stephen_wren

This DLC is the EA's/Maxis' statement about the new Sim City's target audience: the pre-teens. If there were any doubts in that respect, they should be gone now. PS. The FB leak before the official announcement is appalling. Marketing through media leaks and rumor mill is just sick in my book.

I hope so, too. Cities in Motion 1 is decent enough, even without its DLCs. Cities in Motion looks even better, with the gridless maps, large dynamically evolving cities, multiplayer and so on. A word to the wise, though - most Paradox-published games are released as obvious betas. No bugs of the game-breaking variety I could remember, but it can get pretty rough the first weeks before they're mostly ironed out.

You know, I've even pledged my $ 25 on this, but they are so vague about pretty much everything (starting with who they are and what game development experience they have) that I've downgraded my pledge. I don't know whether they're just some high school kids that sincerely have no idea what it takes to create a full-fledged city building sim (time wise and money wise alike) or they are trying to make some quick buck on the massive disappointment with SC 2013 and then go off into the blue. They'd better to present something substantial in their updates.

SC 4, of course. Even if you don't consider the SC 2013 launch disaster, in its current state it seems more shallow than SC 4 Deluxe. Even its bright, glossy visuals look like something made to sell it as a kid's/casual game, compared to the more sober style of SC 4. Moreover, pretty much every of the SC 2013's meaningful innovations has been implemented somewhere else. E.g., the freeform roads doubled as water mains and power cables have first appeared in City Life, the possibility to upgrade the buildings already was there in Tycoon Cities: New York, and so on. I am still to be persuaded that SC 2013 has the killer feature that will make me grab it and forget SC 4 or Cities XL. Last, but not least, there's the modability question. Both SC 4 and Cities XL have many user-created mods to offer a whole new gameplay experience, but with the always-online model of SC 2013 the mods are right out.

And I, for one, am welcoming our new EA overlords.

All that marketing gobbledygook (I hate the word, but this is the spot to use it) boils down to 'You gotta have the online mode pushed on you, whether you love it or not, because MMOG and social networking got all the hype these days and we don't want to miss it. Oh, and our unbreakable copy protection is higher on our priorities list than your fun'. Yeah, whatever. I'm just not buying into all this SC 2013 hype.