Always on DRM is one thing, but "Servers Unavailable" = Cannot Play Game
From what I have seen the DRM servers have been down or unavailable more than they have been up. This means you simply cannot play SimCity. I don't care how good a game is, if you are smacked in the face with "Server Unavailable Try Again Later" when all you want to do is sit down for some nice single player fun this is simply inexcusable.
Save your money, SimCity is broken at this point and personally I kick myself for thinking Always ON DRM would work…it just doesn't. What's even more maddening is EA knew they would need to support their always ON DRM scenario and that everyone would need to be logged into DRM servers...so why in the heck are they so woefully equipped? Why wouldn't they have MORE than enough DRM servers to accommodate the launch and what should be more people buying the game afterwards? This is mind boggling and indicates to me they want to score profits at launch and don't care about the franchise as a whole.
The little I have been able to play, a bit over 10 hours, saw me losing my cities twice in this flakey server mess. When able to play I found SC5 much easier, simpler and way too small in city size as compared to SC4. I actually come away sincerely appreciating SC4 for just how intricate and well-designed it is. I am thinking of dropping SC5 for some more reliable and honestly more enjoyable city planning found in SC4 for now. Plus you just can't overstate the value of 100% guaranteed playtime that you get with ANY Non-Always ON DRM game. With SC4 you simply play anytime, anywhere, with NO internet required.
I have never pirated games, ever. BUT I must say, I fully understand why people would want to find some way to remove this Always ON requirement. This type of DRM ONLY punishes paying customers, that is all it does. The people who pirate games normally will also use methods to by-pass the DRM scheme, I read in forums they already have…so what's the point EA? The end result is EA WILL LOSE PAYING CUSTOMERS, the ones who ALWAYS PAY for their games…FACT!
I would love to be able to provide a more complete review but EA and Maxis simply cannot provide to me, a paying customer, enough play time to be able to write one.
Very disappointed to put it extremely mildly.