to follow a set of strict rules.

    There’s no date for when the offline mode for SimCity just yet, but players shouldn’t have to wait much longer. It sounds like the offline mode is in the final stages of development. If you’re one of the game’s more hardcore players, you may just get early access as Maxis will be making the new mode available to its most dedicated players before launch to test it.

    Image via SimCity

  • SimCity Might Get An Offline Mode, Mod Support Is Coming

    When SimCity launched earlier this year, it became the best example yet of why always-online DRM doesn’t work. The game suffered from inconsistent performance and random log outs as a result of the game’s requirement to always be online. At the time, EA insisted that the always online requirement was part of the game’s design, but the now the developers at Maxis are backing away from that claim.

    In an update on the official SimCity blog, Maxis General Manager Patrick Buechner provided players with an update on the game. He first thanks the players and assures them that the team is listening to their complaints and suggestions. That statement would seem rather superfluous if it wasn’t for Buechner noting that Maxis is finally looking into adding an offline mode:

    Right now we have a team specifically focused on exploring the possibility of an offline mode. I can’t make any promises on when we will have more information, but we know this is something that many of our players have been asking for. While the server connectivity issues are behind us, we would like to give our players the ability to play even if they choose not to connect. An offline mode would have the additional benefit of providing room to the modding community to experiment without interfering or breaking the multiplayer experience.

    Speaking of mods, Maxis announced that mod support is on the way. Unfortunately, the only kind of modding support Maxis is adding at the moment is the ability to swap colors. Anything else would “jeopardize the integrity of the gameplay or harm the experience of others.” That’s perfectly reasonable as mods do have the potential to break an online game like SimCity. If an offline mode is offered, however, EA should open the floodgates on modding to let players do whatever they want.

    Oh, and for those that want bigger cities – it’s not happening. The team at Maxis says that increasing the size of cities anymore would negatively impact performance for everybody. That doesn’t mean their experiments with larger cities is going to waste though. The developers say that the results of their work will be put into future performance improvement updates.

    So, there you have it. SimCity might finally give players what they’ve been asking for since launch. It certainly took them long enough, but it’s definitely appreciated. Now if only we could get another game to drop its asinine always online DRM.

    [Image: SimCity Blog]

  • Sim City Developers Ditch EA, Start New Studio

    After the meltdown that surrounded the launch of SimCity this year, it wouldn’t come as any surprise that some Maxis developers were disheartened. The visuals of the new title were top-notch, and the streamlined interface appeared to working well, but the size of cities was heavily constrained, one of the many by-products of the broken always-on DRM implemented for the game. SimCity‘s Metacritic score sits at a dismal 64, with user reviews that are even more harsh.

    Though upset gamers were quick to blame EA for the mandatory online requirement, SimCity‘s developers had always maintained that the game had been designed around such a system from the start (though it took only days for modders to get the game running internet-free). Now, whatever the real story behind the poor SimCity launch, the major names behind the title have now struck out on their own.

    A new game studio named Jellygrade was announced this week. The names behind the new developer are Ocean Quigley, the creative director of SimCity; Andrew Willmott, the lead architect of SimCity; and Dan Moskowitz, gameplay lead on SimCity.

    The new studio’s website states that these three “recovering ex-AAA game developers” are now working on their first indie project. It is also hinted that the game will be for mobile platforms. So far, a few hints have been given on the current ideas for the upcoming title. Quigley has stated that the game will be a simulation (shocker) about “the dawn of life on earth.” From Quigley’s blog:

    It’s a game that takes you from the churning, molten early earth to seas teeming with life.

    Some volcano and magma drawings have been posted on the Jellygrade tumblr development blog. The game appears to use lava, water, rock, and comets to simulate conditions on early Earth.

  • EA Offers A Free Game To Those Troubled By SimCity’s Launch Woes

    There’s no denying it – SimCity‘s launch was a massive failure. EA didn’t anticipate the demand, and its always-online DRM scheme failed to compensate for the massive load on the servers. It prevented thousands of players who legitimately purchased the game from playing it. Now EA is trying to make it right… kind of.

    While EA won’t offer an offline mode for the game, the publisher is extending an olive branch to SimCity players in the form of a free game. Those who purchased Simcity around launch will be able to redeem one of the following games for free from EA’s Origin store through March 30:

  • Battlefield 3 (Standard Edition)
  • Bejeweled 3
  • Dead Space 3 (Standard Edition)
  • Mass Effect 3 (Standard Edition)
  • Medal of Honor Warfighter (Standard Edition)
  • Need For Speed Most Wanted (Standard Edition)
  • Plants vs. Zombies
  • SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition

    • It’s kind of ironic of EA to offer a previous incarnation of the SimCity franchise to those affected by the latest game’s launch. Well, at least those who pick SimCity 4 will be able to play a SimCity game without needing to be constantly online.

    It seems that this is as good as its going to get for SimCity players who simply want an offline only experience for the latest game in the franchise. After Maxis pretty much confirmed that an offline mode was possible, it just stings all the more that EA still won’t offer what players want. Despite all of that, SimCity seems to be up and running without any problems at the moment.

    It’s going to be interesting to see how the entire SimCity debacle will affect EA’s running in The Consumerist’s Worst Company In America award. It won the “prestigious” award last year, and this latest event might just help the company retain its Golden Poo award.

  • SimCity Debacle Gets The NMA Treatment

    SimCity Debacle Gets The NMA Treatment

    In case you haven’t heard, EA launched the latest entry in its venerated SimCity franchise last week. The story would have ended there if it was a success. Instead, the game’s always-online DRM ensured the launch was plagued by anything and everything that could go wrong.

    While EA works on getting the game running at full capacity, enjoy NMA’s take on everything that went wrong with SimCity:

  • SimCity Creator Will Wright Plays the New SimCity

    Last week, EA released a video in which SimCity creator Will Wright sat down with Ocean Quigley, creative director of the new SimCity, to speak about the design decisions made on the new iteration. Wright, who is not directly involved with the creation of the new SimCity, praised the new game for its depiction of consequences for player decisions and the ability to, possibly, make players feel guilty about mistakes or misfortune.

    This week, a video of Will Wright sitting down with Maxis‘ Stone Librande, lead designer of the new SimCity (and narrator of earlier SimCity walkthroughs) to talk about his experience of trying out the new game. Wright praises the use of curved roads and the ability for cities to specialize. He also states that instead of identifying with the individual sims living in his cities, he identified with neighborhoods and pictured himself living in them.

  • SimCity Creators Preview New Game, Talk Sims

    When Will Wright designed the first SimCity all the way back in 1989, he founded an entire genre of games. Now that he’s out of the game design business (sort of), it would be interesting to see what the gaming legend might have to say about EA‘s and Maxis‘ newest SimCity. Would he appreciate the detailed building designs and intricate patterns of Sims interacting with cities, or would the game’s always-on DRM scheme and push toward a Sims 3-like micro-transaction system offend his creative sensibilities?

    Luckily, we don’t have to wonder. EA today released a discussion between Will Wright and Ocean Quigley, creative director of the new SimCity. In the video the pair talk a lot about how the individual Sims depicted in the game can help players see the results of their decisions – and even cause them to feel guilt.

  • New SimCity Trailer Includes Superheroes, Villains

    New SimCity Trailer Includes Superheroes, Villains

    Last month, EA and Maxis showed off the “European City Sets” that come with the $80 Digital Deluxe Edtion of the upcoming SimCity. That add-on comes with famous European landmarks (the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, and Brandenburg Gate) that transform the surrounding landscape, including buildings, police vehicles, and public transportation.

    Today, EA and Maxis are showing off the other, sillier add-on that comes with a pre-order of SimCity.

    The “Heroes and Villains” set will allow players to have organized crime groups in their cities and provide the ability to upgrade police squads into superheroes. A “criminal mastermind” can be placed in a city using the “Dr. Vu’s Evil Lair” object, which will provide plenty of high-tech development for the city until autonomous flying battle tanks begin to destroy it.

    The “Heroes and Villains” add-on is included in pre-orders for the Limited Edition (read: normal) digital and physical version of the game. For those who don’t pre-order a copy of SimCity, EA will almost certainly be selling the add-on in the in-game SimCity store.

  • SimCity Will Have an In-Game Store

    It’s been known for a while not that the upcoming SimCity will have always-on DRM, though it won’t force players to always play in multiplayer mode. That’s not ideal, and it will likely only end up frustrating users, the way Diablo III’s Error 37 did. If EA and Maxis can manage to provide robust support, though, the DRM is something most dedicated SimCity fans will learn to live with.

    What SimCity fans might not be able to live with, however, is seeing content they believe should have come with the game locked away behind a micro-transaction paywall. A recently leaked SimCity game manual has hit the web, and NeoGAF user dmr87 spotted a section titled “SimCity Store.” The section, in its entirety:

    Click the banner on the main menu to enter the SimCity store. Here, you’ll find special add-ons for sale. Select STORE to view the full list of additional game content (both free and paid) that can provide you with new gameplay possibilities.

    That doesn’t reveal much about what the store will be, but a quick overview of EA’s recent business practices shows that the SimCity store will likely be similar to the store for Maxis’ The Sims 3. The “Digital Deluxe Upgrade Pack,” which adds European City Sets, will almost certainly be in the store on day one.

    To be sure, SimCity is a type of game where a constant stream of new, inexpensive content might make sense. EA, though, is making a habit of placing in-game purchases in AAA games that might normally be considered complete. For example, Dead Space 3 will also have in-game micro-transactions for things such as weapon-crafting materials. That doesn’t necessarily mean the drop rate for materials in the game has been reduced to encourage sales, but such a conflict between good gameplay and micro-transaction sales outside of the free-to-play space is worrying.

  • New SimCity Trailer Shows Off European Landmarks

    EA and Maxis today released the latest trailer for SimCity, featuring the “European City Sets” that come with the Digital Deluxe Edition of the game. Famous landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, and Brandenburg Gate can be placed in cities to attract tourists. The landmarks will change a city’s buildings, styling them to look French, German, or English, as well as changing police and bus services to the various country’s styles.

    The Digital Deluxe Edition of SimCity is the more expensive $80 version of the game. That version also comes with the “Heroes and Villains Pack,” which includes a “Super Hero HQ” and “Evil Villain Lair.” The Digital Deluxe Edition of the game is only available through EA’s Origin platform. That shouldn’t be too much of an additional inconvenience for gamers, however, as anyone who wants to play SimCity will need an always-on internet connection through Origin anyway.

    A “Digital Deluxe Upgrade Pack” is also available for $20 that includes the European City Sets. That, in essence, makes the content day-one DLC.

  • SimCity Coming to Classrooms With SimCityEDU

    Though everyone who has played a SimCity game knows there is more to city planning than building roads, EA believes its upcoming SimCity game will be in-depth enough to teach students about civics.

    EA today announced that SimCityEDU is being developed to provide an “online educational community” based on SimCity. The publisher claims the community will be a resource for teachers to want to use SimCity as a teaching tool. It even claims that SimCityEDU’s curriculum will be tailored to the U.S. Common Core standards for science, technology, engineering, and math.

    SimCityEDU is being developed in collaboration with GlassLab, a non-profit R&D effort to combine gaming and learning. Using SimCityEDU, teachers will be able to create lesson plans based on SimCity. EA envisions teachers encouraging students to “think critically about the challenges facing modern cities.”

    “For decades, SimCity has been embraced by the educational community as an engaging videogame that also provides a powerful learning experience, teaching problem solving skills through imaginative civic gameplay,” said Lucy Bradshaw, general manager of Maxis, the developer of SimCity. “We want to up the ante of SimCity‘s educational influence. Through our partnership with GlassLab, SimCity will become the foundation of a program to re-imagine learning in a way that will inspire today’s youth to get excited about STEM education and become the problem solvers of tomorrow.”

    If nothing else, the game’s combination of urban planning, environmental management, and socio-economic development might teach kids basic management skills. But who cares? Playing SimCity for homework would be fantastic.

  • SimCity Beta Starts January 25, Registration is Live

    Maxis, the developer of The Sims and SimCity today announced that a beta for the upcoming SimCity will take place starting January 25. The beta will run during that weekend, closing on January 28.

    The beta will give fans of the SimCity a chance to play “a one hour slice” of the game. Maxis will, of course, be monitoring the beta, looking for bugs to squash as well as collecting player feedback on the game and its design.

    Registration for the beta is currently open over at the SimCity website. Registration closes on January 20, so fans would be well advised not to put it off. Though some gamers have reported technical issues when trying to sign up for the beta, Maxis has stated it is aware of the issues and is working to fix them.

    The registration for the beta takes place through EA’s Origin platform. SimCity will represent a preview of EA‘s digital rights management ideas for the PC. For those who haven’t heard SimCity will have a single-player mode, though it will still require an (almost) always-on internet connection to play.

  • SimCity Intro Video Released, Space Rockets Spotted

    Maxis today released the opening video for the upcoming SimCity. The video is the same one player will see upon booting up the game.

    The footage comes completely from in-game play and shows off several of the features EA and Maxis are touting for the title. Multi-city gameplay is seen, as is an overview of the different types of power cities can use. A quick preview of the power overlay and building animations leads into a look at the different types of high-tech industries players will be able to create, including a space program.

    Barring any delays, SimCity is scheduled to be released on March 5 in the U.S. and March 8 in Europe. Though the game requires a constant internet connection, it does not require players to always participate in multiplayer mode.

  • New SimCity Gameplay Shows Casino, Multi-City Strategy

    Back in October, SimCity Lead Designeer Stone Librande previewed the franchise reboot with a walkthrough. It featured a look at how players will start out building a simple city, the frustrations associated with city planning, and how the different layers in the game can provide an abundance of information.

    Today, Librande is back, giving players a look at a much more advanced city and a preview of the considerations such cities need. He starts by showing off a city based on the casino industry, with several casinos raking in cash. With all of those lights, however, comes the need for a huge amount of electricity, and the wind farms in the city aren’t cutting it. Librande uses his power failure as a teaching moment for how multi-city gameplay will work in both single-player and multiplayer modes.

    In addition to electricity concerns, Librande demonstrates how different regional cities can help one another with their fire and police departments.

  • New SimCity Trailer Shows Creativity and Consequences

    The new SimCity is on the way, and multiplayer or not, the game promises to capture the old-school feeling of creating a city and fending off natural disasters. Mix that with the quirky style Maxis has developed over years of work on The Sims games, and a certain kind of gamer will almost certainly be playing the upcoming title well into the next decade.

    Some good footage of how the game will play has already been released. However, I suspect SimCity fans in particular won’t be able to get enough details about how the game allows players to micromanage their worlds until the game’s release on March 8, 2013.

    Today EA released a new SimCity trailer that highlights the creativity possible in the game, but how creativity must sometimes be tempered with feasibility and a knowledge of how certain actions will affect a city’s population of sims. SimCity Lead Creative Director Ocean Quigley (who’s mustache is amazing and seems to match his name) walks fans through a few of the details, such as the types of power generation available. He also mentions that players will not simply be playing one city in a vacuum, but an entire region populated with other cities, whether or not they are playing online with other players.

  • New SimCity Trailer Shows Tornadoes, Meteorites, and UFO Attacks

    Two weeks ago EA released a developer preview demonstrating to gamers how the new SimCity will play. Once players get their roads, power stations, and sewers constructed, though, the real game begins.

    Today EA released a new trailer showing off four of the natural disasters included in the game, any of which can bring even the most well-planned city to its knees. However “natural” is being loosely interpreted here, as attacks by UFOs (presumably carrying aliens) can split buildings in two with giant lasers.

    Other disasters to watch out for are tornadoes, earthquakes, and swarms of meteorites. The video’s description text teses that other disasters will be announced in the near future. As the trailer instructs, players can prepare for disaster by maintaining a robust social infrastructure that includes hospitals, fire stations, and police stations.

    SimCity is currently scheduled for a February 2013 release.

  • SimCity Gameplay Footage Walkthrough Released

    It’s been nearly a decade since SimCity 4 was released, and would-be city planners everywhere jumped with joy at the small amount of SimCity preview footage that was shown at this year’s E3.

    Today, Maxis and EA have released a longer gameplay trailer showing exactly how the new SimCity will play. Unsurprisingly, the game is very similar to previous incarnations of SimCity, though it does feature some upgrades. The graphics are clean and the details included are a nice addition for a SimCity game, for one.

    Stone Librande, lead designer on SimCity, narrates the walkthrough, seen below, and demonstrates how players’ objectives can be accomplished in the game.

    “Ultimately you can do whatever you want, focus on growing your population, increasing wealth or even build a city that looks like your hometown,” said Librande. “Whatever your motivation, you have to the power to experiment with a number of different strategies.”

    During the play-through, Librande was able to build up a small town and fill it with sims. Players will be able to follow around individual sims and see their motivations. Different overlays will allow players to see the different aspect of their city, from the water table to the electrical grid.

  • SimCity Social Officially Launches On Facebook

    The world of social gaming just added a behemoth to its ranks. This behemoth has a very familiar feel to it and a name that carries a ton of weight. SimCity Social is finally out and available to play on Facebook! The simulation stays on the straight and narrow as far as SimCity goes and a lot of people will find it very familiar. The big difference is that as of this time you do not have to worry about electricity or water or taxes.

    “SimCity Social will entice a new generation of urban planners with its easy-to-use tools that allow anyone to expand and grow their own unique sprawling metropolises and watch as it comes to life in fun and unexpected ways,” said Jami Laes, Vice President of Global Studios for Playfish. “SimCity Social is about playing with your friends. Whether you do that with kindness by helping put out a fire or through mischievous acts like helping a criminal escape, the decisions you make with your friends will determine how the story of your cities plays out.”

    The game could be seen as a lead in for the newly announced SimCity for the PC which is set to launch in February of 2013. The best part for EA is that over 750,000 fans have already joined in, which means that no one has forgotten their love for one of the greatest sim games ever invented.

    While SimCity Social is very cool, and a really fun game to play, it falls into the trap that other Facebook games fall into. Unless you have a ton of friends playing or are willing to add a ton of strangers, you cannot progress very far into the game. If you do decide to add a ton of strangers, then your wall is constantly spammed with SimCity Social posts that get real annoying real fast. This is the problem with these games in the first place. It is almost as if Facebook needs to figure out a way to get around this so people will actually play.

    Here is a pretty funny trailer for the game:

  • SimCity Revamp Gets an E3 Gameplay Trailer

    After a few years of dormancy, Maxis’ (via publisher EA) SimCity is coming back in a big way thanks to two new installments of the simulation so many know and love. The first, which will be available much sooner than the second, is oft-discussed SimCity Social, which will “port” the game to the social media universe, courtesy of Facebook. The SimCity Social page is already active and the game should be launching to the public–free to play–“soon,” maybe even as early as this month (June). Whatever the case, it will be sooner than the upcoming PC revamped edition, which will be available for purchase in February 2013.

    SimCity Social is expected to be playable on Facebook this summer.

    As for the PC revamp of SimCity, there are a couple of E3 videos up and running; the first of which is the standard, “let’s get everybody excited” trailer and thanks to the hard-to-miss update of the game’s graphics, the newest version of SimCity looks awesome:


    The second video comes courtesy of GameTrailers.com’s E3 coverage and it features a gameplay walkthrough that gives potential players a great idea of what they can expect. The video features Kip Katsarelis, the lead producer of the next-gen SimCity, and his insight is quite valuable:


    Considering SimCity’s long-established popularity, it should come as no surprise that the new footage didn’t escape the notice of Twitter:

    Juan Pablo Castañeda
    @phantomsoda     RT @BoingBoing: SimCity E3 Gameplay Trailer http://t.co/Zj8FSNGC // :’D tears of joy from inner 10 year old…
    59 minutes ago via Echofon · powered by @socialditto
     Reply  · Retweet  · Favorite

    David Shariatmadari
    @D_Shariatmadari     Be still my beating heart http://t.co/aDuKO5Wm
    1 hour ago via Tweet Button · powered by @socialditto
     Reply  · Retweet  · Favorite

    Evan Lahti
    @ELahti     Love how readable SimCity seems. Color balance + sense of variance within an architectural family reminds me of TF2. http://t.co/wnjWWpPh
    14 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto
     Reply  · Retweet  · Favorite

    The news apparently caught some by surprise:

    Fuji Jefferson
    @vuvypuvy     oh apparently there was some trailer for simcity 5. well that is kind of cool i guess…? i had no idea maxis still existed
    45 minutes ago via web · powered by @socialditto
     Reply  · Retweet  · Favorite

    It’s only been three years since The Sims 3, folks. Does the 2013’s SimCity look like it can duplicate the incredible success of the previous titles or has the idea passed its time? Considering the PC gaming community still has a strong affection for strategy games, it stands to reason SimCity will continue to do well.

    [H/t to Boing Boing]

  • SimCity 5 Insider’s Look Shows Off Game Engine

    EA made a lot of people happy at GDC this year with the announcement of a new SimCity game. The classic simulation game is being changed to reflect a larger world view with players working together with their separate cities to solve global problems.

    EA released a new video yesterday detailing the game engine, GlassBox, and how it will change the SimCity formula. Dan Moskowitz, the gameplay lead, gives gamers the grand tour of what the GlassBox engine can do for SimCity.

    It’s important to note right now that the graphics in the demo are not final and not even representative of what the game looks like right now. The demo is about what GlassBox can do for simulation processing, not graphic processing.

    With that out of the way, Moskowitz talks about the technology behind the simulation in SimCity. He talks at length on how structures, vehicles and people will all have an effect on the world around you. The really impressive part is how each individual on the streets of SimCity have their own behavioral simulation patterns.

    Check out the full video below to get your first taste of what SimCity is going to offer when it launches in 2013:

    Are you excited about the new SimCity? Was there anything in the video that was particularly interesting? Let us know in the comments.

    [Source: Joystiq]