It’s ‘final testing’ time for Sim City’s fabled offline mode

“Almost there Mayors” tweeted Sim City, signifying that yes, the time for offline city building is nigh.

Update 10 is in final testing. Almost there Mayors.

— SimCity (@simcity) March 12, 2014

For Sim City players, this is where the real news begins. Update 10 is the legendary offline mode, which allows players to play Sim City offline. It’s how it should have always been, but great things come to those who wait.

Offline mode was first discussed back in January 2014 and details what exactly we’ll have after update 10. EA says that we’ll still be able to play regions (the solo “offline” mode that requires internet) and online multiplayer, with offline mode letting us “load and save to our hearts content”.

Offline mode also means mods, or modifications to the core foundations of the game. This is the most exciting part for most, as modders and hackers will finally be able to craft the game they’ve been dreaming about all these years. There’s already a working train station that can be imported into existing Sim City games.

In 2013, Sim City launched to plenty of criticism. It was insanely buggy and users were left frustrated thanks to the copyright protection which all but crashed the game whenever it had the chance to.