Simcity 4 VS CityXL

[stevebillysim 0]

Hi all

I had play simcity since the first verison , but stop sim3000. now i want to play again, but i find that now have CityXL2011,

so i am worry which 1 is better ,

I like the way of simcity4 isometric style and fcous on the building and city planning,

but i afraid people will not keep add the new building to the city. i mean give up simcity to play cityXL

but i see the trailor of CityXL seem it too fcous on 3D and zooming into the street view, for me it seem not very important.

so , Would u like to advise which game should i buy.

sorry for my bad english

billy

[pingumen96 0]

For me, Simcity is the best

[-ICE-{man} 10]

If I understand correctly, you like the simulation part and the graphics do not really matter. In that case you'd better buy Simcity4 (with rush hour). You dont have to be afraid that people will stop producing custom content, because the majority likes simcity 4 over CitiesXL. Because there is already a whole load of custom content and CitiesXL does not even come close to that amount.

[Cob92 360]

The vast majority of players are still on SC4, and all of the experienced modders are sticking to their SC4 projects rather than switching over to CXL. CXL custom content has picked up a bit over the last few months, but the game's mod community is a tiny village compared to Simtropolis.

[Bregalad 3]

CXL.

There has alwways been som major faults in SC some og these has partialle been fixed by costum content, but most are fixed in CXL

1. everything has to fit in the grid (both games have grids but CXL's is way finer, from 15mx15m to 1cmx1cm)
   
2. non straigt road takes up more space then those who follow the grid (some up to double the space)
   
3. don work on win7 (yet no fix that lets me play SC4/rushhour on my win7 64bit)
   
4. buildings can only face in 4 directions
   
5. road width has to fit grid
   
6. satnav for sims mostly uses direct not easiest/fastest road (small roads might take all the trafiic from highways near by)
   
7. focussed on automotive transportation (more types of public transportaion in SC4 but mainly for the visual effect)
   
8. industries are not interdependent (CXL has 12 industries, that all demands different amounts of the others)
   

Grafics and the amount of different buildings means nothing to me, and i still look forward to the game where i can design every intersection individually (with bicycle lanes, sidewalks, pedestrian crossings, bus lanes, through lanes and turn lanes.......) and where building lots can have other sizes than squares .

[longhorn 25]

CXL.

There has alwways been som major faults in SC some og these has partialle been fixed by costum content, but most are fixed in CXL

1. everything has to fit in the grid (both games have grids but CXL's is way finer, from 15mx15m to 1cmx1cm)
   
2. non straigt road takes up more space then those who follow the grid (some up to double the space)
   
3. don work on win7 (yet no fix that lets me play SC4/rushhour on my win7 64bit)
   
4. buildings can only face in 4 directions
   
5. road width has to fit grid
   
6. satnav for sims mostly uses direct not easiest/fastest road (small roads might take all the trafiic from highways near by)
   
7. focussed on automotive transportation (more types of public transportaion in SC4 but mainly for the visual effect)
   
8. industries are not interdependent (CXL has 12 industries, that all demands different amounts of the others)
   

Grafics and the amount of different buildings means nothing to me, and i still look forward to the game where i can design every intersection individually (with bicycle lanes, sidewalks, pedestrian crossings, bus lanes, through lanes and turn lanes.......) and where building lots can have other sizes than squares .

SC4 runs fine for me on Win 7-64 bit.

[Ocram's Razr 964]

Both have their benefits and weaknesses but I recommend CXL for those with great computers who want a next generation city builder with wonderful graphics and recommend SC4 for those who care about the simulation and economic realism who are fine with grids and older graphics.

[DazzaDazza 29]

Sim City probably still is the better game, but it dose take a lot of work to get it looking like it dose in most Pics you see hear, meaning there’s a lot of custom content that is needed, alot of downloading, unzipping, installing, and pushing the button “next”, it becomes rather annoying after some time. with out all the custom content the simcity dose look old. but Simcity is also a lot esser game to play, it's not hard to get a surplus at any stage, unlike Cities XL witch can be frustrating at times,

But that’s not to say CXL is not a good game, it is, it looks good with it's 3D and since you haven’t play any City building game for some time the thing that frustrate people with CXL game probably wont bother you, like the unrestricted zoning, trying to fit squares in to round holes.

I play both and I like both, I’ve gotten a little bored of CXL recently because all my city started to look the same, but let hope the smart people of CXL will allow us to customise the game like we do in SC

but I would say get both and see with one you like the best

[Ocram's Razr 964]

Cities XL: 2011 technically has more buildings then SimCity 4 Deluxe (out of box both of them). With the Unlocker mod and recolors, then you get a sizable chunk of what an average gamer downloads. I really hoped that Cities XL had more of the super stylized City Life [buildings] of the stereotypical socioeconomic classes.

  Edited May 24, 2011 by Ilikeseattle  

[-ICE-{man} 10]

Sim City probably still is the better game, but it dose take a lot of work to get it looking like it dose in most Pics you see hear, meaning there’s a lot of custom content that is needed, alot of downloading, unzipping, installing, and pushing the button “next”, it becomes rather annoying after some time. with out all the custom content the simcity dose look old. but Simcity is also a lot esser game to play, it's not hard to get a surplus at any stage, unlike Cities XL witch can be frustrating at times,

But that’s not to say CXL is not a good game, it is, it looks good with it's 3D and since you haven’t play any City building game for some time the thing that frustrate people with CXL game probably wont bother you, like the unrestricted zoning, trying to fit squares in to round holes.

I play both and I like both, I’ve gotten a little bored of CXL recently because all my city started to look the same, but let hope the smart people of CXL will allow us to customise the game like we do in SC

but I would say get both and see with one you like the best

Hmm, I have the exact opposite. CXL is pretty easy and SC4 is quite hard. But hey, thats me. I still think CXL has a great potential when custom content can be added. It will just take some time. And I hoped the same Ilikeseattle, I also hoped that they would include the buildingcreator as in CityLife2008. That would have been a great addition and a great option to customize your city

[refriedbussy 7]

I prefer SimCity 4, as it is forgiving RAM-wise on my PC rather than CXL.

[DazzaDazza 29]

Hmm, I have the exact opposite. CXL is pretty easy and SC4 is quite hard. But hey, thats me. I still think CXL has a great potential when custom content can be added. It will just take some time. And I hoped the same Ilikeseattle, I also hoped that they would include the buildingcreator as in CityLife2008. That would have been a great addition and a great option to customize your city

i agree if we had the same amount of content as we do with Sc4 with CXL it would be a far better game, i do believe that custom content is what had made SC4 a great game, why wouldn’t you let people make your game grate for free. think about how many hours all up people have spent making content for SC4, and then think about how much money that would cost a game company to crate all that content, if maxis had the same view on custom content as the overloads of CXL SC4 properly would be dead by now, let’s hope the people at focus let the game be grate

and also i find that cheating makes CXL a far better game

[Evillions 552]

I tried Cities XL during the beta, all I gotta say it was unforgiving on my PC. I like the concept, but it was very demanding and I wanted the graphics to be appealing to me. What's the point playing a great game with 8-bit graphics?

That's why I play SC4 because its more forgiving and more custom content. Both games are good in their own way.

[ShadeSigma 16]

I'm always a SC4 fan because the pure simulation. I think that is what get most game companies in trouble today they focus too much on graphics rather than solid gameplay. I was thinking about getting CXL but I'm too familiar with SimCity. When playing the game and trying to be successful at it I really don't care much about realism I am just trying to make a successful region. But if I want a realistic city to my nature, that is when I use the money tree and I am in my own sandbox mode. Plus the limitless amounts of mods on the web makes it more addicting.

[bahamd81 156]

I don't have CitiesXL and I'm not buying it because I got a City Life game (which was made by the same company as CitiesXL)for my birthday and it didn't work . I don't think SC4 can be beat unless Maxis and EA create SC5 and personally, CXL seems like a 'Takeoff' of Simcity 4 because I've heard it uses the same zoning system as SC4.

[bahamd81 156]

CXL.

There has alwways been som major faults in SC some og these has partialle been fixed by costum content, but most are fixed in CXL

1. everything has to fit in the grid (both games have grids but CXL's is way finer, from 15mx15m to 1cmx1cm)
   
2. non straigt road takes up more space then those who follow the grid (some up to double the space)
   
3. don work on win7 (yet no fix that lets me play SC4/rushhour on my win7 64bit)
   
4. buildings can only face in 4 directions
   
5. road width has to fit grid
   
6. satnav for sims mostly uses direct not easiest/fastest road (small roads might take all the trafiic from highways near by)
   
7. focussed on automotive transportation (more types of public transportaion in SC4 but mainly for the visual effect)
   
8. industries are not interdependent (CXL has 12 industries, that all demands different amounts of the others)
   

Grafics and the amount of different buildings means nothing to me, and i still look forward to the game where i can design every intersection individually (with bicycle lanes, sidewalks, pedestrian crossings, bus lanes, through lanes and turn lanes.......) and where building lots can have other sizes than squares .

SC4 runs fine for me on Win 7-64 bit.

SC4 also runs fine for me on Windows 7 64 bit.

[DazzaDazza 29]

same for me, it must be you

  Edited June 23, 2011 by mrdazza_460  

[mor 0]

I'm always a SC4 fan because the pure simulation. I think that is what get most game companies in trouble today they focus too much on graphics rather than solid gameplay

this BS, people have some weird understanding of how things work. CXL is not some kind of shiny graphics thingy that sacrificed gameplay and SC4 isnt some kind of simulation god, it's just that CXL is new and SC4 is solid IP with years worth of content and huge community.

for the same reason there wont be simcity5 until simcity4 will look old even to the most hardcore player, because at this point there is not much the developers can add. (especially with EA)

those games better considered as platforms, where content is the king, an old platform will always have an advantage over the new one, because most prefer content over new bare bones hardware and dont want or cant upgrade, which is true for modders as well who has invested years of their lifes in their projects for whom they are known for. never the less if the platform is good, with enough investment it will take the lead and I believe that CXL is better especially if the rumored CXL 2012 is coming out.

There has alwways been som major faults in SC some og these has partialle been fixed by costum content, but most are fixed in CXL

1. everything has to fit in the grid (both games have grids but CXL's is way finer, from 15mx15m to 1cmx1cm)
2. non straigt road takes up more space then those who follow the grid (some up to double the space)
3. don work on win7 (yet no fix that lets me play SC4/rushhour on my win7 64bit)
4. buildings can only face in 4 directions
5. road width has to fit grid
6. satnav for sims mostly uses direct not easiest/fastest road (small roads might take all the trafiic from highways near by)
7. focussed on automotive transportation (more types of public transportaion in SC4 but mainly for the visual effect)
8. industries are not interdependent (CXL has 12 industries, that all demands different amounts of the others)

Grafics and the amount of different buildings means nothing to me, and i still look forward to the game where i can design every intersection individually (with bicycle lanes, sidewalks, pedestrian crossings, bus lanes, through lanes and turn lanes.......) and where building lots can have other sizes than squares .

I agree with most of those points.

[Cob92 360]

I'm always a SC4 fan because the pure simulation. I think that is what get most game companies in trouble today they focus too much on graphics rather than solid gameplay

this BS, people have some weird understanding of how things work. CXL is not some kind of shiny graphics thingy that sacrificed gameplay and SC4 isnt some kind of simulation god, it's just that CXL is new and SC4 is solid IP with years worth of content and huge community.

IMO, CXL fell flat in a couple of areas key to making the city feel alive. In SC4, you have fires, strikes, riots, car accidents, and crimes that happen at random and contribute to making the city feel just a bit more real. As neighborhoods age, old houses become run down and abandoned and are replaced by new ones. You feel a sense of accomplishment when you've built your city to the point where massive skyscrapers begin to develop in your downtown. Those are the kinds of things that I really miss in CXL. The city feels too plastic a lot of the time, like it's just a bunch of ceramic houses and statues inside a snow globe.

[MandelSoft 2,775]

Things were SimCity is still better than Cities XL:

- Freeways/Highways: altough you can lay your freeways at any angle you want, there are only 4 interchanges and one transistion you can choose from in total. The interchanges take up a lot of useless space and are very static, and some of these interchanges have a unlogical and uncommon design (like steep and over-expensive cloverleaf viaducts, or a useless bridge at the T-interchange). The freeway can only connect to the four-lane divided avenue and the expressway; any other road is ruled out. Even the Maxis Freeways were more flexible than that! There you can choose from 10 different interchanges out of the box (with very common designs) and with the NAM many more. And the RHW still beats the CXL freeway hands down. Beside that, eight-lane freeways are not common here in Europe; you see more four-lane or six-lane freeways here.

- Railway transport. CXL only has a subway. SimCity 4 has inter-city heavy rail (for commuters and freight), light-rail (elevated, ground (NAM) or subway) and monorail (OK, I rarely use this network, and I only use it with the High Speed Rail Mod). Although monorail would be over-doing the job, I definitely want to see some heavy inter-city rail in CXL, since it's the oldest kind of mass transport in the world, and it's still used today. This is one big miss in CXL.

- Information about production etc. In SimCity, I know exactly what my city is producing and what my city needs. For instance, I have some power plants producing 35,000MW energy and my city needs about 31,500MW. See, clear numbers. Now, in Cities XL, one power plant produces "some" electricity. How much is "some"? Confusing. Clear, cold numbers are better for city managing.

Best,

Maarten

[openLumi 0]

Just had a change to play Cities XL 2011 and all I want to say is this 2011 made game is no match for 2003 made Simcity 4 :/ I hope what I play was a joke

Every strategy game leaving isometrics and implementing "3D" is getting worse but that's my opinion :/

[TeddyDog 0]

If you wanna play the city game in 3D with better graphic designing, then cities xl 2011 is better, but in terms of game complexity and variability, simcity 4 is better. Let's hope simcity 5 or cities xl 2012!!

[Herdervriend 46]

There both evenly good. But, for me it's Cities XL that is winning. Just because I was a member from the first second they let me be a member. It was just great, still sad it never became an online game. The graphics are just magnificent, even if there are still some weird things. But, like with SimCity4, I bought the game, played it for a month and was played out. Own fault, I just couldn't get my idea on the screen.

[Ocram's Razr 964]

Because of the tools and support of custom content for Cities XL 2012, there might be a point where a comparable NAM and RHW is released for Cities XL. The SimCity 4 scale was unrealistic but the shapes and designs were based on realism. The Cities XL scale is more realistic but with greater limitations therefore using an odd combination of real-life buildings and usage of empty space around lots. The Cities XL interchanges are less flexible than the SimCity 4 interchanges even if the roads (not the highways/fast lanes) were far more flexible. Using some custom content, empty space can be filled in the cloverleafs but all lots in Cities XL are rectangular so odd shapes are impossible (the cloverleaf in SC4 was far from rectangular. People have been comparing Cites XL out of the box to SimCity 4 with "necessary" custom content.

[Skimbo 304]

The problem of CXL is that it simply gets boring after some time while SC4 does not stop to make fun. For me, at least.

[Ocram's Razr 964]

Both became boring to me eventually but SimCity 4 got boring slower and less often and became entertaining more often. All videogames eventually bore me.

[TheHaso2011 152]

I am torn as well, I have both games but have had SC4 for 2 years longer so know how to build a big City, compared to with CXL2011 its a new Challenge but I'm still learning how to do the Ropes. So far I'd go with SC4 No matter what anyone else says

[MontyCXL 0]

CXL have great graphics and is a lot easier to build and manage big cities. But It gets boring very fast and the cities look dead. Bad Performance.

SC4 have 'old' graphics but still fun and challanging. Cities are dynamic and alive but are harder to manage.

[TheHaso2011 152]

Montoto_Sk: Exactly, CXL gets very boring ver quickly, I got bored with in a day of Purchasing it. I've had SC4 4 4 (see what i did there? ) Years and Still havent got bored of it. The Good thing about sim City 4 is half the Content you have or can get is Add- ons So your always refreshing your game with the latest mod Texture or Landmark.

[Blood_Avenger 1]

why start up a battle between CXL and SC4? they both have their bright spots and flaws, and no game will be considered "perfect" because someone will bring up something that could be improved. Say all you want, but there wont ever be a perfect game, period.