If this keeps up I’m going to run out of SimCity disaster screenshots.
So, as we detailed last week, EA and Maxis claim nixing SimCity’s always-online requirement would require major reengineering. This is bulls–t. As numerous players have discovered, you can shut off your Internet and the game’s simulation will continue to run just fine for around 20-minutes, at which point the game becomes unplayable.
But, but uhhh…maybe the game can save up to 20-minutes worth of Internets in reserve! Yeah, and then it shuts down once it’s burned up all its cloud fuel! At this point I wouldn’t be shocked if Maxis threw something along those lines out as an explanation.
Of course the real explanation for the 20-minute limit is much more simple…
Modders have found a few short lines of code that force SimCity to shut down after 20-minutes without an Internet connection.
You can check out SimCity’s code right here. Removal of a single line of code (line 22) would let you play the game offline indefinitely. This is the “significant engineering” that would be required for EA and Maxis to offer an offline single-player mode for SimCity.
What can even be said anymore?
via Kotaku
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any chance the modded version will make its way to customers?
The mod community is workng on a patch. They are trying to make a new UI add on that would enable local saves. The issue is weather or not doing this will get you banned. Ocean Quigly said recently on twitter that modding would be welcomed but many think that call is above his pay grade.
It will be interesting to see how hard EA steps on their own dick again if they decide to dismiss the mod community as hackers.
So we’re all in agreement now that EA is the NBC of game publishers, right?
We EA Gamers.
I remember when this was the case years ago. Before Activision came running and Bobby Kotick became the dark lord of video games for a while.
This is probably the best news I’ve had all day.
Might wanna retract that statement. Ricitello just resigned as CEO of EA.
Hey, they removed a single line from their payroll today. Maybe that will help.
In other news, I’m still enjoying NOT owning this game. Once there’s a fix for having to participate online, I might check it out …
Amazon now selling the game for $40.00. Ha ha. No way man. Even at a discount, sounds like a terrible place to put money.