I played for over 2.5 hours this evening (man, what a time sink) after trying for about 5 minutes to access my starter city.  Damn, what a time sink this game has the potential to be.

And yes, I've said time sink 3 times.  Third time's the charm!

Yeah. The more time I put on it, the more I see how much time this game out of my life this game will consume. You can make some striking cities with it. All they need to do is keep smoothing out the servers and things will be good.

I played for over 2.5 hours this evening (man, what a time sink) after trying for about 5 minutes to access my starter city.  Damn, what a time sink this game has the potential to be.

And yes, I've said time sink 3 times.  Third time's the charm!

yeah, I was surprised to see Origin say I've played 8 hours so far.  surprisingly not a lot of that has been waiting to access the game-  if there is a queue or the game won't connect I just move on to something else.

I've 'Guild Wars 2' at the ready to play whenever these Origin servers get silly.

Cabo Rojo is now at 4000 citizens. Layout is coming along slowly and organically. Hope to post a picture soon. Servers were better tonight. There was a post from one of the lead game designers that they are adding more servers. Looks like it's beginning to improve.

well, started up CeeKay's Creek.  got a good city going (if the servers saved it) with a good income coming in.  I think I'm about to build a casino in the rich neighborhood.


oh, and I figured PR_GMR's city could use some extra cops so I sent him an extra unit

You sent me an extra 'unit'. Ceekay, I didn't you were gay too?! 

Wasn't AoE2 the best of the series? I would play it.

So one thing I am finding is that it would seem I am growing too fast...my city is around 30,000 citizens, and I am not bringing in enough money to keep up with trying to cover power, water and sewage, let alone create jobs and then try to reconfigure to improve traffic flow.

My city is growing at a more organic pace. The city of Cabo Rojo is at 1500 citizens. 

Since I've all but given up on finding my own damned region, I've decided to play the game I expected to be playing....

"Unable to create your city at this time, please claim a city again."

Man...so much fun.

Yep. Another tremendously irritating bug. You can't even create your own region. It's next to impossible to claim a city. I just don't understand how they could have released the game in such a wonky state. I've a feeling this needed to be in the oven a few more months.

This is a supposed fix if you're getting stuck on "Checking for Updates".  I tried it and it did get me past that error, but then I couldn't log in the rest of the way to see if it worked.  It's from the official twitter, but try at your own risk (and please post if it works for you!)

Checking for Updates Issue [ Edited ]
Options
‎03-06-2013 03:07 PM - edited ‎03-06-2013 04:26 PM

Hi Mayors --If you get stuck on "CHECKING FOR UPDATES" you should delete all files in your User Data.
 
If you have a desktop shortcut you can right click the icon and select PROPERTIES then delete all files in the User Data folder.
If you launch through Origin go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\SimCity\SimCityUserData and delete all files in the User Data folder.
 
Then run the game again and you should get past that screen.
 
Note: The recovery tool will not resolve this issue, so please use the directions above.

On the subject of bugs: There's gotta be a fix to the 'Tutorial Not Working' bug. Everytime I join a new server, I gotta play thru the tutorial, but it often doesn't work. And it doesn't matter how many times you restart it. You have to basically quit the game and re-join the server to make the tutorial work... but to have to replay the tutorial each time you join a server is just ludicrous.

Tonight, I've not gotten any play.. Due to downed servers and bugs. Again, this has been a horrific mishandled release by EA/Origin. They may have just killed the 'SimCity' franchise.. and that saddens me. I'm still gonna try and play in the coming weeks and hope they iron out the bugs.

OK, I am at my wits end...I created a region, played a few minutes and then exited to the main menu to then send out invites...no luck because the region I created no longer existed it would seem.

Sometimes, I think, it takes a long while to sync saves, if they save at all.  Did you make sure you came back to the exact same server?  I think most of this is really just server overload problems.

Yup, that was the issue.  The region is there, Cities of Gaming Trend, on North America West 1.  Once you are on that server, and if I have you on my friends list I can send out invites.  My Origin ID is arkon262.

I'm on North America West 1 and can't find the region. Is it a private game? Add me: PR_GMR.

Servers are back up.. but they released an update. So I'm now updating.

My Origin ID is PR_GMR and I uploaded a picture (dude holding up a Dos Equis beer wearing a red Tshirt that reads 'Chaos Reigns'). Add me. And let's get our own GT region going tonight.

Just played for a couple of hours. Got a nice city going up to 500 pop before servers were taken down again. I was in a region with a few other players, but there wasn't any interaction. Arkon and Wondepug, what server are you guys going to be playing in? I can start another city in your region later today. Username: prgmr.

Things are looking up. Woke up this morning and the servers were up and not full. I was able to login, join the North America East Coast 1 server, skip the tutorial, and start a city in a region with two other players in it. Game ran smooth for an hour before the servers were down again.

When you can connect, and the game runs smooth, it's a pleasure. So far, my small city has a couple of hundred folks in it. Gonna keep playing and growing it.

Highlight of my night. This made me laugh! 

EA in a nutshell.

What a piece of shit of a game. I'm just astounded as how awful this release has been. I can't claim a city online, nor can I play one solo off the net. The game crashed on me once.. and now it's prompting me to replay the tutorial.. Except, the tutorial won't even work. If I could actually cry, I would as to how frustrated I feel with EA and their catastrophic decisions. I'm going to bed again.. tremendously unsatisfied.

Impressions:

This is just from playing the tutorial, approximately one hour of gameplay. The game looks very pretty. The Glassbox engine runs smoothly and makes everything look miniaturized. I didn't notice any stutter/frame-rate drop until I got to the 2nd city of the tutorial, Lucky Shores, which had a higher populations. My computer is running WinXP still w/ an AMD 5000+ chip and an Nvidia Geforce card which I updated a year ago. Settings were in medium. Guess I'll have to turn those down to have the game run more smoothly with higher populations.

Music is neato. Presentation is smooth and tutorial was easy to follow.

My brain is very sleep deprive though.. so I'm gonna get a couple of hours of sleep before starting on my own city from scratch. Lastly, I had no problem joining a server. North America East Coast 2 was available. Only two other servers were Busy.

If you can log in.

Yeah.. 

4:45am. I'm up because I've to be up and early to on set. I check on Origin and the game is now available for download. Downloading...I see Origin sent the serial code email at 1:11am. It still makes me shake my head. I should be able to play when I come back home sometime today.

And again, EA incompetency strikes again. What a fucking fail of a company!

As of 12:50am--50 minutes after Maxis announced the game was released on the US east coast--the game still isn't available for download in Origin. Hordes of pissed-off people, myself included, posting on Facebook. I'm about to go to bed, angry at having given EA my hard-earned money. Why.. why... why.. fucking why.. didn't they allow preloads?!! Really wish Steam would have been handling this.

 

In 24 hours, the new SimCity will finally be here. I can't wait to get my grubby hands on it. Please post impressions/screencaps here if you hop on to become a great Mayor.

[SimCity]

Pre-purchased SimCity last Friday.

[Sim City]

I pulled the trigger and pre-purchased Sim City. Been amped up for the game for so long. Can't wait to finally play it next Tuesday. 

[Guild Wars 2]

It's!!!!....The Weekend Playlist, and I'm the Borinqueno gamer, PR_GMR. What will be your gaming pleasure this weekend? It's gonna be a busy one for me: A friend's birthday tonight. Work tomorrow night and I start work on a film crew on Sunday. So...I'm gonna fit in some Guild Wars 2 and that's about it. How about you?

Neat new trailer

http://kotaku.com/5934701/this-new-montage-of-the-last-of-us-mixes-bloody-violence-and-wistful-hank-williams

Yeah, yeah.. I very much want to play this. 

Lead designer Stone Librande talks to Will Wright about his 'SimCity' experience.

Includes some breathtaking footage of cities in-game. I want this game on release next week!!!

there's another beta test Wednesday....

Yep. And I was at work. Couldn't play. Again.  EA....

Lead designer Stone Librande talks to Will Wright about his 'SimCity' experience.

Includes some breathtaking footage of cities in-game. I want this game on release next week!!!

Vengeance trailer..../drool

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCsGTP3-Jlw&list=UUZ2h0d4tP0R8klduwj-_bDQ&index=1

This isn't helping me. I did find my reinstall disk the other day. But, fudge, my BattleNet account has been compromised for months and I don't want to bother with Blizzard's 120 steps to reclaim it. Ugh.

I gotta say it: I don't like the look of the new Lara Croft. They made her into just an average-looking sporty girl. Give me the old unrealistic-looking, big-boobed, small-waisted pony-tailed temptress back, please!

Ah, crap! I actually came to enjoy 1up these past couple of years. What a shame.

[Guild Wars 2]

It's!!!... The Weekend Playlist, and I'm the incomparable Boricua, PR_GMR. So.. what will be your gaming pleasure this weekend? So many games are calling me, but I'm focusing on Guild Wars 2 and that's what I shall play. How about you?

I wonder what will happen to the WiiU?  I don't really consider it a next gen console, even though I guess I should.  I have a feeling it's going to get completely lost in the new Xbox and PS4 hype.     

They're already seriously struggling for sales, with only 57K consoles sold in January.  With very few big games scheduled from third parties I'm pretty sure it will quickly become an also-ran that is only really good for the Nintento first-party games.  Which will be enough for a niche audience.

It will  be an 'also ran' unless Nintendo hurries the hell up and brings out the big guns: New Zelda, Metroid, Pikmin 2, and next-gen Super Smash Bros.

Opening Cinematic!!! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVbeoSPqRs4

Holy damn.  Will they just hurry up and make a theatrical release movie already?

Fuck. Now I'm gonna have to reinstall 'Starcraft II'. 

Jimmy Fallon just had a demo of the new 'Killzone' on his show tonight. Needless to say, it looked stunning. No sight of the actual console, but they were demoing it live and it looked smooth as butter.

Sony America head 'hopes' PlayStation 4 won't cost $599 at launch, says specs aren't finalized yet

So do I Jack, so do I.

Uggggh come on Sony!

It better not be 600 bucks, because, sincerely, Sony: 'Fuck that!'

I'm not terribly impressed by yesterday's announcement. The PS4 seems only a half-step in the console generation. Facebook-access, sharing of gaming experiences, or cloud-gaming don't get me excited to buy another plastic brick to put on my living room. The only thing I liked was the announcement of 'Infamous: Second Son'. And don't get me started about them not showing the actual console. UGH! 

[SimCity]

Tried to play the SimCity beta. I got in. But, by the time I downloaded and installed it, it was over. They only gave access for 24 hours, and you could only play an hour at a time. Fuckin' EA. I want to play this so badly. They couldn't have access on a Sunday? It's a fuckin' holiday weekend, too!  

you think that was bad?  Amazon just sent me an email with my code to get into that beta about 10 minutes ago

UGH!! 

I am... intrigued. 

[SimCity]

Tried to play the SimCity beta. I got in. But, by the time I downloaded and installed it, it was over. They only gave access for 24 hours, and you could only play an hour at a time. Fuckin' EA. I want to play this so badly. They couldn't have access on a Sunday? It's a fuckin' holiday weekend, too!  

Dishonored...on the third mission and loving everything about the game so far 

I'm jealous. I have a self imposed limit of $10 for games because I have a great backlog and I know they will all get to that price eventually. But Dishonored along with X-com sorely tempted me. I figure maybe Steam sale this summer, if not, then Christmas.
I just saw Mass Effect 3 on sale for 9.99 so I'll get to see the ending that everybody hates.

Man, I want to play 'Dishonored' too.. but can't afford it until it hits a sale price. Oh well, the wait shall continue.

I just saw this linked at Gizmodo. I was struck as to how calm the Russian man was as the meteor streaked across the sky. They're not shocked by anything over there.

[Guild Wars 2]

It's!!!!... The Weekend Playlist, and I'm the man from Borinquen, PR_GMR! So.. what will be your gaming pleasure this weekend? For me, I'm enjoying my time with Guild Wars 2, so more of that shall be played. Also, I've been sprinkling a little of Sim City Social. How about you?

[Guild Wars 2]

It's!!!.... The Weekend Playlist, coming at ya from soggy Brooklyn, NY, where we are about to get a foot of snow tonight. I'm PR_GMR, the filmmakin' puertorro. So, what will you be playing this weekend? Over here, I seem to finally be getting into Guild Wars 2 in full.. so that's what I'll be gaming with my limited time. How about you?