I’m already well aware of all of the stuff that’s wrong with Sim City, people have been incredibly upset and venting those feelings all over the internet for the past day or so now. Rightly so, but that’s not what this post is going to be about, so if you’re looking for someone to share in your anger, well. I’ve never really been that sort of a gamer.
I didn’t download the game when it went live at midnight, knowing that the servers would be bombarded. Then today Sims 3 university released, and they were bombarded even harder. So around 11am EST I got around to downloading the game, installed without issue. I did (and continue to) have problems with the friends list but for one brief moment the planets aligned and Scopique managed to ping me with an invite to a G+ region with spots for 16 cities. Not feeling especially creative, I claimed a spot of land near to the railroad that runs through the map, and named it Spitzville. I may come up with a better name later.
I then proceeded to laugh my ass off for 5 hours straight. The game is hilarious, and I’m having so much fun with it. The detail is amazing, the ability to follow my little fire trucks and ambulances around the city just adds a level to the game that I enjoy so much. I also got to partake in my first interactive session, as I sent over fire trucks and ambulances to Scopique’s city. He has students coming over to mine for some schooling. I’m also purchasing water from his city, and he sent over a garbage truck (thank you) to help with any waste issue I may have.
Cooperation is key. Your region is equipped with a “wall” where you can post things like “really need doctors, please help” and those members of your region will hopefully step up to the bat and help your city out.
I did pre-order the limited edition, and so I got a superhero and villain combination with it. Instead of a regular police station I placed down Maxis Manor, and let me tell you, he’s a hassle. He’s expensive, and after healing up a few of my wounded sims he wanted a garage so he could chase down criminals. Who am I to say no, I have no police station after all. So I built him his garage. Now, my city is getting quite large, I’m up to 16,000 citizens. Crime is on the rise. In fact the leader of the super villains asked me to build him and his friends a headquarter. They were obviously jealous of Maxis Manor. In order to build this I need to have 5 crime lords roaming my city. I’m not sure if I’m OK with that. So far I’ve had my superhero capture them all. If you do these little ‘side quests’ for lack of a better term, you earn money. You can really never have too much money when it comes to building your city, so the more the better!
There are a lot of ‘things’ I’m saving up for right now, and the game is really detailed and complex which I enjoy. It’s not just about building a super huge city this time around. There’s much more to it. So I’ve just added an education department to my city hall, and I’m looking forward to placing a college or at least a high school so my little citizens can get smarter and go to work at places other than just your basic factory. The city is also growing by leaps and bounds. I’ve had to replace my roads with the largest ones to keep traffic jams from happening.
All in all, I’m having a blast. I hope EA can get a hold of their issues so that people can go back to enjoying playing a game, instead of being so angry over it.