New Screenshots

[macvirt 361]

Ok Thanks for clearing that up, now I can breathe again

[zimmie 521]

I see in that last screen that they have data for homeless. Curious to know if that can be a serious issue for a city in the game and if it will only be related to unemployement or just how all that will work.

[mastorofpuppetz 199]

The more I read about SC 2013 the worst it sounds, the limiting villiage like map size alone is making me rethink buying, it simply is not enough, was not in 2004, and definitely not in 2012, ridiculous how they though taking away eatures and more limitations was the way to improve on a series.

Screens look good but looks terribly unrealistic, looks too shiny and like legos.

[copper121212 23]

These close up shots are nice and all until you zoom out and see what you've actually created. Some tiny little village scattered around with other tiny little villages in the most unrealistic way. Skyscrapers butting up against literal fields of nothing. These "cities" remind of The Sims in neighbourhood view. Which brings me to another point. If you want to micro manage and know what every Joe Blow is doing then go buy the Sims, if you don't really give a damn and want manage on a much broader level then buy Sim City. Makes sense to me but apparently not to EA. Now don't get me wrong I want to know what the residents of my city are up to but just give me some collective stats and be done with it instead of wasting resources on every single person.

[RyanMorgan95 144]

SC5 :

-Cartoonish and unrealistic graphic

SC4 :

- Realistic and not cartoonish graphic.

This is so much better than SimCity 4 - just look at it!

Graphics aside, SimCity is so-so. Whilst the detail of the simulation is incredible, and then infographics, UI etc. are too, the real problems are the pathetically small city maps, retarded no-man's land between every city, multiplayer (debatable) ,restrictive online requirements and DRM, Origin. Although two out of the three map sizes in SC4 were 2x2 km or smaller, SC4's city maps bordered each other, rather than having these swathes of green interrupted by the occasional bad mountain texture and pre-placed highway/rail routes. This meant a 1x1 km "city" was merely part of a much larger metropolis that could possibly span the entire region. You just can't do this in SimCity, and this totally disrupts the realism.

If Maxis could change one thing, it's the size of the cities/how cities are positioned in relation to one another. I would settle for having the pre-placed highway and rail routes, and even being forced to use Origin, if it means the cities are at least 4x4 km or city maps "touch" each other.

Right now, I'm not buying.

[RyanMorgan95 144]

Found this on the Multiplayer section of the SimCity website. Screenshot of the region view it appears. Couldn't find a larger image, and I don't think it's been posted before:

[The_City_Builder 299]

^ I don't think it's been posted in this thread, but It has been posted before.

I remember people complaining about the tile sizes.

[RyanMorgan95 144]

^ I don't think it's been posted in this thread, but It has been posted before.

I remember people complaining about the tile sizes.

The tile sizes are the greatest thing holding me back from buying SimCity I must say. My apologies for posting the not-really-new screenshot.

[macvirt 361]

It's just shiny. Important yes, but consider how the marketing is focusing on just that, and making everything else secondary to it. It would be a first time in our industry if product design considerations did not turn out to fit the marketing methods. Aka, form beats function + inclusion of what is generally considered the "cheap" (resource investment wise) version of the "puzzle" aspect (which may very well indeed turn out to be the resource management feature set).

I'm getting a strong impression that the size of cities and regions is a direct result of design catering to casual and leisure type players (who do not go as "deep" as core users) and limitations of the Glassbox engine amalgam (which is simply a next development for further design targets as the last version for a different product).

It is not the degradation of immersion factors that irks me though, not so much at least as the degradation of aspects of realism in the experience. Yes, it looks plastic all too easily, that is not what I am referring to though. Absence of zoning, the absence of terraforming, the absence of common yet critical elements of infrastructural design (underground for example, subways but also water and other connection elements of both the past and today), and so forth. It comes across as dumbing it down under a veneer of marketing to buy in while it is just catering to different user groups that with SC4 (which, to be honest, is absolutely logical and accurate - does not mean I have to like it, or agree with the limitations that imposes in commercial terms for the product).

I have to admit though, I am influenced by the general trends poured on consumers where the dumbing down is always sold as better. It is to a point where my lizard brain recognises those types of marketing before my cognitive brain does. It's something which I find wasteful, commercially counterproductive for the long term and ultimately simply not fun. It rubs me the wrong way when good concepts get that treatment - if only because when potential exists to build grand, it is self defeating to settle for less.

Don't get me wrong, I do not think it'll be a bad game. It is just not a next SimCity, it has a completely different focus on customers and interactions. What strikes me is that - at least to me as a non-casual/leisure player - it is becoming more and more like the case of Civ V. Still waiting for the game to be in tune with its potential.

I hope that SC2013 is not going to end up as a case of neither fish nor meat. We'll see. Personally though, without principle elements like plastic removal, underground, terraforming, zoning and proper modding functionality, I'll stick with SC4. Which is fine, as we saw in the case of Civ V, core user groups that build and/or nurture a franchise into strength are only a resource for the marketing of the next franchise target. That is how it works in our industry.

[Urban Cartographer 601]

The person who is playing Bramble Overlook must be screwed, due to a lack of large-scale terraforming, giving that player practically half the buildable area as those that play on flatlands.

[semo 14]

I find it fascinating that the population map can show which sims are at home, working, shopping, tourists and even homeless. I'm sure this can be attributed to Glassbox. The more details like this that come out, the more excited I am to play the game.

[jason leo 485]

This is so much better than SimCity 4 - just look at it!

Graphics aside, SimCity is so-so. Whilst the detail of the simulation is incredible, and then infographics, UI etc. are too, the real problems are the pathetically small city maps, retarded no-man's land between every city, multiplayer (debatable) ,restrictive online requirements and DRM, Origin. Although two out of the three map sizes in SC4 were 2x2 km or smaller, SC4's city maps bordered each other, rather than having these swathes of green interrupted by the occasional bad mountain texture and pre-placed highway/rail routes. This meant a 1x1 km "city" was merely part of a much larger metropolis that could possibly span the entire region. You just can't do this in SimCity, and this totally disrupts the realism.

If Maxis could change one thing, it's the size of the cities/how cities are positioned in relation to one another. I would settle for having the pre-placed highway and rail routes, and even being forced to use Origin, if it means the cities are at least 4x4 km or city maps "touch" each other.

Right now, I'm not buying.

Well, Maxis keeps improving the graphic, a month ago, I haven't see any picture like that. Btw, as the time go, the graphic become better and better, I must admit if the graphic is better and I agree with your comment at this moment because a month ago, the graphic is more cartoonish than now. I must say Maxis never make any bad job and it can't be called as Societies 2, but if we look around other factors, then I won't buy it too. Yes, I already look at this picture before, and it's pretty realistic though the textures seems a bit flat. I can accept the city size, but I can't accept online-only, forced to use Origin, pre-existing networks, and unusable land between cities. If Maxis at least make all of the cities become adjacent tiles, then the game is still acceptable for me. In this case, graphic is not my main problem (Somehow, I'm sure if Maxis will be able to fix the graphic), but some other things already become a dealbreaker.

[guitarmatt99 27]

For me I must say, im not that bothered about region view not being realistic, I am more focused on the realistic city builder that is sim city, I would much prefer a more realistic CITY VIEW with bigger tiles than them focusing on region view... even if region view was a list it would be better if there was BIG TILES!

[The_City_Builder 299]

It'd be nice if we could have some sort of manual-select of city tiles. I mean like in SimCity Creator on the Wii where you can select which tile you want, which size, where you want it etc. on a large map. Those regions look so unrealistic...

[cyruskafaiwu 29]

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Maxis placed large map sizes for an added cost (à la DLC)

[guitarmatt99 27]

New shot of a university! I love the architecture of these buildings but cars still look to big (almost bigger than the lane), is it so hard to make them slightly smaller?

[macvirt 361]

Is it possible the "shiny/plastic" look comes from post processing of these shots? Or perhaps in game settings for bloom or other effects?

Yes, great model, it just strikes me as unrealistically reflective / plastic, not sure how to word the feeling it gives properly.

Tiny university btw, considering the size of the people walking by Perhaps it is a university department?

[The_City_Builder 299]

The game's graphics are not about realism. It's about making the player feel as if they are building a model town, hence the tilt-shift effect.

Seriously. There is no such thing as a realistic city building game, and there won't be until who knows when.

Also, I'm LOVING the varied architecture in this game. And the fact that it looks so varied now, imagine what we can get as DLC/mods.

[F2CMaDMaXX 12]

Guillame has said it has many modules and can get pretty large.

[chris78hampe 4]

I believe the pic above is a college not a university.

[pyanodon 218]

Everytime i saw a screenshot like this i laught at "cities don´t live in a bubble" yeah, maybe in 4 bubbles.

[Skyrunner27 23]

Everytime i saw a screenshot like this i laught at "cities don´t live in a bubble" yeah, maybe in 4 bubbles.

Bubbles refer to the non interaction of cities.All Simcity 4 did better than Simcity 3000 was to allow you to control those cities and let people work there. Now they have added the ability for multiple people to play in a region and the spread of resources such as pollution, police coverage, and Natural resources. Simcity 4 cities basically lived in a bubble where the only thing that could cross borders was sims and Neighbor deals. While your city floated through space. Only being able to see other cities in Region view.

[snick25 384]

The fact still remains that while simulation-wise, cities don't "live in bubbles", aesthetically, they do.

It Kinda defeats the whole purpose of the added regional/global interaction.

[macvirt 361]

Depends entirely on where you live really. North Western Germany is a blanket of urban centers snuggling up almost as closely as the Netherlands, where in the western parts there is zero boundary or divide between cities

[F2CMaDMaXX 12]

I believe the pic above is a college not a university.

Correct.

[cyruskafaiwu 29]

Emergency landings are now in the simulation, it appears.

[JaceTwice 115]

Well that's new.

A sign of preventable/avertable disasters perhaps?

[mapboy 106]

If you linked the source, you'd be able to tell the whole story of that screenshot: It's a glitch!

This is not what I meant by "taxi to a tourist trap" #simcity #bug pic.twitter.com/vyofLIiw

— Guillaume Pierre (@MaxisGuillaume)

January 8, 2013

[T Wrecks 10,209]

That would have been quite a skilled emergency landing, too - without even a scratched streetlight!

As for the "bubble" argument, I fully agree with snick25. The connected ("non-bubble") look of SC4 was a great idea, and my wish would have been for the simulation to follow that path beyond mere commuters and neighbourhood deals. After all, it's not logical that there is next to no interaction between neighbouring cities.

Instead, the whole thing got reversed somehow: Now we have interaction, but between visually separated cities...

What's more important is that the limited interaction in SC4 was a shortcoming, but at least it didn't keep you from creating what you wanted - be it small, separate villages, a shiny skyscraper jungle right next to farmland, or a fluent, coherent megacity with smooth transition from farmland to suburbs, mid-rise neighbourhoods and a high-rise CBD. No pollution etc. carried over? No regional effect of airports? A nuisance, sure. Something to fix in the next SimCity, sure. Restricting? Well, not that much. Cities still worked, and even if the neighbour city's airport didn't have any effect on your current city, you could still do without if you didn't want to place yet another one.

Now we apparently have interaction, and that's nice and all, but on the other hand we are limited to building small isolated cities that don't look coherent at all. And to make matters worse, there is no workaround or "at least you still can...". There's "shut up and live with it", and that's it. That's kinda sad.

[macvirt 361]

Indeed, we do have interaction. It's just only in those ways that fit with EA's objectives. Which is only natural, they do challenge everything

Increasingly in the wrong places, on the wrong fixations though.