SimCity: Now The Dust Has Settled

[macscfan 117]

Online play still makes no sense.  Playing with other people, you forget they're there.  Yes, you can offer and buy services from each other, but it's hardly social.

 

What they should have done is released the game for offline, and then added an online DLC.

 

Agreed.  I get nothing out of the online play - I might as well be offering/buying services with the game AI.  Every time I hear somebody with Maxis/EA talk about social stuff in regards to the new SimCity, I cringe.

 

And they already had a social-based SimCity.  It's called SimCity Social, and they are closing it down next month.

 

The first couple of posts in this thread about how it's less a city simulator and more of a game sums it all up for me.  My hope is that this is inspiring other companies to give SC4 fans what we want - a true city simulator.  Not this "game" we have now where things aren't nearly as simulated as EA claims.

[nashville nelson 51]

Hey all!

 

It was later than I would've liked to get this put together, but someone asked me to plop the link in here once it's live.

 

http://www.nowgamer.com/features/1907182/simcity_what_the_diehard_fans_think.html

 

I didn't get the room to feature everyone's comments, so apologies if I missed you out. It was still massively appreciated, though, so I hope you enjoy the article all the same.

 

Thanks guys. Let me know what you think.

Good article, but you should have included some pictures from SC4 so your readers could actually see the differences and why many of us are so passionate about SC4.

[Cob92 360]

The game is fun, but breaks down too soon in too many places. First and most noticeable is the cramped city area. I feel chained playing in these cities because I hit the border within the first hour of gameplay and there's nothing left to do but optimize and build upward. My so called "metropolis" has a population equivalent to that of Waco and the land area of a college campus! You just can't make anything that feels like a truly big city because of that stupidly small city limit, plus the lack of freeways, lack of roadway options, lack of subways, and civic buildings that are grossly oversized for the map that we get. In SC4 and SC3K, I could make cities with distinct neighborhoods: ghettos, suburbs, wealthy areas, rowhouse districts, rural outskirts, etc. In SC2013, the city feels like 2 or 3 extremely cramped neighborhoods with little character to them. 

 

Of course, there are the bugs and annoyances that fill out much of the rest of the game:

-Idiotic transit system that drops people off across the street from where they get on

-Musical chairs traffic pathing

-Godzilla (most OP disaster; can destroy half of your tiny city and cannot be countered by anything)

-Region lag

-Colleges and universities that won't fill all class times

 

I still play the game, and enjoy it in bursts, but inevitably I run into one of the many walls that Maxis placed in my path.

[MayorQuimbie 13]

I'm just hugely disappointed with region (social) play in general.... Everything from the very simple task of inviting friends to the EA promised..... city interaction. Most of the important features just don't work...

On top of that, trying to play a co op region just doesn't work... players claim and abandon cities within minutes leaving most cities unplayable.... unless I buy content of course  Surely not an intentional oversight by EA?

Even when co op players actually build and construct a city... an hour or so down the line and they are done...... the whole region can be filled and finished with during the course of a day....

Leaderboards still don't work, although I think the whole concept a bit pointless..... Global markets still don't work....City co-op doesn't work that great.....I just don't see the online "social" aspect ever delivering on what was promised.... I'm beginning to think it was just all over hyped marketing by EA....  all talk and no substance....

I do however enjoy playing my own private regions so its not a complete loss.... however once you remove the online, supposedly social gameplay.... Is it not just a poorer version of Sim City 4 with lovely graphics......