SimCity: The Debacle

SimCity is one of the most renowned series EA has ever had, and is to this day a favourite to many. The SNES version of the original is even regarded to several as the best game of all time, so you wouldn't be surprised to hear how huge the hype was for the new entry into the series released this week. Unfortunately, that hype has turned to despair as everything that could have gone wrong has, and worse.

Reviewers praised the game across the board from their experiences with the beta/review copies. Cities where fun to build alongside friends who built theirs next door, and the new elements added made for a fantastic experience with every new city. As soon as it hit launch though, things went pear shaped. Here's where problem number one arises. SimCity requires you to connect to a server to play. What this means is, it kind of works like an MMO, where each server can handle so many players at one time before you get caught up in a queue. EA had originally set the release dates spread out to ensure overloading never happened, and everyone could get on at once, but they had obviously forgotten just how big the demand was for the game, and no server was ever empty. This left many gamers waiting in queues for over 2-3 hours just to get into the game. What's more, the servers where unstable, and many would get disconnected from the servers mid-game and lose all of their saved data.

An example of the queue time, some go as high as 3 hour waits.

Due to the server issues, patch after patch was sent out in an attempt to sort the game, so if you weren't waiting in a queue, you where waiting for an update. Which never worked most of the time, so the issues continued. EA even removed a lot of the major features, cheetah mode(fast speed) and leaderboards are gone, two key features which made the game even more fun. This has caused a lot of people to abandon the game either entirely, or until it's stabalised, and even now major gaming websites and personalities, like Destructoid are warning to avoid the game until the issues are dealt with. Overall, the fact that they need to put you on servers for what is, for the most part, a single player experience is outright stupid. Sure, it has multiplayer in which you and friends play in different cities in the same zone, but that can be done outside of servers. You can't even play the same city in a different server, it's an atrocious move in every respect.


Another major issue, though this could easily fit in above, is Always-Online-DRM. It's fits in with the servers, and is just another thorn in gamers' sides. Do we really need it still? Ubisoft and many other publishers have learnt that it doesn't help matters, but only dampens them. EA are still one of the few who have yet to grasp just how damaging it can be. It removes the idea of you actually owning the rights to the copy you now own of a game, and instead all you have is a contract, or a pass to play it. Which leads to the last issue that has plagued this.

Servers are 95% of the time full, so you can't get in

A consumer recently approached EA about claiming a refund for the game due it being unreliable, unstable and basically unplayable. Whilst in a chat with an EA customer service representative he was denied a refund, and then told that if he continues with disputing his right to a refund, he'd get banned. The full conversation is linked below.

Also worth mentioning that TotalBiscuit put out a warning to all UK consumers that they should check the Sales of Good act if they are refused a refund from EA, so please do so if you already own the game and wish to claim a refund on it

Now i won't lie, i want SimCity. It looks fantastic when you get into the game, but that is only IF you can get into it. With server issues, game patches to hide behind every issue the game has, be it instability or whatever, and it being always online DRM'd whilst being a single player title for the most part leave me wondering if i'll ever get to play it. If i was to even consider purchasing this down the line, then they would need to remove the always online part part of the DRM and make it more in line with what other platforms do, register your product online then you can do what you will with it after. And then there is the server issue. If they are so hell-bent on keeping this idea here, then they need to quadruple the size of the servers at least. The demand for the game is high, very high in fact. We aren't buying this game to sit in a queue for 3 hours at a time, we're buying it to play it when we want to play it. Learn from this EA, and every other developer/publisher for that matter. This is not how you release a game, this is how you destroy it.

Indie titles WHY U SO GOOD!?!?!?!?

I'll be honest here, up until early last year, i hardly played any PC games, bar the odd RTS here or there. but then i delved deeper into it all, and asides from the usual big named titles, i found my steam library turn into this mass of indie titles. There was a point where i thought, hey, hah, all i want is title x or title y on steam, big name stuff i mean, and never looked to cheap titles cause they looked meh. I can't get enough of them now.

Probably some of the major titles you'd think of when you consider the indie scene is Edmund McMillens Super Meat Boy the platformer where having over 1000 deaths before world 3 is common place. Or of course the game that took off flying and is still to really stop, Minecraft. It's become such a diverse and, i'd go as far to say very well respected scene now, that  owning them is normal now. I find myself with over 80 hours on The Binding of Isaac, 60 on Plants vs Zombies, and so many more on others. But i think i'm missing my own point, Why are they so good?

Awesomenauts - check out the theme song, it's so good

I think part of that could be that, as an indie developer, you have a lot more free rein over what you do. You can experiment a lot more with what you're doing than you would if you where stuck working on a AAA title like, say, Resident Evil, which has nosedived into the worst gameplay choices imaginable(going for CoD fans? really?) Take Awesomenauts, which is set to hit PC/Steam in the not to distant future. It's a MOBA(think League of Legends) style game at heart, but so different outside of that. Sure, it has you defending towers, taking out mobs, buying upgrades, it's a platformer on top of that. Aiming  and firing isn't auto either, it's all something you need to control yourself. It can easily change up the way the genre moves on depending on how well it's received(i think it did hella well on PS360, but i forget) and essentially push even more weird and exciting ideas to the genre. Yes of course we will have bad games come out of them, heck that always happens, but there are times like this particular title that things work out. Bastion brings in new ideas for story telling, through a narrator who tells everything as you progress. It means you spend more time enjoying the game, whilst listening to his fantastic voice, tell the story of Caelondia and the Kid trying to find a way to sort out the "Calamity".

Sure, you could say "oh, capcom can do this" or  "Ea did that", and maybe they can or have, but the titles have either gone under the radar, or they are too afraid to do something major to their main titles with the chance that they'll lose sales. It's horrible to say that, but it's not too far off the truth. Resident Evil 6, to bring it up again, is being made with the intention of "trying to bring in fans of CoD". They want that because it means more sales, which in turn means more money. The feeling i get from that is, they don't really want to keep the fans of certain series they have now, they just want to bring in more to keep up cash income. I honestly believe that'll do them more damage with that title than anything else.

I think i've kind of only scratched the surface with it all. Indie titles are becoming more and more noticed and more of them are turning out to be good. Some more so. If i can get more titles like Bastion, Trine, Braid, Limbo, Super Meat Boy, and at such a good price, i think i'll gladly support them all when i can. i feel my money is more well spend with them too, as not only am i getting my moneys worth, i feel like i want to return to the titles time and time again. I think AAA developers/companies could learn from them, if they could only let go of their damn pride and silly notions of being the only ones that can do x, y or z. Some of their titles may just turn out to be good, real good.

Also, Indie games have the best soundtracks. Just Sayin'

The Steam Summer Sale. - Wallets stand no chance

Steam finally got their Summer Sale underway on the 12th of July, after what several believe was a delay. Last year the Summer sale was the last week of June, so there was a fair bit of belief that it would be the same again this year. Regardless, it's finally kicked in, and the deals which will take all our monies has finally hit home, so what kind of deals should we be looking out for on Steam? Here's a few recommendations from myself as to what you should look out for over the next 9 days(ok, 8 and a half when this goes out, you picky people you);

Bastion

Many people who follow me on twitter probably know my obsession with this title, it's such a wonderful game i think everyone should go out and buy it. The story telling is brilliantly done via the narrator, who tells you pieces of what's going on and the lore around the world as you progress through the game. He'll comment on your use of weapons, you're clumsiness(falling off the stage), but never excessively. It's all well paced and feels like it fits perfectly into the game. The combat is a little basic, but it honestly doesn't matter. I sat through the game in one sitting, and never once got bored. That soundtrack is probably my favourite game OST of last year, no competition. My only other mention is, play through the game twice. You'll thank me later. Supergiant games deserve every bit of respect for this.

Sonic Generations

Sonic titles as of late have been a little....on the iffy side. And to be fair the skepticism over how they could return the series to it's former glory was always going to loom over it when including classic sonic, but i can safely say, they nailed it. The classic sonic portions of the game are just right, they feel like classic sonic. The physics aren't off, the momentum is right, the stages are well design, just what we needed. Even the stages from games like unleashed & colours have been redesigned to fit him. And yes, even modern sonic feels good too. The focus for him being more on speed is well balanced with classic. You never get too much or too little from it. Also, What a joy it is to hear Chemical Plant zones music again.

The Binding of Isaac + Expansion

Edmund McMillen has a lot of wacky ideas for games, and this is no different. You play isaac in a zelda-esque style dungeon crawler, with your treasure rooms, item shops + boss rooms and head down deeper into the basement. Sounds easy enough? God it's not. Every playthrough is different, and you'll never get the same combo of items twice(items hit about 220+ i believe with the expansion on top). Consider this. One playthrough, you could be firing homing tears whilst having a cube of meat orbit you, or perhaps you are firing a laser from one eye then using your equipped Shoop da Whoop Beam to get out of a pickle. It's never the same twice. And with so many references hidden in there, it's great. You really need to play it yourself to understand just how wacky an idea it is. Tears as your weapon, and the aim of the game? Kill Mom. Yup. For those interested in where the idea seems to have come from, look on wikipedia for the Binding of Isaac page, it's basically a HUGE reference to the story from the bible of the same name.
(Also, at the time of writing this, It's 99p for the game, £1.73 for the game + expansion + OST. That's it, no excuses)

Amnesia: The Dark Descent

I don't think i need to explain this one. It's a horror game known all over the internet for being one of the scariest games out in years. If you like/love horror titles, you need this.

Saints Row: The Third

THQ are having a fair few issues at the moment with restructuring and money issues, and i find that sad to hear when they have a gem like Saints Row: The Third in their collection. It's insane, over the top fun ala Grand Theft Auto, but unlike GTA, it hasn't gotten serious over time, just more mad. There is enough to do in this sandbox title alongside the main quests and DLC quests that you'll probably be at it for hours. And with the co-op campaign there as well, it's even better. If you need convincing by the way, go check out Jesse Cox(OMGFCata) and his playthrough, even just part 1. The start of the game is enough to get a good judge of the game entirely.

And with that, there is just a few games i'd suggest buying when you can. I could also have gone into depth with Terraria, Super Meat Boy, Sanctum, Serious Sam, Section 8, etc etc, but i'd be here all day. Let's just hope that our wallets don't suffer too much this time round, at least until the christmas sale.