SimCity (2013)

[Amras.MG]

Actually it's still really unclear on exactly how much computing takes place off of the player's computer and in the server/cloud. I will reserve judgment on that until we know more/it's been cracked.

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[deoxys]

It already has been cracked, I just don't know the details or nature of the crack.

[Loki]

[deoxys]

Perfect.

[Trepie]

EA has been ruining games for over a decade. When I play a game that EA Published/Developed I go in with the expectation it's going to be flawed, then determine if it's unplayable. They're not the only publisher to destroy good titles with deadlines and bottom lines but they are by far the worst. Part of me would really like EA to go out of business, the other part of me weeps for all the games that they'll take with with them when they do. Just my opinion of course. I haven't even played Simcity and now I likely won't. It's just sad to see former titans of the Video game world reduced to another black mark in EA's sad sad history of clusterfucks. Tag it on right after Star Wars The old republic and Mass effect 3.

[Loki]

EA used to be cool helping publish great games like Dungeon Keeper and Command & Conquer. Now they turned cool games into CASH COWS and turned them into horseshit.

And I'll say it again, the only thing bad about Mass Effect 3 was the last 15 minutes of like 30ish hours of gaming.

[MarbleZone]

Originally Posted by Raptor Jesus

And I'll say it again, the only thing bad about Mass Effect 3 was the last 15 minutes of like 30ish hours of gaming.

Seconded. Ending was a trainwreck but it shouldn't eclipse what was otherwise a great game.

[The Morg]

cool

Even if you can't read JS, you have to appreciate this part:

simcity.GetFudgedPopulation = function (a) {
a = "undefined" !== typeof a ? a : simcity.gGlobalUIHandler.mLastPopulation;
if (500 >= a)
return a;
if (40845 < a)
return Math.floor(8.25 * a);
a = Math.pow(a - 500, 1.2) + 500;
return Math.floor(a)
};

[Lady Kuno]

Can you translate what that means in human terms, Dr Morg?

[Loki]

I think it was the line: GetFudgedPopulation

[The Morg]

It basically says the UI will report a fudged value for your population.

It reports the actual value if the population is 500 or below, then it scales up to 8.25x at populations of 40846 and above.

[Loki]

BTW, Blizzard basically slapped EA in the face with a near flawless launch. Their servers were fine on launch at midnight for their respective region, only the achievement servers went down, which didn't really stop you from playing the game.

Granted, they roughly knew what to expect after Diablo 3's fail, but EA should have learned from that too technically.

[Lady Kuno]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=525129

        kNoRepeatNetworkAlertSeconds : 15,
        kNetDownForceQuitAfterMinutes : 20,

Removing that line allows unlimited offline play.

LOL.

[Talon87]

Awesome. So it turned out that all of the "you're not really installing the game on your end, you're just installing software that pipes you in to our end where we're running the game on 1337 M4XX0R 53RV3RZzZ" talk was total EA garbage. Figures. I'm amazed it's truly this simple though.

And, indeed, it sounds like it isn't this simple. People in the thread you linked are indicating that by deleting that tiny bit of code, you lose the ability to save your game. So yes, you *can* play infinitely ... in a given sitting. You can't save any of your progress. Of course, people are already eagerly discussing ways to do exactly that, and it's probably just a matter of time. Go go 1337 h4x0r mod community. (And maybe they figured it out in between. I read all of pages 1 and 6 and didn't see anything. My bad if the save patch is on page 2. )

[Lady Kuno]

People knew they had to save on EA's servers from the getgo. The problem is it didnt even let you play offline. Well, until now. Soon someone will spoof the EA servers and the issue will be moot.

But yes, EA is full of shit. Everything theyve done so far is so full of shit. They even hid their emails/phone numbers from everywhere so people don't try contacting them.

[deoxys]

Holy. Fucking. Shit.

Although this is probably more about SWTOR than SimCity, I'd imagine the latter played a hand in his downfall.

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by deoxys

Holy. Fucking. Shit.

Although this is probably more about SWTOR than SimCity, I'd imagine the latter played a hand in his downfall.

I could've sworn Bobby Kotick was the CEO of EA. Probst I've heard of but didn't realize was the CEO from 1991 to 2007; Riccittello I've never even heard of, but apparently he was EA's CEO until the end of this month.

Just looked up Kotick. Surprise surprise, he's the CEO of Activision (and now Activision Blizzard). I told you! I always get these two mixed up. They are just so, so alike.

[Amras.MG]

If somebody was going to take the fall for SimCity, which they consider a success due to how much it sold, so I doubt anyone would be fired for it, wouldn't it be Lucy Bradshow, who has been caught lying to fans?

[DaveTheFishGuy]

Obligatory Yahtzee review link is obligatory.