SimCity modded so it can be played offline indefinitely

[DeathTouchWilly]

The controversy around SimCity looks set to continue: a modder has tweaked the always-online game so it can be played offline indefinitely.

From there, he was able to edit the highways that connect cities together outside of the city boundaries. The game's city sizes have been criticised by some for being too small.

"You can edit the highways ANYWHERE - even outside of your city boundary," UKAzzer said, "and even if you quit the game and log back in later, it's all saved safely on the server.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-03-14-simcity-modded-so-it-can-be-played-offline-indefinitely

EA is presenting us with a masters course in bad PR. Study up, gents, if you ever want to ruin your company's name (not that EA was a sterling figure in gaming as it is...).

[WallysWorld]

BBC is reporting it too:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21802508

It was only a matter of time.

[Nefaro]

It stinks to all hell.   

Extra and un-needed artificial limitations in the gameplay?  That screams, "watch for extra DLC that unlocks this!".   A guy cracks the game open to single-player and unlocks their always online crap - I wonder if EA will start screaming "Piracy!"?   I also wonder if some developer(s) left this back door route out in the open just so people could do so..

Once again, they've really stained their own image.

[steve58]

SimCity will soon be playable in offline mode, developer EA Maxis announced this week, 10 months after saying it couldn't be done "without a significant amount of engineering work."

http://www.polygon.com/2014/1/13/5303672/simcity-offline-mode-coming-ea

...still think I'll stay away from it until it hits the bargain bins...

[jomni]

Looks like they're planning to shut down the servers. LOL!

[Jarhead0331]

All this begs the question...is it even a good game?

[ArizonaTank]

SimCity will soon be playable in offline mode, developer EA Maxis announced this week, 10 months after saying it couldn't be done "without a significant amount of engineering work."

http://www.polygon.com/2014/1/13/5303672/simcity-offline-mode-coming-ea

...still think I'll stay away from it until it hits the bargain bins...

This mess really turned me away from this game....I think even if it sold for a $1.99, I'd rather spend it on a cup of coffee than this game.

[bbmike]

The ominous thing here is requiring a constant internet connection for the game to work and EA trying to justify it by saying "computations are moved into the cloud". I haven't been following any SimCity news but that sucks.

[Barthheart]

All this begs the question...is it even a good game?

I'm underwhelmed by the game play. The city plots are rather small. It seems very easy to keep in the black budget wise compared to SimCity IV. There are some really neat features in the game, but it really hasn't been enough to keep me coming back on a regular basis. I usually just check in to see what the new patch does. Haven't bought any of the DLC.....

[jomni]

It does have some challenge. Small map means you cannot do everything and must specialize, get help from other cities.

The problem of all Sim City game is what to do once you fill the map?
Start off from scratch and fill another map?

Too bad maps are all pre-made now and no random ones.

[Darkspire]

I still play Sim City IV. I have been watching this but can not say I am really interested, even with the offline mode.
As jomni said, 'The problem of all Sim City game is what to do once you fill the map? Start off from scratch and fill another map?'
That has never been a problem with IV, it is great in the way that you can connect the cities so that you can have each city performing a different function, my main map is at least 5 years old and now looks like Mega City 1 as most of the sectors have been filled to bursting. As an added bonus it keeps 'er indoors happy as she can move the Sims in from her Sims game into IV, and means we both get to play it together. I guess I was hoping with this new Sim City that it would be a better version of IV, it has some good features but there is so much missing, like the random map creation, would have been good that you could at least move Sims in from Sims2, I had to build her another PC to play that as the expansion sets hit 19(!) and the drive space went 30+gig.

Darkspire