Simcity "Beta" review.

[croxis 150]

The small city tile wont bother me IF the gameplay is more than zone-and-forget. My hope is that it will be difficult for the city to enter homeostatis and a great deal of time is needed to curate and balance the city, and the other cities in the region also impacting each other in noticeable ways. Without that iterative gameplay style the small city sizes will be very troublesome.

[tomfoolery_79 85]

Would I be hitting the nail on the head when I say, us fans all wanted SimCity 4 with 2013 technology and the steady improvements you'd expect to see in a next installment?

I played the beta 3 times. I agree with OP.

I think Duval was trying to say the Graphics in SC4 were fantastic, so why 10 years later aren't they better? If he's not saying that, I am. SC4 buildings were great. Regardless of what Maxis has said, they have NOT listened to their fan base. Think of it this way, do other games have such a split before release? Are their huge concerns with Black Ops 2 from Black Ops 1...are Halo 3 peeps concerned about the direction of Halo 4? No. What I mean is, the fact that there has been such an outcry pre-release of a game should be nothing less than a wake up call to EA/Maxis... Online always DRM, Marketplace, City Size, etc etc.

[Fornix 4]

You are talking about the graphics and how great they are compared to 10 year old game.

Yeah, that irks me as well - what's the point of complaining how "bad" vanilla SC4 has looked 10 years ago? This is the year 2013 and I'm looking at SC4 now, and I expected SC2013 to take it as far, if not beyond the current look and visual appearance.

click for full size

Not only for the green stuff, but generally for textures, building styles, details and so on...

In terms of textures, we can't be sure on what we'll get till we have the official game. Download size of the game was suggested to be 12GB, whilst the beta client only made up for less than 2GB. That may be a lacking of high-res textures for example playing part. Only time will tell (or a dev confirmation at some point).

As for building styles, greens, etc. I was personally not expecting Maxis to outdo that. To be fair, I think we've been spoiled a bit by people such as yourself Paeng . With thousands of items to pick from, being able to create a desert world, a rural area, Asian, historical European, etc or even a Mars landscape is what has become our expected standard. If they throw in modding tools, we may see an overwhelming amount of content 10 years from now as well if content creators jump on.

As for the OP, a lot of it is highly subjective, such as point 11, 13, 14. Point 12 I personally had no issues with after playing for a few hours. Sure it's different than what we were used to in SC4 or what NAM made possible. However, as nice as NAM was for certain things, a lot of it also took quite a bit of taking use to.

Point 16 is also just a matter of playing the game enough. In SC4 you could also scale large, but then run into things not building out well if you zone whilst turning off auto-roads. Same goes for here, just a matter of a couple of cities and you'll know exactly what will fill in.

Point 17 and 18 pretty much point back to the first part of my post, years and years of modding support have sort of spoiled us I'd say .

Some of the other things mentioned may still see improvements, such as lightning, performance, etc. Especially in terms of performance it was far from a general issue, or at least to me. I could run the game fluently on max settings at around 80 ~ 90 fps, turn my camera into the direction of "something" and suddenly have a whopping fps drop of roughly 90% reducing to around 10 fps. Turn away from it, and the fps would normalize again. Which suggests there are some buildings or things such as certain vehicles causing the slowdowns. Myself I couldn't identify exactly what it was, however if a few did and submitted a bug report, those might be out in a 0-day patch already.

In regards to town sizes, yes, myself I loved creating large scaled rural areas. So I'd prefer to see them larger. However, I can also see as to why they went for the current decision. On several other gaming fora people already reported high CPU usage with just 50k+ inhabitants. You can scale that figure up to well over 10 times that number even. If zones would be larger the performance of the game would be even worse than the performance of SC4 was when it just came out.

Personally what I'd have loved to see however in terms of the regions was to still tile zones in the traditional sense, allowing for use to still create the bigger picture as we used to. But beyond that I still see a lot of potential for this game.

Guys, take a look at this video of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ny_IScjntY. Stories about hardware limitations told by Maxis are ridiculous if you look at this.

Cities in motions 2 however doesn't deal with tens of thousands of units moving around, and that's what cripples SimCity. It's like playing openTTD with a great number of vehicles (e.g. 750+ or so) and you'll lag as well. Not because openTTD is GPU heavy in any shape or form, but because your CPU is struggling to keep up. Having units for sims, transport, water, power, garbage and waste (any missing?) end up being a lot of data to process.

[DMFan 37]

I'd like to thank Catchin22 for his review. I've played the beta too and found the same flaws he has.

A month from release this game isn't going to change and I don't like what I see. Unfortunately it's a huge disappointment for me.

The idea of modular building is good, but they can't expect to sacrifice an entire game for that. Also, I'm sick of software houses making game for the masses. Simcity is not a game for everyone, they already gave them Societies which is a parody of a city building...

I'm still playing SC4 and I really can't understand how these two games could possibly relate to each other. This "new chapter" is so much different, so much watered down it's silly to even think it could take the place of its predecessor...

I still remember the excitement I felt playing the first Simcity on a friend's Amiga 500. I was so in love with the game I used to draw city maps during school... after so many years we've come to this... it's so sad.

Gaming market has changed too radically and not for the best.

I pre-ordered from Amazon to make sure I got a beta key and I went immediately and canceled the order. They wont charge your card till the order ships so, if you did the same thing, it's not too late. I wonder how many will.

I did. Canceled my pre-order a few minutes ago. They won't see my money.

I really hope many other will do the same, since this is the only way to send a clear message.

[paeng 2,527]

As for building styles, greens, etc. I was personally not expecting Maxis to outdo that. To be fair, I think we've been spoiled a bit

Oh sure - I don't expect that either, that would be highly unreasonable :-)

I'm just tired of people showing us 10 years old vanilla screenshots and claiming that as 'proof' how much better SC13 looks - as if SC4 has not moved and advanced at all in those 10 years.

As for the final 'look' of SC13 - your word in Maxis' ear... I sure hope that it will be possible to add enhanced custom content ;-)

[Lateralus462 12]

The most infuriating thing is how much promise some of the gameplay ideas and glassbox engine has and how completely faulty the implementation is.

The modular structures are an amazing addition, but the service vehicles are so completely dimwitted that it totally ruins the simulation. Garbage trucks going in circles and clumping together. Emergency vehicles stopping at traffic lights, buses neglecting bus stops and constantly circling others. Strange vehicle behavior, poor traffic pathfinding (cars using side streets instead of the more reasonable avenue path), curious/faulty glassbox agent behavior. Watching industrial goods get picked up and delivered to the coal powerplant :wtf

The tiny cities leave little to your imagination and result in just trying to cram everything in, so most people will just abandon all the new curvy road features because theres just no room for them and the wasted zone space they create.

sims perpetually crossing the street back and forth and causing traffic jams, the horrific road tile textures and the awkward intersection tiles.

all of that combined with the numerous other bugs and issues just completely takes you out the simulation. Everything the game is supposed to be about, getting down into your creation and seeing it work just puts the magnifying glass on how unpolished the game is.

[Catchin22 299]

That's the word that comes to mind the most "unpolished"

Lets hope the polish it up by release date.

[Charizard 284]

That's the word that comes to mind the most "unpolished"

Lets hope the polish it up by release date.

They only have barely more than a month to do so. I think the game has probably gone gold by now and they are most likely going to start manufacturing the physical copies soon. Which sucks cause that means 99% of everyone's complaints won't be addressed by the time the game is released. Oh well. I won't buy it unless they address the various criticisms fans have repeatedly raised and/or the game gets down to $20.

[Lateralus462 12]

The whole "Beta" was a ruse anyway, it was little more than a glorified demo to test their servers, which in fact failed quite readily, and a way to try and push pre-order, which I also feel may have failed as well. I suspect many of the fans of the series realized this isnt what they want for 60-80 dollars and killed their pre-order.

[jpsurratt2005 4]

What resolution are you all running?  You can have a good system and crank the settings to ultra, but if your resolution is set low then it's going to look terrible.  Also, what's the deal with roads having grass between the road and sidewalk?  This blocks every driveway path with a strip of grass.  Looks goofy.

 

About the gameplay, well, if they were set on a one hour play limit they should have had everything unlocked.  Locking stuff and a time limit just really keeps us from experiencing enough to justify the purchase.

 

These graphics look really good IMO.  Make sure you select "Original" on the quality settings. 

 

[PrixFixe 25]

Some thoughts on tonight's beta (Beta 3):

 

 

I notice the beta thread is really quiet right now--I think everyone is playing. I'm having a blast, personally. The tuning feels good, although I'm playing in Sandbox mode which starts you with a lot of cash. 

 

I also really like the system of visual cues. Instead of plopping a park and wondering if it really did any good (like in the old days), you see the wave of smiley faces spread outward from the epicenter. 

 

Your Sims still ask you for dumb stuff you don't really need yet (like a gigantic trade HQ for a small population town), as always you have to manage their expectations.

 

If you're used to playing old-school SimCity at moderate zoom levels, don't forget to try zooming all the way in. I keep forgetting how much detail they built into this one. 

 

And if you're struggling with the camera, WASDEQ are your friends.

[aznhomieboi 0]

@ Original Poster, or anyone who is reading this:

 

So I just played, very briefly, the new SimCity closed beta. I am not impressed. The graphics are horrid, but I am guessing it's my computer. I have a AMD Radeon HD 6450a, which I believe is not sufficient for this kind of game? After reading the original poster's review, however, it seems he/she has a high-end PC and still complained about the graphics. 

 

So I am wondering if the graphics are as bad as they are portrayed? From the videos online, though, they look pretty smooth and neat. I don't understand why it doesn't run well on my computer. Thus, I have another question for tech people (I guess I am going off-topic a little...) will an AMD Radeon HD 7770 graphics card be sufficient for this type of game? Will it make it run smoothly?

 

Thanks to all that takes time in reading this. I was looking forward to this game, but had to cancel my preorder due to hardware limitations. 

[lucidus 69]

Bummer.  I was still hoping that maybe, somehow, the new game wouldn't be as bad as it looks.  I even thought about pre-ordering.  Oh well. Guess I'll just play SC4 for ten more years.

[Towel 76]

Bummer.  I was still hoping that maybe, somehow, the new game wouldn't be as bad as it looks.  I even thought about pre-ordering.  Oh well. Guess I'll just play SC4 for ten more years.

 

I honestly don't understand 80% of the complaints. I am really looking forward to this game, sure it isn't perfect, but what is there looks great!

[AIX 270]

@ Original Poster, or anyone who is reading this:

 

So I just played, very briefly, the new SimCity closed beta. I am not impressed. The graphics are horrid, but I am guessing it's my computer. I have a AMD Radeon HD 6450a, which I believe is not sufficient for this kind of game? After reading the original poster's review, however, it seems he/she has a high-end PC and still complained about the graphics. 

 

So I am wondering if the graphics are as bad as they are portrayed? From the videos online, though, they look pretty smooth and neat. I don't understand why it doesn't run well on my computer. Thus, I have another question for tech people (I guess I am going off-topic a little...) will an AMD Radeon HD 7770 graphics card be sufficient for this type of game? Will it make it run smoothly?

 

Thanks to all that takes time in reading this. I was looking forward to this game, but had to cancel my preorder due to hardware limitations. 

On mine, the default graphic settings were all set to LOW. Made some changes and it vastly improved

[lucidus 69]

Bummer.  I was still hoping that maybe, somehow, the new game wouldn't be as bad as it looks.  I even thought about pre-ordering.  Oh well. Guess I'll just play SC4 for ten more years.

 

I honestly don't understand 80% of the complaints. I am really looking forward to this game, sure it isn't perfect, but what is there looks great!

I'm sure you have heard them all already but what made me decide to not buy the game is the small scale.  There is no terraforming, to me much of the fun of simcity is creating my own regions to build on.  The cities are tiny and the player has no control over the regional infrastructure.  Also, airports, I have grown quite fond of building large customized airports.  In one of the screenshots I saw that in the new game there are still the ridiculously tiny, rectangular airports. 

 

I am glad you like it.  I envy you, I wish there was a city simulator about to be released that I could look foward too.

[Indian007 25]

Since I just finished playing 2 games via the Beta (more like demo) and thought I would share my thoughts. I've been a pretty big critic of the game here on the forums. If you've read my posts you would have seen I made comments about how this game feels more catered to younger kids, soccer moms, FB game players and the like. I've also been vocal about city size and other features being lacking. I had a fairly negative outlook on the game to say the least going in.

I've been playing Sims games since the 80s, I'm in my 30s now. I played all of the sim games from Sim Ant to Sim City and have purchased and played every single version of SC ever made like a lot of us here. When Societys came out I got the feeling that the people who were a core part of Sim City in the old days were long gone and the game was dead.

Like many of us I still hoped for a revival of Sim City. Perhaps something where SC4 left off, a newer cleaner version of SC4 with more options than the last and an upgraded visual experience. We've come a long way in technology in the last 10 years, surely a new version of Sim City 4 could be quite an experience on todays hardware.

I was fairly excited to get into the "Beta". Though I might have been a pretty hard critic I really hoped for the best, I hoped this "beta" would change my mind and I could pre order the game post haste. Upon booting up the game the first thing I noticed was that the GUI or Graphical User Interface looked fairly good (intiail view), but not polished. As a Professional Graphic designer I feel it could have been much much better looking. It's not terrble but it's not great. I'm not sure if I would call it good but I wouldn't call it bad, more like acceptable.

While running through the initial tutorial I had a few thoughts like "When will this tutorial end already?" not that it was long and not that I was so eager to play but because I found it slightly annoying. I also thought "these graphics look pretty mundane" I couldn't wait to get into the graphics and up everything to the max which is exactly what I did before starting on my new map. My intial worry was this game was going to be like Sims 3 and during the tutorial all I heard was sims "babble" which did not set well with me.

Once the graphics were upped I thought things were looking better. I still thought the lighting looked pretty bad but I had yet to start building a town. You only get 1 hour which is hardly time to build a town let alone a city.

First, the city size is small. It's as small as I suspected even though many on these forums argued with me. I can plop a main avenue from one side of the city to the next without even remotely scrolling for about $10,000. The map size is small even for a town let alone a city.

To be clear, there is absolutely NO possible way to build a city and have it look like a real city in ANY respect of your imagination. It will look silly to have a map size too small for a town with high rise buildings.

To be honest at this point writing this review I feel like I am wasting my time so I am going to shorten this up without going into a ton of detail with this:

1. The graphics are bad, in some most cases terrible. You should NOT expect them to get better on final release. I guarantee you they wont be upped by much.

2. The town sizes are WAY too small.

3. This is a town simulator not a city simulator first.

4. No terraforming and bad / ugly pre terraformed land.

5. Not so great lighting

6. Lack of detail in modeling

7. Sims 3 babble

8. Graphical slow downs even on a high end system at random times for no apparent reason even though the game looks like it could be ran on a P4 machine from 10 years ago.

9. Jagged edges everywhere, generally bad AA.

10. Crappy enviromental effects (pratically none) For instance you wont see dust floating in the air or anything done to give you a sense of actually being there.

11. Unpolished in so many respects that it would be impossible to fix by release.

12. Feels strange laying out zoning and roads. Often leads to problems getting the right fix without destroying something.

13. So awkward to play.

14. Depressing to play, yes depressing! Mostly because how bad the models and lighting looks. Bad models under what feels like some sort of winter artificial light...

15. Mutiple little things that are annoying, such as the screen shaking when planting trees.. completely not needed!

16. Laying zones out is total guess work. No idea on how large zones should be between roads results in dead space, something you dont want in a lot this small! This is VERY annoying.

17. Business signage throughout the game looks bland and very uninspired. Hire a better graphics designer NOW and put them on full time fixing up graphics and making LOGOS! Make the city POP!

18. Lawns look bad, not just on low income homes but middle class homes as well.

19. Dirt roads have sharp cut off edges like paved / concrete roads.

Playing this game no matter how hard I tried was not a joy. Not once did it bring a smile to my face. The only people who will enjoy this game are kids aged 8-15. People who grew up not experiencing SC4 who have nothing good to compare it with and lack the maturity or perfectionism you get with age. That's not to say that I feel many in that age range would even enjoy it, it's flat out bad.

I had no desire to keep playing past the 1 hour mark. I'm glad it stopped. I hate to say it, I really do, I wanted nothing more than to be totally wrong, to be surprised, to pre order the game.

The game looks bad, the game play is bad, the graphics are bad... bad bad bad.

If I were forced to say anything good about this game I would say that their ideas with having sims go to work / home and being able to follow them was a good one but their focus on that aspect of the game ruined everything else. It is "okay" (not terribly exciting) to watch cars go back and forth.

This is not a new Sim City to me, this more like... Sims 3 City, and done poorly at that.

If you are a Designer, an Architect, an Engineer, a lover of all previous Sim City games and over the age of 15 you will very unlikely enjoy this game.

If I had to pick a price point at which I would purchase this game it would ABSOLUTELY NOT BE $60! I would pay $7-$10. I'm not kidding and I would have reservations about paying that much.

I highly recommend you do NOT pre order this game, if you have, get a refund!. On top of all these issues and the game being bad you are paying $60 and being treated like a pirate. Terrible. These guys should be ashamed of what they have made and how bad they have taken for granted the community that supported them for so long. As much as I disliked what I saw before playing the Beta I feel duped, the game is much worse than I expected in every aspect. I feel they took the best they could in screen shots and video and enhanced them to fool the customer.

so True, I will still play the game. They took out so many things out of the original SimCity game, it seems like a highway robbery. And the maps are for real too small. I placed a avenue with tram in it and it took up about half of the map, and was trying to figure out how to place industrial and other zones to gain population and to increase my money flow.

[Indian007 25]

Come on Maxis, the maps are way too small, they have to fix that and fix it very soon. 80 bucks dudes, and that's what we get. I plopped one landmark, it was a stadium, it took up about a quarter of the map, how are we going to plop anything else, on such a small map. Even tram avenues take up the entire map. And yes, your graphics are terrible, I've played SimCity 4 and the firemen they were holding the hose in their hands, In this SimCity I see the water coming from their feet and not a hose, Take a look at cities in motion 2 guys, maybe you can learn something from it. I'm no graphic designer, or game maker, but dude, I'm pretty sure you could have found people on this website to pay to do a much better job. Look at what they did to SimCity 4 all the mods RHW, NWM, new buildings Turning lanes. Why didn't you listen to them, this is not a kiddies game, but I guess that's what it is now. Maxis, big disappointment, please make my maps bigger, make a patch like immediately and fix the graphics too, oh and by the way, I don't want to pay 80 dollars for a game I can't play if I don't have an internet connection.

  Edited February 28, 2013 by CaptCity  
Edited language... See the rules.

[City Planner 121]

The graphics on Ultra completely destroy SC4, btw. The game engine that includes the lighting, tilt-shift, and all the detail that is included at ground-level makes SC4's sprites look exactly what they are... decade-old graphics.

SimCity pre-release

Very interesting.  Not sure then what happened to my beta copy as I had it all set to the highest settings that were possible but my beta game looked absolutely nothing like the screen shot you are showing.  Very strange.

Hell, I've been watching a ton of beta videos this morning and none of them look like that screen shot either, at least none that I've watched thus far, maybe eventually I'll find some that do and in fairness I don't know what settings the videographers were using on their beta games, no way to tell, but even the style looks different in that screenshot than what I remember in my beta experience as well with what I'm seeing in these beta videos on youtube too.

And yes as others have said... The city tile size is FAR too small, I was watching one of the dev videos and it was just pathetic how small the city tiles are. As others have said, this is no simCITY, it is SimTOWN at best right now. Perhaps that will change in the future through an expansion or DLC,

But as I've now learned, "buy what you see is in the game now, NOT what you hope it will have in the future".

[rawls 39]

@ Original Poster, or anyone who is reading this:

 

So I just played, very briefly, the new SimCity closed beta. I am not impressed. The graphics are horrid, but I am guessing it's my computer. I have a AMD Radeon HD 6450a, which I believe is not sufficient for this kind of game? After reading the original poster's review, however, it seems he/she has a high-end PC and still complained about the graphics. 

 

So I am wondering if the graphics are as bad as they are portrayed? From the videos online, though, they look pretty smooth and neat. I don't understand why it doesn't run well on my computer. Thus, I have another question for tech people (I guess I am going off-topic a little...) will an AMD Radeon HD 7770 graphics card be sufficient for this type of game? Will it make it run smoothly?

 

Thanks to all that takes time in reading this. I was looking forward to this game, but had to cancel my preorder due to hardware limitations.

You need at least a HD 2x00 and they recommend a HD 5850. If I recall that correctly a HD 6850 is nearly as fast as the HD 5850, which means your HD 6450 is slower than what they recommend (while being above the minimum requirements) and probably a low end card of the 6xxx series. Sp try changing the settings a bit, but don't expect too much.

I can't say anything about the HD 7770, but just take the HD5850/6850 as a reference point when you look for tests/ prices of the HD 7770.

[aznhomieboi 0]

@ Original Poster, or anyone who is reading this:

 

So I just played, very briefly, the new SimCity closed beta. I am not impressed. The graphics are horrid, but I am guessing it's my computer. I have a AMD Radeon HD 6450a, which I believe is not sufficient for this kind of game? After reading the original poster's review, however, it seems he/she has a high-end PC and still complained about the graphics. 

 

So I am wondering if the graphics are as bad as they are portrayed? From the videos online, though, they look pretty smooth and neat. I don't understand why it doesn't run well on my computer. Thus, I have another question for tech people (I guess I am going off-topic a little...) will an AMD Radeon HD 7770 graphics card be sufficient for this type of game? Will it make it run smoothly?

 

Thanks to all that takes time in reading this. I was looking forward to this game, but had to cancel my preorder due to hardware limitations.

You need at least a HD 2x00 and they recommend a HD 5850. If I recall that correctly a HD 6850 is nearly as fast as the HD 5850, which means your HD 6450 is slower than what they recommend (while being above the minimum requirements) and probably a low end card of the 6xxx series. Sp try changing the settings a bit, but don't expect too much.

I can't say anything about the HD 7770, but just take the HD5850/6850 as a reference point when you look for tests/ prices of the HD 7770.

 

Thanks. Wait...so I guess I am very bad when it comes to graphics cards. When they say at least 2x00...isn't that just 2x00 and up? Wouldn't 6x00 (ie 6450) be better than 5x00 (ie 5850)? Or is it totally not related at all. I'm sorry for stupid question, I do not know anything about this hardware stuff.

 

So HD 5850 >> HD 7770 ? HD 7770's price is around $130... 

 

Thanks!

[nafeasonto 18]

 

@ Original Poster, or anyone who is reading this:

 

So I just played, very briefly, the new SimCity closed beta. I am not impressed. The graphics are horrid, but I am guessing it's my computer. I have a AMD Radeon HD 6450a, which I believe is not sufficient for this kind of game? After reading the original poster's review, however, it seems he/she has a high-end PC and still complained about the graphics. 

 

So I am wondering if the graphics are as bad as they are portrayed? From the videos online, though, they look pretty smooth and neat. I don't understand why it doesn't run well on my computer. Thus, I have another question for tech people (I guess I am going off-topic a little...) will an AMD Radeon HD 7770 graphics card be sufficient for this type of game? Will it make it run smoothly?

 

Thanks to all that takes time in reading this. I was looking forward to this game, but had to cancel my preorder due to hardware limitations.

You need at least a HD 2x00 and they recommend a HD 5850. If I recall that correctly a HD 6850 is nearly as fast as the HD 5850, which means your HD 6450 is slower than what they recommend (while being above the minimum requirements) and probably a low end card of the 6xxx series. Sp try changing the settings a bit, but don't expect too much.

I can't say anything about the HD 7770, but just take the HD5850/6850 as a reference point when you look for tests/ prices of the HD 7770.

 

Thanks. Wait...so I guess I am very bad when it comes to graphics cards. When they say at least 2x00...isn't that just 2x00 and up? Wouldn't 6x00 (ie 6450) be better than 5x00 (ie 5850)? Or is it totally not related at all. I'm sorry for stupid question, I do not know anything about this hardware stuff.

 

So HD 5850 >> HD 7770 ? HD 7770's price is around $130... 

 

Thanks!

 

Radeon is really weird when it comes to there classes of video cards.  I have been  building computers for a long time, and I always have to research on what ATI card is better then what.  It's like trying to find your way through a maze.  Google it.

[rawls 39]

 

@ Original Poster, or anyone who is reading this:

 

So I just played, very briefly, the new SimCity closed beta. I am not impressed. The graphics are horrid, but I am guessing it's my computer. I have a AMD Radeon HD 6450a, which I believe is not sufficient for this kind of game? After reading the original poster's review, however, it seems he/she has a high-end PC and still complained about the graphics. 

 

So I am wondering if the graphics are as bad as they are portrayed? From the videos online, though, they look pretty smooth and neat. I don't understand why it doesn't run well on my computer. Thus, I have another question for tech people (I guess I am going off-topic a little...) will an AMD Radeon HD 7770 graphics card be sufficient for this type of game? Will it make it run smoothly?

 

Thanks to all that takes time in reading this. I was looking forward to this game, but had to cancel my preorder due to hardware limitations.

You need at least a HD 2x00 and they recommend a HD 5850. If I recall that correctly a HD 6850 is nearly as fast as the HD 5850, which means your HD 6450 is slower than what they recommend (while being above the minimum requirements) and probably a low end card of the 6xxx series. Sp try changing the settings a bit, but don't expect too much.

I can't say anything about the HD 7770, but just take the HD5850/6850 as a reference point when you look for tests/ prices of the HD 7770.

 

 

Thanks. Wait...so I guess I am very bad when it comes to graphics cards. When they say at least 2x00...isn't that just 2x00 and up? Wouldn't 6x00 (ie 6450) be better than 5x00 (ie 5850)? Or is it totally not related at all. I'm sorry for stupid question, I do not know anything about this hardware stuff.

 

So HD 5850 >> HD 7770 ? HD 7770's price is around $130... 

 

Thanks!

"At least 2x00" means that any newer card will work with the game, yes. But it doesn't mean that a 6450 is faster than a 5850. The first number stands for the generation, but doesn't give you an indicator of performance (side note: newer graphics cards tend to be more energy efficient than older ones and there might be other notable improvements). the rest indicates the model, where you can apply the rule of thumb: higher number = more performance. But it doesn't necessarily mean that you can apply this rule between different generations.

Compared to your old card you will be better off with a a HD 7770, but I can't say on which detail you will be able to run it since I don't own this card. (I've got a HD 6850 and everything ran very smooth.)

Here is an article with some benchmarks. It's in German, but the charts should be understandable whether you are able to read German or not. If you hover over a specific graphic card it changes from frames per second to a relative comparison in percent.

[Arangarx 20]

I loved my time with the beta/stress tests.  By the second beta it ran much smoother and it looked great.  

 

Are the cities small? Sure.  Is it going to hinder my fun.  Nope.  

 

SimCity is going to be a great game.  Are many people on simtropolis going to continue to cry about everything in this game? Yes.  Will the other 99% of us be playing and enjoying the game, yep.  This is of course when their servers aren't slammed and down, lol.  I'll be surprised if day one is very playable.

[aznhomieboi 0]

 

 

@ Original Poster, or anyone who is reading this:

 

So I just played, very briefly, the new SimCity closed beta. I am not impressed. The graphics are horrid, but I am guessing it's my computer. I have a AMD Radeon HD 6450a, which I believe is not sufficient for this kind of game? After reading the original poster's review, however, it seems he/she has a high-end PC and still complained about the graphics. 

 

So I am wondering if the graphics are as bad as they are portrayed? From the videos online, though, they look pretty smooth and neat. I don't understand why it doesn't run well on my computer. Thus, I have another question for tech people (I guess I am going off-topic a little...) will an AMD Radeon HD 7770 graphics card be sufficient for this type of game? Will it make it run smoothly?

 

Thanks to all that takes time in reading this. I was looking forward to this game, but had to cancel my preorder due to hardware limitations.

You need at least a HD 2x00 and they recommend a HD 5850. If I recall that correctly a HD 6850 is nearly as fast as the HD 5850, which means your HD 6450 is slower than what they recommend (while being above the minimum requirements) and probably a low end card of the 6xxx series. Sp try changing the settings a bit, but don't expect too much.

I can't say anything about the HD 7770, but just take the HD5850/6850 as a reference point when you look for tests/ prices of the HD 7770.

 

 

Thanks. Wait...so I guess I am very bad when it comes to graphics cards. When they say at least 2x00...isn't that just 2x00 and up? Wouldn't 6x00 (ie 6450) be better than 5x00 (ie 5850)? Or is it totally not related at all. I'm sorry for stupid question, I do not know anything about this hardware stuff.

 

So HD 5850 >> HD 7770 ? HD 7770's price is around $130... 

 

Thanks!

"At least 2x00" means that any newer card will work with the game, yes. But it doesn't mean that a 6450 is faster than a 5850. The first number stands for the generation, but doesn't give you an indicator of performance (side note: newer graphics cards tend to be more energy efficient than older ones and there might be other notable improvements). the rest indicates the model, where you can apply the rule of thumb: higher number = more performance. But it doesn't necessarily mean that you can apply this rule between different generations.

Compared to your old card you will be better off with a a HD 7770, but I can't say on which detail you will be able to run it since I don't own this card. (I've got a HD 6850 and everything ran very smooth.)

Here is an article with some benchmarks. It's in German, but the charts should be understandable whether you are able to read German or not. If you hover over a specific graphic card it changes from frames per second to a relative comparison in percent.

 

Thank you so much! I understand better now . Unfortunately, my computer isn't designed to be very compatible with upgrading my video card. It uses a MXM 3.0 (not the same as the desktop PCs) version...which I was told by another person in the other forum. I couldn't find a video card online with that specification for compatibility with my computer.

 

Hopefully I will get the chance to play this game in the future. Thanks again!

[Aeval 0]

I was shocked by how small the building area was.  I had assumed that was just because it was a demo (too late for a beta). That can't be the regular size...can it?

 

Loved the modular buildings. Not so sure about the UI, I could never seem to find the info I wanted.

 

Generally, I was OK with the game, or will be when a few simple things are adjusted (or I figure out how to use them)  Most importantly, the day/night cycle needs to be optional.  I couldn't see a darn thing half the time.

 

It's certainly not the in-depth management tool that SC4 was, but I'm fine with that.  I never had any use for endless plumbing and the massive micro-management that 4 required. I want to play, not work!

 

This iteration looks to be about my speed, 

 

 

[TheeLord 42]

Thanks! pretty much all my suspicions after researching the game etc...  Seems like a dumbed down simcity.  I was going to pre-order, but will not be now.  Heartbreaking really..  =(

[john84 0]

Some of these posts are so negative that if you pre-ordered you felt compelled to cancel and if you were thinking of buying you did not want to anymore. In fact some people (not necessarily on simtropolis) were advocating to pre-order and then cancel just before release as a way of voicing their disapproval or exacting punishment. The fact of the matter is the game like all games is not going to please everybody but the only question is, will it please YOU? I'm a firm believer that the truth often lies in the middle not at the extremes, we should therefore take peoples opinions including my own with a grain of salt and if you have any doubts then just wait a few days or a week and then make an informed decision once everybody has had a chance weigh in. The formal reviews are starting to trickle in and SimCity looks a lot more favorable than the beta assessments, again don't be swayed by overly positive or negative reviews, aim for the consensus and I'm sure you will be happy with YOUR decision.

[LillySatou 117]

Well i'm amazed that anyone was pleased by the "betas" that Maxis put on.. download a 10GB gimped game you can play for less than a day. But i'd think twice before trusting a lot of the major review sites. A lot of them are the same sites that gave perfect scores to games like Mass Effect 3 and Diablo III. We all know those games were not as great as they were played up to be. It's all about marketing and hype. Try to get you to buy on that oh so exciting launch day. Don't let them lure you.

[logintime 93]

Well i'm amazed that anyone was pleased by the "betas" that Maxis put on.. download a 10GB gimped game you can play for less than a day. But i'd think twice before trusting a lot of the major review sites. A lot of them are the same sites that gave perfect scores to games like Mass Effect 3 and Diablo III. We all know those games were not as great as they were played up to be. It's all about marketing and hype. Try to get you to buy on that oh so exciting launch day. Don't let them lure you.

 

 

Fully agree. In many ways, this is reminding me of the launch for Civilization V. For the record, I love Civ4 and have played it for years. When I read about Civ5 coming out and making big changes to the game- hexagons instead of squares!- I got excited. Really excited. As in, I planned on buying it the day of release.

Then news started dripping out that certain basic features of previous titles wouldn't be there. Okay, whatever.

Then came some questionable comments by the designers. Still excited...

Then came negative feedback from beta testers. I got worried.

But then came glowing review after glowing review, each of them extolling the virtues of Civ5 and how it was a massive step forward. I got excited again.

 

On the day of release, I bought the game and immediately loaded it up. Not two hours in, I realized I'd made a terrible mistake. The beta tester complaints were more than right- the game was a broken mess. Worse, the reviews weren't simply wrong.They'd outright lied at several points. As in, there was no room for interpretation. The game was in jaw-droppingly terrible state, but it had managed to get a score of 90 on metacritic. The sole really negative review came from Tom Chick, who was the only one to correctly point out that the gameplay was shallow and diplomacy was broken. No one else did. 

 

So yeah, I'm reading these first six gushing reviews for Simcity, reading the seriously critical input from beta testers, and that one very honest review from arstechnica... it's hard not to feel like this is Civ5 all over again. I'm seeing all the same red flags.