Just Played Beta

[Siigari 10]

This game is missing so much stuff.

Sliders.

Graphs.

Histograms.

HIGHWAYS.

The worst part is I wanted to see what building on a slope was going to be like. Nope, not getting to check that out. :/

Despite the advances in some areas (moddable buildings and ploppable school bus stops on roads) the game is so shallow that it doesn't allow the new additions to redeem itself. Also I think it's so easy to make money in the game because they don't allow you to throttle back any of the services. You pay full price for everything, all the time. The budget window is a complete joke from what I saw unless you install 50 billion upgrades to your City Town Hall and everything was extremely expensive up front. Build. Profit. Wait.

I played it for three hours and felt accomplished, sure, but not SATISFIED from the simulation. Grr.

[macvirt 361]

I would say that I found it thoroughly enjoyable, and quite challenging actually. Only time will tell if the challenge holds up, but this new SimCity so far seems to be deeper and more engaging than SC4 (especially in the trailer park/small town phase). What it has lost in breadth, it makes up for in depth.

The other way around more likely. It's got a wider perspective, but has lost depth. Both in features and in content. But as mentioned before, that is why DLC was invented. To buy the full game

But honestly, you find it challenging?

[MPleines 17]

So I needed a bus. Turns out I need not worry about traffic or analysis or anything. Just turn that on, and bus stops are automagically placed.

*facepalm*

I have no problems with that. The city grants a concession to a bus company. The bus company analizes traffic and designs the routes and schedules...it's not a public transport tycoon game...the only issue might be...is the in-game analysis any good?

[Techleo 18]

The good thing is, by hearing this feedback they can tweak how easy the game is. Especially in the higher end of the game when we have huge demands. In quite a few places the devs said the initial stages of getting a city going was very simple and easy. After awhile the needs just become greater and greater. Anywho, still testing it out. Ill give a real shakedown tomorrow though since Im exhausted!

[Trioxis 32]

In my opinion the game is simpler in some aspects and more complex in others. I really like the fact you no longer have to carpet your city with services anymore. Not enough police coverage? Just add a few patrol cars. Not enough jail cells? Go ahead, add some more. Having those modular buildings really adds a sense of progression to the overall game. Do note that the cost/hr of services increases when you add modules to them. I would also like to note that you can only add a fixed number of modules to services, so you'll have to make some choices as to what you need for that particular service. You can bulldoze/remove the modules and replace them with others if necessary.

Making money has pretty much become a non-issue, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Although having only one hour to play around with a city it's really hard to determine if it gets harder to make money later on in the game.

The data layers are pretty awesome as well, giving clear and detailed information about stuff that's going on in your city.

It's really hard to tell if the game is going to be as interesting and easy to play once you've build a larger city, but it has certainly left me wanting more.

[ETK 14]

I don't understand the complaints about how easy it is to make money.

Most of us use the money cheats to keep our cities flush with cash until they turn a huge profit.

I seriously doubt most here cheat in the game.

I'm glad I found this forum. Got reassurance that it wasn't just me feeling disappointed when playing the demo. I could build the city with my eyes closed and still make a profit. By the end of the demo I had something like +7k/hr profits and had upgraded the city hall I think 3 times. I couldn't build fast enough to keep up with the profits I was making.

A lot of the core systems are interesting, but it is way too easy and simple to build your city up. Only hope is that it's indeed true that the endgame gets a lot harder. I'm really hoping traffic jams, pollution and demands from rich citizens start to matter later on.

Still probably going to buy the game.

[macvirt 361]

So I needed a bus. Turns out I need not worry about traffic or analysis or anything. Just turn that on, and bus stops are automagically placed.

*facepalm*

I have no problems with that. The city grants a concession to a bus company. The bus company analizes traffic and designs the routes and schedules...it's not a public transport tycoon game...the only issue might be...is the in-game analysis any good?

No, it is utterly lacking in depth and insight.

But really, this is presented as a city building simulator. How hard is it to consider that people want to replicate the experience of that to the detail level for the immersion of their chosing. When I first found out they had gotten rid of the "pesky" underground stuff I was a bit peeved, but even busses? Come on. This sort of SimSocieties level of cutting out such elements is starting to remind me of the drama of Firaxis cutting out core components like religion and such from Civ V

Don't get me wrong, there are masses of people who like it this way, a more passive amusement focused way. That is fine. It's just not for me. In these days of grand speeches of how PC gaming is not dead I would have expected them to not take the easy way out and made a complete game - but yeah, I know, in our industry it is not longer about the game. It is about the revenue streams after giving out an expensive shell of a game

[Hoipus 292]

I have no idea what you folks are talking about. Did it really place bus stops automatically for you? I seemed to do it all myself. Did you have to press a button or something?

[flyer2359 92]

I really hope they make it more challenging though, making money is beyond easy. Heck, I built up 2 clinics, 3 police stations and 2 fire stations are their maximum and was still making more than $5k profit with a population of only 8K.

I seriously do like the direction they're going in though. Just a few things need to be changed, which is difficulty and the city size. Then the data layers are really nice to look at as well and really tell you what's going on.

[Dirktator 2,320]

I just played the new game for an hour. I would be more than happy to share my opinions on this forum as soon as a mod can confirm I am legally allowed to...

Feedback discussion is permitted and encouraged as part of the beta. However, you are discouraged to post screenshots and videos.

[Gurning_Chimp 398]

I have just finished on the Sim City beta and all I can say is it is bloody awful!

The graphics are choppy at best, the gameplay is absolutely no fun at all, I garnered no satisfaction from my work, the tutorials are too hand-holdy, I want to kill the annoying sims with their horrible language and although there are some nice ideas at play, the ball has been dropped.

To add insult to injury, the game crashed to desktop as I was laying out an industrial zone for seemingly no reason.

I seriously suggest renaming this 'Baby's First Sim City' then get to making a Sim City FOR THE FANS THAT GOT THIS FRANCHISE TO WHERE IT IS TODAY. I'm really sorry Maxis, this isn't your fault, rather it is the uninspired drones at EA that should be held accountable for this tripe.

Stop trying to appeal to casual gamers with Sim City, that's what 'The Sims' line of games are for are for.

Everyone, stick with SC4. It's a better realised game that treats you like an adult as well as giving you the freedom of creativity that this just doesn't. This is a complete step back.

[ItsShane 18]

Am I missing something with those graphics? I had everything maxed out, yet when I zoomed into buildings they were sometimes blurry. The sims, especially, were blurry when I zoomed in far.

[Hoipus 292]

Probably the tilt shift effect. Try switching the setting to "Less" in the settings.

[mk11232 105]

This is going to age me a bit but I remember Lord of the Realms 3 and the fiasco that game turned into. Originally priced to be $49.99 (which was the high end of games at that time, equal to $60-80 bucks today) everyone was super excited because LotR2 was awesome (still is). Then the demo came out and less than a week after people got their hands on it, pre-release, there was a press release and the game came out as a $14.99 throw-away bin disaster. I still bought the game knowing it was going to be utter crap and it wasn't worth $4 bucks and destroyed the series, but at least the publisher was honest once they received player feedback about the game and priced it accordingly.

This smacks of the same issues as LotR3 except I don't see EA dropping the price to reflect the actual quality of the game and the end result will be much bad press, hurt feelings, and the death knell of the series as who will trust them after this?

[pcwhiz24 1,185]

Not gonna lie, loved the beta, and the graphics are beautiful. All I could think of after the 1 hour was: "I want more!"

But, there are 2 things that bother me about this game (a lot)

1. TILES ARE TOO SMALL. We need the option of larger tiles like SC4 (4x4KM). I filled the entire tile in like 30 Minutes, and they wanted more industries, but there wasn't room left Really hope they're bigger after release.

2. No streetview (like CXL). You can't zoom all the way to the sidewalk and walk around, true streetview.

I still loved this regardless, but those 2 issues above are really annoying (well, the 1st one for sure, don't really care too much about the 2nd one).

[The_City_Builder 299]

My opinion of the game is that it's awesome! I really love how easy it is to manage city services now, although I think they need to tweak the healthcare part of it, because If I place 5 clinics and add modules to them, people still complain that they are sick, even once they are treated.

The graphics need some work, and the engine still needs optimizing. The graphics get sometimes fuzzy even with tilt-shift off, and night time looks pretty bland. Region view is meh; not much to look at since it's a solo region.

The sounds are amazing! If you zoom into your city you can hear everything, from gunshots, to sirens, to people talking, and I swear EACH car has it's own sound effects from driving, which is cool if you ask me.

The detail they've put into the game is breathtakingly stunning. You can see electric garage doors opening, sims riding bikes, Solar Panels on roofs if you have an educated city, and the best part of it all is that no sim is the same to another. You don't really see repeated animations all that much besides construction and stuff. Plus, it's fun watching the water data map when it rains, because you can watch as the ground soaks in the water. Another detail aspect is how office lights at night flicker on and off as people leave or go home.

City Size; pretty small. I wanted to build a lot more but I was restricted considerably. I maxed out the city tile at about 17,000 people, and half of the city was medium-density apartments/townhouses. If you take in the new scale of buildings, the map is the equivalent of a small city tile in SC4.

The color filters are pretty fun too, but some of them lag the game I notice.

Overall I'm definitley buying it, but I really hope they add larger city tiles in the future. I hope they don't charge for them though, since the supposed reasoning for small tiles is because of how the engine needs optimizing.

[snwboardn 18]

So I needed a bus. Turns out I need not worry about traffic or analysis or anything. Just turn that on, and bus stops are automagically placed.

*facepalm*

I have no problems with that. The city grants a concession to a bus company. The bus company analizes traffic and designs the routes and schedules...it's not a public transport tycoon game...the only issue might be...is the in-game analysis any good?

How did you do that? I had to put the bus stop signs down myself

For me it isn't so much that the tiles are too small, they are small, but more of the fact that you really have to pay attention to your roads, and there is no easy way to tell if you are putting your road in the best possible spot... curved roads are nice but they waste the most space of all, and unfortunately space is not a luxury we have in this game.

[Asturas 0]

My impression? Before playing BETA/Demo I wanted it. After playing I don't want it.

It is smaller than any SimCity before, uglier than SimCity 3000 and 4, easier and less complex even than SimCity 1.

It should be free Facebook game not something for ~60 euros/dollars. Thanks but no thanks.

Unless they change like... mmm... everything before premiere, I stay with SimCity 4.

The only good think is possibility of playing with friends and real cooperation with cities in region. But then again, regions are small. I think that smaller than the biggest cities in SimCity 4.

I am so disappointed

[efgrib 45]

it was enjoyable, but some things i dont like... the game is much too easy, tile size makes they curvy roads pretty useless, and why the hell are parks to bind on roads with the small size?

[Hoipus 292]

*snip* and the death knell of the series as who will trust them after this?

I honestly can't believe people are still trusting them after Spore.

The audience they ended up chasing after with spore, and possibly this simcity, likely wouldn't care as much or not notice the missing features. I feel terrible that I can't word that more politely.

[hellmunkey 30]

I liked

-Modular buildings

-not needing 9 million schools/clinics

-gameplay/map transistions. Things were smooth and snappy when chaning maps, but that might change with a larger city.

Not liked

-Really small city size. I really hope that there is a bigger plot available

-Limited mass transit. I didnt even see trains/rails, just the tram in an avenue setup, but I might have missed rail.

-Too easy. I had almost 20k population after my 3rd hour and was making 10k/hour. I would probably have been at 30k pop and 15k/.hour plus, but I had a bugged intersection that broke traffic for the entire city and didnt fix it for 15 minutes.

-Not thrilled with building textures. They are a bit too cartoony. It help bumping up the graphics to max, but they were still lacking. Its not game breaking and the medium density stuff did look a bit better, so Ill reserve full judjement here til I sell high density stuff.

[anandus 15]

I've played seven one-hour games now, and I must say, despite a few bad points (especially the always-on requirement) I quite like the game.

Although must be said that without region, one can't really have the 'city-feel' just yet, one map is more like a village or a city-district.

But having said that, there are some really nice features, I love the modulair aspect of buildings, to tinker around is really great. I also really like the glassbox-engine itself, the way utilities and services are distributed and I like the city-specialization-aspect, it was nice to build a mini-Vegas.

Before the beta I was a bit worried that I wouldn't get a proper 'Simcity-feeling' (havind played all other Simcity's and having put hundreds of hours in SC4) and even though it isn't a SC4 yet, it definitely has a lot of potential and I like the fact that, I think, it comes more packed with buildings and stuff than SC4 (but I'm not sure, can't remember how SC4-vanilla was), so that's a good thing. I like content.

After playing the beta I was reassured, so I pre-ordered it.

One thing I really miss, though, is the lack of W2W, but that's inherent to Simcity, it's a very Americanocentric game.

And the always-online requirement really sucks.

[Techleo 18]

Well I don't have time to really summarize what I feel about the game. I'll have to review it later. However I am very much enjoying the game.

My biggest city was around 8,000 people. A comfy beachtown which reminded me of Lorn in Australia. Anyways, I will review the game in further detail once I get some time.

[TommyWebster 7]

I've just finished playing my first hour and loved it, I have a feeling that the depth of the game is going to far outway any negatives such as small tiles and im for one really eager to get my hands on the full version and build a london theme set!! The server downtime today has worried me a bit but im hoping that is a big lesson learned!

(I havent said anything here that isnt already in the public domain so fingers crossed I wont get a letter through the door! haha)

[hellmunkey 30]

I've just finished playing my first hour and loved it, I have a feeling that the depth of the game is going to far outway any negatives such as small tiles and im for one really eager to get my hands on the full version and build a london theme set!! The server downtime today has worried me a bit but im hoping that is a big lesson learned!

(I havent said anything here that isnt already in the public domain so fingers crossed I wont get a letter through the door! haha)

How much depth can there be with such smile tiles? I almost maxed out developement in my 3rd try and I want even trying that hard. Its fun, but I dont see myself spending dozens of hours working on citys this small. I really hope there are larger tiles.

[London-b 90]

Funny thing is that they wanted the glassbox for "depth" and have used that to excuse the small tiles, as in the visual aspect of building a big city doesn't matter if you have such "depth" apparently, yet they introduced curvy roads that are useless beyond aesthetics and would be more useful in bigger maps!

[guitarmatt99 27]

I have just finished on the Sim City beta and all I can say is it is bloody awful!

The graphics are choppy at best, the gameplay is absolutely no fun at all, I garnered no satisfaction from my work, the tutorials are too hand-holdy, I want to kill the annoying sims with their horrible language and although there are some nice ideas at play, the ball has been dropped.

To add insult to injury, the game crashed to desktop as I was laying out an industrial zone for seemingly no reason.

I seriously suggest renaming this 'Baby's First Sim City' then get to making a Sim City FOR THE FANS THAT GOT THIS FRANCHISE TO WHERE IT IS TODAY. I'm really sorry Maxis, this isn't your fault, rather it is the uninspired drones at EA that should be held accountable for this tripe.

Stop trying to appeal to casual gamers with Sim City, that's what 'The Sims' line of games are for are for.

Everyone, stick with SC4. It's a better realised game that treats you like an adult as well as giving you the freedom of creativity that this just doesn't. This is a complete step back.

Remember it's still a beta. Yet again it's released in a month.

[Azurespecter 506]

I sure hope there are more buildings in the full version. Counting in the "locked" buildings from the beta, there were still way too few.

[flyer2359 92]

I think you all have to remember how much stuff wasn't there in the vanilla versions of the other SimCity games too. I think there's quite a decent selection of buildings for the vanilla version of the game. We've all gotten so used to SimCity 4 with hundreds of mods at our disposal and I think a lot of us how forgotten just how empty the vanilla version of it was.

[strokesboy21 11]

i loved the beta i approached it without thinking it was an update to simcity 4 and i got to admit i found it more enjoyable to watch little things like the cars not dissapearing halfway down the road or people vanishing into thin air like simcity 4 i got to admit i had my doubts about this game but to be honest the beta has made my mind up that im willing to part with my cash for this game