SimCity – Biggest Disappointment 2013
Platform: PC
Publisher: EA
Developer: Maxis
There's always plenty of disappointment to go around during a year of new consoles. Knack received the brunt from critics for being laboriously repetitive and padded, while both God of War: Ascension and Gears of War: Judgment fell short of expectations as prequels to trilogies that were already complete. But since these games were all playable and even somewhat enjoyable, none of these compare to the problems with Grand Theft Auto Online and all the disconnections and the lack of heists. It is that single blemish on Grand Theft Auto V, no matter how much Rockstar would like to separate it from the main game, and though the online portion has largely been fixed and amended now, the effects still linger.
But even that doesn't compare to the reaction against SimCity, which despite its dynamic, highly-detailed gameplay, still requires always-online DRM and its cities are still cramped to the point that it might as well be called SimTown. Even with the Cities of Tomorrow expansion pack, the terraforming tools are still largely absent. The core game hasn't been fixed and until that happens, the ire of the fans will continue to prevent the series from making the lofty return it is meant to have.
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