Gameplay Strategy Video #2, with multi-city play

It actually doesn't look too bad, but to me its a completely different game. I don't think it would keep me hooked as much as sc4, but certainly seems better than societies. I played societies for a few weeks, sc4 for years. The online play could keep me into the new one for a while, but unfortunately its not the true successor of the simcity I love :/

The fact that the city is the only one in the region and has all those large buildings despite having 1,090 population is... depressing.

Judging by the traffic seems that each of them has a car.

Fantastic ... Sensational ... Wonderful ... Unbelievable ...

... unbelievable that this is the new Simcity!!

The fact that the city is the only one in the region and has all those large buildings despite having 1,090 population is... depressing.

It can't be it... I guess dev/god mode to show off the shiny big city.

Gameplay is actually promising, but I find the gaps between each city rather annoying. Its to a point where its a dealbreaker for me. I'm a person who likes realism and the Glassbox Engine gives that for sure! If somehow we can mod the game such that we have no gaps between cities, I'd consider buying this game. Until now, I'll wait for reviews and player testimonies.

The video is not that bad, but justifying from the misuse of such powerful engine into a game that has cartoon-ish graphics and big city gaps, I say that many fans of the series would not like the game overall...

Also, trailers are not exactly the real deal... I'm not going to rely on teaser videos, trailers and even articles that seems to be overly promoting the "brilliance" of this game. The Last Airbender (Movie) did that in 2010 with its trailers and teasers. The trailers are awesome, but the real deal isn't... So let this not fool everyone else. Like Evillions above me, I'll wait for the results.

completely unimpressed

Yupasama, on , said:

The fact that the city is the only one in the region and has all those large buildings despite having 1,090 population is... depressing.

It can't be it... I guess dev/god mode to show off the shiny big city.

I don't know about you two, but I think those are commercial buildings, because I only saw a handful of houses.

One of the Maxis devs posted on reddit that the video capture team take weeks of footage to put a video like this together. They often use developer cheats when making these videos, resulting in wierd UI numbers.

The thing that's concerning to me is that even a pretend, Maxis-built city, which you would assume has been created to look impressive and show off the game, cities look like absolute hell with skyscrapers all the way to the edges with zero transition to countryside nothingness (that gap between the cities). They either need to offer bigger cities or remove the gap between cities.

I've not reacted to any sim city five posts till now, but I believe that this video (being released so close to the game's release date) shows something that is quite close to the end product that we will get.

I see some good tuff and I see some bad stuff, but overall, I must say I like what I see. First some pro's:

1. Glass box is a truly amazing simulator. Flow of entities (resources, sims, anything) seems to give a very realistic simulation behavior. For me that’s an absolute core feature to a proper city simulator and much more important that lots of ‘realistic’ eye candy

2. Graphics are not bad. The style is cartoonish, but there is enough there to give a realistic 'model' feel and I’m sure that over time this can be improved. SC4 standard graphics aren’t all that good either, but the basis was also there to make something out of it.

3. This game lets you build a more realistic city in its standard configuration then SC4 did, has more options and also seems more accessible than SC4.

4. No more radius to utility buildings, but effect is effected by infrastructure. Also, neighbouring utilities have effect.

I also see some down sides:

1. online only is not something I want. I want to play this game on my own system, and not be reliant on internet or some company providing network storage and computing power to me. That said, I do like the way online is incorporated into the game. I feel that they did think this through and made it into a real game element, not just a money generating scheme.

2. Spaces between cities. A clear downward move from region play in SC4. I do think that this could be easily fixed though. Judging from what I’ve seen in the trailers so far the region area seems an optical representation of city connections. There seems to be no reason why these city connections cannot be represented any other way. When this is the case, my 3^rd concern (scale) would also be mitigated.

3. scale. Cities are too small, especially when building a downtown with skyscrapers. See 2.

4. freedom in creating intercity connections like highways, rail (and quite frankly, given the scale any other type of transport. If I build two neighbouring downtown areas (providing that the gap-issue is resolved) I want them to have an interconnected tram system, road system and subway system(see 5)

5. No subway (as of yet). Though this point, I believe, has not been officially confirmed, nor denied.

All in all I like what I see, but I will not be a first buyer. I want to see what others think of the game. Also, the always online aspect (and my unwillingness to get an origin account), might actually be show stoppers. I refuse to keep paying for a game and not being able to actually own it. Sim city 4 cost me about 70 Euros in total and that got me the actual game and let me play it whenever, wherever I want regardless of EA providing data storage. It also lets me play cities I’ve built over 10 years ago. I is MY game. The online aspect changes that completely. That’s a choice EA and Maxis made, and to them that probably made a business sense. I cannot and will not blame them for making that choice. The effect is that (I believe) a minority of people like me might not ever buy this game.

unfortunately its not the true successor of the simcity I love :/

The ORIGINAL studio that created them all except for Societies…

The MAXIS studio from the very beginning, the same people who made Simcity 3000, Simcity 2000 and Simcity 4, are making this new game: is not a true successor?

Can somebody explain this for me?

cirugo, on , said:

completely unimpressed

Then get a life and make your own game.

Agreed! I fail to see how one cannot be impressed at what Maxis has created here. It might not be your cup of tea, it's not all my cup either, and thats fine. But to be unimpressed with the work that is done is just a plane insult!

edman2012, on , said:

unfortunately its not the true successor of the simcity I love :/

The ORIGINAL studio that created them all except for Societies…

The MAXIS studio from the very beginning, the same people who made Simcity 3000, Simcity 2000 and Simcity 4, are making this new game: is not a true successor?

Can somebody explain this for me?

Is the movie Dispicable me a succesor to Cars? Same creator doenst mean a thing if it is not on par with the path of the previous games. Its clearly a differant direction.

Graphic : SC4 is better

Gameplay : SC4 is good, while this one seems to be good as well.

Online feature : Must online is the deal-breaker for me.

Glass box : This engine is the most worthy asset that maxis have, but unfortunately, maxis doesn't use this advantage very well. I believe if maxis can do better than this one.

Map : Empty area between cities is another deal-breaker for me though the map size is acceptable.

Another that, inability to make custom maps is also a deal-breaker for me

Transportation system : though tram has been added, but inability to easily make highway and rail connection between cities is another deal-breaker for me.

Other comments : I can appreciate maxis for their work hard to develop this game but I can't accept the name which not fit very well with the game and it's status as the successor of Simcity.

I think there will be another game that will fit better to become Simcity successor

So, overall, the game is not bad, and I think some will buy it though it will never-ever become mine and of course, everyone must appreciate their hard work. However, the name of the game which not fit very well with the game itself and some down sides of the game already ensure at least me to not buy this game.

I hope maxis will come another time with a better game and with the name of the game fits better with the game itself.

March 5, 2012 will not become the day I buy the successor of Simcity, but I believe if there will be someone who have the idea to make the true successor of this game. Simcity 5 is not the successor, but I'm sure of there will be someone who make it, one day.

Graphic : SC4 is better

Gameplay : SC4 is good, while this one seems to be good as well.

Online feature : Must online is the deal-breaker for me.

Glass box : This engine is the most worthy asset that maxis have, but unfortunately, maxis doesn't use this advantage very well. I believe if maxis can do better than this one.

Map : Empty area between cities is another deal-breaker for me though the map size is acceptable.

Another that, inability to make custom maps is also a deal-breaker for me

Transportation system : though tram has been added, but inability to easily make highway and rail connection between cities is another deal-breaker for me.

Other comments : I can appreciate maxis for their work hard to develop this game but I can't accept the name which not fit very well with the game and it's status as the successor of Simcity.

I think there will be another game that will fit better to become Simcity successor

So, overall, the game is not bad, and I think some will buy it though it will never-ever become mine and of course, everyone must appreciate their hard work. However, the name of the game which not fit very well with the game itself and some down sides of the game already ensure at least me to not buy this game.

I hope maxis will come another time with a better game and with the name of the game fits better with the game itself.

March 5, 2012 will not become the day I buy the successor of Simcity, but I believe if there will be someone who have the idea to make the true successor of this game. Simcity 5 is not the successor, but I'm sure of there will be someone who make it, one day.

Sc4 looks better??? Whaaaaat? Did you see SM4 recently? The graphics getting worse and worse every year. Example:

An other point way to many people are talking about is the always online! Everybody thats saying must be online is a no-deal should live somewhere far away from our society. We are always online (even on the toilet) And if this helps against piracy im ok for it.

What people should worry more about is that the cities/savegames are on the servers of EA (and not on your own machine) But than again.. i can still play Battlefield 1942 (from 2002) and my account is still online!

Yes, i will buy the game and will see if there is a deal-breaker for me in the game. Yes i have some mixt feelings.. but saying stuff like never-ever.. no never!

Sc4 looks better??? Whaaaaat? Did you see SM4 recently? The graphics getting worse and worse every year. Example:

http://tweakers.net/...ie9n9J/full.jpg

That is the SC4 without any mods. Please consider most of Simcity 4 around the world today, most are heavily-modded and as I know, almost every player have at least one mod. What I'm saying is not the SC4 that owned by purists, but for most of SC4 nowadays. I can say if most of Simcity 4 today is SImcity 4 Deluxe + patches + maxis extra landmarks + user-made mods and BATs. Those mods, of course, already make the graphic become so much better and I think the majority of players today have at least one of them.

An other point way to many people are talking about is the always online! Everybody thats saying must be online is a no-deal should live somewhere far away from our society. We are always online (even on the toilet) And if this helps against piracy im ok for it.

If they make the must-online requirement for such purpose, of course it will be fine for me as well. However, not everyone is close to internet and even my grandma, who live in Den Haag/The Hague also unable to easily get internet access.

Please expand your mind not only to Americans, but also to the rest of the world. As I know, this game will not only distributed to US, but also to other continents. Different place could mean different condition, and don't think if all developed area can easily get internet.

What people should worry more about is that the cities/savegames are on the servers of EA (and not on your own machine) But than again.. i can still play Battlefield 1942 (from 2002) and my account is still online!

I must agree with you about this problem. It is another deal-breaker for me. Origin requirement (I don't like Origin, honestly) is also another deal-breaker. At least, that's all is enough to stop me from giving my $60 to them.

Note : I won't force you and any members to not buy this game. If you're interested, just buy it. Otherwise, don't buy it. It just my decision to not buy it because of some deal-breakers.

edman2012, on , said:

unfortunately its not the true successor of the simcity I love :/

The ORIGINAL studio that created them all except for Societies…

The MAXIS studio from the very beginning, the same people who made Simcity 3000, Simcity 2000 and Simcity 4, are making this new game: is not a true successor?

Can somebody explain this for me?

Easy... Will Wright, the creator of the serie (and the Sims serie) left maxis just after the release of Spore. So, it's the same studio, but definitely not the same team with same people involved. WW would never allow a simcity without terraforming and with so small maps. And I think he left because of EA putting pressure on him forcing him to do things he doesn't want to do in his games... but that part is only my humble opinion.

Btw I agree with people saying that "this is not a simcity", but my main disapointment with this game is the huge lot of new gameplay limitations we have compared to simcity4... The glassbox is a great idea, but it arrives 10 years too early to be usable on our computers at such scales that a real simcity would require. So to prevent having low performences, we get stinky limits such as tiny maps, tiny regions, 200k max active sims per city, etc...

If you ask me, they would have been wiser if they did a remake of SimTower to test glassbox mechanisms (because it's "population scale" is much lower than a simcity and would not require similar limitations to work on everybody's hardware), and eventually optimise it a bit before even thinking about applying it to a simcity... That would give more time to the "average hardware" to improve, and having more chance to not have to enforce stupid limitations.

With all the gameplay videos published already, I would want say that this game is just an insult to the whole simcity franchise and it's fans... But I remember they did SCS just in time to not say it...

Anyway, even if it looks better than SCS (that's not so hard), I don't like it yet... I hate limitations.

Also for the "online only", that's also a dealbreaker for me... That's stupid to enforce such things... Yes, most people have easy internet access, but cmon, we live in the era of netbooks, tablets, gamer notebooks, etc... and with those, you don't necessarely have internet access everywhere... so, maxis wants to sell me a game where I couldn't play when traveling in train for 1h-1h30? no thanks.

ferryv, on , said:

Sc4 looks better??? Whaaaaat? Did you see SM4 recently? The graphics getting worse and worse every year. Example:

http://tweakers.net/...ie9n9J/full.jpg

That is the SC4 without any mods. Please consider most of Simcity 4 around the world today, most are heavily-modded and as I know, almost every player have at least one mod. What I'm saying is not the SC4 that owned by purists, but for most of SC4 nowadays. I can say if most of Simcity 4 today is SImcity 4 Deluxe + patches + maxis extra landmarks + user-made mods and BATs. Those mods, of course, already make the graphic become so much better and I think the majority of players today have at least one of them.

I don''t think that this is an honest comparisson. Maxis is building this game, not the entire simcomunity spending lots of their free time into making mods.

When judging the graphics of this new sim city one should compare the graphics to sim city 4 out of the box (perhaps with rush hour). I think the graphics are pretty good and obviously an improvement to SC4. Note that I am not talking about te style choice. That''s a matter of taste. I am talking about the quality of the rendered 3d world. It looks pretty good.

Now that for me means that the basis is there. Imagine what will happen if Maxis releases more content and perhaps once they release the game for modding in the future? Imagine what all these new graphic capabilities might mean for realism once fans get their hands on them?

My point is, it's all about the basis, the foundation. I believe this new sim city has a good foundation and offers a lot of future posibilities.

Btw I agree with people saying that "this is not a simcity", but my main disapointment with this game is the huge lot of new gameplay limitations we have compared to simcity4... The glassbox is a great idea, but it arrives 10 years too early to be usable on our computers at such scales that a real simcity would require. So to prevent having low performences, we get stinky limits such as tiny maps, tiny regions, 200k max active sims per city, etc...

If you ask me, they would have been wiser if they did a remake of SimTower to test glassbox mechanisms (because it's "population scale" is much lower than a simcity and would not require similar limitations to work on everybody's hardware), and eventually optimise it a bit before even thinking about applying it to a simcity... That would give more time to the "average hardware" to improve, and having more chance to not have to enforce stupid limitations.

With all the gameplay videos published already, I would want say that this game is just an insult to the whole simcity franchise and it's fans... But I remember they did SCS just in time to not say it...

Anyway, even if it looks better than SCS (that's not so hard), I don't like it yet... I hate limitations.

I think that you are wrong about this point. I don't like the limitations either, but I do like Sim City and I want as much people to play it as possible, so to justify a new edition being made. Sim City is the main game, the flagship of the sim franchise and this means that is absolutly the best choice to make this a sim city game. People might like this game and want a new sim city that is even better and has a grander simulation. Now would they make this a sim tower, then I don't think as much people would be interested, but more importantly the people that are would want a new and even beter sim tower game, not a sim city. Testing their new consept on a limmited scale makes sence. Who knows what the future may bring if this turns out to be a commercial succes.

Also for the "online only", that's also a dealbreaker for me... That's stupid to enforce such things... Yes, most people have easy internet access, but cmon, we live in the era of netbooks, tablets, gamer notebooks, etc... and with those, you don't necessarely have internet access everywhere... so, maxis wants to sell me a game where I couldn't play when traveling in train for 1h-1h30? no thanks.

agreed 100% the premisse that everyone is always online is false. I want to play the game when I want, not when I can because I have internet. I''m not opposed to an online aspect to the game. It's fine, but let me (as owner of the game I bought to play with whenever and however I choose to) deside.