You paid $70?!
You do realize you were able to get it for $26 at launch dont you?
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SimCity for Mac Plagued by Various Teething Issues [Update: Resolved]
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You paid $70?!
You do realize you were able to get it for $26 at launch dont you?
Oh please, what a tremendously mean-spirited way of looking at it. So EA screw up months and months after the Windows version is fixed and you say the consumer deserves it?
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I'm not sure why the game gets all this hate for the small city size. It's not like you can't build another city in your region. The cities in the region can actually talk to each other now (unlike previous incarnations) and share some resources.
If you want to work with other people, that's an option, but if you want to play by yourself, that's fine too.
Now, as far as offline play, that is something that I would really like to see change. And honestly for me, it's not even the DRM. Personally, I would say that 30-day check-ins would be a passable compromise, as the game is currently useless on a plane or in a hotel with crappy wifi. Something like Steam's offline mode would be even better. Let me validate once and then play by myself.
Had I actually bought it I'd have been really annoyed at the PC launch, but I got it at no-cost.
The early problems are well documented. I will say it's much better since the traffic fixes in the last few weeks. The game engine functions as it should now, even if the plots are small compared to previous titles. It's mitigated somewhat by the region play however.
I'm enjoying playing it on the PC. It's just unfortunate that they don't appear to have tested the Mac version on the limited range of equipment it's designed to run on! Graphics performance is abysmal on my MBP, where it runs fantastically in Windows 7 on the same hardware.
I would think developing for Mac would be a dream. There's only a handful of configurations you need to take into account and test for. Leave it to EA to screw the pooch yet again.
The thing that I find most disappointing is the lack of actual game, you can build a city in an evening and then what. Queue in app purchases to make the game what it should be out of the box especially given the price tag. The engine is a piece of crap if it can't handle bigger cities than the postage stamp that the current limits enforce. I reckon they have put those limits in place because of the reliance on cloud saves and muti-player interactions to keep data transfer down and also to make it boring enough after five minutes that people pay for lots of IAP. The constantly on line limitation kills it for me because this is the type of game I would have liked to play during my daily commute so its useless to me. I hate EA so much for doing this, I was so looking forward to this game and they have killed it.
Seriously, man. This is one of the most popular Mac gaming franchises in history. Just because you don't get that, you have to keep repeating yourself?
I just want to say that "Sim City launch disaster" stories have about the easiest pickings for catchy accompanying graphics of any tech news story, ever.
MacNN used a pleasant looking urban inferno, which seems a little more apt than meteor strikes from the sky.
Hey, look at the bright side--however much they screwed up the Mac launch, it looks fantastically well-handled in comparison to the original PC one!
MacNN used a pleasant looking urban inferno, which seems a little more apt than meteor strikes from the sky.
Hey, look at the bright side--however much they screwed up the Mac launch, it looks fantastically well-handled in comparison to the original PC one!
The windows version isn't fixed, just their server demand went down, "fixing" that problem. All the real issues with the game still exist on both platforms.
Don't blame the workers at EA. I think the issue is management. I believe EA spends the majority of their resources on marketing and doesn't care about making things work particularly well. They have no incentive to do so - the average consumer will hear the marketing and buy the game long before hearing about everyone else's woes. By the time they realize they've bought crap, it's too late. They don't know that they can return it or it's too much effort to return it.
EA's strategy works well for making money in the short term, but it'll ultimately fail when they exhaust their vast pool of people who have either played or heard good things about Sims 2 and so feel like they should buy SimCity or other EA games. They'll have nobody left saying good things about them besides their marketing department at that point... the only thing that remains to be seen is whether they can actually cover their marketing costs with the sales that are generated from it.
The problem is fundamental: server based. Anything that requires a connection to play is a loser game. Connections are not reliable, universally available or fast everywhere. By requiring a connection they instantly limit their audience and turn off those of use that won't accept that shackle. Major problem is that they can just decide to shut down the servers one day and then the game you paid for is dead. Worthless.
Oh for ****** sake..... problems, buggy game, overpriced EA crap!!!
When this game was first announced I was so excited, then all these problems came, then the price was announced and now its released for the Mac, its not even on the DAMN MAC APP STORE!!!!!!!
I just don't know if I can summon the will to buy this game........... damn you EA!!!!!! Ruining so many great game!!!
When this game was first announced I was so excited, then all these problems came, then the price was announced and now its released for the Mac, its not even on the DAMN MAC APP STORE!!!!!!!
I just don't know if I can summon the will to buy this game........... damn you EA!!!!!! Ruining so many great game!!!
Add me up to the disappointed list.
The game is working perfectly for me, no crashes or major bugs.
But the actual gameplay is terrible, and the biggest mistake they made is making cities so small. It takes you 30-40 minutes to occupy the whole map and then you just need to wait for bigger buildings to appear.
And the trading/neighbors part of the game is average at most.
Sad, really sad. Two of my favorite games were completely destroyed this year: Diablo and now SimCity.
The game is working perfectly for me, no crashes or major bugs.
But the actual gameplay is terrible, and the biggest mistake they made is making cities so small. It takes you 30-40 minutes to occupy the whole map and then you just need to wait for bigger buildings to appear.
And the trading/neighbors part of the game is average at most.
Sad, really sad. Two of my favorite games were completely destroyed this year: Diablo and now SimCity.
It's not the engine, it's poor porting for the Mac. I've played for months on Bootcamp at full-res on my 27" iMac, and had been looking forward to this release so I wouldn't have to keep going back and forth between OS'. I guess this wasn't the solution I was hoping for.
These issues are not resolved and I cannot believe they had the audacity to send you that vague press statement! Note they only said the installation problems were resolved. I played it yesterday and it worked fine but it was super laggy and it is not on bootcamp. Today the game is having the issue where it won't even start. So no, this is NOT resolved and god knows if it ever will be.
It's not the engine, it's poor porting for the Mac. I've played for months on Bootcamp at full-res on my 27" iMac, and had been looking forward to this release so I wouldn't have to keep going back and forth between OS'. I guess this wasn't the solution I was hoping for.
Just a correction - its not a port. For once they actually made 2 copies of the game instead of sticking it in a bottle or wrapper. From that side of things its good, but only if it's going to work correctly. Hopefully they will sort out the resolution issue.
Not sure if its worth trying but the game UI is very easy to modify - might be worth poking around in the SimCity.app/Resources directory - there should be a config text file in there. On the Windows version I believe that stores the resolutions.
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Plus a free game from EA if you were an early adopter. We all got a choice of games to have for free due to the cockup. I stupidly picked SimCity 4 thinking it would work on the Mac - it does not. It didn't include the Aspyr port of the game.