I will just throw a few cents in the conversation, might as well. Although Twyla has it pretty well covered. For me, same as others, the game was lacking in depth and complexity. Sure, the modules on buildings was a nice touch and the multi-player option has potential, but for me, as far as the positive goes, it kinda ends here.
Pipes and powerlines integrated automatically into roads, no roads maintenance, no ordinances, no budgetary controls, messed up zoning, it all just makes the game too simplistic. There is no challenge, no depth, no need to think where to place that police station or school. It all gets covered anyway, because the cities are small. The beta city is a medium size city. Can't wait to see the small version. One of the great things of SC4 budget wise,for example, was the complexity in balancing the budget. Maybe because I always play on normal speed, my cities revolved around getting slightly in the green and getting a loan to fund any major city project. It was more realistic.
And yes, we might be spoiled because of the sheer amount of mods available for SC4, but SC5 is not even modable and EA is not known for its mods friendly policy with regards to its game. Overall I am sincerely disappointed from the lacklustre performance of the game so far. The beta is 1h of gameplay and it seems that's how much you will need in the full game as well. It looked great on paper but terrible in its implementation. It seems the audience that made the previous incarnations of the game a success was not the target demographic with the latest iteration.
