PC Gaming Thread

[Forenci]

Yeah, I just feel bad for Maxis. Gamespot was incredibly childish by giving the game a 5.0 score. So idiotic. I understand they want to rail against EA but to punish Maxis for making a superb game is idiotic. Just shows how bias they are. They loved Diablo III despite DRM and a disastrous launch because everyone loves to cuddle up with Blizzard but still gave it a great review, yet they hammer SimCity for the same thing.

I guess I shouldn't expect much from game review sites anyways though.

[killxswitch]

Maxis shouldn't have sold out. I don't mind them getting some grief for it. Unless it was a hostile thing. What was Maxis' visionary guy? Will something? What happened to him? He seemed like the type to absolutely not sell out.

[Forenci]

I mean, I don't think they really sold out. They just got bought out. The days of independent game developers are quickly coming to an end.

[njx9]

Originally Posted by Forenci

Yeah, I just feel bad for Maxis. Gamespot was incredibly childish by giving the game a 5.0 score. So idiotic. I understand they want to rail against EA but to punish Maxis for making a superb game is idiotic. Just shows how bias they are. They loved Diablo III despite DRM and a disastrous launch because everyone loves to cuddle up with Blizzard but still gave it a great review, yet they hammer SimCity for the same thing.

I guess I shouldn't expect much from game review sites anyways though.

i hate to keep doing this, but you're completely wrong about nearly everything you're saying. yes, the launch issues suck. have you watched totalbiscuit's pre-review (just mentioned because it was the most balanced i've seen)? have you watched any reviews? or is this just mindless fellation because everyone told you the game would be awesome and now you have to believe it? there are serious and legitimate issues with the game. the city size is crap, and given how poorly the game was optimized to run on multiple cores, or modern CPUs, it's simply a lie to suggest it's because of the computation. the belief that you should only ever want to play with other people is crap. the fact that the techinical issues mean that cities aren't being saved properly, that saves are being corrupted, and that in spite of everything being 'in the cloud', i can't access my stuff if i flip to a different server is crap. the fact that they had to remove relatively important game features and that STILL didn't help with their inability to have enough servers is crap. let's stop acting like this is the mostest perfectest game ever and that all the reviewers are just meanines. it's pathetic and reminiscent of the 12 year olds who slobber all over every CoD release for 6 days before they move on to the next one.

Originally Posted by Forenci

I mean, I don't think they really sold out. They just got bought out. The days of independent game developers are quickly coming to an end.

again, that's utter crap. there are LOADS of fantastic indie game devs. it's like the people who always want to pretend that independent music is dead because a few people aren't smart enough to stop buying top 40 garbage.

[Forenci]

Hah, wow, way to make GROSS generalizations. I actually had VERY little expectations for this game coming in. I'm just talking about the game itself. The game is fun. I don't really give a **** about the political rhetoric of "DRM'S ARE SO LAME!!!" To address your other issues:

or is this just mindless fellation because everyone told you the game would be awesome and now you have to believe it?

Right, I'm just a mindless drone. Something sucks, but gosh, I'm going to say how awesome it is and how much fun I have playing it! The game is great. Are there issues? Sure. Would I like bigger city sizes? Sure. Is it not in the game because of CPU issues? Partially, sure. I'm confident quite a few CPUs couldn't handle the classic MASSIVE cities we're used to in other SimCity games. And, despite people bitching, you can make a heavily populated city. I've seen people with millions of residents. However, it actually takes A TON of planning and skill to reach that level. Makes it more fun to me.

the belief that you should only ever want to play with other people is crap.

When the hell did I say this? I never said this once. I said that I PERSONALLY enjoy playing with other people. You certainly don't have to. You can make a private region and play by yourself. And, one of my biggest knocks on the game is that they didn't make a pure single player/offline mode. Utterly stupid, in my opinion.

the fact that the techinical issues mean that cities aren't being saved properly, that saves are being corrupted, and that in spite of everything being 'in the cloud', i can't access my stuff if i flip to a different server is crap.

I mean, I personally have yet to experience this but I imagine how frustrating it can be for some people. Again, it's stupid to have your saves stored in a cloud system. Dumb.

he fact that they had to remove relatively important game features and that STILL didn't help with their inability to have enough servers is crap.

Relatively important features? You mean, like, leader boards? Yeah, very important stuff right there.

let's stop acting like this is the mostest perfectest game ever and that all the reviewers are just meanines.

When did I do that? I've said plenty of times there are several issues I take with the game. Some of them bother me significantly. Yet, every time I play the game I have fun. To me, that's what's important. I can't say that about a lot of games. If they fix a lot of the issues, update it and add some more content (like bigger cities) it will be amazing.

It's not the reviewers being "meanies." In fact, many of the reviews were great prior to the server issues. It's the fact that Van Oord, from Gamespot, is an asshole who LOVES railing on big companies like EA. And the fact that he says, "Yeah, its fun and I like a lot of the game" and then gives it a horrendous review for an issue that is already being solved. Be professional, that's my issue. I hate EA too, but I'm not going to just not play a game I want to play because they're involved.

it's pathetic and reminiscent of the 12 year olds who slobber all over every CoD release for 6 days before they move on to the next one.

I mean, I think CoD is a joke so you won't get much of a complaint from me. I was actually happy SimCity tried to mix it up a bit. A lot of people wanted Sim City 2000 or Sim City 4 with better graphics. I think that's stupid. I love when people complain about CoD and then when a beloved game gets a new sequel and everyone flips out because it's different.

again, that's utter crap. there are LOADS of fantastic indie game devs. it's like the people who always want to pretend that independent music is dead because a few people aren't smart enough to stop buying top 40 garbage.

Yes, and I love a lot of indie games. A lot of them are good, a lot of them are crap. Pretty much sums up all games in general. Some are good, some are crap. Such is life.

I love playing some Indie games, but yeah, sorry, I do like playing games with more depth/graphics/etc. I don't think that's a crime, is it? And yes, the reason they can make games with more content (typically) and superior graphics, animations, story, etc. is because they are flush with cash.

There are plenty of top 40 games that are amazing. Is Call of Duty one of them for me? No. Is Battlefield 3? Yeah. I'm not going to write off all games because they are published by EA, Activision or some other big name company. That's foolish.

My point is: does Sim City have a lot of issues? Sure. Have other games have a lot of issues on release and still been great games? Yup, plenty. They will be fixed and I will go on enjoying the game. That doesn't mean you have to, or anyone else for that matter.

Also, side note, absolutely hilarious you're ripping me for "not reading all the reviews," many of which I have, and you haven't even played the ******* game.

[nepg]

Maxis has been with EA forever. I ain't think they had much choice in the matter. I don't think any dev worth a crap wants to deal with EA after what they did to Bioware.

[Trogdor]

Nice to see njx trolling for no apparent reason.

Played for about 4 hours today and had a blast. Server issues are appalling but once they get straightened out this game has serious potential.

Server issues need to be fixed and will be in the near future as they are rolling out a bunch of series while patching server issues.

Is the game perfect? Not even close. Then again not a single game on the market is on release.

Bottom line: The game is unbelievably fun and far more engrossing than any city simulator on the market. I still play SimCity 4 and I have played the abortion of a series known as Cities XL.

[49erNation85]

What kind of soft ware does it take to run Sim City smoothly?

What I have intel Core I3
Nvidia @ geforce GT 540M
4. GB DDR3 Memory .
640 GB HDD

Would this be enough to run it ok ?

[killxswitch]

RAM is really cheap. 4GB is pretty low. Without even looking at the recommended specs, I'd bump that up.

[49erNation85]

Originally Posted by killxswitch

RAM is really cheap. 4GB is pretty low. Without even looking at the recommended specs, I'd bump that up.

Is that possible on a laptop ?

[nobodyinparticular]

Originally Posted by 49erNation85

Is that possible on a laptop ?

You can def purchase RAM upgrades on a laptop, but it's important to know if the MOBO can take more RAM.

[killxswitch]

And the RAM will be more expensive. Maybe not by much. I didn't realize it was a laptop.

[Trogdor]

Originally Posted by 49erNation85

What kind of soft ware does it take to run Sim City smoothly?

What I have intel Core I3
Nvidia @ geforce GT 540M
4. GB DDR3 Memory .
640 GB HDD

Would this be enough to run it ok ?

You can run it no problem. I can run it on a AMD 5600+, 4GB ram, ATI 6850 with everything on high except shadows. I always turn off shadows as they are a resource hog.

If you run into any problems just lower the resolution and turn off shadows. The game was designed to run on a wide spec of computers :)

[49erNation85]

OK thanks ^ . I kinda peaked at the specs last night and does look that way I can run it ok. good to know if i wanna pick this up after all the issues are worked out and a price drop.

[Trogdor]

For those who bought SimCity or plan on buying it before the 18th EA is going to be offering a free EA game from their PC collection as an apology.

No word on whether it'll be limited to a specific set of games or the entire catalog.

On Friday, in another online statement, Ms. Bradshaw apologized for the game’s debut. She tried to quell fan outrage with an apology for failing to have sufficient server capacity — “that was dumb” — and with the offer of a free EA PC game to anyone who purchases SimCity before next Monday. In a brief e-mail interview, Ms. Bradshaw said that the genesis of the problem was”simply put, we underestimated the surge in customers we had right at launch and the demand that the game would have on our servers once in the wild.”

[vidae]

Nice try EA. I'm not buying SimCity.

[njx9]

edit: no, nevermind. this is not worth it.

[bantx]

Looking to get a new game on Steam since im on spring break any recommendations?

[ImBrotherCain]

Originally Posted by bantx

Looking to get a new game on Steam since im on spring break any recommendations?

Sim City

In before someone freaks out

[killxswitch]

No Sim City on Steam.

[ImBrotherCain]

Originally Posted by killxswitch

No Sim City on Steam.

Oh I know. It was just more to start another riot between the Sim City fans and the haters. I myself stand in the middle so its just entertainment for me.

[Trogdor]

Originally Posted by ImBrotherCain

Oh I know. It was just more to start another riot between the Sim City fans and the haters. I myself stand in the middle so its just entertainment for me.

Pure evil! :D

[falloutboy14]

http://www.simcity.com/en_US/blog/ar...ad-from-origin

They had promised to give out a free game due to the launch fiasco. The list of options & time-line are now out.
Battlefield 3
Bejeweled 3
Dead Space 3
Mass Effect 3
MoH Warfighter
Need for Speed Most Wanted
Plants vs Zombies
Sim City 4

[Forenci]

Anyone check out the Starforge Alpha? I've been reading/watching a bunch of stuff on it. Looks pretty insane if they accomplish everything they set out to do.

[Forenci]

Sort of answered my own question. I bought it on Steam for $20. It's in alpha right now but it's very interesting.

It still has a ton of room for growth but basically it's like Minecraft on crack. You can build starting from the ground, all the way through the atmosphere and into space. They're working on making it right now so if you dig into ground, go into space, or keep running it will be limitless and still remember all the interaction you've had wherever you've been.