A SimCity 2013 review from a CXL fan.

[mhosni 20]

Here , I just want to make a real review of aspect of the new SimCity from my point of view as I am a really CXL fan. I don't want to be positive or negative about it , just to discuss what I found.

 

Before I start playing with CXL, I used Simcity 4, and the whole series before it, so I am not really CXL only fan, but lately CXL was my favorite game.

 

First, I found that Simicty online feature seems for me to be inspired by the CXL experience. The CXL was started as a project called Cities Unlimited back in 2008 after couple of months of the release of the Game of Monte cristo City Life 2008 , which was the core for Cities Unlimited, there was a discussion with the community for about a year before making the beta and releasing the game as Cities XL in 2009.

 

One of the major features announced in Cities XL was the online multi-player experience, which included in the Planet Offer and this actually include trade and using avatars and other many features. This features is actually implemented now in the new SimCity, but in different way, more user friendly, and mainly between regions. And actually as most of us know that online feature caused monte cristo to bankrupt and the game was sold to Focus. In SimCity, EA has long online playing experience, so they managed to do the online feature part, but with very painful and annoying start that surely caused loss of money . Although those feature is Ok, but they are still not totally satisfying, nor they are bug free. And the most negative about it, is that they used it as an excuse for always online, which bother a lot of players.

 

City Specialization was mentioned also in CXL, and it was implemented generally, with no clear way to do it or assess its impact. Same feature is implemented in the new SimCity, but greatly focus and it is really implemented in a good way. Actually it includes some of the features of the GEM feature of CXL which was supposed to allow for a mini game inside your city to manage some kind of business like beach GEM, SKi GEM etc. But in SimCity Specialization feature it contains some of GEM feature in a way as you have to micromanage your speciallization buiness like casinos, TV production and importing/exporting, etc. The overall feature is good but very limited in options.

 

Another feature that was introduced in CXL was the Buildings packs, as Europe Pack, US pack, Far East pack etc. This also introduced in SimCity in the Deluxe Edition as English, German, French add ons, but in a different way as you will put a landmark like Eiffel tower in the city and surrounding building will shape in french style buildings.

 

Final feature from CXL also was blueprints, which was in the original game (planet offer) needs alot of resources and takes hours to complete, and usually you will need to trade with other cities to complete it. that feature also implemented in New SimCity as Great Works, it is places between cities where you can initiate projects in it for specified and very limited projects and need to send it resources from your cities to complete. it is different implementation but the same idea. Actually when I rethink about it, I found SimCity is based mainly on CXL features which may be actually true as CXL was introduced in 2009, and maybe then the idea to make a new SimCity evolved or was evolving!!!!

 

I guess that was it for major feature of CXL that also existed in Simcity, other than standard waited features as Full 3D and free curvy streets.

 

For the SimCity Graphics, it is well done, much better in performance than CXL. Keeping in mind limited city size in Simcity compared to vast Cities of CXL, still find it fast. The Graphic features is so cartoonic, non-realistic appearance. It has Good 3d graphic options and filters. Zoom level is limited that there is no walking level, but very near to ground like 4 Meters high. the Tilt Shift is annoying for me, but it seems they need it even in the Less option just to reduce 3D calculations for far objects. The Sky colors and features was not so convincing for me with no options for it. There is weather features, not very impressive. Day/Night cycle exist and is mandatory and slow for me. Night view is too dark to do stuff, specially it has to exist for sometime, but in general nice with the simulation. Contrast during day light is not very sharp as in CXL, so the difference between lighted area and shadows is not much, giving a sense of low contrast and unrealistic. Dimensions of buildings is not proportional at all and unrealistic, unlike CXL which gives much realistic feeling. I think this also due to the small City size. City size is like 2 square Km, while CXL is 10 square Km.

 

Hope that was Helpful

 

Here is a comparison in excel sheet

 

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BzYm2h-QuroQTDBfVV9iMWYwRkk/edit?usp=sharing

[Srafty 7]

im not sure what your intention was but it seems more like a compassion then a review. the point seems to be that most of the new features are ripped off from citys xl... as an X XL player i defiantly agree, more so they didn't even make 1/2 of the features better and in some cases worse.

 

tbh XL in comparison to simcity2013 it is slightly better, but i got sick of playing it a long time ago. XL had excellent potential because it was innovative and simcity had even more potential just because of its name but in the end neither are really that good for a city builder when compared to simcity 4.

 

what the developers of simcity 5 "should" of done is exactly what blizzard done with SC2: code a new engine, add more features while not removing any and updated the graphics. Starcraft arguably held "the Best of its kind" for years, if blizzard made SC2 any other way it would have failed, but like the first one sc2 is now king of the hill.

What i dont get is, when a game is the best of its kind why make a totally different game at the core and slap the same name on it, this clearly destroys the name for any future releases, (none of the games being made since the last stock crash have been any good compared to the potential they had). it is clear from the success of SC2 and the failure of so many other sequels of leading games that this is a No no.

 

Err way off topic, oh well nothing like a good rant, i just wish theses companys would learn from each others mistakes and successes.

[Srafty 7]

haha and no i don't mean ea should sell more re skinned games like they done with that sports game, ant remember the name but basically it was released 1 year later as a NEW game (at full price) and the only changes was to the leader boards lol, hopeful this wasn't EA's attempt at following blizzards strategy.

[AlexMBrennan 11]

Just had a look at Cities XL which I seem to have picked up at a sale at some point...

There are roundabouts! You can manually control the height of bridges! Build tunnels! Designate roads one-way streets! (I.e. stuff simcity 4 had)

My very superficial verdicts would be that it's worth having a look at if you actually want to manage your city rather than try to figure out ways to manipulate the dumb AI into doing smart things.

[Griffon 19]

I've always liked all the Sim City games I've played, my favorite was Sim City 2000, I played it up to the release to the new 1

 

I have played Cities XL 2012 before, I don't remember any online feature in it or I woulda done that, I had to build all my own cities in the world and most of the time I could get over 2mil people and was getting enough money I could produce all the water, electricity, food, ect. that I needed in 1 city, I only traded away the extra office and industry to Omni Corp or whatever that company was called, although it is cheaper to buy everything you need from other cities it's cheaper for the city you buy it from to only produce what they need so my cities would go bankrupt trying to supply what they needed to every other city I built and I never built any of the ectra buildings or building sets from Cities XL, they just seemed pointless to me

 

and in Sim City you actually have to design your city around what you specialize in, I build all the power, water, ect. I need but if I say to buy from other cities it automatically buys for me and what I need from the other cities if I can't produce enough (in Cities XL I'd have to manually adjust the market to buy what I needed, which was a pain) also I like how in Sim City that if you don't have enough of or a problem with something it will tell you, the button turns yellow or red and sometimes it will say it in the news thing at the top of the screen, also the great works you don't have to work on it on your own, in Cities XL I'd often go bankrupt trying to built 1 of the blueprints, mostly cause I couldn't supply it enough, I'd import all I needed, and  couldn't delete it if it started costing me too much money

 

my review says Sim City is better, but it does have more bugs that need to be fixed and things that could be added, just wait a while and they should hopefully have them fixedb

 

the only bad thing is the limited space in Sim City, but if you know how to built your city right you can get at least 600k population I'd bet since it is an achievement to fully upgrade your city hall which take 600k population to do, my best population so far is 380k in 1 city

[mhosni 20]

and in Sim City you actually have to design your city around what you specialize in, I build all the power, water, ect. I need but if I say to buy from other cities it automatically buys for me and what I need from the other cities if I can't produce enough (in Cities XL I'd have to manually adjust the market to buy what I needed, which was a pain) also I like how in Sim City that if you don't have enough of or a problem with something it will tell you, the button turns yellow or red and sometimes it will say it in the news thing at the top of the screen, also the great works you don't have to work on it on your own, in Cities XL I'd often go bankrupt trying to built 1 of the blueprints, mostly cause I couldn't supply it enough, I'd import all I needed, and  couldn't delete it if it started costing me too much money

 

my review says Sim City is better, but it does have more bugs that need to be fixed and things that could be added, just wait a while and they should hopefully have them fixedb

 

the only bad thing is the limited space in Sim City, but if you know how to built your city right you can get at least 600k population I'd bet since it is an achievement to fully upgrade your city hall which take 600k population to do, my best population so far is 380k in 1 city

 

As I said, both cities have specialization and trade, but SimCity implementation is much better. But that does not make SimCity Generally better, because for some, these features are just luxury they can use or not. the important here is the major features like having different buildings, types of roads, bridges etc. and Also a very big setback is the very small city sizes which caused unproportional building sizes and limited design options. to get the most condensed city, usually you will need to make a grid design, other designs just will limit the density. Also very awkward things will happen due to limited space, like the airport to be in the middle of crowded areas, and mainly between skycrapers. I remember In SimCity 4 that would cause accident to happen.

 

I don't say Simcity is not interesting, actually it is interesting. However, while I play I just keep hitting things that I hope to be corrected. Finally I think Cities XL is a more of City Building game rather than a simulator, and SimCity is more of a City simulator rather than a city building, in this view you can see that both games can be interesting in a different way. But I hope that eventually we get SimCity to be updated in a way to be more like SimCity 4.

 

Regards,

[Sunfighter 186]

If theyd just fix the damn memory problems with cities XL.

[chocolate_city 93]

An honest review, one that I'll suspect that the haters will rip to shreds, but heres a difference you didn't mention was once you buy Cities XL 2012 (14 to 19 US dollars), or CitiesXL platinum (4.99 US dollars) , you'll own it, rather than just "renting it" for 60$. But last I read the price has reduced in some markets.

[Inge Jones 18]

I think I may be a bit weird, but I found I couldn't play CitiesXL in spite of buying it, due to the little simmies in it having these grotesque heads.  It just creeped me out so I had to stop.   They could at least have made some attempt to get them into realistic proportions to go with the rest of the fairly realistic graphics.