negative352

I haven't played this game yet (I don't think it is out for Mac yet though), so my input is pretty limited here. I've only seen a few of the screenshots. However, having been an avid SC fan for over a decade now, I'm disappointed that the game appears to have taken a wrong turn. With earlier versions of the game, it was obvious that technology restricted the possibilities for an extremely complex game. Nevertheless, I feel that Maxis generally took the game in a positive direction, making each successive version more realistic and inspiring than the last, all the while keeping the series' classic sense of humor and playfulness. Still, I think were some positive steps made. I am fascinated by the idea of having differing types of societies. This was an issue in SC4 and previous verisons, because the game assumed a pretty capitalist system. There was little option for a more authoritarian style of building, if one wished to build one. I also feel SC4 abandoned some key aspects of real cities that serve as a metric for a city's health, such as unemployment and other economic factors. I wished SC4 had something like a GDP, to sort of summarize the health of the city's economy. Of course, a GDP is probably more subjective than something as straight forward as unemployment, but still. Based on what others have said, my guess is I will simply continue playing SC4 and let EA think about this for awhile. It seems like EA has largely abandoned the wishes millions of SC fans. I realize the SC community is a diverse bunch, and it really shows in the city journals. There is a lot of fantasy and a lot of realism. But my guess is that the majority wanted the game to remain challenging, gritty, and all the more realistic. I'm not totally writing this SCS game off, but unlike when I was previewing SC4, I don't get the same excited vibe. Personally, I have built cities to make them realistic, not to replicate existing cities, but so I could imagine my own cities as having similar shades of issues and their own characteristics. I want to compare my cities with the likes of New York or Tokyo or Sydney, not a cartoon version. For now, I can only hope that there will be a SC5 that transcends SC4 and doesn't regress to a more cartoonish state.

Hold down the control key, then click the mouse.

Awesome idea! This is exactly a big thing that they left out in Sim City 4 that should have been added. This kind of highway is far more common in real life than those ground highways with the annoying jersey barriers. This is definitely something you would see on any major US interstate. This rural highway could be useful for interstates.

So is this mostly about having a good layout? In other words, for an industrial wasteland, is it about making it look like an ideal wasteland or how to make a prosperous one? In other words, is this just about making example cities for players looking for variety?