SimCity first day bugs

[Tupin]

So after looking forward to SimCity for a very long time, I finally got my copy today. Being the heard-headed consumer I am, I bought a physical version. I put it in my PC and it prompts me immediately to install Origin. Fine, I guess. A Steam rip-off is a Steam rip-off. So after about a half hour of clicking boxes and waiting around, the game finally boots up. It's actually pretty graphically impressive. Since I'm a relative newbie to the SimCity series, I found it odd that I didn't get a tutorial first and just jumped into making a town. Five minutes in, the game crashed.

It's at this point I realize that I was supposed to have a tutorial when I started the game the first time. I just didn't. I clicked the menu option for a tutorial, it loaded, and then....nothing. No prompts, all I can do is move the camera around the tutorial town. I try logging onto another server, and it doesn't even load the game.

How does a company miss something this big? Whose fault is this? Needing such big fixes, be it actual bugs or handling the servers better, seems to be occurring more and more often recently.

At least in the five minutes I got to play the game, it was fun. But everything else about my experience sadly seems to be par for course for online games bought on day one. Anyone else have similar experiences?

[Sinizar]

So after looking forward to SimCity for a very long time, I finally got my copy today. Being the heard-headed consumer I am, I bought a physical version. I put it in my PC and it prompts me immediately to install Origin. Fine, I guess. A Steam rip-off is a Steam rip-off. So after about a half hour of clicking boxes and waiting around, the game finally boots up. It's actually pretty graphically impressive. Since I'm a relative newbie to the SimCity series, I found it odd that I didn't get a tutorial first and just jumped into making a town. Five minutes in, the game crashed.

It's at this point I realize that I was supposed to have a tutorial when I started the game the first time. I just didn't. I clicked the menu option for a tutorial, it loaded, and then....nothing. No prompts, all I can do is move the camera around the tutorial town. I try logging onto another server, and it doesn't even load the game.

How does a company miss something this big? Whose fault is this? Needing such big fixes, be it actual bugs or handling the servers better, seems to be occurring more and more often recently.

At least in the five minutes I got to play the game, it was fun. But everything else about my experience sadly seems to be par for course for online games bought on day one. Anyone else have similar experiences?

Same problem here. The work around I found is when the tutorial comes up, load into it and it will not allow you to do anything. Let the game run until it crashes. The next time you start the game the tutorial is gone and you can start playing. Very buggy game and I recommend waiting until EA patches this or they put the price so low you cannot resist. It is fun for the 5 minutes at a time you can play but since the server is online it never syncs until you exit the game properly. Hope you like starting a city from scratch each time you crashed from your game.

[SOL BADGUY]

Theres no bugs that these guys are experiencing......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mx0hcTT7dUE

TROOOOOLO!!!!!!!1!!

[Graham Mitchell]

I'm sorry but that's pathetic. They need to stop releasing these broken games. They should work out of the box. How could they not have known about this?

[kupomogli]

I feel for you. While I'll admit that I've never had an issue where the game didn't work at all, being a console gamer, a lot of games that are released release with screen tearing, sub 30fps framerate, and many other issues. Add to that that in order to get the complete game you're required to preorder and buy the ton of day one DLC that companies release, so unless they come out with a GotY edition it's never going to truly be complete.

If developers do fix the issues, they take months to do so. Twisted Metal is an amazing game, but it took until September or October to make the game playable online. It wasn't laggy, you just couldn't get into a match. Half a year atleast after the game was released. The last two times I tried to get online, the moment the countdown started for a match, my PS3 crashed. The exact same moment, twice. I have a 60GB PS3 and I've heard that was the issue, but it shouldn't matter. Playstation All Stars the game is a huge lag fest, so many bugs and glitches. The game should have came out months down the road rather than when it did. When they did patch it, the online only got worse. 1.08 is better, but still laggy. 1.05 and 1.07 was unplayable.

It was nice when consoles weren't like PCs. When developers couldn't just update the game to get it working after release. Now days, developers have the luxury of pushing out an incomplete product because they know they can patch whatever issues people complain about afterwards, They got their money already. Their fanbase doesn't mean anything to them. Rather than using sites that do video game comparisons for console comparisons, I use them to see what the framerate of the game is, screen tear, etc. It's a reason why I refuse to pick up Far Cry 3 for consoles. Why am I going to pay $60 for a game that's locked at 20fps on consoles and screen tearing all over the place. It's a bit ridiculous.

[Graham Mitchell]

I feel for you. While I'll admit that I've never had an issue where the game didn't work at all, being a console gamer, a lot of games that are released release with screen tearing, sub 30fps framerate, and many other issues. Add to that that in order to get the complete game you're required to preorder and buy the ton of day one DLC that companies release, so unless they come out with a GotY edition it's never going to truly be complete.

If developers do fix the issues, they take months to do so. Twisted Metal is an amazing game, but it took until September or October to make the game playable online. It wasn't laggy, you just couldn't get into a match. Half a year atleast after the game was released. The last two times I tried to get online, the moment the countdown started for a match, my PS3 crashed. The exact same moment, twice. I have a 60GB PS3 and I've heard that was the issue, but it shouldn't matter. Playstation All Stars the game is a huge lag fest, so many bugs and glitches. The game should have came out months down the road rather than when it did. When they did patch it, the online only got worse. 1.08 is better, but still laggy. 1.05 and 1.07 was unplayable.

It was nice when consoles weren't like PCs. When developers couldn't just update the game to get it working after release. Now days, developers have the luxury of pushing out an incomplete product because they know they can patch whatever issues people complain about afterwards, They got their money already. Their fanbase doesn't mean anything to them. Rather than using sites that do video game comparisons for console comparisons, I use them to see what the framerate of the game is, screen tear, etc. It's a reason why I refuse to pick up Far Cry 3 for consoles. Why am I going to pay $60 for a game that's locked at 20fps on consoles and screen tearing all over the place. It's a bit ridiculous.

Come to the dark side. Build a pc. You won't go back once you taste the forbidden fruit

Pc games still have their glitches (rage was broken out of the box until nvidia updated their drivers) but once they work they work very well. Steam is a ln awesome service, too. Full retail games take less than an hour to download.

Come, be one of us!!!

[Tanooki]

Ugh I feel bad for ya about this. This is primarily why I don't buy non-indie PC games anymore until they've been out for at least many months. To cut costs companies these days are putting less effort into testing that they once did with systems not having hard drives(consoles) or internet (for easy patches.) Now you get to buy beta software and with all the myriad of computer part randomness out there, you get to be the guinea pig on your bill which is wrong wrong wrong. It's also pretty horrid they're forcing the install of Origin.

That right there ensures I will never buy this game now. I've walked away from Steam because I didn't like the overhead, the stupid thing always in the background, and just the insidious nature of all the sales as I'd just keep clicking my paypal bucks into a pile of crap where 95% of it I used once which was a waste. Maybe due to the Sim fan base out there, eventually someone will clean up the bugs and hack out forced install of Origin as it looks like it could be a fun game if it ran right.

[Lanzo]

Man, I have seen the commercial a few times and was really looking forward to trying this. That's so damn lame.

[Collector_Gaming]

There is already discussion about how people are arguing about it being online constantly and the servers crapping out all over the internet. Some people are wondering how long the servers will last before they go out the window which would then render the game useless.

One guy I read said he had super high hopes for this game and wanted it be everything. But after hearing these reports he reinstalled Sim City 4 and said it will be good enough for him.

[Tupin]

To be fair, the only problems with the game is with the always-online stuff. Other than that, it's really good.

Still can't play it, though. Servers are down. I did manage to get through a tutorial, though.

Jeez, even Spore wasn't this bad.

[RP2A03]

Meanwhile at the EA servers...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UR5WpJCZGA

[Kitsune Sniper]

It looks like Amazon is giving refunds to people who bought it at their store, at least according to a review on the product page.

[danawhitaker]

It looks like Amazon is giving refunds to people who bought it at their store, at least according to a review on the product page.

They also quit selling it apparently. I loved the earlier Sim City games, particularly 2000, but I won't be touching this with a 10 foot pole. I already have one game that is tethered to an always-on umbilical cord, I don't need more of them. EA's managing to make Blizzard's Diablo 3 problems look nice.

I mean, for crying out loud. You know it's bad when EA's also disabling features in the game in order to try and make it work.

[Tupin]

Can anyone explain to me what the "always online" thing is supposed to do on paper? I could get connecting to the Internet once to register the game and tell EA I didn't pirate it or something, and I could get selectively connecting to join someone else's game.

But why do I need to be online when I'm on a private region? Why are all of the games apparently run serverside, since they removed Cheetah speed?

[danawhitaker]

Can anyone explain to me what the "always online" thing is supposed to do on paper? I could get connecting to the Internet once to register the game and tell EA I didn't pirate it or something, and I could get selectively connecting to join someone else's game.

But why do I need to be online when I'm on a private region? Why are all of the games apparently run serverside, since they removed Cheetah speed?

On paper, no matter what other excuses they give, it's supposed to prevent piracy.

At least in Diablo 3, I can see the need for it, because they want to prevent fraud and dupes and item hacking with the auction house feature.

[The 1 2 P]

I hope the console makers are paying attention to this story. One more reason we shouldn't be required to have an always-online connection.

[wingzrow]

EA has been pulling this sort of thing for YEARS. I'm not surprised in the slightest.

[danawhitaker]

EA has been pulling this sort of thing for YEARS. I'm not surprised in the slightest.

THIS bad though? So bad that Amazon or other retailers actually stopped selling the product? I've played some of the Sims 3 stuff over the years, and never ran into anything this ridiculous. I stayed away on principle from this game and I'm glad I did. People are rolling into Day 3 of not being able to play, and even reviewers are having trouble fully reviewing the game because they're unable to play.

Club Pogo, which is run by EA, and is by definition always on because all the games are java-based or Flash-based browser games through a paid service, doesn't have nearly the problems this single launch has. I can count on one hand, since 2006, the number of times the service has been completely out of commission or borked outside of regular weekly maintenance. On a side note, one of those times happened to be, conveniently enough, Wednesday, during the throes of Sim City problems. Makes me wonder if they're related at all since EA hosts it all or whether that just happened to be a coincidence.

[Graham Mitchell]

Not only is this ridiculous, it's a shame because the game sounded fun.

[danawhitaker]

http://kotaku.com/5989385/why-south-...-about-simcity

Wow, EA. Just...wow.