I played SimCity 2013 @ GamesCom. Read my review :)

[ferryv 94]

Hi there,

My name is FerryV and i just came back from GamesCom 2012! The first thing I did was running to hall 6 were half of the hall was build up by EA. And wow what a amazing stands. My favorite: SimCity off course. So I went in line and waited 2 hours. This was the longest I waited for a game at GamesCom. I was amazed how popular SimCity is. In line I watched all the trailers and studied the whole stand with the amazing art. Finely it was my change to experience SimCity and I can tell you the following:

Guys and girls. Its going to be a great game!!! We played the alpha version (not beta) with a basic prebuild city. Off course there was a lot wrong with the city (no power, no water, no fire stations, not enough housing etc.) so I had 20min to rebuild the whole city and watched it got destroyed in the end by an meteor shower Because it was an alpha version a lot of building/mass transit etc wasn’t available. This is more than logic but still Maxis gave me a real good feeling were the game is going to. This is what I discovered/experienced in that 20 minutes:

- building road (and bus stations)

The first thing I had to do is connect my city with the regional highway. I had 2 options to build my connections: Straight road or Curvy road. There was also an 3th option showing but not available. That looked like an zone function. I think it’s going to be the same function as SC4 automatic roads when zoning. I have to be honest that the curvy road system wasn’t flawless. But giving it’s a Alpha version completely logical. But the roads worked pretty good and looked pretty fine. I also build 3 bus stations and upgraded the bus stations with extra capacity. Because I build this more in the end I didn’t had enough time to really explore all the possibility’s (sorry for that one)

- Zoning

Yes zoning! No plopables! (only government buildings) And I was amazed by it. Here the glassbox revealed itself. If you build a plain road and then go to the option zoning you will get automatic zoning on the road. So even when your roads are curvy and makes no sence the zoning will figure it out. The best part about this was that I didn’t had to figure out exactly how the zoning will fit within the curvy road and I didn’t had any empty space! (like Cities XL) It was such a joy seeing the housing, commercials and smelly industry growing. My residential neighborhood was with a lot of gardens and green. But the houses closer to the commercial zone were more dense and were as my commercial area more of concrete. It was beautiful. Not like you see on the trailer with high skyscrapers and a grass garden around it. Now I must say I didn’t had really skyscrapers yet because the city wasn’t big enough yet. And for the people that want to control their own zoning completely. I could bulldoze everything pretty easy. And not all the zoning possibilities where available.

- Popable (with upgrades)

This is the best part I think. You can transform all your plopable building and transform them as you dement them to. I build the following: Coal Plant, Windmill Farm, Fire station, Bus station. All of the building had unique add-ons. Some of them you could plant around your building (see also trailer were they build a school and putt dorms around it) In my case I build a fire station, put a bell tower on it. Build an extra garage on the other side of the street and put a nice flag pole next to it J With the windmill I made 2 classic windmills (not the hypermodern you’ve seen on some screenshot from Maxis) and I build a nice sign that it was a windmill park in front of the building. Next I made dirt road from the office to the windmills for the maintenance truck. At this point I realized the game is going to be deep enough for SimCity builders.

- Water tower (and groundwater)

When I build my water tower I got the water table of the map. I build it on a splash of dark blue water instead of light blue water. This off course the get a higher output of the tower. Right away I seen the water run down the city. Finely not wasting my time on water pipes anymore! J At this stage I got also involved in the next item:

- Graphs

In the older SimCity I used my graphs a lot in combinations with the famous minimap. In this version Maxis does it different. The whole map interact in what you want to see. So I click on fire risk and seen that one house was burned down and was now rubbish and that there were some warnings at some local factories. Next I switched to density and the whole city went white (buildings) and circle towers in different colors where shooting out of my city. I could see right away were all the people work, sleep, shop etc. It was very clear and much better than before. Than by accident I clicked on a car that was driving over the street. Guess what happened:

- Cars, citizens, agents and routes etc.

When you click a car it give you information about that car. Who is driving it. Were that person lives and were he is going to! It was so cool to see that the agent system from glassbox really is there. This gives an extra deep dimension to control your city and its transport system (if you want to micromanagement) But luckily the agents found their way also by themselves. So one of the cars that I followed didn’t took the shortest route (through my nice green residential zone) but was driving a bit around it on my bigger avenue. Soon my avenue got some bad traffic jam at the big intersection with the commercial zone. Suddenly I seen some care (not all) sneak around it through my nice neighborhood. I don’t want that off course, so I build even an even bigger avenue (the one with the light rail in the middle) now the traffic was getting this as preferred road.I didn’t figure out a way to upgrade the road, but then again I didn’t put much effort in it (had nice empty space) and I could not work with the light rail because at this point my time was up. I also think that the light rail didn’t work yet in this version.

- Graphics

OMG it was already beautiful. And I cant wait till the final result. For the first time in SimCity I really love the night time. I build my power plant by accident in the evening and blink blink blink.. all the lights in the city were turned on. It was amazing to see. And because not all are burning and some go off or on it really looks realistic. Well maybe realistic isn’t the right word because as you know SimCity works wilt tilt-shift. My brother found it looks like a bit cartoony because of the tilt-shirt. That its looked a bit more like sims and not like SC4. But still disagree with him. I feld like I could really see every detail in my city and still see everything that’s going on. But then again I love good tilt-shift movies. How suddenly a real life big environment still keeps all its details but looks like you can play with it like Lego.

- Disasters (meteor shower)

I’m not a big fan of disasters. Why would I destroy a perfect city?! But I guess it’s a part of SimCity and a lot of people like it. Well the meteor shower was a nice ending and it looked pretty amazing. Maxis/Dr Vu destroyed all recently build cities in one click. Maybe it was better this way because I really wanted to take the city home with me. Now it was destroyed it was easier to go outside of the stand.

- 20minutes and feedback

Because I only had 20 minutes I tried as many things as possible in that period of time. But every SimCity player knows how fast time goes away with that game. The thing I regret the most is also the time shortage I had. I really hope the beta comes out soon and hopefully (fingers crossed, wink to Maxis) I will be selected as a beta user. In this story I described my experience as accurate as possible. If you still have questions for me about my experience please ask. I will try to answer them as good and quick as I can. But remember I only played 20 minutes (way to short Maxis!!) So I only experienced a tip of the iceberg.

As last: The computers were SimCity was running on was behind closed doors. Cameras were not allowed and they were made sure nobody was filming anything. I think they did that just to tease everybody that was not there. So im sorry I dont have any nice vids/screens. Also I didn’t talk to anybody from Maxis. So I had no change to ask my questions / give my feedback to them. If maxis still want my feedback they know how to contact me. But for now: Thanks Maxis, you did a really great job. Thanks everybody for reading my story and please give me feedback.

Greetings,

FerryV (origin/simtropolis accountname)

Ps. My native language is not English as you can see and I am dyslectic. So sorry for the mistakes and please read over them. If you don’t understand a part please also leave feedback,

Pss. Just reminds me: I did no terraforming / nor did i seen the option

Psss. I build one beautiful park out of 4 options i had. I didnt check if that was upgradable

[Superbacon 380]

Well this is all very informative. Sounds like you had a rather satisfying experience. But I'm still a little skeptical, despite all the positive feedback you just gave.

I might have missed some things in your review though.

How big was the city tile? Did they say all tiles are a fixed size or does it vary?

[7238320 77]

Thank you for a concise and well presented first person report!

After reading twice, I must go and read again.

Again thank you for taking the time to give us such a in-depth first person view of your experience... colour me green with envy in Canada...lol

[cirugo 1,889]

glad you enjoyed it

[ferryv 94]

Well this is all very informative. Sounds like you had a rather satisfying experience. But I'm still a little skeptical, despite all the positive feedback you just gave.

I might have missed some things in your review though.

How big was the city tile? Did they say all tiles are a fixed size or does it vary?

Yes it was a satisfying experience. Also i was skeptical till a couple of days before GamesCom (last trailer did me good as well) You still miss alot in my review because there is just to much to write. After this i will post an email i just sended to a other SimCity fan (he sended me some qestions for Maxis @ GamesCom)

But for now your questions first:

- My City tile was not that big. Forgot to write that in my review. But only prox 20% was build so i have more than enough space for 20minutes. I didnt fill it all up. If you compare it with SC4 it was between a small and medium map. But it still was clearly a alpha version. I didnt even had a region or something yet! But hopefully this anwser your question. The bad part was that i didnt talk to Maxis There were a couple of people walking arbound making sure you didnt took pictures and explained to the rookies how to build a road. Those guys couldnt anwser any serious questions.

The tiles were kind of automatic in size. I build the roads, and said were i wanted zoning and what kind of zoning. The zoning its self was done by glassbox. The positive side is that you dont have any empty spaces (like Cities XL \ As also seen in trailer Maxis) negative side is that i dont know if and how much control of zoning i will lose with this system. Because i didnt play long enough en again its only an alpha version you cant really tell it yet. For my first City in the new engine it didnt bother me. It even surpriced me (because i didnt like the empty spaces in the trailer) If you have anymore qestions please aks.

EMAIL FROM SIMFAN281

Read your comment box! http://www.simcity.com/en_US/blog/article/The-Curvy-Road-to-Gamescom Thanks for helping out Internet People for demo next week for FAQ. I have my below.

I hope English Lang American is ok.... here is questions below

1. I want to know if there is Sewage/Waste Plants can reduce water ground pollution in SimCity kind of like in SimCity 4.

2. Are we able lay down City Substation Power Centers from Main Power Plants without dragging all those power lines?

3. Are we getting see Rain/Weather to recycle water in the ground so resources don’t dry up?

4. What kind stadiums are we having like Baseball Stadium, Soccer, I did see the new Arena Stadium with Monster Cars.

5. Are the Main Roads are easy to upgradable from Side Street, to Avenue Street and for Highways are they both Above Ground and Ground Highways with On/Off Ramps?

6. Are Metro Light Rails, Heavy Rails have Above Ground to Ground and Underground Tunnels?

7. Are we able to Turn Off Camera Effects?

From,

SimFan281

ANSWER TO HIS EMAIL:

Hey SimFan281,

I came back from GamesCom 2012 and i played the alpha version of SimCity 2013! Because i wanna share my experiance with other fans i posted my review on simtroplis and simcity.com (see links in end of the email) Unfortunately i didnt speak anyone from Maxis. So i coundnt ask any questions The only things i could anwser is based on own experiance.

1: There was a water cleaning plant but i couldnt build it (locked) so yes im almost for sure you can reduce water pollution

2: I didnt drag one powerline! The whole city got powerd by agents. Same was water. But ive also seen powerlines in the trailers. Maybe a funny detail for you: i build 2 powerplants in my city. A coal and a windmill farm. both were in other area's of the city. I even upgraded my windmill farm. Great experiance!

3: Didnt see any rain. Hope there is gonna be. dont want to run out of water.

4: I had a couple of parks at my desposal (only build one im sorry) but there was a basketball field and a soccer field if i remember well.

5: I coudnt figure out a way to upgrade. So dont get you hopes up to much. I also think its difficult because the roads / avenues had different sizes.

6: Wasnt included in this version yet. Only a (probably) still non functional lightrail on avenue.

7: Didnt see that anywere. But i have to say it works pretty nice (mouse + keyboard)

Hopefully this anwser some of your questions. Again thanks for your questionair. I will also post this on Simtropolis so other can read it as well.

Greetings,

FerryV

[ferryv 94]

Thank you for a concise and well presented first person report!

After reading twice, I must go and read again.

Again thank you for taking the time to give us such a in-depth first person view of your experience... colour me green with envy in Canada...lol

Haha, your welcome. I love helping other simcity fans. Im pretty disapointed in all the media though. So much media there (wednesday was even media only day) and there is almost nothing on youtube. Just a couple of interviews with always the same questions! #$%

Owh what also just pops in my mind and forgot to tell. there was one button with all the specials. It was locked for me playing with it but i could see it. It was the casino, the university, the coal hq etc. to specialize your city. But this is all OPTIONAL. The city i build was NATUREL. I had a industry area, a residential area and a nice commercial area with a city hall. So again. Spcialze your city is not a must! Maybe you can even mix stuff not sure.

[Xenocity 343]

It is good to hear that power and water lines are now gone!!!

I just hope roads can be upgraded easily like in CitiesXL by clicking in on a button.

Gah your preview makes me want the game even more!!!

I cant decide if I want the Mac or PC version...

[ferryv 94]

It is good to hear that power and water lines are now gone!!!

I just hope roads can be upgraded easily like in CitiesXL by clicking in on a button.

Gah your preview makes me want the game even more!!!

I cant decide if I want the Mac or PC version...

Hey Xenocity.

Always go for PC version (Mac is gonna be a portal)

Ok fans, i really need to go to bed soon, im still an half our online for any questions. And will check it tomorrow again for new questions. So for now fire away

  Edited August 17, 2012 by ferryv  

[Xenocity 343]

It is good to hear that power and water lines are now gone!!!

I just hope roads can be upgraded easily like in CitiesXL by clicking in on a button.

Gah your preview makes me want the game even more!!!

I cant decide if I want the Mac or PC version...

Hey Xenocity.

Always go for PC version (Mac is gonna be a portal)

EA games that are developed together for PC/Mac come out fine on both OSes.

I had no problems with Spore or Sims 3 on my Mac OS.

Though if I install it on my Windows partition, I'll play it less like I do Simcity 4. (this a good thing, since I am addicted to Simcity).

  Edited August 17, 2012 by Xenocity  

[ferryv 94]

It is good to hear that power and water lines are now gone!!!

I just hope roads can be upgraded easily like in CitiesXL by clicking in on a button.

Gah your preview makes me want the game even more!!!

I cant decide if I want the Mac or PC version...

Hey Xenocity.

Always go for PC version (Mac is gonna be a portal)

EA games that are developed together for PC/Mac come out fine on both OSes.

I had no problems with Spore or Sims 3 on my Mac OS.

Though if I install it on my Windows partition, I'll play it less like I do Simcity 4. (this a good thing, since I am addicted to Simcity).

Anyone know how to change a Window parition on a Mac without screwing up Windows?

Im a board-level-engeneer with notebooks. But i can also help with software problems. Lets go on the chat om simtropolis. I can help you there.

[Heblem 600]

Hey, nice review, you really made me interested into this new game, I give you thanks for the opportunity to write this review and your time for answer some questions.

Regarding the landscape, trees, mountains and farming, did you see any details on that side (in open places, nature and environments, details as like rivers, lakes, how "realistic" the water looks), i know you had only 20 minutes, but did you see something interesting outside of your city (in the same city tile)

Sorry for my bad english, thank you for your answer.

[ferryv 94]

Hey, nice review, you really made me interested into this new game, I give you thanks for the opportunity to write this review and your time for answer some questions.

Regarding the landscape, trees, mountains and farming, did you see any details on that side (in open places, nature and environments, details as like rivers, lakes, how "realistic" the water looks), i know you had only 20 minutes, but did you see something interesting outside of your city (in the same city tile)

Sorry for my bad english, thank you for your answer.

8

Thanks for liking my review. To anwser your questions:

My terrain was pretty standard. No mountains, no river, just land with beautiful trees. It was not totaly flat but nice buildable ground. Like i wrote somewhere before i didnt see anything form the region (exept a part of a regional highway) So no i didnt see anything interesting

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

Hm, maybe it is a good idea to bite the Origin bullet and see if I can get that demo, too...

[Linoa06 1,374]

My own review would be slightly more negative, though there was a lot of people indeed.

[chimeran 208]

Hm, maybe it is a good idea to bite the Origin bullet and see if I can get that demo, too...

just checked the dxdiag file and i forgot that i had my my laptop connected to my big screen before i submitted it, oh well

resubmitted the entry

  Edited August 17, 2012 by chimeran  

[T Wrecks 10,210]

My own review would be slightly more negative, though there was a lot of people indeed.

Well, as long as you describe your experience well, it shouldn't matter to which conclusion you come - it will be an interesting and informative read in any case. Whatever you describe as an aspect that turned you off might be no big deal for others, and vice versa. So go ahead and share your experience if you like! I've seen two reviews so far, and both were very enthusiastic. So why not a more critical review?

[aparrot7 82]

Thanks for the review! I'm glad you liked it! It answered some of my questions.

[Maxis_MD 79]

Really great write-up! The reception at the show so far has been awesome.

[ferryv 94]

Really great write-up! The reception at the show so far has been awesome.

Hi Michael Donahoe (Maxis)

Thanks for your compliment. What great to see Maxis on the forum of simtropolis. So maybe they see more than we think? Anyway, just keep the SimCity blog alive and fill the insider part with cool stuff and im happy. Can you also give us a small hint when you think the beta is gonna be released? (and make sure me and the others from this post are between the lucky onces?) Good luck on the rest of GamesCom

Greetings,

FerryV

[Maxis_MD 79]

Really great write-up! The reception at the show so far has been awesome.

Hi Michael Donahoe (Maxis)

Thanks for your compliment. What great to see Maxis on the forum of simtropolis. So maybe they see more than we think? Anyway, just keep the SimCity blog alive and fill the insider part with cool stuff and im happy. Can you also give us a small hint when you think the beta is gonna be released? (and make sure me and the others from this post are between the lucky onces?) Good luck on the rest of GamesCom

Greetings,

FerryV

Yep, a lot of Maxis folk frequent Simtropolis! And don't you worry about keeping the blog/Insider alive -- lots of stuff in the pipeline. Regarding the Beta, I don't have any specifics right now, but I can say we'll be revealing more info soon. And when we do, I'll let y'all know.

[ferryv 94]

Really great write-up! The reception at the show so far has been awesome.

Hi Michael Donahoe (Maxis)

Thanks for your compliment. What great to see Maxis on the forum of simtropolis. So maybe they see more than we think? Anyway, just keep the SimCity blog alive and fill the insider part with cool stuff and im happy. Can you also give us a small hint when you think the beta is gonna be released? (and make sure me and the others from this post are between the lucky onces?) Good luck on the rest of GamesCom

Greetings,

FerryV

Yep, a lot of Maxis folk frequent Simtropolis! And don't you worry about keeping the blog/Insider alive -- lots of stuff in the pipeline. Regarding the Beta, I don't have any specifics right now, but I can say we'll be revealing more info soon. And when we do, I'll let y'all know.

Super. Thanks alot and good luck with everything.

[The_City_Builder 299]

I haven't wanted to play a game this much in a couple of years. It sounds FANTASTIC! Great review; and I realllly hope I make it into the beta!

  Edited August 17, 2012 by The_City_Builder  

[ferryv 94]

Hi there,

I got a question from a SimCity fan about zoning if i could give an example how it works. So i made a sketch how it works in the Alpha version. Note: maybe in final version its gonna be a bit different / more options. But for now just lcheck out the sketches i made because pictures are saying more than words

[Airbird 3]

Thanks for the great review! As a professional Architect I find myself playing simcity 4 a lot at the office during down time. I can not wait for the new simcity to come out.

One thing that concerned me was the images that are released with open grass between large office buildings and multi level residential buildings. I would think that the space would be filled with concrete/sidewalks/parks etc. I believe your post touched on that subject saying that it is indeed filled with concrete? Can you confirm this. Thanks!

[ferryv 94]

Thanks for the great review! As a professional Architect I find myself playing simcity 4 a lot at the office during down time. I can not wait for the new simcity to come out.

One thing that concerned me was the images that are released with open grass between large office buildings and multi level residential buildings. I would think that the space would be filled with concrete/sidewalks/parks etc. I believe your post touched on that subject saying that it is indeed filled with concrete? Can you confirm this. Thanks!

Yes it was much better than the trailers. The commercial area was more a concrete jungle, the industry area more a dirt(y) area and my green neighboorhood a perfect place for a picknick. Here is a quote from my review

"My residential neighborhood was with a lot of gardens and green. But the houses closer to the commercial zone were more dense and were as my commercial area more of concrete. It was beautiful. Not like you see on the trailer with high skyscrapers and a grass garden around it."

Hopes this anwser your question.

[Airbird 3]

Thanks for the great review! As a professional Architect I find myself playing simcity 4 a lot at the office during down time. I can not wait for the new simcity to come out.

One thing that concerned me was the images that are released with open grass between large office buildings and multi level residential buildings. I would think that the space would be filled with concrete/sidewalks/parks etc. I believe your post touched on that subject saying that it is indeed filled with concrete? Can you confirm this. Thanks!

Yes it was much better than the trailers. The commercial area was more a concrete jungle, the industry area more a dirt(y) area and my green neighboorhood a perfect place for a picknick. Here is a quote from my review

"My residential neighborhood was with a lot of gardens and green. But the houses closer to the commercial zone were more dense and were as my commercial area more of concrete. It was beautiful. Not like you see on the trailer with high skyscrapers and a grass garden around it."

Hopes this anwser your question.

It does, thank you for confirming and addressing one of my few concerns! I'm glad someone is taking so much time to answer questions and help the community out!

[mapboy 106]

Hi there,

I got a question from a SimCity fan about zoning if i could give an example how it works. So i made a sketch how it works in the Alpha version. Note: maybe in final version its gonna be a bit different / more options. But for now just lcheck out the sketches i made because pictures are saying more than words

Hmm, so you can't have different zones in one block? :/ I hope they change that, because it's odd having commercial on a main road and also on a little lane behind it which is meant to service residential...

[ferryv 94]

Hi there,

I got a question from a SimCity fan about zoning if i could give an example how it works. So i made a sketch how it works in the Alpha version. Note: maybe in final version its gonna be a bit different / more options. But for now just lcheck out the sketches i made because pictures are saying more than words

Hmm, so you can't have different zones in one block? :/ I hope they change that, because it's odd having commercial on a main road and also on a little lane behind it which is meant to service residential...

Hey there,

No you can do that.. no problem. Thats just my drawing. If you want you can mix everything. So if you want commercial on your main roads and inmidiatly behind it residential thats possible. Its just a tactic that i dont use so much (mostly i just put a smaller road in between) Sorry for not being clear on that.

[rweather5 22]

Thank you very much for writing this review. It is nice to see what a hard-core sc4 fan thinks of the new simcity.

[baertooth 330]

- Zoning

Yes zoning! No plopables! (only government buildings) And I was amazed by it. Here the glassbox revealed itself. If you build a plain road and then go to the option zoning you will get automatic zoning on the road. So even when your roads are curvy and makes no sence the zoning will figure it out. The best part about this was that I didn’t had to figure out exactly how the zoning will fit within the curvy road and I didn’t had any empty space! (like Cities XL) It was such a joy seeing the housing, commercials and smelly industry growing. My residential neighborhood was with a lot of gardens and green. But the houses closer to the commercial zone were more dense and were as my commercial area more of concrete. It was beautiful. Not like you see on the trailer with high skyscrapers and a grass garden around it. Now I must say I didn’t had really skyscrapers yet because the city wasn’t big enough yet. And for the people that want to control their own zoning completely. I could bulldoze everything pretty easy. And not all the zoning possibilities where available.

Can you designate zoning yourself or is it only automatic?