SimCity has been plagued by server problems since the day it arrived last March, and despite a series of updates and patches, EA still hasn’t been able to find a complete fix. As a result, the company has reversed its always-online policy and announced it will be adding an offline mode.
Yes, the beatings and bright lights of GTA: San Andreas have finally been squeezed onto iPad and iPhone screens. But that’s not the only good news this week regarding iOS ports of big-name classics.
Transport Tycoon, an elegant SimCity-like game that focuses on planning, constructing and managing a transportation empire, has just released a free version of its iOS port, which was originally released at the end of October.
SimCity’s launch on the PC earlier this year was nothing short of embarrassing for EA, with server problems making the title physically unplayable for those who purchased it. So you’d have thought that the gaming giant would have put extra effort into ensuring everything went smoothly when SimCity finally made its debut on the Mac this Thursday.
But it didn’t. It was another disaster. EA has now promised, however, that the installation problems have been solved.
When SimCity launched for the PC earlier this year, it was a total debacle. Huge swathes of players could not actually play the game they’d purchased at launch, because SimCity perversely required a persistent Internet connection to play. The result was that players experienced long loading times, constant disconnections, crashing and the loss of saved game data. It was such a bad launch that Amazon actually stopped selling SimCity temporarily in response to the criticisms.
Yesterday, SimCity for the Mac launched. And surprise, surprise! The Mac launch is turning out to be just as much of a disaster as the PC one!
Clear your schedule for the weekend because you won’t want to leave the house. After a lengthy wait, BioShock Infinite and the new SimCity are now available for your Mac. You can download BioShock Infinite from the Mac App Store or from Steam, where it’ll cost you $39.99; while SimCity is available through EA’s Origin platform starting at $39.99.
But both titles can be downloaded for free if you already purchased them for PC.
Originally planned as a June 11 release, Sim City is now going to release on August 29, 2013, according to a tweet today from EA’s official SimCity Twitter account.
Joining another hotly-anticipated game release for the Mac, Bioshock Infinite, SimCity will hopefully be ready for prime time and not delayed again.
EA’s latest SimCity game was scheduled to arrive on Mac next week, but the company has announced that it will be delayed because it is “not ready for primetime yet.” Mac gamers won’t see the title until August now, with EA working to provide “a great experience” for those on OS X.
EA and Maxis have today announced that their latest SimCity game is coming to the Mac on June 11, and pre-purchasing will begin tomorrow, April 11. The title will be available to download through Origin for Mac — which launched earlier this year — and those who have already bought the title on PC will get the Mac version for free.
EA has updated The Simpsons: Tapped Out to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day on Sunday, March 17. Available on both Android and iOS, the update brings a new storyline, new characters, and new buildings that deliver a taste of Ireland to Springfield.
EA has released a new, nine minute strategy and gameplay video to YouTube, with a voiceover by producer Stone Librande. Watch as he discusses his strategy for creating a casino city from the ground up. He spends time showing off the incredible graphics and fine-grain control the series is known for.
