Ok, we all know that Sim City Sociaties is a bag of rats...
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2 for £20 quid, that’s my excuse for buying it. World In Conflict, couldn’t find another decent game so i got Sim City Sociaties. Completed the first, started the second thought it was terrible. So... after about an hour i sent it down to my Dad who is nearly 53 and plays Sim City 4 religiously and has done with 3000, 2000, and Classic as well as Sim Tower. Dont ask about Sim Isle, i think i did ok on that but geez it was hard. Anyways, he refuses to play it...
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My only hope is that EA have got it into their heads that Maxis are the best at City and Simulation genre’s. However they weren’t the first to produce a fully 3D environment for a City building game, and with The Sims and The Sims 2 and Spore, they opened new doors to get Sim City 5 perfect. Or will there be The Sims 3 before that? Who knows...
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Sim City Sociaties...well it’s a kids game. It’s a game developed to create a new creation of followers, for example, Transformers in the 80’s, The new Transformer movies. We all forget, Most of us started playing Sim City in the early 90’s or 80’s. On the Amiga or Atari, Some the SNES. Were a die hard cult and they must be stupid to not know that, but if they make a game that is as difficult to a new comer as Sim City 4 was... well, they are not going to expand on their die hard following. Most teenagers these days have had a P.C since 2000... not since the early 90's, they will think it's a terrible game because they just dont understand it whatsoever, or they will go back to their x-box and all that... So...what do EA do... they put Maxis through their paces. They get their 3D working environment just right. They put some other fools on this new Sim City game. 3D, New aspects, not too difficult but those aspects will put them in good stead and good training for when the big one eventually comes out, seven or eight years down the line.
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The game sells, the game was never meant to be a big hit, it was meant to attract a new audience and get them hooked. Also... EA thought that the sales would be better than what they’ve hoped due to the die hard cult following also buying it and putting it through it’s paces and no doubt crucifying it... but they've just released an expansion... so it must be selling well. Now, Sim City 4 Deluxe sold really well when Sociaties was released. Why? Kids see a sim city, the buy it...cheap enough... very difficult and challenging... gets them used to the other aspects of the game that was missing in Sim City Sociaties. Like Water and Power management. Education and Transport management. Not scroll, click and plop but plan, decide and manage to attain. Sim City is an art, it always has been and always will be. Depending on how you look at it, Sim City Sociaties is an art, just not as we know it.
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For all the Sim City Die Hard Fans out there, play the game. Get used to the new aspects, get used to the 3D engine, See The Sims walk around and update your PC to accomodate the maximum settings that the game needs. Because you may as well for as we all know that when Sim City 5 comes out, it’s gonna piss all over the maximum settings of Sociaties. It's gonna piss all over any other city simulation game, Those max specs tthat you will probably run SC5 on it’s lowest specs.
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If i was EA, i’d create an expansion for Spore, leave it be... then it’s a toss up between The Sims 3 or Sim City 5. The Sims 3 will be more profitable because it's the only game of it's kind, and with it being called The Sims... It’s advertising Sim City... Sim City 5 is coming. It’s gonna be in 3D, it’s gonna be tough, it’s gonna be hard, it’s gonna accomadate all the newbies, it’s gonna sell well... just it’s gonna take some time. They need to get it absolutely right with the competition they have at the moment. And they will. Sim City Sociaties... well it’s served it’s purpose... It’s a test run and a feeler to a new audience, basically saying to them... "So you wanna know how to play Sim City, well play this, then when you compleate all of this, then your ready to play".
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There are other examples of this... C&C uses a new engine before Red Alert comes out to exploit it with all the added extras (Although it should be the other way round!) You dont ruin a brand name without testing it on prototypes first. I’m sure i read in a preview back in 2006 that Sociaties was not like Sim City but was aimed at attracting a younger audience or a new audience.
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So there ya go boys and girls. I’ve just played it tonight for the first time ever i’ve sat down and really tried hard. Lasted 5 hours just got a city of 10k, half the map filled... It’s tough, it’s hard... but it’s about creating a type of city... i’ll play it again further down the line... but i think for the meantime i will be heading back to Sim City 4 to develop my artwork. Oh and one major possitive about SCS, the music is so romantic... reminds me of a girl i'm so in love with... shame she's dating a fat rich pig!
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Cheers!
