SimCity free game choices include Dead Space 3, SimCity 4

When SimCity's exploded at launch, leaving many unable to play thanks to its always-online requirement, EA promised one free game to every mayor as a peace offering. Today the publisher revealed the list of games, including Dead Space 3, Battlefield 3 and, ah, SimCity 4. Perhaps to spare its servers further stress, ho ho, EA will send the freebies out gradually.

Here's the list of games SimCity owners will get to choose from:

• Battlefield 3 (Standard Edition)

• Bejeweled 3

• Dead Space 3 (Standard Edition)

• Mass Effect 3 (Standard Edition)

• Medal of Honor Warfighter (Standard Edition)

• Need For Speed Most Wanted (Standard Edition)

• Plants vs. Zombies

• SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition

EA explains that you'll need to register SimCity on Origin before 11:59pm PST on Monday, March 25 to receive a freebie. It'll start rolling out gifts in North America at 5pm PST this Wednesday, March 20, not to everyone at once. Everyone should have the offer by 5pm PST on Friday, and will then have until March 30 at 11:59pm PST to redeem it through the Origin desktop client.

After that, you'll have missed your chance, and it'll be gone. Helpfully, it'll send a reminder every day when you load Origin or close SimCity.

As Maxis struggled to recover the technical and public relations fiasco, the developer conceded that it could have built an offline mode, "But we rejected that idea because it didn't fit with our vision." Modders hacking around with SimCity already have the game sort-of working-ish offline, but without saving and inter-city regional play.