PsiBorg6

Sorry to keep alive a thread that I'm the only participant in, but I know a few people are having the same problem and may look at it now again, so I am going to post the "fix" I have found. It's not really a fix, but it might be that my system setup was a contributing factor to SimCity not installing and it may be true of people with the same problem. I have a dual-boot system, fairly fresh with Windows 7 and Windows 8. There is very little installed on Windows 7, just MS Office, Civilization 4, SimCity 4 Deluxe, Steam and Anno 2070, XBMC plus some DVD ripping software. Nothing else, and it's completely up-to-date with patches and so on. Windows 8 has no installs save for standard stuff as I don't use it. My install of SimCity has failed every single time on the Windows 7 partition, whether from the disk or downloading. So, out of desperation I tried to install it on Windows 8 (which I don't use) and it installed perfectly. I have played the tutorial and just started a city and all seems well...so although it hasn't fixed my problem with the Windows 7 install at least I can play the damn thing! Maybe that'll help some people...

I have installed Sim City 4 + Rush Hour from my original disk copy and it works like a charm. There's progress for you!

The biggest irony of all is that although I stated in my comments that I have not yet played the game, I have since received it and can't even install the damn thing. Tried all weekend, installed about 2Gb from the disc, Origin downloads a 73Mb file, I hit install, it seems to install, then repeats the install request on the same file, so infinite loop and no game. I get rid of everything, Origin, SimCity, registry entries, retry through downloading the game only, and it downloads a 260MB (ish) file and goes into the same loop of looking like it's installing, then failing with no play option, just an 'install' option. I can't see through googling various forums that this is a particularly common problem, and I sure as hell can't find a fix, so it's currently winging its way back to Amazon for a refund...it'll be ineteresting to see if I get a refund, as it's still in my Origin games list... Oh, and I'm in the UK where the release was supposedly smoother than the US launch... Given up.

Anyone else getting this? Haven't seen a topic here on my issue specifically. I've been trying all evening to install the damn thing from disc delivered by Amazon today. I've had another go, uninstalling everything including Origin, restarted my internet connection in the the hope that might make some sort of difference. So it installs Origin, updates from the Internet, I log in, the remainder of the disk (about 2Gb) of data is installed, then it downloads a 73Mb update, sais it's installing it then nothing. It goes back to "download complete" with the option to install. I click install again, and it looks like it install, but goes back to "download complete" with the option to install again. I'm stuck at this point in some sort of perpetual loop. At time of writing, 2 of the 4 Western European servers are available... Has anyone else seen this and know what the hell is going on short of EA being crap?

Agreed, and I think that's the main difference between the two. Maxis do know what should make SimCity a great game and (again, not played it yet) the underlying game mechanics should be sound. Fixing bugs, tweaking the formulas and adding features to a sound game foundation will improve it much more than what is arguably the flawed foundation of Civ 5, which kind of lost the message of being a 'civilization' builder as opposed to the rather ropey war game it has actually become.

This whole thing is reminding me of the release of Civilization V. It was released to tremendous backlash, especially from online fans. Even now, after a couple of years and an expansion pack, there is still a regulalrly updated Civ V rants thread sitting in the top 20 threads on CivFanatics. Civilization V was divisive to say the least, and time has solidified that division, not weakened it. I feel the same will happen here. The server problems will get fixed, updates and/or expansions will add things we want (bigger cities and so on, perhaps offline play), but it will still be divisive. There will still be a large number of people who see SimCity 2013 as a scab on the franchise along with Societies, and that SimCity 4 was definitive (which it is IMHO). I for one, have not played it yet (hoping to tonight once Amazon have delivered it), so I can't comment on the game itself, it's just that the trend is very familiar with what happened in the Civilization community. I for one hated Civilization 5 by the way, and Gods & Kings did little to improve it for me, and I'm back on Civilization 4 and its' many, many great mods. However, there are a lot of people who love Civilization 5 and I expect in a couple of years, the trend will be very similar for SimCity 2013 and SimCity 4. JM2C Oh, and hello by the way!