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SimCity - Standard Edition [Download]

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Platform : Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 7 |

Rated: Rating Pending

| DRM: Origin

4.0 3,206 ratings

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Product information

ASIN

B007VTVRFA

Release date

March 4, 2013

Customer Reviews

4.0 3,206 ratings

4.0 out of 5 stars

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Return Policy

This product is non-returnable and non-refundable.

By placing your order, you agree to our Games and Software Terms of Use.

Type of item

Software Download

Rated

Rating Pending

Item model number

71481

Manufacturer

Electronic Arts

Date First Available

November 7, 2012

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Product Description

From the Manufacturer

The defining city simulation is back! Create the city you desire and make the choices that shape your city and power the Sims within it. Every decision, big or small, has real consequences. Invest in heavy industry and your economy will soar - but at the expense of your Sims' health as pollution spreads. Implement green technology and improve your Sims’ lives while risking higher taxes and unemployment. Team up with your friends to solve global challenges: launch a space shuttle, reduce carbon emissions, or build magnificent wonders.

Constructible Worlds - Creative and customizable world that offers unique gameplay benefits, all with a fun tactile interface.
Sims Matter - The Sims in your city speak to you directly and it's up to you to respond to their needs. Will you listen and be the toast of the town? Or abuse your power for fame and fortune?
Specialize in What You Love - Mold your city as a casino resort, manufacturing hub, educational enclave, and more, and then watch as a unique look and feel spread throughout your city.
Multiplayer - Build a region with friends for the first time! Collaborate or compete in regional and global challenges and make decisions that impact the greater SimCity World.
GlassBox Engine - SimCity introduces GlassBox, the revolutionary simulation technology that gives you the power to impact individual Sims lives, manage city level simulation, and balance multiple city simulations at once

Requires Origin Client to activate.

System Requirements

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 4000+ or better or Intel Core 2 Duo Processor 2.0GHz or better
Operating System: Windows XP/Vista/7
RAM: 2GB RAM
Hard Drive: 10GB HD Space
Graphics Card: ATI Radeon HD 2x00 or better*, nVidia 7800 or better*, Intel Series 4 integrated graphics or better*
Broadband Internet: Minimum 256 kbps download, 64 kbps upload

*Minimum of 256MB of on-board RAM and Shader 3.0 or better support.

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4 out of 5

3,206 global ratings

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Luminous

most of these bad reviews aren't reviews at all...

Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2013

Verified Purchase

I had been very slow to decide to try this game because of all the backlash and poor feedback I was reading. I finally went for it and boy am I glad that I did. I think this is the best Sim City they've done yet, and I'll tell you why.

First of all, I think most people gave it a bad review because they simply didn't like some of the new features.

The bad reviews about 'always online' are pretty dumb and seem more political than real reviews, because who, if their internet is down, is playing any games at all rather than trying to fix the internet? When the internet goes down, fixing it is the first thing I do.

I think that there were people who enjoyed different aspects of the original games, and some of those aspects have been enhanced and some ignored, so that's why I think it's split.

The single best feature IS the online play, finally being able to work together with other people to build thriving regions that have to properly manage their resources. It's really great, it's exactly what I always imagined should be when I used to play the old Sim Cities.

The next best thing is the sense of 'object oriented data'. What I mean is, it appears as though each sim, has a house and a car, and a job (hopefully for you!), etc. The data visualization overlays are AMAZING. It looks like I always hoped it would, where each individual detail is a real piece of data rather than just some numbers pumped out of an algorithm.

Any ways, I can't want for the updates. I am sure they will be releasing new feature packs for purchase. And more power to them! I think that costs of employment are rising all the time so I don't blame a company for finding creative ways to keep revenue as well as release new features. I can easily drop $50 taking my girl out to the movies and such, so I don't see $60 for a game and then $20 for the occasional content update to be anything at all, it's petty cash.

I am totally hooked on this game, can't wait for future content packs, and the hope that they will (as computers get more powerful) release regions with bigger individual city maps.

This has been the most fun Sim City yet and I have been forced to really learn BECAUSE IT IS ALWAYS ONLINE. This means no saves, once you make a choice you have to live with that choice, it makes it WAY MORE FUN!

Great job to the Sim City team.

7 people found this helpful

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Brandon Staggs

Still an excellent game

Reviewed in the United States on April 15, 2013

Verified Purchase

I lucked out and happened to be one of the ones who didn't have any server issues at launch. Was able to download and play within about 20 mins. Was on and playing for over 3 hours with no connection issues after that. As always with me, would rather point out the cons and finish up with the pros.

Cons
1) City Size. While I understand why they did this, it's still frustrating on many levels. The major frustration comes from if you don't realize the true limitations you try to do everything in one city and end up fighting traffic, budget deficit issues, and the never ending demand of RCI. Instead, the concept of this game is to not have a single giant city but instead to have several smaller specialized ones. When you realize this and you plan accordingly, your regions really prosper.

2) City Safety. No matter how many buildings you have and even if you max them out, there's never enough to go around or you're stymied by traffic. In one of my cities, I have over 60 police cars, 4 detective vans, and 4 crime prevention vans and yet there's still too much crime. It wasn't until I looked closer at the entrance to the city that I realized the issue was:

3) Traffic. I've watched videos, read write-ups, and tried out many different road lay outs but I still can't get around the massive rush hour traffic that just about shuts all my cities down. In my tourism city I have 2 train stations, a port with a cruise line, over 25 street cars and over 30 buses and I can't keep up with the traffic. I try to route traffic specifically by park & go's and bus stops, I try and route local sims to business instead of into major throughways, and I try to keep the traffic from the trains and port routing to the tourism sites but none of it helps. Don't even get me started on by oil/ore/coal cities.

4) AI. Now, I'm sure they'll fix this eventually, and a lot of different reviews (amateur and professional alike) have hit on this already, but the AI is stupid in this game. Pathing, city service deployment, transportation, you name it. You have 3 T-intersections in an area completely clogged up but 2 blocks up and over there's 3 cars total passing through the entire road line. Why wouldn't they reroute the traffic jam to utilize the open roads? 3 cop cars, 2 fire trucks and 2 ambulances coming up behind you, don't pull over to the side and let them by or anything, just flip 'em off and continue waiting in the gridlock. I mean really, why would you not program certain vehicles to have a higher priority on the roads or to have the other cars move to the side for emergency vehicles. Half my city is burning because a) my fire trucks decided to go through downtown at rush hour instead of taking the alternate path and b) they're stuck in rush hour because no one lets them by.

Pros
1) Addicting. This type of game is how I wish all games were. It's addicting enough to keep you involved for hours upon hours while playing and you can work on city upgrade plans in the back of your mind while not playing. But the level of addiction isn't so bad as it's all you want to do. I can easily drop 2-3 hours in an evening and it flies by, but once I walk away I don't have any overwhelming urge to run back to it. Mind you this is a personal Pro because user experiences will vary, but for me it's what makes it an ideal game.

2) Graphics. While it's a simple city-planning style game, I really love the flow and look of the graphics. Realistic enough to leave an awe inspiring feelings of accomplishment as your city grows into a sprawling metropolis but not so much that you take the game overly serious. It's beautiful and the depth of overall visuals are extremely pleasing. Everything from the plans flying overhead (even if you don't have airports yet in your region), to the random boats passing by through your water ways, to the changing time of day (even if it sometimes is to dark at night) is just satisfying. It's nice to play a game that's still a game and not focusing on hyper-realism (graphics wise).

3) Regions. While I initially disliked the city sizes, once I realized the possibilities of creating a fully functioning region I actually started getting pretty excited about the possibilities. It takes some getting used to, planning out the individual cities to work in tandem with each other is really a fun and new take on for Sim City. Before you had a large area (probably the same size as a region) to build a multi-purpose city that involved everything, here you have smaller cities that add up to make the whole region. Similar to how you have a county with smaller city/towns that make it up and each city/town adds different things to the overall county. I'd really like to see at some point in the games future where they actually interconnect Regions with planes/boats/trains and truly turn the game from a single city/region responsibility to a true world environment.

4) Overall game play. I cannot knock on how they've managed to pull everything together on this game. Given, the last SimCity I played actively was 3000 so I'm not sure of how 4 played, but I really love the smooth game play implementation of this iteration. Takes a few failed cities/regions to realize the major changes, but once you do it really is a good game and helps add to and build up the SimCity legacy. The menus are extremely easy to navigate and find. The advisors give pretty decent advice even if they are redundant or obvious.

5) Music! I'm a music nut, in my opinion music is the true window into the soul. The sound track (when it works) is really amazing and even listening to it for over 4 hours still sounds fresh. I also like how it changes depending on your zoom level. Just overall amazing. As for the "when it works" comment, I've found that once the city hits a certain size or there's just so much going on in the city the sound will die out or glitch on a specific sound. Like if you clicked on your Police Dept while sirens were going off in the background and traffic noise was being introduced ontop of whatever the engine handling all of that gets over loaded and just loops those noises over and over again until you exit out and reload. Rather annoying.

In summary, despite the epic launch day issues (even though I didn't experience them), the DRM/Always on requirement, and the occasional sound glitch, the game is still fun and enjoyable. While I'm not playing it, the issues are present and frustrating and enough to not have me rushing back to it, but when I do get into it, it's more than enough to keep me in it for hours on end.

5/5 for enjoyment
5/5 for music
5/5 for graphics
4/5 for game play
3/5 for AI

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SimCity - Standard Edition [Download]

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