Klinn

Well, at least the old cheat console still worked (Shift-Ctrl-C) so you could quit the frozen game from there.

Well, as much as I've enjoyed SC4 over the years, I wouldn't want MC to just make a modern replica of it. Leave that for Will to do some day. I'm glad MC is thinking about other ways to approach the city-building genre and trying new things. I also believe in encouraging smaller developers and do want to support them. That being said, from what I've seen of it so far, I just don't think CitiesXL is a very good value. It feels like half a game for full price. More than full price actually. I'll keep following its progress, and I'll be eager to read peoples' impressions once released, but for me it looks like Tropico 3 will get the nod instead.

I've only created 1-1/2 cities in the demo so I'm no expert, but it seems that the citizens etc start demanding facilities a long time before they're really essential. Just keep a balance between jobs and citizens, and try not to build that school etc until you can afford the on-going cost. They may be unhappy for a while longer, but that doesn't really seem to make a difference, i.e. they don't leave town in a mass exodus so long as there's employment available. YMMV ;-)

Howdy Folks -- While playing the demo tonight, I noticed a number of in-game ads for Ford vehicles and for Kodak. There were some roadside "kiosk"-type ads, plus at least one large billboard in Capital City. Question: does anyone know if these ads are just for the demo, or should we expect them in the retail game too? After purchasing a boxed game, then paying a monthly subscription fee on top of it, I personally don't think I should have to put up with ads cluttering up my cities too.

Well, as an aside, I wouldn't exactly call this bilboard in Capital City unobstrusive: ;-) I haven't seen the bigger billboard in my demo city yet, only the smaller Kodak one behind it, but it's probably just a matter of time, e.g maybe based on large the city is. Anyway, the size is beside the point -- with regards to the "realism" issue, if there were billboard objects I could choose to place in my city because I thought they added realism, no problem. But in this case, I have zero choice. Even if I wanted to create a zen-like pastoral utopia, the signs are going to be added to my city whether I want them or not. If this was a free or inexpensive ad-supported game, again, no problem, that's the trade-off you make when choosing to play. But MC is expecting you to pay full price for a retail game *plus* a pretty hefty monthly fee, and they still want to force this clutter into your city. Sorry, but for me it's one more checkmark on the negative side when I decide whether to get the game or not. [max image size is 800x600]