SimCity 2013 Beta: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

[SirChick 184]

My 12 year old son: "Looks just like Simcity Societies".

I played for about 5 minutes and I was quite bored with it. And you must need a top of the line computer to really play this thing. I have a 3GHz processor and 4GB of RAM and this was chunky on the lowest settings. =(

Its all about the GPU not memory/CPU in that case.. what is your GPU ? Mines old as hell but i could play max settings no problems.

[Catchin22 299]

I have a GTX 275, i7-920 @ 3.8ghz and it stuttered a lot at times. Any other game that looks MUCH better than this runs maxed out and never drops below 60FPS with the exception of Guild Wars 2 which is probably the most demanding game on the market but for good reason.

[SirChick 184]

I have a GTX 275, i7-920 @ 3.8ghz and it stuttered a lot at times. Any other game that looks MUCH better than this runs maxed out and never drops below 60FPS with the exception of Guild Wars 2 which is probably the most demanding game on the market but for good reason.

Your PC Spec is better than mine but i could play max settings with no issues at all =/ strange...

[lopes8070 16]

In my original post, I was stating my opinion of the game. Yes, I understand that if you don't upgrade a road, then it won't upgrade the lot past a certain point. But then, once the lot reaches its limit, you get notification after notification of residents wanting the upgrade. It gets rather annoying.

A lot of comments have been 'the lot size will get bigger', 'this is geared towards a larger, younger audience'. I wonder how many of these arguments were made when Societies was released.

[Xenocity 343]

A lot of comments have been 'the lot size will get bigger', 'this is geared towards a larger, younger audience'. I wonder how many of these arguments were made when Societies was released.

Worse because of the developer behind it.

It was almost as bad as Cities XL fans reaction to Cities XL 2012

[Skyrunner27 23]

Am I the only one who thinks that tile size is a none issue. I played the beta 3 times through and I had only scratched a quarter of the entire city each time. Sure you could just blast through the entire tile but you could do that in any other Simcity.

[Cob92 360]

Am I the only one who thinks that tile size is a none issue. I played the beta 3 times through and I had only scratched a quarter of the entire city each time. Sure you could just blast through the entire tile but you could do that in any other Simcity.

I think it's an issue in that it limits how much you can do with a single city, but not as major of an issue as some people are making it out to be. I get the feeling that they just a dump a giant grid of buildings over the map, build minimal improvements, and call it a day.

[Catchin22 299]

I will miss subways but I really expect this game (and hope) that it turns in to a loaded DLC micro expansion franchise.

I hate that there are people who think this way. Please don't give me a game that isn't complete and then sell me DLC to complete it.

[morningstar 5]

I got into the Beta last night, I agree much with the OP.

My personal take on the new sim is that yeah it felt like a dumb version with new Graphics. I am open to new changes, as SC4 took some time to change over for me. I really enjoyed SC3000. Of course I know that this is beta and there are many features left out on purpose. I played the scenario many times, and I did find it to be of some level of entertainment, but not that feeling I get from SC4.

One of the complaints I had was although the graphical enhancements are great, when I zoom to a specific building or business I found it blurred. I had to actually move back away to get the building to focus. I think that if you have a building selected it should focus on the building.

I found the road building to be, well... I miss the grid.. I play SC4 with grids on. I like to plan my city well before I even start. I know they put in some road building guide, but this was not sufficient. Maybe I need practice, but I was making uneven city blocks, and it was hard to view them to get them perfect. Also, after I would zone an area residential, I would select roads, and the green residential zones would disappear from sight. Maybe that can be selected to remain on, but I could not find it. I actually would wait for building to arrive then I could build the next roads to expand my area.

I complained to the developers that I disliked the city size and the gap that lies between other city's.

I myself found no major bugs or difficulty learning to play the game. I most likely will play the release, but I am sure at this point that I am going to be missing something of any complexity I may had received from other prior releases. At this point I cannot see that they can change any of my most disturbing negative views, as they are structural in the game.

I think the game is very pleasing to the eye, I really enjoy some of the graphics this game offers. but then again I play older RPG games since newer ones always seem to be missing substance. What was funny, and I hate to admit this, but I was playing and after one of the sessions, I wanted to load up city xl because I was in the desire to play some city building. I no longer have SC4 on my PC after I upgraded to Win7. Maybe I am going to have to get it to work after all.

After SC4 I know they released some other versions, Society's.. I never played those. I played SC4 because I enjoyed city building, not so much interacting with the sims unless they have a major complaint. I see that this is a continuation of that trend... I hoped they could make a complex game that could be set to "easy" if you so desired. We will see on release, and really I cannot fully judge this game on the Beta. I do have some disappointment but I am sure that I will purchase the game... It just may be out of the bargain bin. My plan to Pre-purchase is now suppressed.

/cheers

[-JD- 41]

I highly suggest you guys check out this Beta playthrough of SC2013 and watch it. It features live gameplay and commentary, which could sway your opinions of the game.

He has a press pass and premission from EA to post videos of this beta.

[anandus 15]

I found the road building to be, well... I miss the grid..

Like this?

*image removed*

(Unfortunately I don't know how to turn it on, I'm looking for it to, although it's good to know it's there. Somewhere.)

[morningstar 5]

Yes! I could not find it haha! thanks! It's most likely disabled for Beta. No option to turn it on in the options menu.

[Bazkur 34]

Yes! I could not find it haha! thanks! It's most likely disabled for Beta. No option to turn it on in the options menu.

It's in the road menu on the left hand side if I remember correctly. I turned it on.

I will miss subways but I really expect this game (and hope) that it turns in to a loaded DLC micro expansion franchise.

I hate that there are people who think this way. Please don't give me a game that isn't complete and then sell me DLC to complete it.

To each's own. I can't argue with that statement but for me DLCs keep a game fresh. Another thing that I hope is that when modding is released some of these things can be resolved. City size probably not but depending on the amount of control given over content I could see where you could create invisible train tracks perhaps to create a subway effect (or transporters )

Like I said, over all I enjoyed the game. Just felt like I ran out of room awfully quick which to me says I will likely not be playing multiplayer but rather playing all cities in a region myself.

[Catchin22 299]

Yes! I could not find it haha! thanks! It's most likely disabled for Beta. No option to turn it on in the options menu.

It's in the road menu on the left hand side if I remember correctly. I turned it on.

I will miss subways but I really expect this game (and hope) that it turns in to a loaded DLC micro expansion franchise.

I hate that there are people who think this way. Please don't give me a game that isn't complete and then sell me DLC to complete it.

To each's own. I can't argue with that statement but for me DLCs keep a game fresh. Another thing that I hope is that when modding is released some of these things can be resolved. City size probably not but depending on the amount of control given over content I could see where you could create invisible train tracks perhaps to create a subway effect (or transporters )

Like I said, over all I enjoyed the game. Just felt like I ran out of room awfully quick which to me says I will likely not be playing multiplayer but rather playing all cities in a region myself.

All it does is give an excuse to make an incomplete game and sell extra content. Look at the Sims 3. First thing I noticed was how incomplete that game was, expansions came out at $30 within months of each other, how many expansions are there now for that game? Other companies could have made the entire game with all that content for $60! It's crap marketing and I'm too smart to fall for it.

Go buy a game like Guild Wars 2 for $60, notice the amount of thought, skill, pride, caring about the community they put into that game. It is AWE inspiring. Playing SC2013 feels like some FB flash game compared to it developed by people who don't really have much pride, or overall skill. This is just not an EPIC game, it would be a "Good" game (on the low side) if priced at $40 with no DRM, but $60 with DRM is a deal breaker.

[guitarmatt99 27]

what graphics cards are people running this on? Looking to get a new one and want to run it on at least minimum, who can run it on medium? Even when everything is on low and shadows are turned off I get loads of lag.

[CaptCity 4,893]

A reminder about staying on topic and not directing comments "at" others... This a topic that discusses the beta experience, not one to re-hash all the old arguments about what "should" be. There's plenty of other topics dedicated to those.

Expressing your own opinions is fine, as long as they're "your own". Let's not argue about people's perceptions of the game. People can like it or not. it's not up to anyone else to decide that for them.

Off topic posts have been removed...

[Bazkur 34]

what graphics cards are people running this on? Looking to get a new one and want to run it on at least minimum, who can run it on medium? Even when everything is on low and shadows are turned off I get loads of lag.

GTX 560ti dual 1gb in SLI. Keep it on 30FPS, the 60FPS option is really buggy apparently.

I found the road building to be, well... I miss the grid..

(Unfortunately I don't know how to turn it on, I'm looking for it to, although it's good to know it's there. Somewhere.)

I was wrong with the location (earlier said it was in lower left corner in road menu, but that is just normal guides). I can duplicate that effect by using the box tool all over my city, over time it will start to get that grid effect while in road menu but I haven't figured out how to get it to stay on or completely cover the map as that screen does.

[guitarmatt99 27]

what graphics cards are people running this on? Looking to get a new one and want to run it on at least minimum, who can run it on medium? Even when everything is on low and shadows are turned off I get loads of lag.

GTX 560ti dual 1gb in SLI. Keep it on 30FPS, the 60FPS option is really buggy apparently.

I was looking for something under £50 with a pci-e 1.0 or 2.0, thanks anyway!

[macvirt 361]

I will miss subways but I really expect this game (and hope) that it turns in to a loaded DLC micro expansion franchise.

I hate that there are people who think this way. Please don't give me a game that isn't complete and then sell me DLC to complete it.

Heh, too late. We already figured out is is more rewarding to sell a shell title and complete with DLC

[Bazkur 34]

what graphics cards are people running this on? Looking to get a new one and want to run it on at least minimum, who can run it on medium? Even when everything is on low and shadows are turned off I get loads of lag.

GTX 560ti dual 1gb in SLI. Keep it on 30FPS, the 60FPS option is really buggy apparently.

I was looking for something under £50 with a pci-e 1.0 or 2.0, thanks anyway!

Just loaded it up on my HP Pavilion dv6 laptop. It has an AG Vision AMD GPU and Quad core processor. Seems ok on Low settings certainly not great though. Some lag but playable. You could probably pick up a budget GeForce GT series that would run it fine. check out someplace like tigerdirect.com, somebody in the GT 600 series would probably work ok as long as you are not expecting to run high graphics. Keep in mind though, your CPU could be a bottleneck to the GPU. What are you running?

I ran WoW and Diablo 3 on a Galaxy GeForce GT220 1GB card without any issues just don't expect a Civic to run like a Porsche if you know what I mean. It was a reliable card that got me through several years before I upgrade my entire computer.

[Sundeki 4]

The aim of most game companies nowdays is to create games that appeal to the widest possible playerbase. Is is abundantly clear that this game is made for social/casual gamers. When I played through the BETA I found it hard to get into the game. It was incredibly dumbed down and feels like it was made for 5 or 6 year old children. Because of the limited size of cities, dumbed-down gameplay and lack of many options; it seems unlikely that the game will present any more than a few hours of gameplay to anyone who is there to actually build a city; rather than playing a game with friends where the aim is to mess around and socialize, instead of playing games for the sake of playing games. And if this game was to cost $20-$30 that would be fine. Only it isn't. It costs $80+. And from what I see the "global economy" only has 3 or 4 resources(speculation).

I hope there will be significant modding support and huge expansion to the global economy present.

[Zukunftstraume 220]

All it does is give an excuse to make an incomplete game and sell extra content. Look at the Sims 3. First thing I noticed was how incomplete that game was, expansions came out at $30 within months of each other, how many expansions are there now for that game? Other companies could have made the entire game with all that content for $60! It's crap marketing and I'm too smart to fall for it.

Go buy a game like Guild Wars 2 for $60, notice the amount of thought, skill, pride, caring about the community they put into that game. It is AWE inspiring. Playing SC2013 feels like some FB flash game compared to it developed by people who don't really have much pride, or overall skill. This is just not an EPIC game, it would be a "Good" game (on the low side) if priced at $40 with no DRM, but $60 with DRM is a deal breaker.

If they can add content that will reintroduce the God-Mode or Region-creating tool, to be honest I'll actually buy it. You're right, it is incomplete, but some people would actually be willing to pay 100+ dollars for a true sequel and complete version of a new SimCity including myself.

As for GW2, it was actually somewhat of a disappointment for the end-game content, once level 80 hit I found very little purpose in continuing to play the game besides chatting it up with awesome guild mates. The voice-acting for the game was atrocious, most characters were terrible (except Tybalt of course), the Risen and Orr were both very annoying, and some of the minor races seemed like they were just last minute additions to the game. That game could be so much more. It was loads of fun leveling up and exploring places like the Black Citadel or DR, but no reason for me to go back now. At least not until they add a Cantha expansion.

I highly suggest you guys check out this Beta playthrough of SC2013 and watch it. It features live gameplay and commentary, which could sway your opinions of the game.

He has a press pass and premission from EA to post videos of this beta.

It's quite a shame the game has been so dumbed down since it does look real beautiful. I'll hold off on buying it for now anyways until some big changes can come along.

[markofyeg 0]

Plot size is too small - but we all knew that anyway.

The other thing is city planning. The dotted line guide isn't much use unless you build the highest density roads from the start. The tool only bases its distances based on the density of the road. So you can't zone large enough for high density buildings using the low density road. Which is annoying and leads to cities with lots of empty spaces between the buildings/roads. It would be nice to have the fill with park/plaza tool from Cities XL to brighten up those empty areas.

This is my largest complaint thus far with the beta, I'm not impressed with being unable to plop trees in green space. Sure they have a 'line of trees' park zoning options but that must intersect with a road and can sometimes destroy existing buildings if placed incorrectly. This results in a lot of wasted open space in an otherwise limited size city map.

I agree with the respondents who say this game has too much "Sims" influence, I for one am not too interested in following around individual Sims as they look for a burger or commute to work.

I do however love the new 'growable' building designs, I can see the promise of retail store packs in the new SimCity store where you can have your very own Walmart, Starbucks or Tim Hortons in the city. I absolutely despise the size of the ploppable town hall, it's completely disproportionate to the size of the town, honestly a residential trailer is the size of the town hall sign, this must be fixed!

I'm going to miss building highways, having a neighbouring city that is not separated by greenspace, and having far more control over zone sizes. I'm just hoping this beta launch will help fine tune the game for its final release, but I don't see any monumental changes in the short term.

[guitarmatt99 27]

what graphics cards are people running this on? Looking to get a new one and want to run it on at least minimum, who can run it on medium? Even when everything is on low and shadows are turned off I get loads of lag.

GTX 560ti dual 1gb in SLI. Keep it on 30FPS, the 60FPS option is really buggy apparently.

I was looking for something under £50 with a pci-e 1.0 or 2.0, thanks anyway!

Just loaded it up on my HP Pavilion dv6 laptop. It has an AG Vision AMD GPU and Quad core processor. Seems ok on Low settings certainly not great though. Some lag but playable. You could probably pick up a budget GeForce GT series that would run it fine. check out someplace like tigerdirect.com, somebody in the GT 600 series would probably work ok as long as you are not expecting to run high graphics. Keep in mind though, your CPU could be a bottleneck to the GPU. What are you running?

I ran WoW and Diablo 3 on a Galaxy GeForce GT220 1GB card without any issues just don't expect a Civic to run like a Porsche if you know what I mean. It was a reliable card that got me through several years before I upgrade my entire computer.

I have a Dell Inspiron 531 with 4GB of Ram with a AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 5000+ 2.60GHz (which happens to be the minimum requirement!) I know i'm going to need a new power supply as mine is only 250watt (it's very old) and i've been looking at a GeForce GT630 1GB or a GeForce GT620 2GB would these work with my CPU? I will only be playing simcity so I want a graphics card that will suit this game (for £50), if not please recommend me one! I am very new to the inner workings of a computer! (I want to run this on medium as textures are appalling on low)

Edit: I run an ATI Redeon HD 2400 Pro