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*Congrats whiners and crybabies; it looks like the game is dead. While the servers are up; there has been no new announcements since offline mode (the whiners and crybabies are still whining and crying); no updates, no new DLC, no expansions.*
It took several expansion packs to make Civilization 5 great. While the launch of SimCity was horrible, the servers have been better since. When I read about the issues in March, I waited about a week or two to go on. It was spotty at best but, after about a month, there were no issues connecting for me at all. Do I think the launch sucked? Yes. If anyone remembers way back when Ultima Online was available there were a million problems. It happens. Yes, at times I might get kicked off while playing but it usually happens once a month. Never in the afternoon but usually late at night. Do I think refunds were in order; absolutely not. The whiners and crybabies; Yes. Now, I'm not saying every 1-2 star reviews are the whiners and crybabies because I don't think this game was perfect. I'd say that the ones who didn't "buy from Amazon," are pretty much the whiners stepping on their soapbox.
Concerning the DRM: It's a matter of opinion. I personally don't care that I have to be online to play SimCity. Many years ago, this would be a travesty but most people have connections that are on 24/7. I can sympathize though with people who either don't have a constant internet connection or live in a area with a slow connection. Not everyone has a Fiber Optic connection. My sympathy stops when you know full well that this game requires a internet connection to play, yet you still buy the game.
The graphics are pretty good. While the "Sims" seem more like stick figures, the buildings look especially nice. The skyscrapers look pretty. Not amazing, but pretty. The streets look nice as well however, sometimes there is a glitch when you place roads, it will sometimes place a intersection that doesn't belong or show a pathway right into a home. I wish that the traffic lights could of been more realistic but I really like how in this SimCity, the driving Sims really pay attention to the traffic lights although pedestrians don't which looks unrealistic. Also, the city looks alive with your citizens going about there business. For example, a homeowner within your city drives to the Garbage Dump, reports to work and is driving a garbage truck to pick up the days garbage. I love how the trucks go to each and every zone to pick up the trash. The simulation does a fine job letting you know whether you need to plop more buildings to add more garbage trucks. The idea of ploppables is fantastic!
In all honesty, I don't miss the terraforming and region creation tools from SimCity 4. Yes, I believe in this SimCity that there should be more of a variety of regions. Right now there are only a handful that allows you to have up to 16 cities and several "Great Works." Great Works act as huge bonuses to your region. For example, if your region cooperates and builds a International Airport, citizens from your whole region, even if they aren't connected to all 16 cities, can visit any city within the region. You also can get a huge influx of tourists. If you built a city catering to tourists, then this means more money in your coffers. Some cities have rivers running through it, some cities have a ocean bordering it. While this does help your sims in the way of commuting to other cites, tourists visiting, and relieve traffic, this does take away valuable real estate to build on a already midsized map. Still, some variety on the actual plot of land you chose to build your city is needed.
Concerning city size maps, yes, I do believe they are not large. Gone are they days where in SimCity 4 you can create a city with millions. While it's possible to create a city with 1 million people, all cities will look the same cramming people within city block after city block. In my honest opinion, if I created a city with millions in SimCity 4, the city seemed to have no heart and no specialization. Yes, I could add a mall, prison, missile silo, and a toxic waste dump but the simulation was not realistic. While at times I will think, "hey, a bigger map would be nice," but thinking about it, Id rather be able to specialize my city than them all looking the same. Playing SC4; the cities and region looked the same. You could put everything down and not have to worry about the budget. The one thing I do miss from SC4 was creating a giant region. It would of been nice if the regions in SimCity allowed for more cities. The cap is 16 so far.
Concerning multiplayer, Cities XL failed but with SimCity, it's pretty nice. If someone needed money or municipal help, help was on the way. In Cities XL, you had to pay $9.99 for the multiplayer aspect, but on SimCity, it's free. Communicating and trading is much easier on SimCity than CXL. Just remember that the multiplayer aspect on CXL was shutdown years ago. Focus Home Entertaining who bought CXL from Monte Cristo hasn't done much with the several additions to CXL. The most was the ability to mod. Those that want to complain about Maxis/EA should look at Focus Home Entertainment. They re-released CXL as CXL '11 with adding a good amount from CXL '09 (Monte Cristo) but the same old bugs that plagued CXL '09 were carried over. The game once again became unplayable if you had several hundred thousand citizens. Subsequent releases of CXL just added some buildings but again, the same bugs carried over. How can you justify a $29-39 game adding maybe 100 buildings each year but the same old bugs infest it. FHE takes forever to answer you if you have a problem and yet again, CXL Platinum is pretty much the same as the other CXL iterations.
Going back to SimCity, now you can specialize your city. You can craft a mining town, a resort catering to tourists, a technological center that creates flat panel TV's and CPUs, and a cultural mecca that includes stadiums, arenas, and a amusement park (DLC). Your decisions affect who comes to your city whether it's tourists or other workers from other cities within your region. This can also create traffic nightmares. You have several traffic solutions to work with although I was slightly upset that if I create a huge city, I couldn't create a subway. With the city land size not great, at least give me the option of creating subway lines. The one thing that CXL excelled at, the ability to create "lines." For example, bus lines and subway lines. You can't create bus lines in SimCity but you have the option to place Bus Terminals, a shuttle depot and/or a bus depot. If your Bus Terminal has a long wait time, you can add more buses to your terminal in the form of ploppables which is a great idea. The idea of Ploppables allows you to add to a building instead of building more and more of the same type. For example, if you build a Coal Power Station and you find that you need more power, instead of building another Coal Power Plant, you have several options to add to your power plant. In SimCity 4, it wasn't uncommon to have a dozen coal power plants in your city which was a pollution nightmare. In this SimCity, besides pollution, you have to take into account which way the wind is blowing plus you can add clean burning coal furnace ploppable if you have the necessary "research," from a university within your region.
The simulation is very nice. When your garbage trucks drive around in SimCity 4, all they do is drive around. In SimCity,they will drive around to all zones, stop, pick up the trash, and move to the next zone. The simulator does a really good job showing you different charts/graphs from garbage, coal deposits, happy Sims, crime, pollution etc. How the zones "communicate" with each other is great. Your sims will look for work. They will mostly look for work within your industrial zones as well as commercial. The amount of workers varies for each zone type (C/I). Even your trade depot which sends out trucks to your industrial zones and mining complexes to bring back to the trade depot to ship out your freight from your industry and sell or buy your ore, coal, and/or oil. Within your industrial complex at your trade depot, you can buy/sell alloy to create TVs and CPUs to sell for a lot of dough!
Many have opinions but personally I don't mind about the always on component of the game. My internet is on 24/7 and rarely does Verizon cause a hiccup. If the server is down or if my internet is down, then I'll just simply play another game. Will I get annoyed? Of course but hey, I got other games. Origin which is where this game is located (like Steam) I find is not as good as Steam but I've never had any hiccups with Origin. I've never had that issue and I will go on SimCity any time during the day and/or night. I usually encounter the "server not responding" when I'm playing at night but it has been a very long time since I got that error message. The last 2 times I was thrown out of my city was because Verizon was shooting updates. It happened late last night; I called Verizon and they said that there was a update that was sent. When my internet was back, I found that my city was still there, saved, and had everything I did that day for the few hours I was on. While I didn't exit SimCity and see it sync and save, it still showed everything was there.
Yes, it seems that SimCity is adding DLC to pay for but who hasn't been doing this. Tropico 4 just added more content that you need to pay for. Look at Train Simulator 2013, it has over $1000 worth of DLC. I hope SimCity does get expansion packs. SimCity 4 was great with the addition of the Rush Hour expansion pack. Yes, Do I hope SimCity's maps get bigger? Yes. I do find SimCity enjoyable. Not quite up there with SC4 but I would rate it higher than CXL at this point. For those that will bug out with my 4 star rating, get over it. I happen to enjoy SimCity. Feel free to argue your points in the comments but at least keep it civil. My opinion, I don't need comments telling me to go f- myself just because it's my opinion. Show some class.
Concerning the DLC (downloaded content) of European City packs; what's the big deal? Personally, Im glad it wasn't included within the limited version since I wouldn't even use it. This was why I changed my order to the Limited version. For those that wanted it, they had the other edition that was $70. Those that complained about paying $70, then you should of gotten the Limited Edition. Having available as DLC just means that if you change your mind, buy what you want. Same thing with the new Amusement Park DLC. If you don't like it or question EA concerning it; again, don't buy it, it's your choice. Spamming us with DLC is nothing new. A majority of games other than SimCity have been (and still are) doing it. Buy what you want; pass on what you don't want. It's funny because then you get the whiners who say," I don't want this crap in my game."
People really need to stop whining about "bigger maps, it's SimTown, the server issues, why did I buy this, I wasted $70." I know growing up is hard to do as accepting the fact that there are people that actually enjoy the game. While the game is not perfect, it's much better than what it was at release time.
+ FREE multiplayer
+ Nice fresh graphics that really update the SimCity series
+ The simulation is very nice (If you build a hotel and gambling casino for tourists, by placing commercial zones nearby, you'll see motels/hotels and shopping pop up and tourists will go there
+ Glassbox Engine looks good
+ Specialized cities
+ The bus stops plop ON the road like it should unlike SC4 that took valuable real estate (2 tiles)
+ YOU HAVE TO THINK AND PLAN AHEAD; put into thought what you want since the saving option was taken away
- Maps aren't very big
- Highway placing (parkways) taken away...in other words, we have no control and/or placement of limited access highways. Which is a bummer, I miss toll plazas :)
- Wish we had more hotels and casinos or resorts to place in our tourist specialized city
- The road placement tool is a little awkward
- Server illness sometimes happens (it throws you off) but honestly, since I've had SimCity (since day 1) I've only been thrown off 4 times and that's mostly since June.
- Origin (I find Steam slightly more reliable BUT when Steam has those 75% sales, you will be happy that SimCity is on Origin.
- Not enough region variety
- The city sites in the region look the same for each "resource type"
- The pathfinding for the firetrucks/police vehicles/ ambulance is baffling which was fixed in a patch
***By the way, the Prima Guide is very informative. You can also get it online and it will update according to the game****
*** The embellishment of constant server bugs is more from people who jump on the anti-EA/Maxis train and follow others.***
-I haven't been thrown off SImCity or find a city I was working on empty in quite a long time.
*Seems like you add a little bit of strategy and most go nuts because they can't think before they plop anything down. Also, instead of going apes*** on the first few weeks of launch perhaps giving it some time for some minor corrections could of been warranted. These same 1-star reviewers I bet would still go apesh** if this SimCity was more of a updated SimCity 4.
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Paid $60+ for a game you can't play. But thank you EA for fixing it.
Reviewed in the United States on March 6, 2013
Game looks awesome from the intro, but that's all you get. Plus you have to play online, you can't play just off your computer like everyone has been requesting EA to do for some time. Been waiting 2 years and can't even play. I even upgraded my computer just for this game. You would think by all the pre-orders they would have been smart enough to have servers that could handle the traffic.UPDATE: At least EA said sorry and offered a free game to those who had trouble with Sim City. So I'm changing my rating from 1 to 3 stars. Its a good game, but still a bummer you have to be online to play it. Its also a little confusing. I'm having a hard time getting my city over 100k people.
Reviewed in the United States on March 6, 2013
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