theBrad

What is clear now (at least to me) is a need for a "SimCity 5", a sequel to SimCity 4. This new SimCity, as it has been pointed out already is not a sequel but a rehashed concept of a city sim game targeted to a different market than the SimCity 1990-2004 market. I am doubting any new DLC or expansion to the current SimCity game will appease traditional SimCity fans, but will be targeted to whatever new market they think exists.

This is depressing. It seems like our hopes lies within the indie gaming community. There are a few such games in development, I hope they pan out.

THanks for the link & excellent points. I have yet to purchase SimCity5 but continue to follow developments because I am waiting for the opportunity to purchase the game but so far I have had no reason to. Looking at the majority of the cities people have developed, I am amazed how homogenous they all appear, which is a startling difference from reviewing cities from SimCity4 is the lack of interest in design. I think this also can be attributed to the map size, like an artist's canvas it requires greater skill to fill a small canvas with vision than a larger canvas. With a larger canvas the artist has more flexibility to explore & innovate.

And if you miss subways in the new SimCity... But in case there are any unfamiliar with CiM - this is not a city sim game, but a transit sim game. But one of the top interests I have in SimCity is traffic, which CiM2 covers far better than SimCity.

Bought it through Amazon ($17.99) & have played it for 1-2 hours. I am impressed so far, unbelievably in depth & initial impression is challenging. It definitely seems to be a game that I can get my hands really dirty & experience OCD thrills.

I can only provide an opinion based on being a fellow SimCity fan that is still on the fence about purchasing this game, but I would wait it out. I have probably spent more time reviewing & analyzing game features for a game I have not purchased than for any game, purchased or not and so far I don't like what I've seen. I do think, online or not, in a year this game will most likely live up to expectation after all the bugs are fixed, the modeling is fine tuned, features are added, and the map size is increased. But besides resisting this purchase due to the absurd MMO sales pitch, it seems most people are designing the game around bugs rather than mimicing any real urban development.

I am defintely preordering this - it is $19.99 & comes out in a few weeks. I was originally confused how the city 'expands' but it makes sense now. The game has some type of an RCI indicator & the city will expand based on what transportation networks you build for it. Subway & highways will generate higher density, bus lines & streets will generate lower density. Also depending on what is built nearest will influence future developments. So their is the possibility of an organic development process, guided by the transportation networks you build.

I came across this too, through Reddit. I definitely like what I've seen so far - it has the potential to be a first link to a historic-based SimCity, starting with agriculture. Between this, Cities in Motion 2 & other future indie games like Civitas I am hoping for several SimCity replacements.

I don' understand what all of you are bickering about. This morning I woke up in my basement studio apartment, got in my car & rather than wasting my time on the freeway, I drove down several narrow dirt roads to get to McDonalds where I work. After work, I found out there was a closer home to work, so I drove to a lovely 8 bedroom mansion. I woke up the next day and as I now live in a mansion, I should certainly look the part & I now am a CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Makes sense doesn't it?

From my experience, and what it looks like on your screeshot - you most likely have expanded too far & need to scale back. I can't say you will be able to reclaim those buildings, because you may very well may have to level them. This is because sometimes growth will outpace demand, and you might experience a boom - not too unlike our own housing bubble in the US 5-10 years ago - but demand for commercial / industrial has leveled. So, you likely have high demand for low wealth residential & relatively low demand for high wealth. So my opinion is to level it & get low wealth residential built.

The Network Addon Mod should help you. I build small towns using mostly just streets. It accurately mods the transportation network accurately - the capacity is increased as well as possible distance driven.

A greater emphasis on municipal governing & land development - possibly presented in two different play options for the gamer. One emphasis is as a city manager whose responsibilities is to handle resident issues and developer issues and be able to juggle the two often opposing interests. This version of the game would most resemble the current game, zoning & road & utility construction would be a priority, but rather than the miniscule detail of building every single road feature, you - as both city manager & city council would authorize developer plans to build - residential subdivisions, office parks, rezoning, etc. As more development is permitted, NIMBY issues must be answered thus forcing the gamer to confront the results of development that would either increase traffic, pollution or decrease land value or even increase land value involving gentrification. Meanwhile developers will request greater infrastructure, lower taxes, special concessions which could be addressed in numerous ways. The other emphasis is the developer who desires to make money and may or may not have civic interests in mind. You buy land & design developments which requires city permission to zone. You often have to redesign based on city or NIMBY concerns in order to have your proposal accepted. If their is the market for your development, you certainly make money, otherwise you are stuck with nothing more than empty land & empty streets. Another option is to purchase existing structures & have them rezoned or rehabilitated or even purchase as an investment. You design the structure, possibly a skyscraper and choose to either manage the building or sell upon completion. Those are 2 paired ideas, based on my own past career working in local government. As much as I enjoy the god mode of controlling everything, it would be fun to play a role where you feel you are completely invested in the city.

Thanks for all of this, after numerous years I am reinstalling SimCity 4 as I got the SimCity fever from the excitement of the release, only to be too dissapointed in purchasing. I will likely buy it eventually, but it looks like SimCity 4 for the time being is still a better game (for the way I want to play & not how the EA execs want me to play).

She didn't state this in this twitter Q&A, it must have been a corporate statement - but am I the only one who finds this statement contrary to what SimCity is about? "I'll keep this short since almost everyone who cares is busy building cities and making friends in SimCity ." Not meaning to knock people who are engaged in the social aspect of this new version of SimCity, or who typically participate in social based games. But I'm an introvert, & what she is describing is a game developed for extroverts. That is a big deal to me, because SimCity, as well as the Civilization series & new games such as Cities in Motion have traditionally appealed to the analytical types whose idea of what is most entertaining is what goes on in their own mind, not through the interaction of others. Indeed games that neccessitated social interaction or lacked the ability for the gamer to control how the game develops (another favorite game type are sand box RPGs, such as Elder Scrolls) are an instant turn off. Again, if you are an extrovert & enjoy interacting with other gamers, kudos & I do realize you can play solo in SimCity. But it does appear that the future direction of this beloved game will be oriented toward social interaction rather than the virtual lego game I have long adored. I haven't purchased this game yet, besides the fact many are unable to even play after purchasing as well as the small tiles, and likely will purchase it as I have since the first SimCity for PC but as likely been stated thousands of times here - Maxis / EA are turning their back to the quiet geeks like me that want a game that allows them to create daydreams.

Thanks for the responses folks - those are some excellent points.

Here is a question - why is their so much traffic in such a small town? Is it because due to the small tile sizes the model overcompensates traffic in order to make the game more challenging? I am not sure how I feel about this - I love to be challenged to handle traffic, that obviously is one of the great things about SimCity, but only when it makes sense. Even if those are dirt roads, I don't understand why their would be so many cars with so few houses.

Thanks for posting the new videos - regarding the most recent video from something called the Jace Hall Show. I HIGHLY recommend stabbing your hand with a fork while watching it, it made it far more bearable than it would be otherwise. Also, I find their new adaptation of the region to be near disastrous. Interesting quote from PC Preview: "This is basically The Sims on a regional scale, each house in that game the equivalent of an entire city here." Though I still intend on buying the game (as I did with the dud Cities XL), that is probably the most effective arguement not to buy this game. I love SimCity because it is a "Simulation" of urban development, not a simulation city for Barbie's Dreamhouse.

For those who haven't played - I agree, Cities in Motion is enjoyable & so far I really like what I've seen from the in-game demos for Cities in Motion 2. One question for anyone to ponder, regarding the city now being "dynamic" - any idea what influences the type of structure to be built? Obviously there is some demand simulator to determine if the new building will be low, medium or high density - but how does it determine commercial, residential or industrial? I could theoretically see this as being frustrating.

To be fair - most streets in high dense areas (downtown) are 4 lanes. The key is these are narrow 4 lane streets with no median or suicide lane. What I am most concerned about is how the tiles develop which I believe produces the sparseness of the game images.

More business deals - based not neccessarily on population but various factors including wealth, education, etc. Obviously business deals has been a major component in past releases but I would like this expanded to include industrial, commercial, & institutions. In the case of industrial & commercial, obviously factories & shopping malls are possible when the zoning requirements are met. But some businesses should require additional bidding or tax or financial deals to be built. These deals could attract massive (think 6x6+ tile based structures) developments that the player may not neccessarily want due to how they may overwhelm the economy or services. Here are some possible business deals: Textile Mill (historic early 1900s factory including company mill town) Steel Mill (historic early 1900s factory with extraordinarily high pollution) Automobile Factory (requires huge space and employs high skill workers but produces high pollution) Regional Warehouse (requires huge space but employs primarily low skill workers) Shopping Mall (I believe this may already be a past business deal) Corporate Headquarters Office Campus (a large suburban office campus) Based on requirements, these business deals may be repeated. Also these business deals have a high influence over neighboring developments due to requirring commercial services. Again, the dilemna with these business deals is they often attract high traffic, require a great number of services, and may have a negative influence on the city. Also due to the business deal, you initially will not be making any money off of these due to the tax infrastructure financing or money required to pay for the land & infrastructure.

Thanks Dirk for your review as well as Guillaume for answering questions. As Guillaume did suggest their will be some correction - tile size / "open space between buildings" is a big aesthetic issue to me. I think more than building styles, various tile sizes is what provides the greatest amount of variety to the game. Nonetheless, I've been playing SimCity since it was first released on floppy disc & despite complaints I've had for each game - I will be buying the new version. If anyone can recall - as exciting SimCity4 was initially to play with, there were plenty of let downs, but over time due to expansion packs (Rush Hour) & modding - there weren't too many gaming complaints 1 or 2 years after the release. I am merely suggesting give the folks at Maxis a little bit of breathing room & back off from the hysterics.

One thing missing from SC4, that I believe in SC3k was introduced - was being forced to handle conflict. Besides 'advisors' or community activists there were localized concerns - a residential area without a park, or too close to industries. Certainly a lot of games grew to hate the pop up windows asking for more parks, but completely ignoring them like in SC4 made the game more of a sandbox than a near-real life simulation of citizen interests. I would like to know if this will be addressed - based on localized environmental factors (lack of schools, parks or near road traffic & industrial pollution), will there exist citizen complaints requirring resolution (or ignore & face the consequences)?

Question to anyone who may know, is this 50% off deal (if you previously purchased Cities XL) only applicable if you participate in the pre-order?

If it didn't you would likely be asking us why the game crashes & your computer screen turns blue whenever you zoom out.

If it didn't you would likely be asking us why the game crashes & your computer screen turns blue whenever you zoom out.