Simcity 2013 and EA finally got what it deserved. The game has a left debug mode which allows you to modify the roads outside your boundaries and more. Also included with the mod, is the ability to play for an infinite amount of time offline. I think you may need to still launch the game online, but once in-game, it is offline.
Since the game can be played offline, EA has been caught in a major lie considering their narrative about Sim City being always online because of needed server assets for the game to run,essentially crippling Sim City to justify the online presence via a server based world mechanic which limits the options regarding city growth and size expansion. Now, we can see that it's simply an always online DRM being utilized. They cannibalized Sim City to justify their DRM policy and lied to consumers.
Lol and whats the bet before any of the traffic / Pedestrian or other game / server etc, are finalised this will be the first thing to be patched in a future update.
If I were into such games I'd definitely run the pirated version of this game (having paid for the original) because as camdman says, now that people have managed to crowbar the misery off of this release, EA will patch it right back in there. To be honest actually, I wouldn't buy this even if I was into it, if people voted with their wallets instead of bitching about online DRM they'd think twice before doing this again. The only way to grab these people's attention is to kick em right in the shareholders.
