AnathemaDevice

Not everyone uses Steam. I got mine from Amazon here in the UK and it looks like they have it in Canada too - http://www.amazon.ca/Focus-3512899110656-Cities-XL-Platinum-Bilingual/dp/B00BKBFUOO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368542835&sr=8-1&keywords=cities+xl

Names can be deceptive, I assumed you were a geeky type and AIX referred to the unix flavour.

Anathema Device is a character from one of my favourite books, Good Omens.

Yawn

And the maps are huge. And it doesn't look cartoony (apart from the people).

Cities XL

I've only been playing for a few days and haven't built a big enough city to know if the memory leak thing is really an issue but I do run Memory Booster which should cure any memory leaks in any case. The best place for mods is xlnation.net As to whether you should buy it or not, that depends on what you want from the game. If you want something like a more modern looking SC4 with huge maps and freedom to create the city you want then I would say yes, that's what I wanted and I'm very pleased with it so far. It's not expensive, I paid £15 on Amazon, so it won't hurt too much if you try it and don't like it.

The bug fix patch for XL 2012 can be found at http://xlnation.net/content/annoying-cxl-2012-bug-fix-pack If you have XL Platinum the patch is already included.

Do you think that only your point of view should be heard and anyone who disagrees with you should just shut up? What's the point of a discussion forum if everyone agrees with each other? If everyone has to sing from the same song sheet it's not a discussion, it's a religion.

You haven't seen the Boomtown project then?

+1 for XL Nation mods. I've been playing SC4 since it was released and I still enjoy it even though it does look a little dated now. I was looking forward to a new up to date Simcity but when it arrived I was very disappointed to see the direction they have taken it in. Due to all the stuff I don't like about the new Simcity I went looking for alternatives and found Cities XL. I wouldn't have bought Cities XL when it was first released even if I had known about it because it was very different then, the online only and paying monthly part would have been a definite no go for me and from what I've read about the versions I wouldn't have gone for anything before XL 2012 due to the DRM. But now it's ideal for me, no dodgy DRM, nice big cities (not villages/small towns), it all runs on my computer without the need for and online connection to servers that may or may not be there when I want to play and no spyware snooping around my computer. I would like thank EA & Maxis for disappointing me with regards to Simcity because otherwise I wouldn't have found Cities XL, which is much more like the up to date game I was hoping for. I did install a number of mods from XL Nation from the start so I can't comment on the 'bare' game but with the mods it's fantastic. I have my old enthusiasm for city building back. You don't have to buy every update for it. Why not download some free mods from XL Nation? If you don't want to buy the expansions from Focus you could donate the cost of them XL Nation site instead, there's far more content available there than you would get in the expansion packs anyway. Some of the mods improve the gameplay as well, rather than just adding new buildings.

I've only just discovered Cities XL and have been playing for the last couple of days. TNP does't like Facebook

How about this one? http://xlnation.net/content/wall-collection-1

As far as I'm aware, information about software installed on my computer and my software usage is not uploaded by websites simply by visiting them. Admittedly, I am not a computer expert. If one who is would post a link to a reputable source which states otherwise, I would be very interested to read it. I run a few websites and none of them get any information from visitors' computers. The only things registered are the public IP address (the one assigned by your ISP) and the browser user agent, which usually includes the OS and which browser it is and the UA can be can be changed to anything you like. Nothing is uploaded unless the visitor chooses to upload it. Bad stuff is possible with scripts but that's what your anti-virus, anti-malware and firewall software is for. Anything that tries to snoop around my computer against my wishes from outside is malware as far as I'm concerned.

The difference is that you don't have to give the websites you visit access to snoop around all the files on your computer, any half decent firewall keeps your private stuff private but I bet Simcity won't work if you deny it inbound access.