now here is comic brilliance

More popular games series sacrificed to the evil DRM gods. I would tell everyone not to get it so as to protest these terrible design choices but it will be like D3. Everyone will just buy it anyway because it's freaking SimCity :-/

EA is taking bullshit as far as it will go. So far, it's pretty far.

"Consumers, consumers never change..."

Keep in mind this was during the press beta I heard this and it may not have been optimized yet, and at the max settings, but still.

[url=#user_comment_260949]@CHuT[/url] no. you computer could handle the calculations. Just not the calculations and the graphics at the same time from what I hear. currently I heard people getting 30 frames per second with some of the best gaming equipment available... now try do that while your processor is focused on millions

[url=#user_comment_260927]@AlexBC[/url] You think they're running super computers server side? Your home computer could handle that just fine.

everyone of my pals are complaining about not being able to play for one reason or another.
I'm just sitting here playing simcity 2000

-ysis on a 1960's toaster. and they want it to run on any average mom and pop computer. so drm or not, the server is required or serious dumbing down of the simulation is needed.

the thing is that the simulation calculations are so huge (millions of people in a city, and you can track every single one of them down to where they work/live and habbits/likes) trying to do that on your own computer without the server even on a beast of a pc, would be like trying to play cr-

@Three Times a Sucker: I'd prefer a game with graphics that don't make me want to stab myself in the eyes.

Well, you can take over numerous cities in a region. It's basically moved from being able to put everything in one "city", into using the multiple cities as you would self imposed "Districts" in previous games

I assumed it was in part a joke on how 2/10 strips have multiple blank slides for a joke :P

I love that the new Simcity Advert is running on the left side of the screen while reading this comic and its comments. It amuses me more than it should.

Evil Genius has won with Bloodseeker against Mouz.

[url=#user_comment_260800]@Quinch[/url]: Well yes I intented to use that wording in the first place but this comment section has a quite tight word limit and I dont want to spam more than it already is. Nonetheless the end result is the same. EA is quite far away from the old days when "challenge everything" was their slogan.

Or you could play Dwarf Fortress, which is free and does not require monies.

Hey, there are photo notes that are actually funny in this one. I especially loved the jab at CAD.

Work with friends, trade with other cities, online shit. Did they forget CitiesXL?

Personally I liked the idea of online planet with many cities You can visit and trade with. Now even when CitiesXL online is history, Your copy of game still works.

"Servers needed to do the computing", suuuure.

I agree with Mouse, this is exactly what you get for supporting EA. The 'Always On' DRM. Ubisoft tried this shit with Assassin's Creed 2 or Brotherhood, I can't remember which, but it still failed.

I think everyone expected SimCity 2000, or that's what they wanted.

I keep saying, this is what you get when you support EA.

[url=#user_comment_260804]@Waffletime[/url] A person has the capacity to be intelligent but when "people" see a shiny new game from a franchise they love they don't care if its being given to them by the most hated publisher in the industry, all they think about is oooooh I can't wait to play this game and put up with all the shit

I am honestly surprised people actually bought the damn game as soon as "Always online" came to light. It's like people were thinking "Well, ActiBlizz fecked up Diablo 3 with it, there's no way an EA game could be bad with it."

And here I thought people had the capacity to be intelligent.

I like the fallout reference in the title!

{cont} ... a month or two, while people still go apeshit for fifteen-year-old Valve games.

"Making every game as casual as you can "

I disagree that's an inherently bad thing. A better way of putting it would be that they reduce every game to the lowest common denominator. And that, in turn, is why, with few and far between exceptions, each of them is forgettable within...

"Here at EA, we take best worst gaming industry has to offer"

Piracy is a symptom not the problem heres a few REAL problems:

Treating your customers like dirt
Only careing about shareholders
Making every game as casual as you can
Overbloated advertising

Oh yeah and they just killed the dead space franchise because it didn't sell 5 million copies.

if people had completly ignored origin it wouldent even exist, EA would have abandond it and just said well fuck were stuck with steam

Its not bad if you just play with friends. besides that for those having problems i fund uninstalling and reinstalling works to fix the crashes and unable to do shit problem.

I'm not suprised actually. After all,the game is made by EA (The worst company in america)

SimCity went social game? Poor bastard...

It's aways good to know to not even try throwing your money in the bin, long live to Simcity 4!

"In the grim darkness of the far future, their is only DRM" - Totalbiscuit about Simcity. I wonder if that's where Jo got the idea of "DRM, DRM never changes...".

Or hire... ma engrish is baaaad.

you don´t buy game, you rent...

The facebook login ins't working please guys take a look on it!

The comic is good, but the paragraph at the bottom is perfect. Great english too.

It would require a server emulator and a redirect to send the game's/origin's communications to. I suppose it would require two in that case. One for Origin and another for the game's control. The difficulty in all of this is the verification certificates. It should take over a decade to brute force

For all of those wondering what can and can not be done with a computer, as long as it does not turn into an infinite loop it is possible. If it can be said, it can be done outside of paradoxes (like Russell's). So, it is possible to play SimCity without connecting to their server. 1/2

Fighting a losing battle? The more they fight piracy, the more this thrives. Such a sad paradox, indeed.

It's hilarious how publishers are doing everything hoping it will lower the piracy, yet get the opposite result! Until the only genre left will be MMOs with micro-transactions, until then the piracy will thrive. They're brighting it upon themselves, really.

Well I wonder when "anti piracy" started to also mean "anti userfriendly"
Sure it's nice to have the possibility to Download and play the game everywhere you want, but the region thing turns the game into a hybrid between singleplayer and MOG. DRM aside, it would have been better to go full MMO.

[url=#user_comment_260708]@Conot[/url]: Actually I played in a WoW private server once. It's good enough to play even with several bugs in it.

Remember, when you do something you can do good, fast and cheap, Pick two.

Good and fast means they need a good pay to motivate them to work harder and fast.

Good and cheap means the emulator will took months or even years to be done.

Fast and cheap? the emulator will be buggy and crappy.

[url=#user_comment_260708]@Conot[/url]: Just like there is no 100% worikong C&C4 server emulator. Oh wait...

@Who Me?: Sure someone can emulate the calculation to run in our PC. But we need someone or a group of people to dedicate their time to make the emulator. Also they tend to work slower since they done it for free and only in their free time. Contd...

[url=#user_comment_260692]@AckAckAck[/url]: Yeah, just like you can't play WoW private servers

[url=#user_comment_260692]@AckAckAck[/url]: It probably isn't that hard to work around that.

EA must just be curious at this point how far they can shove it down the players throats at this point.

Certainly, their timidity about such an act has long since eroded. Having abandon caution or respect, are now possessed of a morbid fascination for phallocentric misanthropy.

[url=#user_comment_260685]@Qqq[/url]: Half of the SC5 data processing is done in Cloud servers. So piracy is out of question.

[url=#user_comment_260682]@Adept[/url]: Useless type? you mean Detroit? Sorry for the bad joke. I'm just tired from today's activities and can't think something clever.

[url=#user_comment_260655]@Tue[/url]: Yeah, no save files means when the server is down or shut off or get derped due to technical error or human influence we will be screwed. Vote with your wallet people. To much people are gullible enough to support this stupid DRM just because of Origin sales.

@Dota 2? Number 1: Good for your health? Neutral for your health?

There is always a solution - buy game and download pirated. Just because.

this is the reason why nerfnow don't sucks.

They should have made Sim state or Sim country, with a more detailed capital and the option to seed new satelite towns with certain production goals (agri type, industrial type, useless type), with the option to micromanage and fire mayors if they screw up following directions.
No need for online.

[url=#user_comment_260670]@asdf[/url]: what else could it be?

The new Sim City is crap.

[url=#user_comment_260648]@Dante44[/url]: not a cigar!

I hope your cigar falls and burns all that monopoly money Joe!

No save files... Yeah that would probably turn me off from buying the game just this instant. Messing up then not being able to go back to a previous point...

Would be really funny if the buttons work - Roll Back => link to prev comic, Leave closes the tab?

Smoking is bad for your health...