Mr.Mao

Just take your gamecomputer to a place with internet connection (ask your neighbours if necessary) and activate the game. Just plug in a network cable in your pc and do the online activation. Do NOT transfer the files to another computer and try to activate it on that! The activation probably unlocks some files on that particular pc to allow you to play on it. Seriously though, in this day and age, you will need an internet connection on your gaming comp. Either for game activations or online multiplayer of games. I love having Steam to download my games and have it autopatch all my games automatically. Any particular reason why you haven't hooked up your gaming pc to the net?

I was very happy to unlock highways at 500k citizens. But now when I try to put down some highways it almost impossible to do it right. Highways can't cross smaller roads without resorting to expensive bridges and these bridges often give the "invalid junction" error. So now I just use expressways mostly, since highways are almost impossible to install properly. Nevermind building things on the other side of the highway and connecting them to the rest of the city. What are your experiences? Any tips to manage this problem?

shops are indeed very poorly implemented, as I have the same problem. 500,000 people with shops at strategic locations (about 12 single shops in total!) and they have problems staying in business. Seems like a bug, since all industries you can construct in blocks, except for retail.

I have Vista Home premium 64 and no problems running the game (Steam copy, not that it would matter since the client updates before you can run the game itself). Can you start up the client at least to login etc? Seems like your installation got corrupted, so a whole reinstall might be necessary. Try to delete all files that are associated with CitiesXL. Do full uninstall and then a Register check. Make sure you have the latest drivers for your graphics card (I have ATI driver 9.9, don't know what version Nvidea has now) and if you overclocked your system, perhaps clock it back to original settings.

I pre-ordered the game through Steam and pre-loaded it so I can instantly play on 9 Oct. I enjoyed the demo quite a bit and am really looking forward to both the Single Player and the Planet Offer MMO after I finished the single player. Many people are complaining about the mass transit not being included, but to be honest I never really enjoyed that part in Simcity. The game seems to work well without it. To just say you won't buy the game because of one thing (mass transit) just seems petty and seems like you just want to complain for complaint's sake. Mass transit when added should be done for free in the future (not just under PO) as it seems to be an integral part of a city builder, but as mentioned in an interview it was not ready for launch yet. If you do not like to pay for PO each month, you still have a solid single player game.