RyanMorgan95

You're right, real-world communites are not bubble communities, which is why this image pisses me off: Why can't city areas touch? Since the maximum number of cities in a region is 16, we could have a 4x4 block of cities (8x8km). Then you can have a few spots for Great Works on the exterior of this block. If Maxis can't do this because being in the active city and having to also render the neighboring cities uses up to much horsepower, why not have fog surround the active city? If Maxis could do this, the shambolic city size wouldn't be such an issue, and the player(s) can control different "districts" of a 64km square city (not quite a metropolis but still)

Those specs are just the bare minimum; here's the recommended specs: Processor: Intel Core i5 or faster Operating System: Windows 7 RAM: 4GB RAM Graphics Card: nVidia GTX 275 or better, or ATI 5850 or better (well, it looks like I can't rely on the integrated graphics anymore!) Fortunately I got round to building my new Ivy Bridge system before the release of SimCity (I will be getting it most probably) and thankfully it exceeds all these recommendations. Can't wait to play this in all its graphical glory! The GT630M is certainly letting the system down, so graphical settings will likely have to be reduced, but not to the very lowest settings I'd imagine. As for the CPU-intensive simulation aspect (provided that's how SimCity will use resources), you should be OK with medium settings, although it really depends on what constitutes as medium settings when the finished game arrives.

If they offered a single-player, totally isolated offline mode, there would be no server constraints! Most of the shortcomings of this game stem from the fact SimCity was intended to be a multiplayer game - that was a poor decision.

I've lost support for the developers ever since the Reddit discussion, and quite frankly they deserve all the backlash and criticism they get. City maps are too small, region maps are too small, Origin is a DRM monster and not being able to play offline (which would move server constraints on the larger city and region sizes) is ridiculous. I feel that all these shortcomings will detract from the overall experience significantly. I have to pay £45 to buy the game which I may not even be able to play if I take my PC somewhere without Internet. I wouldn't put it all down to Maxis though; EA is appalling too:

That's assuming all the lots are adjacent, with no gaps in between. Also, you need space for the Great Works. There was a recent image showing region view with 16 cities and several Great Work sites, so you're talking a lot bigger (you just can't build on all of it unfortunately)

I just wish city lots were adjacent, rather than having gaps. I wouldn't mind 2x2 maps if this was the case.

So, no highways/motorways/freeways/autobahns then? Wait, I guess such high capacity road would be redundant in a pitiful 2km square map.

I would much prefer flooding than UFO attacks; I think it would work well with the weather and water table mechanisms. Other than that, I hope they improve the other three disasters, so when buildings collapse, they don't simply disappear and leave a square of grey on the ground (i.e. they need 3D rubble!) and I hope roads will break too. I'd also like to see collapsing skyscrapers take out other buildings, but that might be asking for too much. The trailer was really good though!

Except for subways. It's something I'd love to have in the game as well, trust me! Could you explain why we don't have subways, a feature of many, many cities, yet we have trams, which to me are a bit of a novelty, and don't offer any where near the capacity of subways. It's great to have trams in SimCity, but I would have expected subways to be a more significant transport option. You managed it in SimCity 3000 and 4! Thanks!

Oh yeah I blurred the image to conceal YouTube usernames, as well as draw attention to the comment. The channel has all the SimCity videos with Cryllic titles, so I'd imagine it is an official channel. There's English and Cryllic on the channel too, so perhaps they're fluent in both. Currently, it's at the bottom of the third comment section on the Gameplay Video

Thanks for the advice and info, and no you didn't sound patronising! I'm still debating whether to get a H100 or the Noctua, as the H100's fans as I understand are noisy to say the least. It is my first build, so I'd be happy with a small overclock, say 4.2Ghz, in which a H100 seems a bit overkill, considering the price. Plus, there's the risk of leakage. There's rumours that a GTX 650 Ti will be released this month, which should be a nice compromise between the 660's performance and 650's price. I'd like blue RAM to go with the ASUS motherboard colour scheme, and using the Noctua, I think it would be safe to get the low-profile RAM. I'll get the retail version of the CPU, and that way I can delay buying the Noctua until the SimCity release, which is probably the only time an overclock will benefit significantly. I'll probably get the GTX 650 Ti then, too. You're right about there being something better always on the horizon, so yeah I won't bother waiting any more! Just need to save up £300 (the rest I'll get for my birthday and Christmas, fingers crossed) and I'll be good to go! I'll let you know how I get on Also thank you @CXLMachine!

Hey all! Maxis will be delivering a two-hour live stream (according to the Facebook event here: https://www.facebook...59725977445590/) featuring the developers of SimCity, and, rather oddly, the developers of Sims 3 too. Perhaps that's why it's a Maxis Live Broadcast and not a SimCity Live Broadcast. Nevertheless, the focus is on SimCity, and they've stated that we'll be get to see live gameplay, plus get the opportunity to ask questions directly to the dev. team (hopefully, they won't just answer the easy ones, or beat it round the bush when it comes to something more challenging, as they've done before) Could we also be seeing the launch of the Closed Beta too? The 9th of October can't come soon enough! The broadcast itself will be here: http://www.origin.com/maxis-live

About the difficulty - I'm sure this can be altered so that make money is more difficult. What bugged me in the video was: The heavy rail tracks connect perpendicularly, which is not at all realistic. I hope there is an option to build curves with heavy rail, and better, almost parallel junctions by release. The wind speed where he placed the wind turbine plant was over 120mph! Unless SimCity is on a different planet where there is a thinner atmosphere (so the affect of wind speed is lessened) then they need to change that. Pretty minor, but silly. The environment is pretty static: the trees are very cartoony and don't sway at all. despite the storm force winds. Again, this detracts from the game's realism. Building textures are really basic, with very little detail, particularly walls. Textures will hopefully be improved. No farms? I do get the feeling that the entire region is meant to be the "city" - metropolitan area - and the "towns" are merely districts within that city. Notice there was no loading transition between the region view and entering a town, so I would assume you can zoom back out and select a new town seamlessly, which I can live with. Still, larger "town" areas, in conjunction with this seamlessness, would be a big bonus. What I did like was the modularity of the wind turbine plant, the colour to highlight the effect/reach of utilities and the police station (much like Cities XL). When one isn't zoomed in, the graphics look fantastic. The UI and data layers are sleek and simple, too. All in all, I think this gameplay video strengthened the case for buying SimCity, personally. It's just minor things that need improvement I feel. Look forward to the next one, and the broadcast!

I wouldn't wait for the Haswell if you plan to rely on integrated graphics then. And modern CPUs have a really long shelf life these days. My Q9550 quad core from 2008 was still plenty powerful in modern gaming, especially with a modest OC to 3.4ghz. I would go with the 3570K and put that extra $100 towards the better GPU. I have the 3770K, but unless you plan to do stuff that requires heavy multi-core use like video editing, the 3570k would be almost exactly the same for gaming. The 3770K would be a bit easier to overclock, but I doubt you would need to do any overclocking in the forseeable future. I recommend Gigabyte motherboards, otherwise Asus and Asrock also make good boards. Just read the reviews on Newegg to make sure its not one of their dud products. It happens to all manufacturers at times. I have the Gigabyte Z77-UD5H and it's an awesome board, if a bit more pricey. The UD3H should be fine as well. RAM is also dirt cheap, so I would say just go with 16gb of like DDR3-2166. Otherwise if you go with 8gb, just make sure its a 2x4GB kit so you can add more later. A 650watt PSU should be plenty if you don't already have that. And if you are looking for a new case, besides the usual quality players like Antec and Coolermaster: I bought the Arc Midi tower from Fractal Design and its also an excellent case. Everything is designed in a well-thought-out manner. Couldn't be happier for the $100 price tag. Thanks for the advice! I've devised a list of components for my build on eBuyer below, based on what you've said, and it's within my budget so it's just a matter of time: SSD prices are still dropping and I don't know what to ask for Christmas so I thought I'd ask for some parts! If there's an issue with my components, please let me know aereus! http://www.ebuyer.com/lists/list/16877

I think it's at 10 AM for you (Seattle is on the Pacific coast right?) I'm sure you'll be able to watch it, since they usually record it and allow you play it back whenever.

I'd have to disagree, Tom. The economic and monetary system in SimCity is somewhat different to the real economic and monetary system, as there is no buying up of debt or bonds etc. and no interest on money (that's central bank stuff, I don't know a lot about that) and no futures on commodities, amongst other things. Quite simply, it's just a supply and demand mechanism with money used as a medium of exchange, or at least that's how I perceive it.

If they include the option to toggle tilt-shift on and off, and perhaps even allow one to vary the degree of the effect, then everyone is happy!

I have a bit of dilemma with my upcoming computer; my current PC is over six years old and struggles to run Farmville (don't worry, I don't play it now, nor was I regular player), and so I'm planning to build a PC in December. Here's are the options: 1. I get the Intel i5 3570K (overclock turbo boost to around 4.5GHz) with a GTX 660, 2. the Intel i5 3770 (no overclocking, turbo boost is 3.9GHz) and a GTX 650, or 3. wait till Haswell CPUs come out (after SimCity release) and hope the integrated graphics (GT2) are good enough. In summary: do I get an i5 with a 660, an i7 with a 650, or a Haswell i7 by itself?

If you go to http://www.simcity.com/en_US/insider/blog/article/The-Circulatory-System-of-SimCity-Follow-up a comment from Donohoe states "We'll be talking a lot about transportation next week, in fact!" At last!

Hey everyone! Just to let the UK fans know, pre-ordering SimCity (either version) on Origin will get you £40 off your next purchase on Origin. It's a pretty attractive offer, and it's anyone's guess as to why it's just the UK getting this offer. I will consider pre-ordering it on the day before the offer expires (14th Sept) Note: for some reason, in the basket, it suggests you earn 5 x £10 Off your next purchases, which is even better. If anyone's pre-orders it, please let me know what you get! http://store.origin....Page.SimcityUK/

Ah, if that's the case I'll give it a miss, and like you mention, get SimCity on Amazon! I did attempt to see whether the offer was available in other countries, and all I could access was the French website! Thanks for letting me and others know I agree to an extent: the online aspect is a hard pill to swallow for many (I'm not overly fussed), although maybe there are issues which are yet to surface. I'll probably end up buying it following its release.

I'm becoming increasingly disappointed with each and every screenshot. This one, whilst mocking the hardcore SimCity player's intelligence and maturity somewhat, reflects a number of problems which haven't yet been addressed: the very small size of the "city" (more like a premature village if you ask me), the vast green spaces engulfing each building, sparse woodland and building lots that are completely flat and either raise or lower the ground around them depending on the relief of the land. Look at those mounds with the shadows. Very unrealistic. I really hope the Beta can restore my faith in the game.

It's great they've included resources such as oil, water, coal, metals and manufactured products such as electronics and alloys, but they've forgotten perhaps the most fundamental resource of all - food! Food would be a great resource, because it is partially dependant on oil for machinery and transit, and of course water. Once one's city has run out of an exhaustible resource, food can replace it and is totally sustainable, providing machinery is powered by electricity from a renewable resource. Farm modules could include the huge water sprinklers, sheds to store crops, and additional pens for domesticated animals for example.

I doubt Maxis/EA will offer DLC because of mods, which are of course free and generally very beneficial. If however they restrict mods somehow, then DLC will probably become available. I think larger expansion packs would be better, offering hundreds of new buildings with a new tileset, and plenty of new services and transport options, similar to Rush Hour.

I cannot understand why so many people want war in this game! If you want to go down that route, get something like Civlisation V or Tropico 4. SimCity is fundamentally about construction, not destruction.