First in-game SimCity 5 screenshots

There are still lots of obvious missing elements. So I'd say those screenshots are not 100% final gameplay graphics yet.

Though I assume that the overall look and feel would most probably remain pretty much the same on ship.

The buildings have detail, but no texture. They all look stucco, even the skyscraper. To me that makes it look like a cartoon. This almost looks very much like Sim City Societies... which failed. I know it's a game, but I was hoping for semi-realistic looking buildings. Reflections, ambient light coming from the fire maybe, just things that other games have already incorporated years ago. They are competing with games like Cities XL that have done an awesome job with graphics, just not with gameplay. Maxis needs to learn from those games and add their gameplay strategy to similar (but better) graphics.

Also I am disappointed that they haven't found a way to make buildings change shapes based on the lots they are on. Such as the boston photo above shows. These screenshots show that buildings won't change at all. Not all buildings have 4 sides and fact perfectly forward on a straight edge. Buildings adapt to the lots they are on... these are obviously not able to do that.

I really thought Spore would have made this a reality with shapes, textures, colors, details, and personality changing depending on how you choose the initial building styles. That was my favorite part about Spore, you made your own look and feel, and I was hoping sim city could have been the same way, where buildings would evolve and become similar to the buildings styles I create and choose. Things like the details and styles like being mostly brick in the east coast but not on the west coast cause of earthquakes. or in the southwest where they have red stone roofs, or in any city or region where they have their own style. It seems like this game will be cookie cutter and the cities will always look the same... no evolution.

Sort of disappointed with what I have seen in these shots, and how different it looks from the initial video they put out. I really wanted a game that would be different every time I played, not a game where I have to fill the city with pollution to make it feel different. All people have ever talked about with these games is wanting to make a city that is their own, and from what I see, it seems like every one of our cities will look the same. Prove me wrong Maxis.

Regarding the "cookie cutter" analogy; there is a DLC, which is included in the pre-order, that adds European and Asian architectural styles, among other variations.

They've already said before that building models won't be procedurally generated. Textures and signages are to be produced by the simulator. While key buildings will have functional modules.

Upto what degree those simulations will have an effect on the visual look of the buildings have yet to be seen.

@rctshack: How can you be disappointed about gameplay, when they haven't even shown any concrete information on the exact game mechanics?

Don't expect to see everything with just 3 pre-release screens...

@Bipin: As far as I know, there are already key buildings in the core game that can affect the look and function of the other buildings in a city (ie Coal HQ).

The good thing here is that building variation is more widespread, even at this stage of development, than it was when SC4 was released. It's good to see they also have different approaches to building variation, speaking of which...

http://cdn.www.simcity.com/cdn/farfuture/YOi8lKaW3CWiOqRWBq6TYZFKW-g6CPZJ_7dLCA35KF0/mtime:1331235547/sites/default/files/ConceptArt-School.png

It's an older diagram, but still relevant.

Still not as good as fully modded SimCity 4 :/

I thought Maxis would have taken more realistic and serious approach with SimCity 5? So far this looks far far worse than SimCity 4.

Hopefully at least the game mechanics will be more complex rather than "streamlined to cater wider audience".

I am disappointed at reading your comments that basically say:

"F**k this! I knew this was just another cash cow!"

Most the people here seem to ignore the fact that the game is not in final stages and Maxis still has months of work before the release.

Unrealistic you say? Sim City always has been into somewhat that style, and you must understand that the details are not that important at this stage, where Maxis is working on building the gameplay more than making detailed graphics.

Remember that the game is NOT finished, give them 3-4 months and I think that by then, the screenshots will look much better than this. You treat these screenshots as if the game was to be released next week, it will be next year.

Now look at them and consider all the time they have left to increase the graphics.

And if you still don't like it, then what are you waiting for? Go to another place, there is no reason for you to gaze at these screenies.

Non-stop whining about a game's graphics... Talk about being childish.

Well, I like the third picture the best. Curved roads need to be more curved though. Reminds me of CXL curved roads, but hey I'm optimistic.

Could be better and I'm hoping it would. If not, let's not forget that modding is still there for the community.

Best news I've seen all day tbh.

EDIT: I wonder if tilt-shift is already working in this.

Maybe they are just another concept art; they look very similar to the first images we saw in March.

If they are a ingame screenshots let's just hope they will work on the graphics or it will seem like a The Sims 3 like game...

Looks like Maxis is heading towards some of the same scale problems that SC4 had. Checkout how big the rowhouse/new urbanist type residential bulding is on the left compared to the small commercial buildings in the 3rd picture. They're way off!

Looks like Maxis is heading towards some of the same scale problems that SC4 had. Checkout how big the rowhouse/new urbanist type residential bulding is on the left compared to the small commercial buildings in the 3rd picture. They're way off!

That's essentially the same thing people were saying about a stadium in CXL during its development. RIP Monte Cristo.

People here have the tendency to compare the look of city-sim games with real life.

SC obviously has its own non-realistic artstyle. It is what it is, there's nothing wrong with itself. It only becomes a problem if you prefer more realism. Your solution: mod

I agree with ssr2. For off grid to work well they reallllllly needed to generate buildings procedurely with the lot footprint. I had the impression before this that might happen and was the only thing in terms of graphics that I thought might make the difference between SC5 and citiesXL. Its nice to have off grid and curved roads but if you have mega wide awkward gaps cause all buildings are square then I don't feel I'm able to use the feature properly. It seems that theyve overlooked the graphical failures of both citiesXL and simcity societies. Theyre gameplay is on the right track but the visual remains in the past I find.

Hmm, looks okay...still bringing back memories of Societies, and I hate that their is too much open space between lots. This guy hit the nail on the head:

The curved/angular roads ability would only look good if the buildings were procedurally generated to have a footprint equal to the lot shape. In the first image, the factories are very regular and orthogonal,but they are surrounded by a buffer of vacant land between the building and street that takes on the deformations of the lot shape. Rather, the building itself should have the footprint of the lot. Then we would't have leftover grass spaces as shown in the screenshot. We'd have a realistic city like the image of Boston, below.

Obviously, some towns do have lots of greenspace around lots, like a small town or village, but some of us want to make W2W old old large cities. So far these pictures show a nice small village, but not a large gritty city. I was really hoping for more evolution such as buildings fitting the footprint of the lot...o well. Still seven more months.

So many people, so many complains... about a game that will released in 8 MONTHS!

Just my thoughts: No highways, no mass public transportation = no $ from me.