14 DAY TRIAL // The new SimCity makes a very nice first impression, especially to a veteran PC player like me, because it allows me to press Escape in order to skip over the logos of publisher Electronic Arts and developer Maxis.
I can do the same in order to get over the cinematic intro and get to the actual game, which I have been waiting for since I last fired up Pharaoh about one year ago and found that it no longer satisfied my city building hunger.
And the companies involved in the SimCity reboot throw all that accumulated goodwill away by forcing me to go through a tutorial for the game, ostensibly so that I can understand how to play this game.
And the tutorial is not even very good, although it might be useful for those who have no previous experience with city building, because it focuses on very basic ideas about how to manage a city.
It never explains how the reboot is different from the rest of the series, apart from a few quick references to regions, projects and multiple city sites.
I understand why Electronic Arts and Maxis created the tutorial, but I hate the fact that the two teams do not trust players enough to make their own choice.
I’m sure that most of those who buy SimCity will learn by actually playing the game, by making mistakes and by persevering, or maybe by talking to more advanced friends.
I dragged my virtual feet through the tutorial, and then I was finally free to create my own region and start playing the game as I wanted.
And, for what it’s worth, I had no connection or server trouble in the last 12 hours I spent playing SimCity, which could be a sign that Electronic Arts is finally getting a grip on the problems it has had with the always connected architecture.