5punk

So the trailer looks quite smart

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kztNWdhRdnw[/media]

Then I found this on Reddit



EA seem to have changed the meaning of "Limited" in this case, from limited availability to limited in scope. I'm not going to get all huffy about it as I don't care too much, but this kind of thing seems to be getting worse with EA. Cynical, money-grabbing and not giving a shit about your audience. Obviously you don't have to pay for it, but if you did want the full package in the UK you're looking at £65. £20 more than the basic, "limited" edition.

Ouch. Just when activision go quiet and we have no-one to really bitch about, EA steps up and acts like cuntbags. Their origin pricing is fucking greed.

And they wonder why honest people turn to piracy

Also note the wee smallprint at the end of that video. Paraphrased as "the actual game look nothing like this at all"

Ahahahaha. Aaaaahahahahaha. Aha. *cough*

Yeah, not a lot of people will be buying that I think. On a related note, this morning I was following the Twitter feed of two RPS writers (John Walker & Lewie Proctor) who were at the GDC where this was announced. They slated EA through the duration that they sat through, and then after being scowled out for unwittingly saying 'oh god' out loud, walked out. Cashing in on consumer confidence seemed to be their main complaints.

£65 for Simcity?

Fuck that.

Depends - does it come with a digital anorak?

Oh! If you fork out for the special edition do you get Newcastle? If so you could pay £65 to do Lat's job.

I think EA is easily my most hated tech brand.
Absolute cunts

Apple comes next.
Absolute bastards

at the price.

But god help me if I get my hands on it. It'll be another 2 weeks of my life I'll never get back ;___;

I have always despised EA for selling our my favourite games to the console cash machine. They were the first to do it and have forever been entirely unapologetic. Apparently devs hate them too.

I got Sim City free with my Packard Bell P166 from PC World about twenty years ago. It is a very limited edition, as I have only one copy. Shall I start the bidding at a million pounds?

I don't approve of what they're doing, but if there's a chance you can buy those extras later, individually, I'd be quite happy with a Standard edition. I've always seen SimCity as the perfect venue for DLC, given its themed-setting-expansion-pack past. Of course, it has to be a good game first and that remains to be seen.

Ohhhhh! The limited edition is just another DDE? I might well end up getting the regular version then if it's £30 or less, although more likely in a Steam sal... Wait, it's on origin isn't it? Never mind then, I probably won't play it.


I can't help but feel I've said that before somewhere.

I think it's on Steam too, isn't it? Only the Deluxe Edition says Origin Exclusive.

Oh good, because despite all the fuss the actual game sounds like it could be quite good.

It looks okay, modern take on the Sim City thing, nice animations in the video that's not actually representative of the gameplay. I'd probably like it, despite not having any actual desire to be a real town planner, it looks roughly equivalent to the half-dozen or so City Builder God Sims I already have and like playing.

Just because it's Sim City though, that's no value-add for me - I don't see it as the Daddy or anything. I probably played every iteration of the series, including the latest and shittest SimCity Societies and there are much better examples in the genre that have built on Maxis's earlier games and the best bits of others like them, including popular RTS titles, notably the trains and transport-type releases, which have also had other classic titles to draw inspiration from.

The price is like some designer label. Ludicrously at odds with inflation, yet hoping to snag the section of the market who fondly remember the originals. Even worse, from the tone of the unrepresentative video, it looks like they're also gunning for The Sims crowd, who are still crying over the cancellation of Simsville.
Dutifully buying every expansion and add-on in expectation of designing and living out their perfect world in Simtopia, they will discover the gameplay of Sim City is a whole different animal to what they are used to, with preconceptions of being able to create a beautiful paradise shattered by civil unrest, urban decay and moral decline. It'll be like all the Sims I ever made moved in next door and I know from experience that they won't like that very much at all.

FatherJack wrote:there are much better examples in the genre that have built on Maxis's earlier games and the best bits of others like them, including popular RTS titles, notably the trains and transport-type releases, which have also had other classic titles to draw inspiration from.

ORLY? Out of interest, which ones specifically? The city building genre is one that has always massively interested me *in theory*, but everything ive tried outside the Sim City franchise has left me cold for one reason or another. Ive not by any means made an extensive search though, so if there is something good out there that ive missed I would very much like to un-miss it.

Joose wrote:ORLY? Out of interest, which ones specifically? The city building genre is one that has always massively interested me *in theory*, but everything ive tried outside the Sim City franchise has left me cold for one reason or another. Ive not by any means made an extensive search though, so if there is something good out there that ive missed I would very much like to un-miss it.

Well, I actually didn't like the original Sim City all that much, so the more unlike it the better for me - it's more the general building/running of a city idea that I like.

Having said that, CitiesXL is virtually a copy of it with the better graphicals and bendy roads. I like it in small doses, but always end up messing up when the city gets bigger or I've made the roads too bendy.

There was of course, the City Building Series which while old, and set in past civilisations, are still very good. A modern example that I enjoyed would be Grand Ages Rome, reviews are mixed, though that may be down to early pro reviewers getting what sounds like a horribly bugged version compared to the one I play. They have a small combat element, which is usually optional.

An off-the-wall title I really enjoy is Tropico, where you build a city in a banana republic whilst trying to quash revolutions amonst your ungrateful citizens by building a 50ft statue of yourself on top of their hovels. Take that, rebels! I've reviewed the last two versions, I think.

The Anno games are city builders at their core, with a little bit of combat thrown in, and are all pretty damn good.

Some of the Settlers games are quite enjoyable, but do usually have quite a bit of combat as you progress, moving into the RTS genre a little bit.

You know the transport-based ones, I'm sure, where instead of building cities themselves, you're happy to manage the transport infrastructure and perhaps let the town grow around you. OpenTTD and the Railroad/Transport Tycoon games are classic examples, with a pretty decent modern version being Cities in Motion, free if you fill out this survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ParadoxSurvey

Beyond that, I think they start to get a bit more combat-heavy, or have other things going on that aren't just about building. I reviewed The Guild 2, which while it has the vibe of a city builder, is more about building a career, a family and a legacy, and I can't finish without at least mentioning Towns.

Nice wrote up there Mr FJ. I too am a city dabbler, and like you I rather struggle to find the perfect fit. The particular emphasis I enjoy is the OCD driven attempt to create an optimum city - I'll spend days on SimCity 4:RH rebuilding the entire road network just to relieve a traffic jam at one crossroad. Where Cities XL falls down was the over simplicistic modelling - basically 1 house = 1 person = 1 job = 1 employee = 1 tax credit, rinse and repeat until full. SC4 felt like it had basic algorithm that fuzzied things a bit and wasn't so bloody obivous. I've often thought though, if someone could mix the city life of the Anno series, with traffic of SimCity and the trains of OTTD, we'd have ourselves lots of dead 5punkers cos we'd never eat, sleep or shit.

I really didn't like Cities XL - irritating menus and not very intuitive. Something felt missing from the whole thing.

Anno 2070 is fantastic, best of the series so far I reckon. It's a fucking time vampire though - I recently spent 4 hours doing nothing but build up a supply of pasta dishes on a secondary island prior to distribution to the populace. Only problem is that it isn't massively different to the previous games either. As soon as you manage the trick of population control and supply of commodities it can become very easy (though to be honest I have no problem with just sitting back and watch my economy tick over.