Jump to content

SimCity (2013 video game): Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
→‎Patches: ~ readability
m Changed one of the sentences to fully explain the new update
Line 122: Line 122:
Since the initial release, Maxis has distributed [[Patch (computing)|patches]] to the game via the in-game patching utility which automatically runs when the game is launched on a user's computer. These patches have addressed, though not entirely fixed, among many other things, issues such as traffic intelligence, game-save rollbacks, and emergency vehicle routing. Maxis has continued to update the game to improve gameplay quality and eliminate bugs.
Since the initial release, Maxis has distributed [[Patch (computing)|patches]] to the game via the in-game patching utility which automatically runs when the game is launched on a user's computer. These patches have addressed, though not entirely fixed, among many other things, issues such as traffic intelligence, game-save rollbacks, and emergency vehicle routing. Maxis has continued to update the game to improve gameplay quality and eliminate bugs.


A month following the game launch day, Maxis had released 8 official patches bringing the game to version 1.8.<ref>{{cite news|title=SimCity updates to 1.8, get your patch notes here|url=http://games.on.net/2013/03/simcity-updates-to-1-8-get-your-patch-notes-here/|accessdate=April 20, 2013|newspaper=Games.On.Net|date=March 25, 2013}}</ref> Maxis released a 2.0 patch purported to make significant improvements to gameplay and curb defects and was distributed on April 22, 2013.<ref>{{cite news|title=SimCity update 2.0 will address Recycling centers, fire engines, and casinos|url=http://www.gamezone.com/news/2013/03/28/simcity-update-2-0-will-address-recycling-centers-fire-engines-and-casinos|accessdate=April 19, 2013|newspaper=GameZone.com|date=March 28, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=SimCity 2.0 Update Launching April 22, Servers Taking Vacation|url=http://www.insidegamingdaily.com/2013/04/19/simcity-2-0-update-launching-april-22-servers-taking-vacation/|accessdate=April 20, 2013|newspaper=InsideGamingDaily.com|date=April 19, 2013}}</ref> On May 23, 2013, Maxis released Patch 4.0, giving players more updates to the game and re-enabling leader boards.<ref>{{cite news|title=SimCity update 4.0|url=https://help.ea.com/article/simcity-updates|accessdate=May 24, 2013|newspaper=help.ea.com|date=May 23, 2013}}</ref> Patch 6 was released July 30, 2013 which included the game's second new region added since the original release date. {{cn|date=August 2013}} Patch 7.0, a notable update for users, was released on August 22, 2013. This patch included the addition of a bridge and tunnel tool, letting players create overpasses and underpasses.<ref>{{cite web|title=Patch 7.0 Notes along with Traffic fixes.|url=http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/0/9674690.page#29886069}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Simcity update 7 will also include tunnels and trees on top of its new traffic fixes|url=http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/08/15/simcitys-update-7-will-also-include-tunnels-and-trees-on-top-of-its-new-traffic-behavior|accessdate=Aug 26, 2013|newspaper=pcgamer.com|date=Aug 15, 2013}}</ref> All patches that have been released have included patch notes describing the contents of the patch and can be found on EA's forums.
A month following the game launch day, Maxis had released 8 official patches bringing the game to version 1.8.<ref>{{cite news|title=SimCity updates to 1.8, get your patch notes here|url=http://games.on.net/2013/03/simcity-updates-to-1-8-get-your-patch-notes-here/|accessdate=April 20, 2013|newspaper=Games.On.Net|date=March 25, 2013}}</ref> Maxis released a 2.0 patch purported to make significant improvements to gameplay and curb defects and was distributed on April 22, 2013.<ref>{{cite news|title=SimCity update 2.0 will address Recycling centers, fire engines, and casinos|url=http://www.gamezone.com/news/2013/03/28/simcity-update-2-0-will-address-recycling-centers-fire-engines-and-casinos|accessdate=April 19, 2013|newspaper=GameZone.com|date=March 28, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=SimCity 2.0 Update Launching April 22, Servers Taking Vacation|url=http://www.insidegamingdaily.com/2013/04/19/simcity-2-0-update-launching-april-22-servers-taking-vacation/|accessdate=April 20, 2013|newspaper=InsideGamingDaily.com|date=April 19, 2013}}</ref> On May 23, 2013, Maxis released Patch 4.0, giving players more updates to the game and re-enabling leader boards.<ref>{{cite news|title=SimCity update 4.0|url=https://help.ea.com/article/simcity-updates|accessdate=May 24, 2013|newspaper=help.ea.com|date=May 23, 2013}}</ref> Patch 6 was released July 30, 2013 which included the game's second new region added since the original release date. {{cn|date=August 2013}} Patch 7.0, a notable update for users, was released on August 22, 2013. This patch included the addition of a bridge and tunnel tool, letting players create overpasses and underpasses. The update also improved traffic, making it more smarter. <ref>{{cite web|title=Patch 7.0 Notes along with Traffic fixes.|url=http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/0/9674690.page#29886069}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Simcity update 7 will also include tunnels and trees on top of its new traffic fixes|url=http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/08/15/simcitys-update-7-will-also-include-tunnels-and-trees-on-top-of-its-new-traffic-behavior|accessdate=Aug 26, 2013|newspaper=pcgamer.com|date=Aug 15, 2013}}</ref> All patches that have been released have included patch notes describing the contents of the patch and can be found on EA's forums.


==Reception==
==Reception==

Revision as of 07:45, 27 August 2013

SimCity
SimCity: Limited Edition cover art
Developer(s)Maxis
Publisher(s)Electronic Arts
Producer(s)Kip Katsarelis
Designer(s)Ocean Quigley
Stone Librande
Composer(s)Chris Tilton
SeriesSimCity
EngineGlassBox[5]
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows[6][7]
OS X[8]
ReleaseWindows
  • NA: March 5, 2013[2]
  • EU: March 7, 2013[1]
  • AU: March 7, 2013[1]
  • JP: March 7, 2013 (2013-03-07)[3]
  • UK: March 8, 2013
OS X
August 29, 2013[4]
Genre(s)Construction and management simulation, city-building, Massively multiplayer online game[9]
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer[5]

SimCity is a city-building and urban planning simulation video game developed by Maxis, a subsidiary of Electronic Arts. Released for Microsoft Windows in early March 2013,[2] it is the first major installment in the SimCity series since the release of SimCity 4 a decade prior. An OS X version is scheduled for release in August 2013.[4][10]

The game is considered to be a reboot of the SimCity series.[11][12][13] Players can create a settlement that can grow into a city by zoning land for commercial, industrial, or residential development, as well as building and maintaining public services, transport and utilities. SimCity utilizes a new engine called GlassBox, allowing for more detailed simulation than previous games. Throughout its development, SimCity received critical acclaim for its new engine and reimagined gameplay; however, publications cautioned the game's use of a persistent internet connection, with which it stores saved games and allows players to share resources.

Prior to release, SimCity received positive reviews; however, the game's launch was met with negative reception as a result of widespread technical problems related to the mandatory use of network connection to play and save the game. These issues included network outages, problems with saving progress and difficulty connecting to the game's servers. As a result, some reviewers were unable to review the game, labeling the launch as a "disaster" and the game as "unplayably broken", urging players to avoid purchasing the game until the issues were resolved.[14][15]

Gameplay

A user-built city in SimCity that specializes in education.

Along with many of the cosmetic changes (such as up-to-date 3D graphics), SimCity uses the new GlassBox engine. "We try to build what you would expect to see, and that's the game," explains system architect Andrew Willmott, meaning that visual effects such as traffic, economic troubles, and pollution will be more obvious. Two other new features are a multiplayer component and finite resources.[16]

Unlike previous games in the series, the game has non-orthogonal and curved roads and zoning areas that can conform to different road types.[17] Types of zones will include residential, commercial and industrial.[18] The density is driven by the types of roads built around these zones.[19]

Cities in a region are connected to each other via predefined regional networks such as highways, railways, and waterways. Elements such as traffic and air pollution are visible flowing between cities.[20] Cities can trade resources or share public services with their neighbors like garbage collection or health care. Cities can also pool their collective wealth and resources to build a "great work" to provide benefits for the entire region like a massive solar power plant or an international airport. The larger the region, the higher is the number of cities and great works that can be built.

  • Terraforming – Creative Director Ocean Quigley stated that all of the terraforming in the game is going to be at the civil engineering scale, and will be the natural consequences of laying out roads, developing zones, and placing buildings.[20]
  • Transportation options – There are a number of options that are included, such as boats, buses, trams, and planes.[21]
  • Customization – Maxis has indicated that the game will support modding, but will not do so at launch like previous versions.[22]

Modules in SimCity are attachable structures that can add functionality to existing user-placeable buildings. One example is the extra garage for fire stations, which can provide additional fire trucks for increased protection coverage.[23][24]

The user interface, which was inspired by Google Maps and infographics,[25] was designed to convey information to the player more clearly than in previous SimCity games.[26] Animations and color-coded visual cues that represent how efficiently a city functions are only presented when needed at any given moment.[18][26] [27] For instance, opening up the water tower instantly changes the landscape to a clear world where the density of water is recognizable.[18] Or clicking on the sewage tab will immediately show how the waste of the citizens is flowing, and where the system is over capacity.[26][27] Some of the other visualized data include air pollution,[28] power distribution,[18] police coverage,[26] and zones.[27]

Many resources in the game are finite. Some are renewable, such as ground water. Lead gameplay engineer Dan Moskowitz stated, "If you've built up an entire city on the economic basis of extracting a certain resource, when that resource runs out your economy will collapse."[29]

Different from previous SimCity titles, each type of zone (residential, commercial, and industrial) is not divided into density categories. Instead the density of the roads next to them determines the type of buildings that will be created there. This means that there is only one of each zone type, and density of the buildings are determined by the density of the roads.[30]

Roads in SimCity are one of the most fundamental elements of the mechanics. Unlike previous SimCity games, roads carry water, power, and sewage. There are also many new tools for drawing roads. They include a straight line tool, one for making rectangular road squares, one for making sweeping arcs, one for making circles, and one for making free-form roads. There is also a more diverse range of roads to choose from. Starting at dirt roads and going up to six lane avenues with street car tracks, the density of the roads determines the density of the buildings next to them. So dirt roads will only ever develop low density buildings. There are two different categories of roads, streets and avenues. Streets are 24 meters wide and avenues are 48 meters wide. Since all streets are the same width, a dirt road can be upgraded to a high density street. In order to upgrade a street to an avenue you need to fully demolish the old street and replace it with a larger avenue. When high and low capacity roads intersect, the higher density roads have the right-of-way and so stop lights and stop signs will be automatically placed. In order to space the roads so there will be enough room for buildings to develop, road guides are shown when you hover over an existing road.[30] The act of road building creates a spline on which the SimCity Glassbox interacts with the simulation. When these splines intersect it becomes a reticulated spline which develops the underlying spline network.[31]

Players will be able to specialize cities on certain industries, such as manufacturing, tourism, education, or others. Each have distinct appearances, simulation behavior, and economic strategies.[32][33] Players have the option to heavily specialize on one or build multiple specializations in any given city for diversity.[20] The game will feature a simulated global economy. Prices of key resources like oil or food will fluctuate depending on the game world's supply and demand.[34] In particular, if players all over the world are predominantly selling drilled oil from within their game onto the global market, this will drive the price for this resource down. Conversely, a resource that has experienced very little exposure on the world market will be a scarce resource, driving the price up.[35]

Multiplayer

This version of SimCity will be the first to feature full online play since Maxis's SimCity 2000 Network Edition,[5] allowing for regions to house multiple cities from different players. Regions can alternatively be set to private for solo play.[32] SimCity will require players to be logged into EA's Origin service to play the game, including when playing single player. An active internet connection will be required every time the game is launched and must be maintained throughout gameplay.[36] The connection is asynchronous,[36] so any brief network disturbance will not interrupt the gameplay[23] though outages of longer than 19 minutes,[37] as an editor posted on Kotaku,[38] will cause loss of gamestate.[39]

  • Collaboration – Cities in a region can share or sell resources, and work together to build “Great Works”,[32] such as an Arcology.[21]

Development

System requirements
Minimum Recommended
Windows[40]
Operating system Windows XP/Vista/7/8Windows 7/8
CPU AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 4000+ or better, Intel Core 2 Duo Processor 2.0GHz or betterIntel Core i5 or faster
Memory 2GB4GB
Free space 12GB
Graphics hardware ATI Radeon HD 2x00 or better nVidia 7800 or better. Intel Series 4 integrated graphics or better. Minimum of 256MB of on-board RAM and Shader 3.0 or better supportnVidia GTX 275 or better, or ATI 5850 or Better
Network Minimum 256 kbps download, 64 kbps upload
Mac OS X[40]
Operating system Mac OS X 10.7 and Higher
CPU Intel Core 2 Duo Processor 2.0GHz or better
Memory 2GB
Free space 12GB
Graphics hardware INTEL HD 3000, NVIDIA® GeForce® 9400M or ATI™ Radeon™ HD 2600 Pro or better
Network Minimum 256 kbps download, 64 kbps upload

Prior to its announcement, the German magazine GameStar leaked concept art. Soon thereafter, a pre-rendered trailer was leaked. The official announcement took place on March 6, 2012 at the Game Developers Conference. Initially it was revealed that the game would be available for the Windows platform,[7] and a later OS X edition was confirmed.[8] EA showcased two new trailers for the game at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2012, showcasing in-game graphics for the first time.

In August 2012, applicants were allowed to sign up to test closed beta versions of the game that were later released in January and February 2013, in order to perform load testing on the game servers.[41][42][43]

SimCity creative director Ocean Quigley confirmed that an OS X version was in development, but would not be released at the same time as the Microsoft Windows version.[44] A Maxis graphics engineer had earlier commented that the purchase of the Windows version through the Origin platform will entitle access to the future OS X version.[45]

Game engine

EA/Maxis is developing the game using a new simulation engine called GlassBox, which takes a different approach from previous simulation games. Those games first simulated high-level statistics and then created graphic animations to represent that data. The GlassBox Engine replaces those statistics with agents, simulation units that represent objects like water, power, and workers; each graphic animation is directly linked to an agent's activity.[46] For example, rather than simply displaying a traffic jam animation to represent a simulated traffic flow problem, traffic jams are instead produced dynamically by masses of Sim agents that simulate travel to and from work.[47] A four-part video has been released featuring Dan Moskowitz, the lead gameplay engineer, talking about the engine simulation behavior.[48]

The citizens in the game are also agents and do not lead realistic lives, they go to work at the first job they can find and they go home to the first empty home they find.[49]

After the release of the game, hackers released mods to enable offline play and access to debug developer tools.[50]

Audio

The game’s audio is bound to the pulse of the simulation. When a building is running a simulation rule like generating power for example, its driving music and sound effects that are synchronized to the overall beat of the simulation. The audio is telling the player what the simulation is doing.[16] Audio Director Kent Jolly stated that cars in the game are tracked individually. When a car leaves an intersection, the simulator plays a sound of a car pulling away. The sound also changes based on the speed of the game. As cars go faster, the audio is matched to what the player sees, while remaining true to the actual traffic.[51]

Chris Tilton is the composer of the game's orchestral score. The music subtly adjusts to the player's experience based on various game states. An example of this is when the view is zoomed out, the player will hear a fuller version of the score. When zoomed in, certain elements of the tracks are taken away. This is done to help make room for all the activity going on in the player's city. The music tracks are also written with population in mind, and the game exposes the full playlist as the player's city develops and grows.[51] Tilton sought to reinvent SimCity's music and not rehash the musical sensibilities of previous games.[52]

Release

The initial release of SimCity on March 5, 2013 in North America suffered multiple severe issues, particularly regarding the game's requirement for a persistent internet connection. After the game was made available for purchase through EA's Origin delivery service, the high volume of users attempting to download and connect to EA's game servers caused network outages. Players reported experiencing frequent problems during gameplay due to the outages such as long loading times, disconnections, crashing, and loss of saved game data.[53][54][55][56][57]

The server problems and negative feedback led some publications to refer to the launch as "disastrous"[58][59][60] and others have compared the launch unfavorably to that of Diablo III, which experienced similar problems when it was first released.[53][56][57] The issues caused online retailer Amazon.com to temporarily withdraw the digital version of SimCity from its marketplace citing customer complaints.[56][61][62][63]

It was also discovered that there were several issues with the GlassBox engine such as traffic taking the shortest route instead of the route with the most available capacity[64] and sims not living persistent lives but rather going to the nearest available workplace for work and nearest available house after work. [65]

Post-release

EA responded to server issues by adding additional servers and developing a server patch that disables "non-critical gameplay features [including] leaderboards, achievements and region filters."[56][66] On the evening of March 7, Maxis general manager Lucy Bradshaw issued a statement in response to the launch problems, stating that more servers would be added over the weekend and that thousands of players were playing and that "more than 700,000 cities have been built by our players in just 24 hours". She went on to acknowledge that "many are experiencing server instability" and that "players across Europe and Asia are experiencing the same frustration". She confirmed that the number of servers would be increased stating "We added servers today, and there will be several more added over the weekend."[67]

Senior producer Kip Katsarelis commented that the game servers were constantly at maximum capacity, partly due to the large number of players connected for extended periods of time, which has made it difficult for new users to connect: "We added more servers to accommodate the launch in [Australia, Japan, and Europe]... our plan is to continue to bring more servers online until we have enough to meet the demand, increase player capacity and let more people through the gates and into the game."[68]

In an article about "games as a service", Nathan Grayson from Rock, Paper Shotgun said that the situation was unacceptable and that EA was handling the situation as well as could be expected, but the problem was that they had damaged the idea of "games as a service" and lamented the fact that games publishers hadn't learned from previous similar launch failures; "this just keeps on happening. ... servers have gone toe-to-toe with day-one stampedes in much the same fashion as a turtle against an 18-wheeler: ... Then nature runs its course, and developers and publishers alike scramble to glue one billion bits of finely pulped turtle back together again." and said "A strong service – the kind people latch onto and ultimately demand as the norm – doesn’t just react."[69]

On March 8, 2013, EA suspended some of SimCity's online marketing campaigns because of the game's ongoing technical issues.[70] EA has stated it will not be offering refunds for users.[71]

In a blog post on March 8, Maxis SVP Lucy Bradshaw gave an update on the server situation, reporting that the issues had improved and server space had expanded, but acknowledged that some users were still suffering stability problems. She also explained the reason for the failure; "So what went wrong? The short answer is: a lot more people logged on than we expected. More people played and played in ways we never saw in the beta." and called their error "dumb". She reported that server capacity had been increased by 120 percent and that errors had dropped by 80 percent. She also promised another update during the weekend. She also announced an offer of a free game from the EA catalogue, saying "I know that’s a little contrived – kind of like buying a present for a friend after you did something crummy. But we feel bad about what happened. We’re hoping you won’t stay mad and that we’ll be friends again when SimCity is running at 100 percent."[72] Maxis ruled out making the game able to be played offline, saying it would take a significant amount of engineering work for this to happen.[73] Shortly afterwards, it was discovered that a single line of code could be commented out, allowing the game to be played offline indefinitely.[74] In addition, an article published by Rock, Paper Shotgun highlighted ways in which, "They could make an entire region single player offline with absolute ease."[75]

To compensate for the issues during the release, EA offered to early purchasers a free game on March 2013. All Origin users which purchased and registered the game before March 23 were allowed to choose a game for free among a small list of recent titles including SimCity 4, Battlefield 3, Dead Space 3, Mass Effect 3 and Need for Speed: Most Wanted.

EA now maintains a Server Status page in the SimCity website.[76] This allows players to check the status of SimCity servers around the world.

Patches

Since the initial release, Maxis has distributed patches to the game via the in-game patching utility which automatically runs when the game is launched on a user's computer. These patches have addressed, though not entirely fixed, among many other things, issues such as traffic intelligence, game-save rollbacks, and emergency vehicle routing. Maxis has continued to update the game to improve gameplay quality and eliminate bugs.

A month following the game launch day, Maxis had released 8 official patches bringing the game to version 1.8.[77] Maxis released a 2.0 patch purported to make significant improvements to gameplay and curb defects and was distributed on April 22, 2013.[78][79] On May 23, 2013, Maxis released Patch 4.0, giving players more updates to the game and re-enabling leader boards.[80] Patch 6 was released July 30, 2013 which included the game's second new region added since the original release date. [citation needed] Patch 7.0, a notable update for users, was released on August 22, 2013. This patch included the addition of a bridge and tunnel tool, letting players create overpasses and underpasses. The update also improved traffic, making it more smarter. [81][82] All patches that have been released have included patch notes describing the contents of the patch and can be found on EA's forums.

Reception

Pre-release

At E3 2012 in June 2012, SimCity won 8 awards out of 24 nominations.[83] On August 23, 2012, SimCity won Gamescom's "Best PC Game" award. The gamescom jury described the video game as having "fantastic graphics" and "struck the right balance between retaining the trademarks of the old parts and making it interesting for beginners".[84] On December 14, 2012, the SimCity development team ran a questions and answers session on the internet community Reddit where they received criticism for the game's DRM-mechanisms, which require the user to be permanently connected to Electronic Arts' servers in order to be able to play the game.[38][85] The video games-focused blog Kotaku also voiced concern over the issue, worrying that Electronic Arts could one day shut down their servers, rendering the game unplayable.[38]

This prompted a blog response from Lucy Bradshaw, Maxis Senior Vice President, in which she defended the always-online component with the comment that "real cities do not exist in a bubble; they share a region and affect one another." She goes on to say that increased connectivity to neighboring cities allows for a better experience, allowing for better trade and wider scale effects such as crime and pollution to keep synchronized across the region.[86] Bradshaw also noted the performance benefit due to the engine utilizing EA's server hardware to assist in gameplay calculations:

GlassBox is the engine that drives the entire game – the buildings, the economics, trading, and also the overall simulation that can track data for up to 100,000 individual Sims inside each city. There is a massive amount of computing that goes into all of this, and GlassBox works by attributing portions of the computing to EA servers (the cloud) and some on the player's local computer.

— Lucy Bradshaw, SVP Maxis[86]

However, Rock, Paper, Shotgun pointed out after the release that cloud resources were not used to support gameplay computation but simply to support inter-city and social media mechanism.[87] The information was also reported in the mainstream media [88] Those were confirmed by a change in rhetoric from Bradshaw:

From the ground up, we designed this game with multiplayer in mind – using new technology to realize a vision of players connected in regions to create a SimCity that captured the dynamism of the world we live in; a global, ever-changing, social world… We also made innovative use of servers to move aspects of the simulation into the cloud to support region play and social features.

— Lucy Bradshaw, SVP Maxis[86]

After the first beta, EA Management staff discussed Q4 2012 results during which Peter Moore commented on the success of the beta, “SimCity, a completely new version of the treasured classic, includes deep online features. More than 100,000 people played the SimCity beta last weekend,... and the critical reception is shaping up well.”[89]

Critical

Upon release, SimCity was met with mostly positive reviews, many of which were downgraded after reviewers received reports of server problems.[106][107] It received mixed to negative reception soon after, with GameRankings and Metacritic assigning scores of 63.82% and 64/100, respectively.[90][91]

The issues surrounding the launch affected critics' opinions and reviews of the game. Eurogamer, CNET, and IGN delayed their reviews due to being unable to connect to the game servers,[58][108][109] and Polygon, which had reviewed the game before the launch, later dropped its 9.5 out of 10 score to 8 out of 10, and then again to 4 out of 10 in response to the issues and EA's decision to disable gameplay features.[102] Josh Derocher of Destructoid gave a rating of 4 out of 10, saying that despite his enjoyment of the game, "...the online dependency, forced multiplayer, and DRM ruin it."[101] Other critics such as Rock, Paper, Shotgun also noted the launch issues with the always-online nature of the game, servers, and cloud save systems.[110] According to Rock, Paper, Shotgun, because a server connection is required even for single-player games, "the game, by its very design, is hideously broken..."[111] Leif Johnson writing for GameTrailers gave the game an 8.0 out of 10 stating, "Aside from some issues with its online requirements, bugs, and restrictions on city size, it's still a satisfying and addicting simulator that will grant dozens of hours of entertainment with one well-designed city alone."[98] CNET UK reported on March 6 that review aggregator Metacritic accumulated a user score of 2.0 out of 10[59] and several critics reported that the product on Amazon.com had an average rating of 1 out of 5 stars.[56][62][63][112] Amazon customers and the press reported problems with path-finding and artificial intelligence,[103][113][114][115] broken economic simulation,[115] multiplayer aspect not working as advertised [115][116] and iconic features missing compared to previous installments of the game.[117]

SimCity was also criticized for the size of the area the player is given to build a city; critics have noted it to be significantly smaller than what was available in previous games. Maxis responded to this criticism by stating that this was a deliberate compromise to ensure that the game would run smoothly on the majority of users' computers. Maxis has acknowledged that city size is a major complaint, but has stated that they are not currently working on an increase in size.[118] However, they have stated that larger areas may appear in an upcoming release or expansion of the game.[119]

Commercial

SimCity sold over 1.1 million copies in its first two weeks. About 54 percent of total sales have been of digital versions of the game.[120] As of July 2013 the game has sold over two million copies.[121]

References

  1. ^ a b "When will SimCity be released?-EA Help". Electronic Arts Inc. Retrieved March 6, 2013.
  2. ^ a b Phillips, Tom (October 24, 2012). "SimCity release date set in stone • News • Eurogamer.net". eurogamer.net. Retrieved October 24, 2012.
  3. ^ "4Gamer.net エレクトロニック・アーツ，日本語版「シムシティ」を，2013年3月7日に発売。初回特典の内容も明らかに". 4Gamer.net. November 16, 2012. Retrieved January 24, 2013.
  4. ^ a b "Blog post by Senior Producer Kip Katsarelis". Retrieved June 6, 2013.
  5. ^ a b c "SimCity returns in 2013". GameSpot. March 6, 2012. Retrieved March 6, 2012.
  6. ^ "SimCity Official FAQ". Electronic Arts. Retrieved March 8, 2012.
  7. ^ a b Parish, Jeremy (March 7, 2012). "SimCity Returns as One Part Simulation, One Part Stump Speech". 1UP.com. Retrieved March 26, 2012.
  8. ^ a b "Breaking News: Live from Gamescom". Simcity.com. Retrieved August 26, 2012.
  9. ^ "EA's Frank Gibeau Calls Simcity an MMO, not DRM". Retrieved April 3, 2013.
  10. ^ "SimCity Mac Update and Beyond". EA Maxis. Retrieved June 6, 2013.
  11. ^ Mallory, Jordan (June 1, 2012). "SimCity building into your personal life February 2013". Joystiq. Retrieved August 26, 2012.
  12. ^ Robertson, Andy (August 22, 2012). "SimCity reboot excites GeekDad with its deep simulation visuals (Wired UK)". Wired.co.uk. Retrieved August 26, 2012.
  13. ^ "Maxis on SimCity: "we want to make the most responsive, most playful SimCity ever."". PC Gamer. Retrieved August 26, 2012.
  14. ^ Chris Kohler (March 8, 2013). "SimCity Blackout Is Just One More DRM Disaster". Wired. Retrieved March 8, 2013.
  15. ^ Dan Stapleton (March 4, 2013). "SimCity Review in Progress". IGN. Retrieved March 8, 2013.
  16. ^ a b "Maxis Development Team on SimCity (Reddit)". Reddit. March 10, 2012. Retrieved March 17, 2012.
  17. ^ "GC 2012: Hands-On with SimCity". August 16, 2012. Retrieved August 28, 2012.
  18. ^ a b c d "Look around SimCity, don't get bogged down in charts". August 17, 2012. Retrieved September 20, 2012.
  19. ^ "SimCity Interview: Building On Classic Foundations". May 8, 2012. Retrieved September 20, 2012.
  20. ^ a b c "Community Interviews Maxis: Part 2". Electronic Arts. July 24, 2012. Retrieved September 17, 2012.
  21. ^ a b "Maxis Live". October 9, 2012. Retrieved October 10, 2012.
  22. ^ Hinkle, David (March 28, 2012). "SimCity will not support mods at launch". Joystiq. Retrieved March 29, 2012.
  23. ^ a b "Preview: The New SimCity Revealed". GameSpy. March 28, 2012. Retrieved April 1, 2012.
  24. ^ "Official Engine Gameplay video". March 19, 2012. Retrieved May 6, 2012.
  25. ^ Swilinski, Alexander (June 8, 2012). "Build a SimCity with friends, challenges keep game moving along". Joystiq. Retrieved September 24, 2012.
  26. ^ a b c d Gallegos, Anthony (August 14, 2012). "SimCity: Digestible Complexity". IGN. Retrieved September 24, 2012.
  27. ^ a b c Lund-Hansen, Rasmus (August 16, 2012). "Preview Sim City". Gamereactor. Retrieved September 24, 2012.
  28. ^ "SimCity GlassBox Game Engine Part 2". Electronic Arts. Retrieved September 24, 2012.
  29. ^ "SimCity 2013 Players Will Face Tough Choices on Energy and Environment". Scientific American. March 12, 2012. Retrieved March 17, 2012.
  30. ^ a b "Road to SimCity Success". Simcity.com. Retrieved February 27, 2013.
  31. ^ "Paving the Way: SimCity's Road Tool". Simcity.com. Retrieved February 27, 2013.
  32. ^ a b c "SimCity Interview: A New Multiplayer Focus". GameInformer. July 6, 2012. Retrieved September 15, 2012.
  33. ^ "Specialize In What You Love". Electronic Arts. Retrieved September 23, 2012.
  34. ^ "SimCity becomes a world economy". The Guardian. August 17, 2012. Retrieved September 14, 2012.
  35. ^ "Exclusive Podcast w/ dev "Maxis Scott" of SimCity". AltTabMe. February 24, 2013. Retrieved March 3, 2013.
  36. ^ a b "SimCity: The Renovations Continue". Retrieved July 20, 2012.
  37. ^ "My SimCity City Thrived Offline for 19 Minutes – Kotaku". Retrieved March 19, 2013.
  38. ^ a b c "Kotaku Website". Retrieved March 19, 2013. Cite error: The named reference "Kotaku" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  39. ^ "SimCity Developers Reddit AMA Swiftly Turns Into WTF With The Online-Only DRM". Techdirt. December 18, 2012.
  40. ^ a b "SimCity Pre Order". SimCity. Electronic Arts. Retrieved February 23, 2013.
  41. ^ "SimCity Beta is Here!". Simcity.com. Retrieved August 26, 2012.
  42. ^ "Blog Article". Simcity.com. Retrieved February 27, 2013.
  43. ^ "FAQ". Simcity.com. Retrieved February 27, 2013.
  44. ^ "Ocean Quigley Twitter". Retrieved January 16, 2013.
  45. ^ "SimCity.com Forum – Mac Pre-order?". Maxis. November 19, 2012. Retrieved January 3, 2013.[dead link]
  46. ^ ""Inside GlassBox" slides". Retrieved May 19, 2012.
  47. ^ "The Radical Transparency of SimCity". 1up. March 7, 2012. Retrieved March 17, 2012.
  48. ^ "SimCity Insider's Look GlassBox Game Engine, Part 1". CommunityGame. March 21, 2012. Retrieved February 8, 2013.
  49. ^ http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-03-15-maxis-promises-it-will-fix-simcitys-silly-sims-and-traffic
  50. ^ Orland, Kyle (March 14, 2013). "Hackers open up offline play, modding tools for SimCity". Ars Technica. Retrieved March 14, 2013.
  51. ^ a b "Sounds of the City". Electronic Arts. June 26, 2012. Retrieved October 7, 2012.
  52. ^ Webster, Andrew (March 6, 2013). "'Fringe' composer Chris Tilton on rethinking the sound of 'SimCity'". Verge. Retrieved March 8, 2013.
  53. ^ a b Floyd, Tori (April 29, 2011). "SimCity release leads to long wait times on EA servers | The Right Click – Yahoo! News Canada". Ca.news.yahoo.com. Retrieved March 6, 2013.
  54. ^ Bernstein, Robert. "SimCity Launch Causing Severe Server Issues | Den of Geek". Denofgeek.us. Retrieved March 6, 2013.
  55. ^ "SimCity: A great game, once you get past the server problems". news.com.au. March 7, 2013.
  56. ^ a b c d e Thier, Dave (March 6, 2013). "Maxis Working to Fix SimCity's Server Problems". Retrieved March 6, 2013.
  57. ^ a b Ingram, Shawn. "SimCity Connectivity Issues Leave Game Almost Unplayable | Gotta Be Mobile". gottabemobile.com. Retrieved March 6, 2013.
  58. ^ a b MacManus, Christopher (March 7, 2013). "SimCity launch a complete disaster". CNET.
  59. ^ a b Westaway, Luke (March 6, 2013). "EA 'confident' in SimCity Europe launch after disastrous debut". CNET UK.
  60. ^ Edwards, Tim (March 7, 2013). "How EA could repair SimCity's disastrous launch". PCGamesN.
  61. ^ BBC News – Amazon suspends sales of SimCity video game
  62. ^ a b Welch, Chris (March 7, 2013). "Amazon suspends 'SimCity' digital orders as customer complaints surge". Verge. Retrieved March 7, 2013.
  63. ^ a b Nye Griffiths, Daniel. "Sim-plify Matters: Amazon Suspends Digital Sales of SimCity As Australia Joins The Queue". Forbes. Retrieved March 7, 2013.
  64. ^ "Maxis promises it will fix SimCity's silly Sims and traffic". Retrieved August 3, 2013.
  65. ^ "SimCity's Sims Don't Seem That Smart After All". Retrieved August 3, 2013.
  66. ^ Win-Poole, Wesley (March 7, 2013). "Gamer anger grows as SimCity debacle threatens to turn ugly". Eurogamer. Retrieved March 7, 2013.
  67. ^ Yin, Wesley. "Gamer anger grows as SimCity debacle threatens to turn ugly • News • PC •". Eurogamer.net. Retrieved March 8, 2013.
  68. ^ Yin, Wesley (March 8, 2013). "SimCity servers appear to be coping as game hits UK • News • PC •". Eurogamer.net. Retrieved March 8, 2013.
  69. ^ Grayson, Nathan (March 7, 2013). "SimCity Vs The People: Why Apologies Aren't Enough". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved March 8, 2013.
  70. ^ McWhertor, Michael (March 8, 2013). "EA suspends SimCity marketing campaigns, asks affiliates to 'stop actively promoting' game". Polygon. Vox Media. Retrieved March 8, 2013.
  71. ^ "EA not offering SimCity refunds". Polygon. March 8, 2013. Retrieved March 8, 2013.
  72. ^ Bradshaw, Lucy. "A SimCity Update...And Something For Your Trouble". EA. Retrieved March 9, 2013.
  73. ^ Mansell, Luke. "SimCity to not go offline any time soon". Geeks Hut. Retrieved March 14, 2013.
  74. ^ Good, Owen (March 17, 2013). "Coder Discovers Mandatory 20-Minute Offline Timeout in SimCity". Kotaku. Retrieved March 17, 2013.
  75. ^ Walker, John (March 16, 2013). "SimCity Modder Tells Us Offline Regional Play Easily Done". Rock, Paper Shotgun. Retrieved March 18, 2013.
  76. ^ "Server Status". Retrieved April 11, 2013.
  77. ^ "SimCity updates to 1.8, get your patch notes here". Games.On.Net. March 25, 2013. Retrieved April 20, 2013.
  78. ^ "SimCity update 2.0 will address Recycling centers, fire engines, and casinos". GameZone.com. March 28, 2013. Retrieved April 19, 2013.
  79. ^ "SimCity 2.0 Update Launching April 22, Servers Taking Vacation". InsideGamingDaily.com. April 19, 2013. Retrieved April 20, 2013.
  80. ^ "SimCity update 4.0". help.ea.com. May 23, 2013. Retrieved May 24, 2013.
  81. ^ "Patch 7.0 Notes along with Traffic fixes".
  82. ^ "Simcity update 7 will also include tunnels and trees on top of its new traffic fixes". pcgamer.com. August 15, 2013. Retrieved August 26, 2013.
  83. ^ "E3 Redux". Maxis. Retrieved December 5, 2012.
  84. ^ "gamescom awards 2012: The winners are ..." Retrieved August 24, 2012.
  85. ^ "We are the SimCity dev team from Maxis. AMAA!". Maxis. Retrieved December 24, 2012.
  86. ^ a b c "SimCity.com Blog". Maxis. Retrieved December 24, 2012.
  87. ^ "SimCity Boss's "Straight Answers" Seem Pretty Wiggly". Rock Paper Shotgun. Retrieved March 16, 2013.
  88. ^ "One Simple Change Allows SimCity Offline Play". Forbes. Retrieved March 18, 2013.
  89. ^ "Electronic Arts Management Discusses Q3 2013 Results – Earnings Call Transcript". Seeking Alpha. Retrieved March 10, 2013.
  90. ^ a b "SimCity". GameRankings. CBS Interactive. Retrieved March 17, 2013.
  91. ^ a b "SimCity". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved March 17, 2013.
  92. ^ Kelly, Andy. "PC Review: SimCity review: Addictive, beautiful, but broken". ComputerAndVideoGames.com. Retrieved March 15, 2013.
  93. ^ Dean, Paul (March 15, 2013). "SimCity review". Eurogamer. Retrieved March 19, 2013.
  94. ^ "Building On Unstable Ground – SimCity – PC". www.GameInformer.com. February 16, 2013. Retrieved March 15, 2013.
  95. ^ "SimCity (2013) Review". Gamerevolution.com. Retrieved March 15, 2013.
  96. ^ VanOrd, Kevin (March 7, 2013). "SimCity Review". GameSpot. Retrieved March 7, 2013.
  97. ^ "SimCity Review". GamesRadar. Retrieved March 15, 2013.
  98. ^ a b SimCity Review Text | GameTrailers
  99. ^ Stapleton, Dan (March 13, 2013). "SimCity Review". IGN.
  100. ^ Wilde, Tyler (March 9, 2013). "SimCity review". PC Gamer. Future plc. Retrieved March 9, 2013.
  101. ^ a b Joshua Derocher (March 8, 2013). "The splines aren't reticulating". Destructoid. Retrieved March 8, 2013.
  102. ^ a b Pitts, Russ (March 4, 2013). "SimCity Review: engineering addication". Polygon. Vox Media. Retrieved April 10, 2013.
  103. ^ a b Kelly, Andy (March 15, 2013). "SimCity Review". The Guardian. Retrieved March 16, 2013.
  104. ^ Cameron, Phill (March 11, 2013). "SimCity Review". The Telegraph. Retrieved March 15, 2013.
  105. ^ "SimCity review: They built this city to shock and troll". AOL. March 13, 2013. Retrieved March 13, 2013.
  106. ^ http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/14/4103140/simcity-launch-and-server-problems
  107. ^ http://www.gameranx.com/features/id/13413/article/simcity-reviews-paint-a-grim-picture-of-the-future-s-meaningless-game-reviews/
  108. ^ Yin, Wesley (March 6, 2013). "As Origin server woes render SimCity unplayable in the US, EA "confident" all will be well for Brits on Friday • News • PC •". Eurogamer.net. Retrieved March 7, 2013. (from comments section) We have no early access to the game – although we are hoping to gain access to US servers today. In any event, due to the nature of the game we don't think it's appropriate to review it in any conditions other than through access to the public servers, and to put a decent amount of time into it to boot. So unfortunately we won't be able to present a review until next week at the earliest.
  109. ^ "SimCity Review in Progress – IGN". Uk.ign.com. March 4, 2013. Retrieved March 7, 2013.
  110. ^ "Gamers line up to play SimCity..." Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved March 5, 2013.
  111. ^ Walker, John (March 11, 2013). "SimCity Is Inherently Broken, Let's Not Let This Go". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved March 11, 2013.
  112. ^ "BBC News – Amazon suspends sales of SimCity video game". Bbc.co.uk. March 8, 2013. Retrieved March 15, 2013.
  113. ^ Hamilton, Kirk (April 6, 2013). "Happy One-Month Anniversary, SimCity. How's It Going?". Kotaku. Retrieved April 8, 2013.
  114. ^ Walker, John (March 13, 2013). "SimCity's Sims Don't Seem That Smart After All". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved April 8, 2013.
  115. ^ a b c Dave Thier (March 23, 2013). "SimCity Review: Broken and Beautiful". Forbes. Retrieved April 8, 2013.
  116. ^ Margo, Ari (April 5, 2013). "SimCity – One Month Later". Game Horizon. Retrieved April 8, 2013.
  117. ^ Tan, Nick (March 6, 2013). "SimCity (2013) Review". Game Revolution. Retrieved April 8, 2013.
  118. ^ http://www.incgamers.com/2013/05/simcity-interview-with-maxis-kip-katsarelis/
  119. ^ Bogos, Steven (March 2, 2013). "Maxis Will "Eventually" Increase SimCity's City Sizes". The Escapist. Retrieved March 2, 2013.
  120. ^ "SimCity Sells More Than 1 Million at Launch". Business Wire. Berkshire Hathaway. March 18, 2013. Retrieved March 19, 2013.
  121. ^ Matulef, Jeffrey (July 24, 2013). "SimCity sold over 2 million copies". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Retrieved July 25, 2013.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=SimCity_(2013_video_game)&oldid=570365393"