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Actually on further inspection of this game, I just won't be buying it. $15? Yes. I don't mean to insult any of the developers who must have put a lot of hard work into it and I definitely see potential in the future but currently, it simply doesn't appeal to my tastes. Expectation burst.

No. SC4 is 2.5D, it's completely static, the city boundaries are chosen for you and you are locked to a grid. I'm simply saying, make a 3D version of SC4, give more freedom of control to city sight selection and size, ditch the grid and old engine, adopt Sandbox. I think the entire competitive and sharing aspect of multiplayer and the consequent expense of the servers hosting all this cloud data could have been wiser spent on making the region terraforming aspect.

Maxis were the one's who thought they had painted themselves into a corner by only appealing to the hardcore fans. hardcore fans = hardcore city simulation. That comes from them, not me.

Awesome. This gives me great hope. Keep going Maxis!

So we discover now that SimCity 2013 is a reboot, rather than the next step in a gradual evolution of the franchise. That's cool, but imagine (as I'm sure we all have) that you are the lead designer at Maxis and wondering what SimCity 5 would look like as the successor to SimCity 4. Imagine... The game starts and you are greeted with a large slab of earth floating in space, much like SimCity 4 - it's about..meh.. the size of 9 large SimCity 4 cities, forming a square - however, there are no outlines for city boundaries, and this baby is 3D, you can grip it and rotate it however you like. As some funky ass jazz music plays in the background you notice a plethora of glorious 3D tools to terraform this slab, and indeed, terraform you do. You raise mountains till snow appears, you lower valleys into deep oceans, you paint the landscape with tropical tress. You're happy with this region and now decide to start a city. You scroll your mouse wheel forward, zooming into an area of choice. You click the 'city boundry' icon and drag a square on the region to any size you see fit (up to a quad core processor processable size of course, which, by the way, is about the same size as a medium to large SimCity 4 city). Wallah! It's time to name your new city. You're city is named and you continue to scroll the mouse wheel forward into a few acres, the Glassbox engine kicks in and you immediately zone a large farm.... When you're done and want to create another city, you zoom back out, click that city boundary icon and create another one, any size you see fit. You marvel at the wonder of 1980's snap-to-grid technology, allowing you join the city to your previous one. It's nothing radical, just the logical next step after SimCity 4 methinks. And one the fans would be proud of I believe.

Here's the version for the rich, here's the version for the peasants. Why not just average the price to $70 and sell it as one game?

Sorry, didn't mean to offend anyone and no doubt I will play it (eventually) and truly hope to come to enjoy it. It requires a different perspective: that of micromanagement rather than the macromanagement that we are accustomed to coming from SC4. I was more talking about Societies and social media apps and the like, simpler versions. 2013 seems to adhere to the same philosophy but I've only played an hour. I will give it a chance but first impressions aren't good thus far.

If it's not SimCity 5 then.. Why have we suffered so many inferior reboots for over 10 years. The question begs: "Where the frack is SimcCity 5 !?!"

Agree. There was no need for a reinvention. "We worked ourselves into a corner with SC4.. It only appealed to the hardcore gamer..." And history shows that that is the route they have taken thus far, dumbing it down for what they believe is the average low IQ gamer. The fans never wanted a reinvention - just an evolution on what was already there.

To be fair, I think glassbox and going 3D has potential - Maxis just aren't ready to implement it properly. Sadly, I think this SimCity 5 might well need to be skipped. SimCity 6 (2020?!?) on the other hand might include the reintroduction of terraforming and linked cities. Hmmm.. Guess I'll be waiting another 10 years!

A simple solution and a very good idea indeed.

So, I played the beta all weekend then came here to see what the community thought. And yes, this is yet another critical post from a disgruntled long-time fan (I think it's important, however repetitive, that everyone express their opinions). Most of us seem to be complaining about the city size, however I agree that the far more henious crime is edge connections - or entire lack thereof! The region take is terrible; that you can't spread your networks beyond the boundaries and into other cities is simply atrocious! EA games, us SimCity folk are what you might like to call hardcore sandbox gamers. As such there is no greater crime then railroading us, I mean literally, there is a railway line and one single highway connection into my city that I didn't create, nor can I remove, nor, as aforementioned, can I create my own 'in's' and 'out's'. Such a thing is not simulating any city in the real world. Yes, there are many nice new features and in time more will be added but I fear this isolated boundary is hard coded and is something that we will be stuck with. I'm sorry, I know there have been a million similar posts, but I'm just another fan adding my two cents. I won't be buying this game on release, as I thought I would, but I might wait until it's half price or less.

RIOTS!!! At last! Ok folks, it was indeed my landmarks. I had to systematically move through the city and remove every landmark. Mind you most of them were strip venues, porn shops, dirty industry etc. I dunno, I guess my sims are a filthy bunch. So after I deleted all the landmarks my mayor rating dropped at a rappid rate and I believe the riot mod is working. Thanks for your help.

Thanks for your input folks but it is all to no avail. I put the 'lots of riots' mod in my plugins folder and not one riot. What the heck? My taxes on dirty industry are at 3%, Hi-tech at 20% I don't really want to change all my roads and avenues to streets as I have road top mass transit and it would considerably change my city. I think if taxes, no health, fire, lightning etc. aint gonna upset them I don't think traffic will! I do keep getting the green "Mayor a giant of governing gifts" but I've been very careful not to add any YIMBY landmarks or parks. I've made a few plops but these are dirty industry buildings, sex shops and LA rivers and ditches. Jeez, if my sims are happy when I plop porn shops and sewerage systems next to them then what hope do I have? As a measure I reduced all city beautification to 0 funding. My mayor rating cranks at 100% I really set out to have a filthy city fuill of riots - which I had in the early days - as it is imperative to my forthcoming CJ but now I have the opposite! Heck I couldn't get my mayor rating like that when I tried to build a 'nice' city! Anymore help will be greatly needed, I really don't want to have to start again... Wait a minute, maybe I put the riot mod in the wrong plugins folder? I'll try putting it in the Program Files folder and see what happens...

Hi all, I use to have riots in my slum city but now my mayor rating is through the roof and no matter what I do I can't lower it to get my riots back. I have a medium sized city with almost completely medium zoned. I have: All taxes at 20% All funding for everything but water and power to 0! NO hospitals NO schools NO fire stations NO police Lots of NIMBY lots and practically no YIMBY's No significant landmarks No positive ordinances I start fires, cut power, cut water do everything I can to annoy my sims but my mayor rating beams green at 100% What the hell am I to do? I want my citizens to hate me! Is there a mod that can lower your mayor rating? Thanks.