Cobb32118

It’s an honor, @Terring. Thank you for remembering! —Darren Cobb

I really appreciate that, @IDS2. So many great memories from the Golden Era when this game was new! —Darren Cobb

Looks fantastic, Silur! I love the lighthouse out on the point.

Hi Corina, I love what you’ve done with the Harbor Village. It looks great especially at night. And the shadow fix is ingenious!

Hello Haljackey and everyone. Darren Cobb here, from the 2004 to 2009 BAT fledgling era. I’m 56 now but still kicking. It’s amazing to see this game going strong after 22 years. I haven’t played the game in a while, but I occasionally vanity surf and get a big boot of nostalgia when I see my buildings on YouTube and elsewhere. I’m tempted to start it up again! I’d love to see Dusktrooper and other old time Batters mentioned and preserved here as lore. Love and best wishes to all! — Cobb32118 (Darren Cobb)

Between 1936 and 1950, General Motors and other automobile interests bought up the streetcar lines of 45 American cities, and dismantled them, replacing them with bus service. This wasn't the sole reason for the decline of public transit in America, but it was a big one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_conspiracy. Seattle was a victim of this practice. It's just now restoring public transportation with light rail. The train station next to me opened around 2009. The light rail line is nearly the same as the streetcar line pre-1950. It's a shame that progress took a 60 year hiatus only to enrich a few people who lacked any conscience.

Hey folks! I know that perhaps the last thing you want is another rant about this game, but I haven’t seen a lot of discussion from the perspective of the SC4 BAT community. Anyway, I’m Darren Cobb. You might remember me from such buildings as the Cobb Altura Tower and Cobb Central Park West. :-) I am so disappointed in this terrible game. Here’s why: Even if I could BAT something, the epic buildings many people created for SC4 would look ridiculous in this game. Have you plopped the Empire State Building? It looks pretty silly in a town the size of Spokane, Washington, which is all this game offers. The limited city size is my primary deal-breaker. And if you must limit the city size, then why must all the horrendously ugly utility and mining/trade structures have to take up such gigantic footprints? The second thing I hate about this game is the depressing late 20th Century sanitized suburban soulless society it simulates, where everyone needs a car, public transportation is nothing but an expensive, clumsy drain on the town, and the sole focus is on making money. Some may have wanted to simulate that occasionally in SC4, but I’d never want it to be my only option. Whenever I’ve made any kind of progress in this game before the whole crummy, confusing, buggy economy collapses, I’ve never been very proud of my creation. My real life city (Seattle), and many others on the planet, are grander, more imaginative, more fantastic, and feel 25 years ahead of the towns simulated in this mess, so why would I waste time to create a fantasy about a place that pales in comparison to reality? The creative and forward-thinking element from this series is dead and buried. It’s hard for me to imagine anyone who used to BAT for this series would feel anything but frustration and sadness when they try to play this. Ironically, as much as I hate this game, I’ve had very few server issues or problems saving. I lost one city, but… why would I care? I started playing this a few days after release, and stuck with it for quite a few hours/days. It’s just not fun. I haven’t played it since mid March and probably won’t ever pull it up again. I even started researching chargebacks. I find it amusing that if you start typing “chargeback for” in Google, the third suggested hit based on the entire universe of Google users is “chargeback for Simcity.” I really wish I’d bought it from Amazon. Live and learn. This game is like an old Jaguar sports car: from some perspectives it’s beautiful, but it causes far more expense and headache than it’s worth. It will strand you and disappoint you, because it’s a disaster underneath its pretty surface. Pretty soon you’ll want to get rid of it and never think about it again. So in summary, I’m sad to say that this series is dead to me. I’ve been quiet on here for years, just dying to get back into it, but what a colossal letdown. I might possibly return for a SimCity VI, but I can’t see giving EA any of my money again, EVER. Thank you for the opportunity to vent. --Cobb

Jahnri, I agree it's not without potential. It has a certain draw, and even addictiveness at first. But after playing a lot of games and all of them ending in disappointment, the addiction is cooled fast. I could even live without the modding ability if they'd just make the cities a lot bigger, add some visionary transportation and power options, or some modern ones even. If they're holding these things back in order to charge for them later, well f*** them. I'm happy to pay for more if the game is at least passable to begin with. It's not. I was happy to buy the Rush Hour expansion to SC4 because the game was already amazing. I will admit that SC4 had a lot of problems too. I played it modded all to Hell :-) So perhaps this goes to T Wrecks' point that it's a slim chance that mods are going to save SC2013. And speaking of T Wrecks, hello again! :-) I think SC4 has run its course for me, as great as the gameplay is. After I quit SC2013, I shopped around for something I might like, and I'm really happy to have found Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion, the 2012 standalone expansion. Those people really know how to make a flawless game.

This is one of my biggest dislikes about the game. Thanks for the link. --Cobb