Trioxis

Bridge types are determined by the type of road. I would recommend reading this dev diary on roads for specifics. Tunnels won't be available upon release, however I've read they might be coming later.

This isn't a new thing. It happens all the time, especially with MMO's and other games with an always-online requirement. That being said, this really sounds like the kind of thing they should have fixed BEFORE release.

I'm kinda hoping it will come to steam as well. Still no information about that though...

Would be handy if you had included a link, but yeah it seems it is.

And how has this changed with the new engine? The individual Sims still don't really matter. They're effectively just parts of the SIMulation, which is what SIMCity does: Simulating a city. Besides that, I would argue that keeping the citizens happy or at least make sure their problems are dealt with is a very important part of managing a city. As you've pointed out this can be seen in SC4 where the Sims 'demand' that you build more of service X or Y, but you can choose to ignore that. From my beta experience this hasn't changed at all.

This would be all fine and dandy if maxis representitives didnt come on here and make a pitch for a game totally different than what they alluded to in the first place. If they were inspired by sc journals and the nam team then how did we end up with this? How does one claim to be inspired by the nam team when you cannot even place a damn highway in the game. To be inspired by something does not automatically mean they have to make a 1:1 copy of it though. In fact, many things are inspired by something but also fundamentally different from the original concept. So Maxis' claim that they were inspired by the nam team does not have to be untrue and it doesn't mean they have to have placeable highways in the game, to give an example. Whether they've pitched an entirely different game than was alluded to is more a matter of perspective. Most of the people on this forum were expecting a new SC game to be a straight evolution from SC4, and were disappointed when it turned out to be a reboot.

Well I never said it was a good thing, but it's hard to say whether SC13 will be a commercial success or not. I think the game is actually quite decent from my beta experience, but it's not the SC5 many people had hoped for. I'm most likely still going to get it anyway, but maybe not right at release.

Only problem with that is the fact that the market doesn't just include fans of the SimCity genre (i.e. this community) but also includes a vast majority of other people who are not fans. Maxis doesn't NEED to cater to the wishes of the fans in order for the game to be a commercial success, as long as they can get other people to buy it instead. You don't have to like it but there's not much you can really do about it.

While the upcoming SimCity game may not be the 'true' successor to SC4 many fans wanted it to be, it's still going to be a quite decent game. Even though it lacks some features that were in it's predecessors, the game has received a much-needed overhaul in terms of simulation and graphics. I think it's pretty much a trade-off between quality and quantity. The only question that remains is whether it'll support mods or not and if so, to what extent?

Even though you'll fill the map a lot faster than you would the large tiles from SC4, the concept of regional play may mean your cities will be more dynamic and will require more attention to keep running properly. I'm quite excited about the possibilities and challenges it may bring. Whether or not this is a good reason to keep playing is up to you, but I always got bored with the somewhat stale cities in SC4.

You know I never like this kind of approach to getting what you want. It's like a small child throwing a tantrum when it doesn't get what it wants, in the hope or rather belief that it'll make any difference. Sure, there's a place for feedback but in the end it's still up to Maxis to make the decisions and you can't force them to change anything. Well, maybe you can, but I'd still call it bad form. Constructive criticism is where it's at.

Imho, the only reasons CitiesXL failed is because it was a bad game at release and not SimCity.

This is one of my concerns as well. I had zoned a small enclosed area for residential, only to notice later on no houses were being build there. I think they should go back to how it was displayed in the early strategy vids they did.

I think it's a good move on their part to get the required information now. I remember ANNO 2070 had similar issues when it was launched, the server was repeatedly down for several days. I think launches like this are in general fairly problematic, so I wouldn't be surprised if this happens for the first few days after launch.

In my opinion the game is simpler in some aspects and more complex in others. I really like the fact you no longer have to carpet your city with services anymore. Not enough police coverage? Just add a few patrol cars. Not enough jail cells? Go ahead, add some more. Having those modular buildings really adds a sense of progression to the overall game. Do note that the cost/hr of services increases when you add modules to them. I would also like to note that you can only add a fixed number of modules to services, so you'll have to make some choices as to what you need for that particular service. You can bulldoze/remove the modules and replace them with others if necessary. Making money has pretty much become a non-issue, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Although having only one hour to play around with a city it's really hard to determine if it gets harder to make money later on in the game. The data layers are pretty awesome as well, giving clear and detailed information about stuff that's going on in your city. It's really hard to tell if the game is going to be as interesting and easy to play once you've build a larger city, but it has certainly left me wanting more.