wokisan

Yeah, I feel like the Amusement Park DLC gave a lot more 'bang for the buck' (although admittedly I didn't pay full price for that one. Got it on sale for $6). This one seems pretty small to also be priced at $9. I won't have any trouble skipping this one and I guess this solidifies the fact that Maxis will also price the 'Worship DLC' at $9. Might be time for them to throw the players some 'feel-good' free DLC instead. The response to this one hasn't been pretty from what I have seen so far.

Marketing deals probably make it difficult to offer something like this on a worldwide scale (I have no idea, just my guess) but it would have been nice to work out a similar deal with other brands in Europe/Asia.

I would (although I never got the digital deluxe version). I pre-ordered the physical copy from Amazon for $60. Later on I bought a '2-pack' consisting of the French and British city-sets on sale for like $7 from green man gaming (I think). However when Amazon dropped the price $20 a few weeks after release I emailed them and they credited me the difference. So basically I paid $47 for everything the deluxe version has except the german cityset and the 'Sims' park. I've spent $60 on games that I have gotten far less enjoyment out of (I'm a big console gamer as well). Despite the terrible launch/frustrating bugs/issues I have had a ton of fun playing this version of SimCity and have logged 210 hours by Origin's count. Looking at it from a pure 'Fun per dollar' ratio SimCity would be ranked pretty high on my list. As we finally get some bug fixes (recycling bug/ service vehicle bug in particular) that ratio will only increase for me personally.

Another shot with an Arcology in the background... Same city...

I have had issues with this bug with Fire and Police Departments, Hospitals, and Streetcars. Now I believe I am having a variation of it with landmarks and casinos for the first time. I basically bulldozed an entire city (1st making sure to turn off services first and then waiting for all vehicles to return 'home'). Along the way I wiped out 3 casinos (2 gambling houses and a Sci-Fi). Now as I am rebuilding I can't get ANY tourists to show up in any casino or any landmark I plop. In fact, I don't have any tourists citywide. The city traffic is much better than it was previously, I have tons of mass transit, a train station but I can not get any tourists to show up at all.

The detective's van is basically an 'undercover' vehicle. It rides around and does stakeouts. It also was used in a mission to find a bomb that had been hidden in the city. I haven't been able to figure out what exactly the CPVs are doing. I thought maybe they would ride around to various city schools but mine don't seem to be doing that. They just ride around for a minute or two and go back to the police HQ.

It's even more pointless than that. We're a week away from everyone being able to play the game, but this isn't like an MMO where being able to play WELL on day one is important. If we get the game and just flail around a bit on our first cities for a week or two, is it really a problem? I'm planning on playing a small (say, 3-tile) region by myself just to get a handle on the basics before I'd even consider playing a large region (by myself or with others). And given the sheer number of hours people will end up spending on games like this (as opposed to so many other games where one good playthrough is all you want), starting over after a week or two is really not a big deal. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that people shouldn't watch these videos. Just that you're going to learn little from them that you wouldn't have figured out for yourself within the first day or two of release. And frankly, I'm looking forward to that trial-and-error learning process... Also note that the game probably only has about 20 hours of content max. I poured 16 hours into the beta's and I barely scratched the surface. Same here (time spent in both betas). As far as the Disaster City live stream today I found it interesting not necessarily because of the disasters but instead because we are getting good looks at stuff that was locked in the betas. In this episode I got to see a more detailed look at the larger fire/police stations, the nuclear power plant, avenues with light rail, the municipal airport, and more. I am definitely interested in seeing the episode focusing on regional cooperation between cities. It might not be enough extra info to convince someone to buy or not to buy the game but it definitely gives you a good idea of its scope.

Follow Maxis-Scott on Google+, he was giving out some earlier today.

Amazon sent me a key yesterday since I have a preorder with them.

And this is the attitude EA wants to foster. People who are willing to pay $60 for a base game and then $5-10 here and there for more visual goodies. Before you know it in 6 months you'll given EA over $200 to make the city look the way you wanted, a way that was free before, and thank them for the opportunity. Nope, I don't have $200 to spend and I will not pay $5-10 here and there for just 'more visual goodies'. And saying I would 'thank them for the opportunity' is an unfair exaggeration.

Just found this thread....THANK YOU! I have all the music from Simcity 3000, 3000UL, SC4, SC4:RH, and today SC5 but I've been missing the SimCity 2000 Soundtrack for a while now. I have the game installed but couldn't figure out how to extract the songs. Again thanks to biff!!!

I agree, the original poster should at least give it a try instead of not playing it based on other people's opinions....of course no one knows how many players will get into this weekend's beta. Alas TheH3dgie, if you felt the city sizes in SC4 were too small (wow, even the large tiles???) then you will definitely feel constricted in this version. Keep in mind I am coming from the viewpoint of absolutely adoring SC4 (still playing it after 10 years) but I am not so much of a fanboy to refuse to admit that it certainly had its faults. I think it got worlds better with awesome mods like the NAM, tons of custom buildings from users, and the Rush Hour expansion. One interesting thing to keep in mind is that this new game does keep throwing 'missions' at you which is a feature you may like. It is NOT a narrative by any means but it nudges you to complete certain tasks to keep your population happy. That might keep more of your interest but you need to try it to know for sure.

Regards 4, I thought there was a tree tool in the parks menu. And regards 5, there was a windowed mode in the options... (This is based off the beta a few weeks ago) Yeah, it was the last option in the 'Nature Parks' menu. You could plop trees pretty much anywhere.

Yeah, in the beta you could definitely do that. I could never get a bridge quite as high as that section on the far right but I was able to build a elevated portion over the water area.

Awwww man...I saw the title and thought someone had leaked footage of the closed dev beta....