Who would have thought...

[eburress 267]

...that CitiesXL would have gotten a city building game right and Maxis would have gotten it this terribly wrong?  After playing the game for the last day (when I was able to get in, between crashes, etc), that's the conclusion I've come to.  CitiesXL, so far at least, is the superior game.  Simcity might look a little better, but what's the point when the bare minimum of functionality...you know, BUILDING A CITY...isn't even possible?  What a letdown.  

[Vihzel 9]

It'll be much better once the launch issues and initial bugs are sorted out.

[eburress 267]

It'll be much better once the launch issues and initial bugs are sorted out.

 

True, but even then we still won't be able to make an actual city...just tiny unrealistic villages.  It seems like CitiesXL was listening to their audience, whereas Maxis was determined to do what they wanted to do, regardless of the opinions of their audience.

[mastorofpuppetz 199]

It'll be much better once the launch issues and initial bugs are sorted out.

Barely small size, limited control over regions and transportation mean it is way too limiting.

[beyurslf 5]

It'll be much better once the launch issues and initial bugs are sorted out.

 

True, but even then we still won't be able to make an actual city...just tiny unrealistic villages.  It seems like CitiesXL was listening to their audience, whereas Maxis was determined to do what they wanted to do, regardless of the opinions of their audience.

 

they feel like neighborhoods to me or city sections.  if I could fill the in between areas, I would be okay with it.  In fact, the small size could act as a way to manage distinct areas then.  but, for now, it is sim neighborhood to me. 

[Vihzel 9]

It'll be much better once the launch issues and initial bugs are sorted out.

 

True, but even then we still won't be able to make an actual city...just tiny unrealistic villages.  It seems like CitiesXL was listening to their audience, whereas Maxis was determined to do what they wanted to do, regardless of the opinions of their audience.

 

Why did you buy the game in the first place? Did you have no idea how big the lots were? 

[Nique 291]

They should change the dialog buttons:

 

[mastorofpuppetz 199]

 

It'll be much better once the launch issues and initial bugs are sorted out.

 

True, but even then we still won't be able to make an actual city...just tiny unrealistic villages.  It seems like CitiesXL was listening to their audience, whereas Maxis was determined to do what they wanted to do, regardless of the opinions of their audience.

 

Why did you buy the game in the first place? Did you have no idea how big the lots were? 

They said same as medium tiles in SC4, that was a lie they are even smaller, and with all the empty space and zoning in this one its even worse again.  So know they were not truthfull.

[Ellusion 2]

I've played CitiesXL. That game is terrible, but we all have our own opinions.

 

All people have done since SimCity came out is complain.

 

Its the same crap spewing out over and over again.

 

"City Size, Servers, Blah Blah Blah". If you don't like the game, don't play it. Its actually THAT SIMPLE.

[beyurslf 5]

I've played CitiesXL. That game is terrible, but we all have our own opinions.

 

All people have done since SimCity came out is complain.

 

Its the same crap spewing out over and over again.

 

"City Size, Servers, Blah Blah Blah". If you don't like the game, don't play it. Its actually THAT SIMPLE.

 

 

it isn't that simple if you have already bought the game and literally CANNOT play it. I have not had more than 3 hours total and probably the most at once without crashing was 45 mins. I can't play at all right now. 

[cirugo 1,889]

Well, actually Monte Cristo didn't listen either...they went off the rails with their multiplayer city-building MMO nonsense....leaving the game pretty flawed when they went belly up.  I do agree, however, that with much of what the modders have been able to do with Cities XL, people who enjoy the kind of city-building that many of the members of this site enjoyed with SimCity 4 will find more to like in Cities XL than the new SimCity.

[simmerboy 19]

 

 

It'll be much better once the launch issues and initial bugs are sorted out.

 

True, but even then we still won't be able to make an actual city...just tiny unrealistic villages.  It seems like CitiesXL was listening to their audience, whereas Maxis was determined to do what they wanted to do, regardless of the opinions of their audience.

 

Why did you buy the game in the first place? Did you have no idea how big the lots were? 

They said same as medium tiles in SC4, that was a lie they are even smaller, and with all the empty space and zoning in this one its even worse again.  So know they were not truthfull.

They said the Region size is about the same size as SC4...

[SirChick 184]

They should change the dialog buttons:

 

notokay.jpg

 

 

Haha that was funny!

[efgrib 45]

you have not experienced the citiesxl release, that's for sure.... citiesxl at the release was a crap of a game.. 

[syszone 2]

to my surprise... the tile "Who would have thought" says exactly what i am doing...  i am playing again "" CXL  and planning to buy CXL  Platinum and will deferentially do my modding too.. to make it look what i like ... CXL  a normal city size is actually is bigger then the regional size of SimCity 2013 with exception of jugged roads i am very happy with CXL ... i have said eirlier in some other forum few monthes back EA is notoriously famous screwing famous games... Thank God Company of Heroes have not bought by them   

[MandelSoft 2,770]

Well, in general, both games have their serious flaws. Witnessing the failure of the launch of CitiesXL 2009, I was skeptical about this game when it first was announce and I hate it that I've been proven right on this one. I see the same mistakes being made again. Haven't they learned about the flaws of their competitor, which went bankrupt after this fiasco? I've played the beta of SimCity 2013, and from what I've experienced and from the footage I've seen, it hasn't convinced me to buy the game.

OK, here's what was bugged in CitiesXL:

- The Planet Offer marketing model. You had to pay €7/month to be part of the online community and for what? To play on an online planet, trading resources with each other and visiting each other's cities and get extra content online. That's it. No further co-ops or interaction whatsoever. Would you pay €7/month for that? (or €84/year?) Most of us didn't. After about five or six months, the Planet Offer was cancelled and the game was officially patched as an off-line only game (the game always offered an off-line mode, fortunately, but with no "DLC"), and I think that local saves from the online game were stored on your PC in case of server malfunctions. But basically, CitiesXL was more like a MSO (Massive Single Player Online) game rather than a MMO.

- From the first release, there was no rail in-game. That's right, a city sim without rail. Heck, buses were only available later on if you were subscribed to the Planet Offer (or in the offline patch later on). Subways were added in CXL 2011, but no heavy inter-city railways are available to this day...

- The game still suffers from basic technical issues caused by sloppy programming, like instabilities when adding mods (I have countless times where the game just crashes on start up), objects that suddenly disappear, memory leaks and the fact it can only run on one core.

- No modding was supported during the Planet Offer, because there is a risk of dis-balancing the game...

- Yes, you can build bridges, but just a simple overpass quickly becomes huge.

- The game misses ambiance, and repetitive sound clips ain't gonna help on that. That's why this game feels a bit dead.

- Traffic is a bit borked where just one lane moves at an intersection at the time...

Now, SimCity 2013 has the following problems:

- Static regional connections. In both SimCity 2013's predecessors as in CitiesXL, you could determine how exactly your city connects to the outside world. With SimCity 2013, this is all pre-set, limiting your creativity (and adding a real burden to traffic problems).

- SimCity 2013 is completely server dependent. No server = no game. You have the risk of losing your cities or even whole regions! Has this already happened? Yes. See Haljackey's video from last Wednesday...

- The SimCity 2013 is very small compared to its competitors; SimCity 4: up to 4x4km and far larger with coherent regions; CitiesXL: 10x10km; Cities in Motion: 8x8km; SimCity 2013 only has a mere 2x2km. Yes, you have curvy roads (not falling for that trick again), but you have so little space to use them, so your creativity is very limited on this small area.

- No motorways, or grade-separated intersections within city bounds. This would kill my inner roadgeek while playing and this would be a way to limit congestion in the city... which seems to happen to occur a bit too quickly (Six lane avenues completely jammed in a city of only 17K inhabitants? Really?)

- Emergency services don't get priority in these jams, something that they do in Real Life. This makes quite some of these services quickly ineffective...

- You can say with tieing up the zone density to road size gives you less room to screw up. It's fun to make mistakes and it's fun to learn to deal with the problems you've created on your own. It also offers even more creativity. Not everything is well planned in this world...

- The camera movements, zooming in and out when you click on the messages of your citizens. Oh man, it's tiresome! Give me my more static camera...

- Everything seems to happen at ridiculously fast speeds, even at turtle mode. Cars zooming by at 100 mph through residential streets? Really?

In the end, CitiesXL still seems to give me the better experience out of the two, though I'm still quite biased to SimCity 4.

Anyway, my two cents about the subject

Best,

Maarten

[AkemiAzula 280]

I have to agree with Mandelsoft on this to a great extent. The speed is way too fast on turtle. Emergency vehicles always get priority in rl traffic. There is such a thing as a shoulder on most roads, and on those without cars move to one side.  The fixed singular connections are a recipe for traffic disaster.

 

If the city tiles were contiguous I'd be happy, if I could develop my own railways and highways. GlassBox is great, but the limitations caused by greenspace are absurdly unrealistic.

 

Cities XL seemed very dead to me. It had great graphics but the gameplay was dull as cardboard. The resources weren't handled well imo. The lack of rail was one thing, but the constant graphical glitches...

[mastorofpuppetz 199]

 

 

 

It'll be much better once the launch issues and initial bugs are sorted out.

 

True, but even then we still won't be able to make an actual city...just tiny unrealistic villages.  It seems like CitiesXL was listening to their audience, whereas Maxis was determined to do what they wanted to do, regardless of the opinions of their audience.

 

Why did you buy the game in the first place? Did you have no idea how big the lots were? 

They said same as medium tiles in SC4, that was a lie they are even smaller, and with all the empty space and zoning in this one its even worse again.  So know they were not truthfull.

They said the Region size is about the same size as SC4...

No they also said tile size was the same as medium in SC4, it is smaller then that even...google it. And lets not get into the lack of options and control over regions and how to connect cities together, that has been taken away.

[Districtopia 23]

 

It'll be much better once the launch issues and initial bugs are sorted out.

 

True, but even then we still won't be able to make an actual city...just tiny unrealistic villages.  It seems like CitiesXL was listening to their audience, whereas Maxis was determined to do what they wanted to do, regardless of the opinions of their audience.

Why did you buy the game in the first place? Did you have no idea how big the lots were? 

They said same as medium tiles in SC4, that was a lie they are even smaller, and with all the empty space and zoning in this one its even worse again.  So know they were not truthfull.

 

 

They said same as medium tiles in SC4, that was a lie they are even smaller, and with all the empty space and zoning in this one its even worse again.  So know they were not truthfull.

 

 

 

It'll be much better once the launch issues and initial bugs are sorted out.

True, but even then we still won't be able to make an actual city...just tiny unrealistic villages.  It seems like CitiesXL was listening to their audience, whereas Maxis was determined to do what they wanted to do, regardless of the opinions of their audience.

 

Why did you buy the game in the first place? Did you have no idea how big the lots were? 

They said the Region size is about the same size as SC4...

 

 

Well we all know that isn't true. I played SC4 on/off since its launch and in that time worked on multiple regions and never actually filled one completely in (not for lack of playing enough because I certainly did, more for lack of focus on building one out completely before starting a new one). I filled an entire city plot in last night in an hour. I've also seen a lot of posts on various internet websites claiming the plots are roughly the size of the medium plots in SC4, which is emphatically false. I'd say they are roughly 3/4 the size of a medium plot in SC4, if that.

 

 

 

 

It'll be much better once the launch issues and initial bugs are sorted out.

 

True, but even then we still won't be able to make an actual city...just tiny unrealistic villages.  It seems like CitiesXL was listening to their audience, whereas Maxis was determined to do what they wanted to do, regardless of the opinions of their audience.

 

Why did you buy the game in the first place? Did you have no idea how big the lots were? 

They said same as medium tiles in SC4, that was a lie they are even smaller, and with all the empty space and zoning in this one its even worse again.  So know they were not truthfull.

They said the Region size is about the same size as SC4...

No they also said tile size was the same as medium in SC4, it is smaller then that even...google it. And lets not get into the lack of options and control over regions and how to connect cities together, that has been taken away.

It kind of feels like a big step back from the open-endedness of SC4. Feels more like SC3000 and Simcity Societies combined. Witholding full judgement until I play it a bit more but so far the negatives are outweighing the positives for me...

[Xenocity 343]

Cities XL is a city builder with a very bad city simulator.

Cities XL Platinum currently is reviewed worse than Simcity due to it being a broken game.

 

 

Simcity is a damn good city simulator with a unrealistic city builder.

 

 

That means:

 

You play Cities XL when you want to make a realistic City with no intent of playing a simulator

You play Simcity if you want to simulate a city.

 

I prefer to simulate a city instead of building a realistic city...

 

The point is the games have to completelyl different aims.

[Camlon 50]

Cities XL is a city builder with a very bad city simulator.

Cities XL Platinum currently is reviewed worse than Simcity due to it being a broken game.

 

 

Simcity is a damn good city simulator with a unrealistic city builder.

 

 

That means:

 

You play Cities XL when you want to make a realistic City with no intent of playing a simulator

You play Simcity if you want to simulate a city.

 

I prefer to simulate a city instead of building a realistic city...

 

The point is the games have to completelyl different aims.

SIm City 4 is better than both of them.

 

And it is still good, it won't have server issues,it has regions, larger maps, it has a lot more content and is a lot more realistic.