Read Mixed User Reviews for SimCity on PC

Orctownorc

Aug 24, 2013

5

EA is a business that seems to want to destroy its own business. Which other games publisherhas such a perfect ability of smelling out what their customers like and then going and doing the EXACT opposite. What other company is as loathed as EA, in an industry where the customers actually want to love them but can't???? Obsessed with their need for Origins to be successful, obsessed aboutEA is a business that seems to want to destroy its own business. Which other games publisherhas such a perfect ability of smelling out what their customers like and then going and doing the EXACT opposite. What other company is as loathed as EA, in an industry where the customers actually want to love them but can't???? Obsessed with their need for Origins to be successful, obsessed about piracy, which is irrelevant in a world where the number of happy paying customers is booming, obsessed about getting as much blood from a stone as they can with DLC and micro-transactions, EA corporate apparently spends zero time thinking about games, the gamer of the gaming experience. EA seems to be rendered insane by its own greed. It has a genius for destroying games and the fun of gaming. And by all appearances there is no one with any power or control in EA who actually CARES about this either. Look at the millions and millions they blow on advertising! Look at the way gameplay and game fun and game design considerations stagnate or go backwards and get worse! What's wrong with this company? Why are the fools crashing the ships into the rocks NOT getting sacked? The answer can only be that the rot is coming from the very top. It's the EA executives who are making this company a joke. These are obviously men with big egos who never actually play games, and feel an innate contempt for gamers, indeed for games. Gamers should seriously boycott the products of this company, because it's evident from the long string of ruined franchises and studios EA has destroyed in the past 2 years that this company represents a DISEASED corporate culture that will obviously continue so long as the corporate machine is making revenue. Until EA starts taking significant financial losses on their horribly skewed 'games' they have no real reason to change what they are doing. This game is a horrible warning sign of how EA hopes to suck gamers into a DLC-addled, micro-transaction infested, pay-to-play, pay to win, charge by the month toll booth on our lives. They have so much contempt for games and gamers that they even try to chain us to their machine with BAD games. Like we are DUMB enough to allow it. The answer is to say NO. Don't buy their games. Score bomb their games. Don't support these people. EVER. Buy from companies with a better philosphy and with more love for the art and fun that represent gaming at its best. Starve the beast. EA is truly, really, deeply SICK. The shareholders need to replace the entire executive of the business with people who actually, know, love, understand and live for making good games. A company with the financial resources to be an industry leader should be an industry leader. Right now they are wasting and losing billions in potential revenue. They are not only losing-out in terms of game design, creativity and popularity, they are missing BILLIONS in revenue. They are a bad publisher and a BAD business model. Dozens of corporate shills in suits with no understanding of games, gaming or gamers need to be permanently retired, starting with ALL their present executives. A Sim City in 2013 should have been a blow-your mind awesome experience not only in the dimensions of cartoon world creation, but also in hyper-real SERIOUS civic engineering. It could have and should have been not only a toy, but a platform that could be used by architects and engineers to mock up real-world projects. Instead of investing in a state of the art engine however, EA blew its budget on hookers and blow again: AS ALWAYS: giving us a sad reboot of a 1997 experience on the back of a vast, wasted advertising budget. Casuals don't care and will get their kicks elsewhere. The hardcore knowingly laugh. Why do these fools make games for 12 year old, and hope to use DLC and micro transactions to get kids to hit their folks with the credit card? Does no-one with authority in EA have the slightest interest in ACTUALLY MAKING GOOD STATE OF THE ART SOFTWARE? If they stopped trying so hard to work angles with DLC and such and just made plain awesome games they would double their profits in 12 months and start to regain some of the good will they have so steadily squandered in the past three years! SACK the present boss and reset your agenda !

THE GROT REVIEW CRITERIA: After a long time writing reviews like an anus, think its time to set a few bad habits straight: Stop insulting designers. Show some respect for the design process and getting games in circulation. Hence (1) No Red scores. (2) Game scores as follows: Bad Game 5/10. Poor Game 6/10. Mediocre Game: 7/10. Good Game 8/10. Great game 9/10. Stella Game 10/10. To get 10/10 it must be a game that can be (theoretically) play-able for 1000+ hours. Not only great but near endless fun. Games may be bad or poor but making them should earn respect. Thus even the worst POS will still be a 5/10. 0/10 no longer exists in my vocabulary. Yellow is the new red. For the sake o… Expand

Aquazi

Mar 9, 2013

6

I will skip the drm part. The game is a limited version of sim city 4, cities are small, gameplay is limited. The cooperation and social part is interesting, but soon this new aspect gets boring and what you have is a very limited game. It is not that bad, but afterall games like Tropico 4 and all dlc's feel way more fun and cost 9 dollars not 60.

yogibbear

Mar 6, 2013

5

Played the game for 3 hrs today. Thought waiting two days would make everything OK. Game crashes after 3 hrs of happily playing an online game with 6 other people... guess what... this is why online saves are terrible and you get metacritic stomped... because the entire save is gone and none of us have any of our 3-4 hrs of progress to continue with. The experience of all building ourPlayed the game for 3 hrs today. Thought waiting two days would make everything OK. Game crashes after 3 hrs of happily playing an online game with 6 other people... guess what... this is why online saves are terrible and you get metacritic stomped... because the entire save is gone and none of us have any of our 3-4 hrs of progress to continue with. The experience of all building our cities to help each other is simply lost in the cloud forever. Well that's a 5/10 or below in anyone's book. Fix this please. It is depressing that even 2 days post launch you still don't have the cloud side save system figured out if you're going to go live with this sort of DRM it better damn well at least save the game.… Expand

rawsl

Sep 4, 2014

5

It's a very beautiful game, but the simulation is lacking depth and the size of cities is just to small. I can only recommend it to people who want to play it as casual game.

Antiqua

Mar 5, 2013

5

Ignoring the DRM the game is at this point still not worth buying. While for the most part this is a good upgrade of the sim city series the one thing that really hampers it is the map size.
While in theory the addition of curved roads that allow you more freedom in how you design your city should be awesome the reality is that because the maps are so tiny any creativity will be severelyIgnoring the DRM the game is at this point still not worth buying. While for the most part this is a good upgrade of the sim city series the one thing that really hampers it is the map size.
While in theory the addition of curved roads that allow you more freedom in how you design your city should be awesome the reality is that because the maps are so tiny any creativity will be severely punished since it's not as dense as a grid type city. The game is also kind of bad at fitting in buildings to the area available which also punishes being creative as you will get tons of unused space either because you got too much space between roads or too little.
After playing the game for even an hour you will start feeling very cramped and you will basically be left with the option to build inwards, that is tearing down and reconstructing existing plots. For me a bare minimum before I would concider actually giving money for this game would be four times the size but I would really prefer nine or more.
Of course seeing as this is EA they will milk their customers for everything they got. Expect to see building themes, larger map sizes and everything else that this game should have had at release for sale soon.… Expand

LordLothair

Mar 5, 2013

5

Alright gang, let's get the obligatory complaining out of the way:

1. Always online DRM 2. Only 2 US servers (5 total) 3. 0 customer service response or presence (255+ minute wait time to speak to an online rep, suddenly removed phone and email support access) The combination of these things has resulted in a horrible release for EA. Can I say I'm surprised: no, not really.Alright gang, let's get the obligatory complaining out of the way:

1. Always online DRM
2. Only 2 US servers (5 total)
3. 0 customer service response or presence (255+ minute wait time to speak to an online rep, suddenly removed phone and email support access)

The combination of these things has resulted in a horrible release for EA. Can I say I'm surprised: no, not really. We, as consumers have allowed this behavior, and even excuse it with: It's release day, just wait... Every game has these problems at start... No one can expect the server load... and various other excuse that gets tossed up on a forum complaining about the game. The fact is NOT every game has this problem, because not every game requires online access, not every game requires you to link up with a limited server farm, and not every game is released with almost zero customer service... sigh, now that's out of the way, my review of what (little) I've gotten to play:

The visuals of the game are wonderful. The city grows very organically, and is pleasing to watch. The detail used to express and track the individual Sims in your city as they go about their daily lives is a great feat and adds so much to the depth of simulation. Musical effects are fitting for the scene and don't draw attention to themselves, while adding just enough ambiance to fill out the effect.

For those that have played previous SimCity games before, you will find some issues though. First and foremost to me is the limited size you have to build your city in. Due to the "specialization" that you are "encouraged" to use for each city, you are limited to what appears to be about 2 square kilometers for each city. These are not very large spaces, especially compared to some of the huge blocks of space you could use in SimCity 4. Secondly, you will find that things have been streamlined. This is not always a bad thing. Everything runs through streets (power, water, sewage), so you can layout utilities and transport all in one go, however this also feels like "training wheels" to experienced SimCity players. The snap-to guides are handy, but lack any sense of sizing for future development. How big of a zone do I need to have a sky scraper in a few years? I don't know, I guess I'll just put these roads wherever.

Region interconnectivity is an interesting, but less than stellar additon. The ability to work with friends and assist them to start off by providing Goods or Services is nice, but really rather meaningless if you aren't specializing your city.

Graphic glitches do exist, but aren't game-breaking (many times my buildings simply dissapear or roads become transparent). The biggest issues are server issues. Any time I have attempted to play I have had to sit and wait for atleast 30 minutes before being able to join a server (yes, I'm sitting for the fifth time today as I write this). This wouldn't be too bad expect for frequent crashes and glitches on cities becoming no responsive that require restarting the game, and sitting the server que... again.

Another frustraion comes from the division of the servers themselves. The most common response we (people seeking support from EA) have gotten is: "Just join a server that isn't full". That's all fine and good, except the city I just spent three hours on only exists on one server. When you go to a new server, you have to restart with the tutorial (something that you can't skip and is bugged out on some servers), and start all over. Also, you only have access to 10 regions at any one time. You can delete a region to free up space, but this is bugged and currently not releasing the save slot on some servers. The ability to have a private region is nice for those of us that really don't want someone creating a bunch of pollution in our areas, but makes the always online DRM rather oppressive.

All told, the few hours of play time I have gotten have been enjoyable. It's nice to have a pretty SimCity to poke around with, and I look forward to experimenting with the city specialization and regional superprojects, however, I have spent as much time waiting for tech support and sitting in server lines as I have played in the last 24 hours since release, and that is unacceptable to me.

Is this a great sequel to SimCity 4... sadly, no. Is it a good game, yes I'd say it is. It is fun, a great time sink, and something that has been lacking in recent games, but as always Buyer Beware when it comes to EA and any other distributors that restricts your access to the game you purchased. My other major concern is future content being distributed as purchased DLC, server instability, or the fact that at any time EA could decide to shut down the SimCity servers and your $60 game is suddenly gone.

Use your personal scales to decide if you want to play SimCity badly enough to support such bad business practices. If you do, the game itself isn't bad.… Expand

MayhemMike83

Mar 5, 2013

5

My gf bought it, but wasn't at home the whole day so I had the pleasure to try it out so here are my impressions:

1. Pricing: It looks like a typical EA cash grab. The game isn't feature complete (subways?) so expect a lot of expensive but low value DLCs coming our way. I wouldn't buy it until they release a discounted "Gold" version including most of the upcoming extras. 2.My gf bought it, but wasn't at home the whole day so I had the pleasure to try it out so here are my impressions:

1. Pricing: It looks like a typical EA cash grab. The game isn't feature complete (subways?) so expect a lot of expensive but low value DLCs coming our way. I wouldn't buy it until they release a discounted "Gold" version including most of the upcoming extras. 2. Always-On-DRM: It took ages until I was able to log in. This is just unacceptable and shows the flaws of this kind of DRM. Also keep in mind that EA will shutdown the servers once the game doesn't make enough profit, or when a newer version gets released. 3. Look and Feel: It looks really nice and watching the little sims doing their thing is amazing. It really feels like a living and breathing city.
4. The building part: The maps are just too small. Takes you around 1-2h to fill up the entire square and then you can either refine the city or move on to another one so don't expect to spend days or even weeks on a single city. If you have several cities in a region then they will work together but it is just not the same.

Overall some interesting new ideas, a nice look and feel but a lack in its core city-building mechanic.… Expand

danielkyp

Mar 7, 2013

7

If you bought the game already please head my advice! In origin use the Call Me help option, when an agent calls you, simply ask for a refund. I managed to get a refund very simply even though they say they won't give you one for digital downloads form origin. They didn't ask questions, don't vent, don't complain, just simply state that you would like a refund. I only gave this a 7 soIf you bought the game already please head my advice! In origin use the Call Me help option, when an agent calls you, simply ask for a refund. I managed to get a refund very simply even though they say they won't give you one for digital downloads form origin. They didn't ask questions, don't vent, don't complain, just simply state that you would like a refund. I only gave this a 7 so that the icon would turn green and more people would notice my message.… Expand

Zentriefugal

Mar 7, 2013

6

To be honest, the game itself is nice but Electronic Arts is like a baby that is not interessted in learning from its misstakes. I give this game to lowest scor to continue drop the rating!

10k_Volts

Apr 15, 2013

6

I've amended my review to reflect SimCity more accurately now that it can actually be played. So setting aside all the DRM crap and EA's crappy servers and other launch woes the rest of the game is alright. It's good but in all honesty the server's aren't the only thing wrong with this game. Traffic problems run rampant despite several patches to help this and it's almost assured that youI've amended my review to reflect SimCity more accurately now that it can actually be played. So setting aside all the DRM crap and EA's crappy servers and other launch woes the rest of the game is alright. It's good but in all honesty the server's aren't the only thing wrong with this game. Traffic problems run rampant despite several patches to help this and it's almost assured that you will have a 4 mile long bank of traffic waiting to get into or leave your city on the only connecting road you're allowed to the region.

Despite trying and trying it's just hard to really get that longevity out of the game. I'm not really sold on the multiplayer side of things. I did it once and thought cool, and after a few hours me and the 3 other players I was playing with had filled up most of the city blocks and were starting on a Great Work. Once that was finished then all we could really do was twiddle our thumbs. Traffic problems were horrendous but there was nothing we could do about that, there was only one road in and out of our cities. Sure we could start another region and do it all again but why? there's 8 maps to choose from, the level of variety is obscenely low. I guess I would like the multiplayer and perhaps just SimCity itself more if it actually kept many of the things that made the series so great to begin with. But instead this game forces many sacrifices of things for these new ideas which honestly detract a lot from those ideas. I constantly dream up the things I could do if my city borders were bigger or if I actually could build my own intercity transport routes but instead I'm stuck with what has been decided for me. SimCity has turned itself into a board game rather than being the sandbox city builder we onced loved.… Expand

SirGregMac

Mar 8, 2013

5

I've played every Sim City released on PC and this is by far the worst, yet it has the potential to be the best. Besides the server issues happening at the time of this review, 122 hours after North American launch, the game is limited. The size of cities is so much smaller than previous versions, which is weird because with video games I am use to them improving over the course of aI've played every Sim City released on PC and this is by far the worst, yet it has the potential to be the best. Besides the server issues happening at the time of this review, 122 hours after North American launch, the game is limited. The size of cities is so much smaller than previous versions, which is weird because with video games I am use to them improving over the course of a series, not getting worse and removing features. Speaking of removed features, build a road at the edge of your map, nothing happens, in Sim City 4 it prompted if you wanted to connect this to the neighboring city, not allowed here. Heck you can't even connect a subway to anything, cuz they simply don't exist, that's right, the lifeblood of every major city in the world is completely removed for Sim City. Sadly my friends and I believe that this was not included so as to be added as paid DLC at a later date. Similarly the small city size and lack of terraforming, a huge part of previous versions, limits the ability to do anything creative, which is what this series is about, again my friends and I believe these may be changed via paid DLC, which would be a complete disservice to fans and a giant step back for games in general as they get better and improve on previous features of a series, not remove the popular features, like playing a single player without having to be connected to the internet at all times, and change the principals of the series to the point of making the game unplayable, literally. The worst part is that when I have been able to connect to their servers and join a friend's region they start to purchase some of my excess power and then inexplicably my power plant continues to feed my city uninterrupted, yet stops giving him anything, even though I have five times the excess power than he needs, blame this on the servers if you want, but we are playing on the same server at the same time and talking on skype, which brings me to another drawback, how do you not include something other than a basic text chat in a game that requires you to be online. If my friend is having a zombie outbreak and needs police assistance he's not going to stop everything, let the zombies continue to destroy his city, or rather town considering the size limitation, he is going to try to do his best, but if all he had to do was ask us for help using his voice we can send any and all spare resources to assist him, but you can't reasonably expect a $60 online game to include simple communication tools. While they may fix their server issues, EA's what to get back in our "good graces" and still "be friends" is offering me a free Origin game, funny thing is I can't play the one and only Origin game I care to play, so why would I want to use another one of your games? The absolute worst part about this game is how a series that has been played offline for almost 25 years, except for Sim City 2000 Network Edition (a little known spinoff) no requires EA servers, so if I want to play this game in 5, 8, 10 years, as is my case with older Sim City games, I probably won't be able to as EA loves to shut down servers as they release the next game in a series or 2 years in a game's life span, sadly most of those games are still playable in the single player mode, which this simply doesn't offer, at least not without a major patch, that will probably never be released. Which probably accurately describes the venom many people have for EA and Maxis right now, it too will never be released, at least until they change menu system of the game as too many of us are all too familiar with the plane that's stuck in mid-air while we hope to find a working server. I'd love to give this game a 0, but the few moments I have been able to play and not rebuild the last 3 hours of unsaved work the game has been one of the best experiences I've ever had, so for the potential of playing it I'll give it a lowly single solitary one, which is exactly the amount of players it takes to play this game.… Expand

hemmo1986

Sep 9, 2014

5

Simcity holds a special place in my heart. Being able to create your own living and breathing city is always addictive and great fun, and it's no different for this entry to the series.

However while it still remains fun to manage and build your own cities the game is let down by some annoying and questionable design choices. One of these critical choices is the map sizes.In previousSimcity holds a special place in my heart. Being able to create your own living and breathing city is always addictive and great fun, and it's no different for this entry to the series.

However while it still remains fun to manage and build your own cities the game is let down by some annoying and questionable design choices.

One of these critical choices is the map sizes.In previous games you could build massive cities and it would take days to fill the map, however with this new edition within a few hours you will have completely used all of your space to build your city and will be forced to start a new city on a different map.

The other critical issue is the choice of always online and a big emphasis on multiplayer, which puts a huge damper on the game.

What could have been an amazing game is unfortunately ruined by a few bad design choices.… Expand

Troublewalking

Feb 21, 2014

5

I rate this game a 5. As it is a SimCity game and it featured most of the things you would of expected from a SimCity game. It even had some nice features like you could play online with others. It had a nice feature where you could play multiple cities in a region at the same time. Specializing each city. Therefore one could be the commercial area. Another the residential. Another theI rate this game a 5. As it is a SimCity game and it featured most of the things you would of expected from a SimCity game. It even had some nice features like you could play online with others. It had a nice feature where you could play multiple cities in a region at the same time. Specializing each city. Therefore one could be the commercial area. Another the residential. Another the industrial. So in theory and what you got when you bought it, it was probably a 10.

However what destroyed the game was EA's greed. They forced you to join Origin. They forced you to play the game online. But then they didn't have the capacity on the Origin servers to handle the masses of SimCity fans who were trying to build their cities. Remember everyone was forced to play online. This caused lag. Which in a city sim, that was happening in live time causes massive problems. From the cars, to crime, to pollution. This could cause whole sections of your city to just fall apart with no apparent way to fix it. It also caused the game to behave illogically and not be able to handle multiple specialized cities very well. For instance when I built a commercial area that was near a residential city, that was also sending electricity, water and other resources to build up the commercial city. The game was sure there weren't enough people to support it. Even though the residential city needed tons and tons of jobs and places to shop. Same with the industrial. You could start up a regular city and then rebuild it. But it's illogical multiplayer flaws coupled with lag could just ruin your gaming experience. This was especially a problem for those serious builders. As EA was trying to promote building competitions. The lag made things ugly really fast.

When you couple this lag with bugs, bad pathing, and illogical flaws in the new ai the game was all but doomed. It's sad really as most of these flaws would of eventually been patched and everyone who purchased this game would of been happy rating it 8 or better easily. And most of the flaws were probably caused by the lag of the server you were forced to play on.

I played solo, or private games where I invited friends. I have highs speed internet, but being forced to play on the Origin server which was lagged out of it's mind, just ruined the game for everyone. It is so sad because if we could of played this game solo, or on our own servers this game would probably have been a classic. Which all of us would be replaying for years to come.

But instead EA decided they would stop game hackers by forcing them to play on their servers. Sadly those who cracked the games are probably the only ones who can enjoy the game in the state I last saw it. And this policy for what was traditionally an offline game, ruined it. Without stopping the hackers. In fact it was a PR problem for EA as they said you couldn't play the game offline. But people were quickly finding evidence that the game could probably be patched to be able to play offline.

If EA just put out a patch that allowed us to play the game on our own computers or our own servers this game would be saved. Which would save the game for those who want to use the game on Origin, because Origin wouldn't have it's servers lagged. And it might help restore EA's reputation.

Sadly EA already stole the money from all who bought this game. And sadly it seems EA is not concerned with keeping SimCity as customers.

In the end the game launched so badly that EA had Origin give players a free game. Which is okay, if you actually enjoy having to log into someone else's server just to play a game. But it's quite annoying when it destroys a classic franchise. And a game that should be able to be enjoyed offline.… Expand

Elscorpeo

Feb 28, 2014

6

I found the game to be somewhat fun and irritating it seems to me that EA failed to to give and deliver there promise to make the game fun instead the game is just sad yet amusing now that simcity has "multiplayer" make's it worse and that online DRM isn't helping ether and there isn't even a single player or an offline mode. simcity 5 i should say this game make's all the other simcityI found the game to be somewhat fun and irritating it seems to me that EA failed to to give and deliver there promise to make the game fun instead the game is just sad yet amusing now that simcity has "multiplayer" make's it worse and that online DRM isn't helping ether and there isn't even a single player or an offline mode. simcity 5 i should say this game make's all the other simcity game's look like gold. i feel sad for Maxis for partnering up with EA and destroying one of my favorite game's.… Expand

winter33

Apr 27, 2013

6

I have spent quite a bit of time playing Sim City. For a AAA title the game is not bad but some serious bugs with gameplay. E.G. recycling bug, fire trucks etc. The graphics are nice and it runs pretty smooth. Currently Sim City is average at best.

MaxGayLord

May 16, 2013

5

Look, I'm not saying it's a bad game, but it's a bad game. SimCity had potential to be a great game, but Maxis and EA flubbed up with the DRM and the many under the hood mechanics.

Jakovas

Jun 3, 2013

6

I love SimCity, this is a great game and really sates my desire for well polished sandbox city simulation, however it is a great game with some serious flaws.

Online: A bit of a pain however I enjoy plenty of games with an always online requirement, my key gripes are; server fragmentation (you cant invite or join friends unless you are on the same server); Cities roll back sometimesI love SimCity, this is a great game and really sates my desire for well polished sandbox city simulation, however it is a great game with some serious flaws.

Online: A bit of a pain however I enjoy plenty of games with an always online requirement, my key gripes are; server fragmentation (you cant invite or join friends unless you are on the same server); Cities roll back sometimes costing you much time; cities corrupt still (as of 03/06/2013); and there is no support in place to manage these City Load issues.

Game Objectives: SimCity is a playground, it is a bit small though and the simulation between Residential, Industrial and Commercial is a little nonsensical, however many a patch has come and gone an Maxis/EA are definitely on the right track. I'd like to see more options without investing in specialization, or at least some changes to help tie the profits and losses from both City management and business management together.

Creativity: SimCity has rules, which makes sense as it is a game after all, however with the tiny plot sizes and bugs/design decisions around how cities interact and support one another, you will never truly be able to create a Solo region as all cities must be played to supply resources such as power, water etc. due to asynchronous design.

For those on the fence, I'd say hold off and see what they do to address these issues, you may find they just throw content at the game and nothing really changes regarding the core issues, however if they change some mechanics and give players more options to create the City they want to build, it could be a late success story in terms of a quality.… Expand

cn2305

Jun 12, 2013

6

Game appears to be good, but there are a moderate amount of issues with the game. The always-on DRM stops players from getting into the game, even in single player. Secondly there are a number of bugs in the game but there appears to be no way of fixing them, so this game has ton of problems.

Triasadi

May 19, 2015

7

I've done much research on the game before I purchased it because it was on sale, It's quite a good game. Most of the reviews here are irrelevant since Maxis had fixed the server problems and added a single player mode for SimCity. The game is very fun but every city I made usually last for only about a day or two because most people in the region has either stopped playing or abandonI've done much research on the game before I purchased it because it was on sale, It's quite a good game. Most of the reviews here are irrelevant since Maxis had fixed the server problems and added a single player mode for SimCity. The game is very fun but every city I made usually last for only about a day or two because most people in the region has either stopped playing or abandon their city. A better communication system should be added. And the biggest weakness in the game is the city sizes. The size of a city in SimCity is very small and square. It doesn't let me have much space for me to expand my city. The concept for a multiplayer city builder sounds great, but in reality, not everyone is a top-notch city planner. So playing with other people maybe enjoyable. So far I've been playing for about 20-30hrs, and I really enjoyed the game. I recommend buying it when it's on sale.… Expand

ye73812

Apr 28, 2014

7

Having read the very mixed reviews for the game, I figured the only way I'd find out if it was any good was to buy it and try it for myself. Downloading from Origin was fairly straightforward and the game was up and running within an hour of purchase.

Visually, the game is very very good. It looks like an animated model at extreme zoom levels and it's quite nice to just sit back andHaving read the very mixed reviews for the game, I figured the only way I'd find out if it was any good was to buy it and try it for myself. Downloading from Origin was fairly straightforward and the game was up and running within an hour of purchase.

Visually, the game is very very good. It looks like an animated model at extreme zoom levels and it's quite nice to just sit back and watch the sims go by while having a coffee. It's like Sim Parisian Cafe! The tutorials are straightforward, the controls straightforward and the user interface is very visually appealing.

On the downside, some of the building menus are a bit hard to navigate. You'll often be asked to build a church, for example, and then give up because the church is hidden in the City Specialization -> Culture -> Worship menu. The maps are small, although it does make the game more challenging and, dare I say realistic, as you can't just plop a building down and build a few houses for the workers - you really have to think about how to balance competing land use demands in order to make the city work.

A lot of complaints centre on map size, and it is true, they are much smaller than they were in Sim City 4. However, intelligent region play can overcome the limitations of city size by enabling resource sharing, effectively turning separate cities into a conurbation.

My main gripe is the DLC. It is absolutely terrible. $10 for a building set that gives you a double decker bus, Big Ben and a couple of British-looking buildings? $5 for a few airships or $10 for an amusement park that appears to promise the kind of creative madness of Roller Coaster Tycoon, but ends up being more like Zoo Tycoon. EA removed the modding freedom that Sim City 4 gave us in order to maximize profits from DLC. I don't mind that so much, they are a business and they have to generate revenue, but don't expect value for money because there really isn't much to be had. Wait for the GOTY edition or some bulk bundles and save your cash, because the current DLC is not worth it.… Expand

Jack91

Mar 13, 2013

5

Just got the game after most of the original problems seem to be fixed, a few disconnections from the main servers a few times but eventually restored. The worst thing I found is the big price they are charging yet it didn't take me long to complete most of it. The zone you get is simply too small and you have to cram so much into one square it's ridiculous. Fun to play but does not lastJust got the game after most of the original problems seem to be fixed, a few disconnections from the main servers a few times but eventually restored. The worst thing I found is the big price they are charging yet it didn't take me long to complete most of it. The zone you get is simply too small and you have to cram so much into one square it's ridiculous. Fun to play but does not last long and by far not worth the price tag that comes with it.… Expand

Quinzal

Mar 20, 2013

7

EDIT:
This game is amazing and is the best thing since sliced bread when it finally gets working. When it isnt working, its the best loading simulator ever.

smk123

Mar 26, 2013

6

I'm not going to bother talking about DRM if you don't like DRM, don't buy it, simple as that. The game is very enjoyable for the first couple of hours, things move at a steady pace, it is challenging finding a perfect balance within all the different functions. Hell I even like the region system, I think necessitating trade between cities within a region is a fantastic idea, I know it'sI'm not going to bother talking about DRM if you don't like DRM, don't buy it, simple as that. The game is very enjoyable for the first couple of hours, things move at a steady pace, it is challenging finding a perfect balance within all the different functions. Hell I even like the region system, I think necessitating trade between cities within a region is a fantastic idea, I know it's not meant to replicate real life but logically one city can't be the jack of all trades, and this reliance on trade adds a layer of realism that I admire. The art style is also very easy on the eyes and I much prefer it to the previous simcity games. However my major gripe; the city size. You max out your city size a LOT quicker than would be expected, and until this issue is addressed I can't give the game more than a 6. If city size was expanded to similar levels from previous entries in the series I could easily give this game an 8, it's a lot of fun, but due to the size limitations you'll find yourself making new city after new city as opposed to nurturing one city you can truly be proud of.… Expand

AFCA_FLORIS

Mar 22, 2013

5

The detail and expandability of buildings are really cool in simcity. But, (in addition to the horrible servers,) I think that in the squares you can build your city in, there's nit enough space to build a big city. For example, in all of the cities i've build so far, there was a point where ididn't have enough space to expand my garbage dump, which results in all the citicens beingThe detail and expandability of buildings are really cool in simcity. But, (in addition to the horrible servers,) I think that in the squares you can build your city in, there's nit enough space to build a big city. For example, in all of the cities i've build so far, there was a point where ididn't have enough space to expand my garbage dump, which results in all the citicens being unhappy and complaining.… Expand

damionp

Mar 6, 2013

5

Overall, its not that great. Main points: The bad:
- The DRM is lame, yes. Its not a deal breaker. After server availability issues a couple hours after launch, I haven't had any problems connecting and playing.
- The city size is laughable. 2 square kilometers per "city", with the number of "cities" determined by the region you pick to play in. Basically, they designed the game toOverall, its not that great. Main points: The bad:
- The DRM is lame, yes. Its not a deal breaker. After server availability issues a couple hours after launch, I haven't had any problems connecting and playing.
- The city size is laughable. 2 square kilometers per "city", with the number of "cities" determined by the region you pick to play in. Basically, they designed the game to force you to specialize each "city" for a role to support another "city" in your region. No option to just make/play in one large area anymore. Oh, and you may as well section off a huge portion of your already tiny play area to expand your town hall...
- Loading/switching between the tiny cities on the region view seems to take forever. If you're going to force me to micro-manage resource/utility sharing between "cities", you could at least make it run smoothly. The good:
- Nice graphics.
- The changes made to streamline building are nice. I realize there are people out there that like to build every last water pipe and power line, but I thought including all of that built-in to the roads was a good idea. The city specializations are interesting and fun to tinker with.
- Allowing friends and/or other random people build in your region has potential.

Overall its pretty "meh". Its more "SimTown" inside of a "SimRegion" than it is "SimCity".… Expand

Vihazur

Mar 12, 2013

5

I think a huge part of the problem with making it multiplayer is that they didn't make it multiplayer enough, to be worth all the crap players have to put up with, for it. I mean, they could have made a really unique game, where players have all sorts of tools to customize their cities, earn revenue from other players visiting their cities, all sorts of stuff.. but just some resourceI think a huge part of the problem with making it multiplayer is that they didn't make it multiplayer enough, to be worth all the crap players have to put up with, for it. I mean, they could have made a really unique game, where players have all sorts of tools to customize their cities, earn revenue from other players visiting their cities, all sorts of stuff.. but just some resource trading? That alone is supposed to justify the online requirement? (LINE-BREAK) It still feels like a largely single-player experience, so all these issues its having, including the design sacrifices they had to make, like small city sizes, just feel like a needless crippling of what could have been a decent, modernized, but rather stock formula city builder. (LINE-BREAK) They could have done something uniquely ambitious with the multiplayer, they could have made it optional, or they could have just stuck with the tried and true single-player experience but instead, they didn't do either. It's just another city builder, unique for how they've had to gut it, rather than for anything new they've brought to the genre.… Expand

luck

Mar 12, 2013

5

I preordered this game when it was announced last year. I am very disappointed. All they need to do was update and add features to Simcity 4. I will say the somethings. I hate you have to be online to play. This is the type of game i would just open to kill time, because you can quit anytime. The cities are small and limited. I have no interest in multiplayer. So the small citiesI preordered this game when it was announced last year. I am very disappointed. All they need to do was update and add features to Simcity 4. I will say the somethings. I hate you have to be online to play. This is the type of game i would just open to kill time, because you can quit anytime. The cities are small and limited. I have no interest in multiplayer. So the small cities are limited. The concept could work, but let us decide how they are connected and merge into each other.

I miss terrain editor. I will still get enjoyment out of playing this game, but it makes me want to just turn on Simcity 4.… Expand

Greatrock

Mar 9, 2013

6

I'm updating my review to reflect some of the patches that Maxis has put into place. The game is really good, but still has some annoying features:
1. When you lose connectivity with the servers, the game still allows you to play, but timers and quest objectives break.
2. I had a server crash, and when it came back, all of the gameplay for the day was missing (about 3 hours worth) 3.I'm updating my review to reflect some of the patches that Maxis has put into place. The game is really good, but still has some annoying features:
1. When you lose connectivity with the servers, the game still allows you to play, but timers and quest objectives break.
2. I had a server crash, and when it came back, all of the gameplay for the day was missing (about 3 hours worth)
3. Filters are still turned off, which means its really hard to find an existing game with an unclaimed city.… Expand

Subwalrus

Mar 9, 2013

5

The Good: A lot of fun. Great strategy playability amongst the regions.
The Bad: Small city sizes all gameplay online with your game(s) saved in the cloud...

Gandal13579

Mar 24, 2013

6

I have a big problem with this EA Server for 2 weeks but now I downloaded free crack for Offline Mode so it's working great but other negative item is a small map of the city. If you want crack here it is http://penguinhackz.blogspot.com

LHR_Redemption

May 2, 2013

6

Well without going into the launch woes which were so bad that you could not even play the game lets delve into what is on offer with this Sim City.

The game to me is alright, when all the systems are working it can be an enjoyable experience seeing your city start as a small town and grow to a bustling city. The one downside is that the areas that you build in are really not that bigWell without going into the launch woes which were so bad that you could not even play the game lets delve into what is on offer with this Sim City.

The game to me is alright, when all the systems are working it can be an enjoyable experience seeing your city start as a small town and grow to a bustling city. The one downside is that the areas that you build in are really not that big so you have to learn to take advantage of the space that your given. My story with cities working together may be different than others but i had a group of friends and we were all in a territory helping each others cities out. For example I had a gambling city and one of my friends would send me power from his city this allowed me more room to build since did not have to worry about a power source.

Now granted this is not the Sim City of past but it is still an enjoyable experience when everything is working. If you have friends that have picked it up then i would do it as well if you have loved past Sims games because it is definitely more fun with friends.… Expand

razster

Mar 5, 2013

5

Though I did play the BETA for 1hr, I liked what I was able to create, the game itself was very pleasing to the eyes and the features/functions were nice... BUT the reason I gave it a lower score of 5 is because I cannot play the game I bought. This is like D3 all over again and I was hoping that a large company like EA would see the folly that Blizzard had, I was wrong.

So I will onlyThough I did play the BETA for 1hr, I liked what I was able to create, the game itself was very pleasing to the eyes and the features/functions were nice... BUT the reason I gave it a lower score of 5 is because I cannot play the game I bought. This is like D3 all over again and I was hoping that a large company like EA would see the folly that Blizzard had, I was wrong.

So I will only five this a 5 review and nothing more. I think I may have regrets.… Expand

scradam

Mar 24, 2013

5

At first, I gave it a 1 because it was unplayable. Then, I gave it an 8 once they gave me an extra free game and I was able to play for a day. Now, i can't play a single city for more than a day or two because of the recycling bug. This game is basically in the alpha or early beta stage of development. I doubt they will ever actually improve it enough to be an actual release worthyAt first, I gave it a 1 because it was unplayable. Then, I gave it an 8 once they gave me an extra free game and I was able to play for a day. Now, i can't play a single city for more than a day or two because of the recycling bug. This game is basically in the alpha or early beta stage of development. I doubt they will ever actually improve it enough to be an actual release worthy game. EA really really botched this game. It's botched so badly, it's impressive. … Expand

Zirrkis

Mar 7, 2013

6

I found that Simcity is a good game that was held back by a poor business model and its online features. It feels as if there is a physical wall blocking the game from the customer, which many people are complaining about. There is a severe problem with the DRM, its very restrictive. Personally, I have never had a problem with Always online drm, but one that keeps the player from playingI found that Simcity is a good game that was held back by a poor business model and its online features. It feels as if there is a physical wall blocking the game from the customer, which many people are complaining about. There is a severe problem with the DRM, its very restrictive. Personally, I have never had a problem with Always online drm, but one that keeps the player from playing what they payed for is very much a problem. Its like paying 20$ for a movie and food and not being able to eat your food or watch the movie. What people need to know is that its not a bad game at all. The developer has nothing to do with the main problems. Its EA's poorly layed out buisiness model that is the problem, and thats why I give this game a 6.5, its game mechanics are fine besides some bugs here and there. the real problem is the restrictive and near completely broken servers/DRM.… Expand

TGMode

Mar 9, 2013

5

When I eventually did get to play in single player mode after 2 days it looks great and has some interesting stuff but within 2 hours I had run out of space. I paid £60+ for this and when I've finished this review I'm going to boot up Cities XL

matticitt

Mar 21, 2013

5

It's not a bad game, and it really deserves more that 1.7 user score. However it has many flaws. For me SimCity always was the best city simulator. Now, after 10 years since SC4 release, it should redefine its genre. It should be much better than Cities XL for example. Instead, it not only isn't better than Cities XL, in many ways it's worse than SimCity 4! The city size is way too small.It's not a bad game, and it really deserves more that 1.7 user score. However it has many flaws. For me SimCity always was the best city simulator. Now, after 10 years since SC4 release, it should redefine its genre. It should be much better than Cities XL for example. Instead, it not only isn't better than Cities XL, in many ways it's worse than SimCity 4! The city size is way too small. That means that after max 8 hours you need to abandon your city, because there's noting left to do in it except for watching traffic jams. That also means that you won't be able to ever build 50% of the buildings, because they take up so much space! Also the AI is completely broken. This causes huge traffic jams. You need 3x more trams, busses, police cars and garbage trucks, because instead of spreading, they all follow the same route! It's so bad that busses, instead of reducing traffic, are causing it! There's also no terraforming, no highways, not metro. The graphics are quite good, but too childish and sims-ish for me. Music is also good, but not as good as in SC4.

It's a nice game with good music and sound effects, and quite nice graphics. Unfortunately it's also quite broken and is twice the money of Cities XL. Also the performance isn't great and there are some graphics options that are clearly broken and cause huge fps drops even on a high end pc.… Expand

Barranoid

Mar 20, 2013

5

I won't go into much detail about the DRM stuff. It's EA's Origin. Like it or hate it.

The game itself however, once you finally manage to log in, plays pretty fun for a couple of hours. The cities are rather small so you have to expand inside your region to create new cities that can provide each other with different services. This makes a huge part of the so called multiplayerI won't go into much detail about the DRM stuff. It's EA's Origin. Like it or hate it.

The game itself however, once you finally manage to log in, plays pretty fun for a couple of hours. The cities are rather small so you have to expand inside your region to create new cities that can provide each other with different services. This makes a huge part of the so called multiplayer experience, since you can either choose to build up several cities in one region all by yourself or let your friends build some in your region. A good idea actually but server instabilities, slow response times (e.g. it takes AGES to send someone inside your region a gift. Hell it even takes ages to do so while playing all on your own with different cities inside YOUR region).

After a couple of mostly pretty entertaining hours however the game starts to behave "strange". A city with a HUGE load of residents and nearly no industry whatsoever suddently starts complaining about not enough workers?! At first you might start to compensate by building "support cities" that provide more workforce for your main city but this doesn't help at all. The reason is that the actual resident size is more or less a hoax. Doing the math (google it, I really don't want to go into detail here), a city of 100000 residents might just have 10000 real ones, logicaly not providing enough workers for the industry.

The flaws of SimCity really make it hard to enjoy after a while and although it could be a very very good game, it isn't. Sadly.… Expand

jwayner

Mar 23, 2013

5

I've played SimCity for countless hours, a few of those hours where in beta. Of course, within the allotted beta time there wasn't a great ability to build a very large city that would have traffic problems. The game seamed great in beta but now that the full game is out, my entire opinion of this game has changed. Below are some areas of the game that I have a problem with. 1. TrafficI've played SimCity for countless hours, a few of those hours where in beta. Of course, within the allotted beta time there wasn't a great ability to build a very large city that would have traffic problems. The game seamed great in beta but now that the full game is out, my entire opinion of this game has changed. Below are some areas of the game that I have a problem with. 1. Traffic
This is the biggest problem because it translates into many more problems, such as fires not being extinguished and criminals not being arrested. It also negatively effects tourist attractions and trade, garbage collection and other issues. Try plopping an airport and watch the masses of taxis pile up on your roads. Adding mass transit only seems to worsen the traffic problem and while the recent game update did help lighten traffic some, it wasn't enough to thoroughly enjoy the game more. Previous versions of SimCity offered one way streets, subway travel and the ability to connect cities with each other via highway and other methods. Can you think of many real cities that only has one road connecting it to the outside world? The game needs a complete do-over when it comes to transportation and regional connectivity. 2. City Size
When it comes to the size of the city I would much rather be playing CityVille (a free Facebook game) which allows you to expand your city boundaries as you meet certain achievements. I spent $79 on my copy of SimCity (as did many of you) and I most certainly do not appreciate the relatively small city boundaries that are present in this game. Plop a municipal airport and expand a few wind or solar farms and then see how much space you have left.

3. Others
There are numerous bugs throughout the game and the only real way to bring it to Maxis's attention is to post in a forum, I'm not a big fan of forums, the game needs a built in form to submit bugs.
The game doesn't have enough depth to it to keep me entertained for long, to be honest, if it weren't for the traffic problems I probably would have already got bored with it and quit anyways. For example, what is the most used utility besides electric and water (maybe even as much as those)? Cell phones! It looks like this neighborhood could use a cell tower! It looks like the city needs to contract with a cable provider. Simple additions like this would continue to make the game more entertaining.
What happened to the ordinances? These little city laws that you could activate in SC4 made a world of difference on traffic, pollution, education, health and many other aspects of the game.
Server issues appear to be a thing of the past and that's great but now it's time to focus on the overall game. I didn't want my review and thoughts of the game to be based on server issues so with those aside, I give the game a 5/10 rating. Since the game is fully a connected experience (which I'm perfectly okay with) I hope to see many improvements made but I think I'll wait awhile before I hop on the game again.… Expand

N8_2

Mar 24, 2013

6

Bought the game last week after patch #6 was released, so I wasn't exposed to the bugs people are talking about. Day 1 network issues are always expected with multiplayer games, but actual gameplay issues can't be ignored.

This game is fun and addicting. It exercises your brain's creativity, problem solving, and critical thinking muscles. Lacks some of Sim City 4's functionality andBought the game last week after patch #6 was released, so I wasn't exposed to the bugs people are talking about. Day 1 network issues are always expected with multiplayer games, but actual gameplay issues can't be ignored.

This game is fun and addicting. It exercises your brain's creativity, problem solving, and critical thinking muscles. Lacks some of Sim City 4's functionality and content (subways and city ordinances in particular) but trades it for nice graphics and multiplayer gameplay. The multiplayer is amazing, trading resources and services is actually meaningful. Makes the game worth it. The programming for traffic still needs a lot of work but is really only a problem in large, badly planned tourist cities. The current DLCs are worth $2 each, not $30. Lowered score for typical EA DRM/greed and beta status on game release from 8 to 6.… Expand

OrthoStice

Mar 18, 2013

5

The servers generally seem to work when logging in but even now I still experience issues where the game will freeze and I'm told that the server needs to "roll back" my game to an earlier point in time. A few other points: You aren't technically forced to interact with others. You can set your region to private and then create multiple cities within the region, which seems to be the wayThe servers generally seem to work when logging in but even now I still experience issues where the game will freeze and I'm told that the server needs to "roll back" my game to an earlier point in time. A few other points: You aren't technically forced to interact with others. You can set your region to private and then create multiple cities within the region, which seems to be the way to go. Iodiotic AI ensures that your city will apparently always have traffic problems and that tourists may or might not go to your tourist attractions. Problems with the AI seem to multiply when multiple large cities are in the same region. This game should still be in beta. Nevertheless it still looks great and is a lot of fun, when it works. I've played it a lott so I couldn't in good faith give it too low of a score. If it worked more smoothly it would deserve an 8. If plot sizes were bigger then it would be a 9. If you didn't always have to be online, in addition, it would be a 10.… Expand

SimCityFreak

Mar 18, 2013

5

I deeply respect and commend all efforts made in order to modernize the new SimCity and produce a superb graphics engine with innovative and realistic additions such as expansions to public service buildings, realistic traffic aesthetics, incredible detail, school bus stops, and so on.

However, for us die-hard SimCity fans, this game falls very short of our expectations, namely for justI deeply respect and commend all efforts made in order to modernize the new SimCity and produce a superb graphics engine with innovative and realistic additions such as expansions to public service buildings, realistic traffic aesthetics, incredible detail, school bus stops, and so on.

However, for us die-hard SimCity fans, this game falls very short of our expectations, namely for just a few yet devastatingly consequential reasons:

No terraforming. Nearly half of the pleasure of the old SimCity was creating a landscape that was entirely a product of your own work and settling the human population where you wished and where the terrain best fitted such development. The satisfaction of "owning your work" and producing an entirely customized terrain that boasts and entirely customized network of human development is indescribable. The loss of this option in the new SimCity is thus also indescribable.

Tiny city boundaries. In a game where I would be deeply involved in playing a region for months and sometimes years concocting sprawling metropolises, industrial suburbs, bedroom residential communities, satellite cities, extensive interconnected mass transportation networks... I have grown agonizingly frustrated with the fact that my cities are unrealistically constrained by tiny square borders. In fact, the city limits are built-out so quickly that I've already grown bored with the game only after a few days of playing it. No possibility for expansion or realistic regional connections equates to no more motivation for me to play the game.

City boundaries do not touch each other. Similar to my last point, I cannot "continue" one city into an adjacent one to create a realistic and expansively developed metropolitan area. Instead I am restrained to making rather isolated communities connected by "exits" on a transportation network that is reminiscent of how post-World War II sprawling suburban communities are connected.

Zoning is regulated by roads. If I want a higher-capacity road in a rural area and simply wish to have some light development along it, I'm out of luck. Mid- and high-rise buildings will unrealistically rise out of what was intended to be a sparsely populated landscape. In real life, zoning is not delegated by road capacity. In fact, there are numerous examples of high density developments on tiny roads. Restricted vehicular mobility in such areas are compensated by extensive mass transportation networks. The game is highly-geared to the road, which in my opinion, is a big step backwards. If I want to zone high density on a small street, please let me do it. My sims will either suffer the consequences or I will figure out a way to make it work through other transit options. In any case, give me the freedom to make that decision.

Truth be told, the highly controversial move to entirely-online game play does not bother me one bit. In fact, it's great because I don't have to save extensively large files associated with SimCity on my computer anymore. If I wanted to, I could invite friends to make cities in a region with me and we could cooperatively build a metropolitan area together. That is such a great idea and deserves much applause. This does, in fact, push the game into the 21st century.

Unfortunately, though, despite the wonderful aspects of the new SimCity, the four major downfalls mentioned above, in my opinion, have taken the game back into the 20th century. For "self-proclaimed" veterans and die-hard fans like myself, there are several major disappointments to the new SimCity that degrade the game to the level of undesirable. Having been playing SimCity since I was a small child, I've watched as the game has made leaps and bounds toward more creative, customizable, expansive, and realistic game play. But as I play the new SimCity, it pains me to say that I've been taken backwards. My hands literally feel like they're tied, in so many ways.

I really do hope that the keys to these handcuffs associated with the new SimCity's game play are not thrown away forever. I strongly urge you to incorporate elements from the previous SimCity (as indicated above in the points above) into the new SimCity and perhaps come out with a serious of patches, updates, or whatever is needed to bring the real SimCity back to life. The innovate and highly appealing elements are there, but some of the most basic, realistic, and quite frankly expected, aspects of the game need to be reincorporated.… Expand

jl0329

Mar 5, 2013

5

Not saying it's not a good sim game. In fact, it's a pretty damn good SimCity! However, I had to penalize the greed of EA for making it constant connection required, which impact the user experience more negatively than in a positive way. You want to add multiplayer and social interaction? Fine, give player the choice to do so! DO NO FORCE US.

bruceariggs

Mar 5, 2013

5

The game is great. It's fun, it's addictive, there's a lot of stuff to do.

However, DRM warrants a -5 to the score.

Maybe in the future EA will learn. DRM Bad.

site400

Mar 5, 2013

5

I'll give it a 5 out of 10. Reading the "professional" reviews is a joke, as they reviewed a product that was still in beta and gave the game exceptionally high reviews, which is suspect. Anyways, online DRM prevents play, citiy plots are two small, and region play isn't all that great. Money, people, and resources don't truly flow through the region based upon need. I can forgive theI'll give it a 5 out of 10. Reading the "professional" reviews is a joke, as they reviewed a product that was still in beta and gave the game exceptionally high reviews, which is suspect. Anyways, online DRM prevents play, citiy plots are two small, and region play isn't all that great. Money, people, and resources don't truly flow through the region based upon need. I can forgive the day 1 server issues, but region play, which is suppossed to make up for the small tiles, leaves a lot to be desired.

On the plus side, I love the amount of detail regarding resources put into the game, it feels like a true city simulator.… Expand

Jimbob2k666

Mar 14, 2013

5

I'll start by saying I've had no online DRM issues with the game, although I've had to switch servers a couple of times since first playing. I've played the game now for about 30 hours, yet I seem to have become bored with it already. Realisticaly, due to the limits on city size, there is really only a couple of ways to build a successful city and the idea of starting a new one makes meI'll start by saying I've had no online DRM issues with the game, although I've had to switch servers a couple of times since first playing. I've played the game now for about 30 hours, yet I seem to have become bored with it already. Realisticaly, due to the limits on city size, there is really only a couple of ways to build a successful city and the idea of starting a new one makes me want to quit and do something else..................................... My biggest gripe is the illusion of multiplayer or it's supposed social interface. The chat box never works, I think in the whole 30 hours i've seen one person say "hello" and that's it. I've tried to type replies but these never show up anywhere. Citylog is a waste of time, zones are always full, as they are when you try to search for a game......................................Graphically it's quite nice, but I get a constant, strange flickering anomalies all the time (i have a 7950 card latest drivers etc etc). This is the only game where this occurs and it's quite annoying. I was expecting more details sims though as their appearance is like something from a game 10 years ago......................overall I give the game a 5.… Expand

ryuzaki57

Apr 30, 2013

7

General management and planning doesn't change much from older Sim City games. Old timers will be immediately familiar with the various economic and social settings to monitor. Is your population fully employed? Are businesses making enough profit? Can your inhabitants move efficiently within the city? Are they educated? Can the police cope with crime? Le list is pretty long and hours goGeneral management and planning doesn't change much from older Sim City games. Old timers will be immediately familiar with the various economic and social settings to monitor. Is your population fully employed? Are businesses making enough profit? Can your inhabitants move efficiently within the city? Are they educated? Can the police cope with crime? Le list is pretty long and hours go by quickly when taking on the stack of files. The AI is pretty solid despite recurring conflicts between the surface of residential zone (even with the of the map covered in green the game still says it's not enough), unemployment and consumer spending.

This new Sim City introduces a micro-management system in which each administrative building can be customized with additional elements to boost its efficiency the police station can have more patrol cars, the bus terminal will have to receive more garages, the university can be extended with a business school or an engineer school, etc. This system provides you further leverage to reach prosperity, and keeps you even busier than before.

But Maxis has more and offer you to choose a specialization to personalize your city. Gambling, Hi-Tech, Tourism, Oil, a nice array of possibilities that add further value. Let's stress that you can choose several of those in the same city feel free to erect the Tokyo Tower next to an exhibition center, while you pump oil not far from there! Those ones are no gimmick the warehouse exports, derricks provide barrels for your oil plant, the stadium welcomes tourists...

The fourth layer of awesome is that your management actually has an impact on other Sim City players. The game is organized in regions of 4 to 16 cities which are communicating permanently. Goods will come from neighbours if your industry isn't doing enough, students form other cities will come if you have the best university, stations allow tourists to visit. Economic parameters are very detailed there are 3 levels of wealth, 3 levels of quality for merchandises and 3 levels of qualification for workers. If the middle class can't find goods of their liking at home, they'll be shopping elsewhere. If you're few to produce high-quality goods, the rich from everywhere will rush to buy. Positioning yourself within your region is a game in the game.

Beyond this competitive side, cities can cooperate by sending ambulances, patrol cars or garbage trucks. Player can also sign contracts to provide electricity or water. That's where the whole systems finds its limits. Let's face it, you need every possible asset you have for your city, because there's never enough. Your neighbour isn't always monitoring his power supply, so you can being cut by mistake. To play cooperatively, players need to know each other beforehand.

I lament that the laderboards and the world market are still to be implemented. The dev. team is still working to stabilize servers. A quick word on that apart from the launch day, I've never had any problem to play.

The standard size of the city is about one fourth of a small city in Sim City 3000. When I constructed my 2nd city (having drawn a map before), it took me... 3 hours. In Sim City, you must constantly invest to improve the standards of living. But you very quickly reach the point at which you can't have further residential surfaces, which means you cannot your population and your fiscal revenues. And if, like in my first city, you choose the seaside, you're fairly limited... the other issue lies in the expansions you can make to buildings it can necessitate far more surface than you expected at first. If you haven't made room in advance, you have to flatten entire blocks, lose inhabitants and revenues, which makes your budget worsen dramatically. The University fully developed is about the size of 6 residential blocks of high density! You need to make several cities to exhaust the game. I wish I had a big metropolis with everything in it, but sadly it's not an option.

Sim City is an amazing game, so rich and complex that it seems infinite in theory. But in actual gameplay, it ends up being limited by a clear lack of polish. The dreams of ambitious managers may be crushed by the ridiculous size of the cities.… Expand

TheFadeForever

Apr 28, 2013

6

DRM prevented me from giving it a more positive review. The gameplay for Sim City has improved I give EA credit for that. However, there poor launch held back the potential of the game not to mention the always online single player ruin the experience due to problems connecting to the server. The new updates for the game just made it even more stale than before thank a lot EA.

Daddy_D

Mar 17, 2013

6

The DRM problems are as good as gone, and if you look past the DRM it's a mediocre game that's playable but not perfect. There are still alot of annoying bugs. The traffic for example which is pretty bad where cars take the shortest way rather than the best way causing traffic jams. I really miss the save function, larger areas and offline gameplay, and these are the main reason I can'tThe DRM problems are as good as gone, and if you look past the DRM it's a mediocre game that's playable but not perfect. There are still alot of annoying bugs. The traffic for example which is pretty bad where cars take the shortest way rather than the best way causing traffic jams. I really miss the save function, larger areas and offline gameplay, and these are the main reason I can't give the game more than a 6/10. I can get along with "Always online", but being able to save and larger areas are what makes SimCity great. If EA release a patch in the future and fix these issues I will change my score to 9/10. SimCity is simply not SimCity without these functions. I want to be able to build up a city, save it and wreck it with disasters, but EA says you, I will deside what's fun for you. IF YOU READ THIS EA, FIX THE GAME!!!!!!… Expand

icedanielizatio

Mar 20, 2013

5

First off, I had no connection problems, it probably helped that i'm in New New Zealand. So as I began exploring the game and its features I thought to myself, wow, this is a well built game, the modding capabilities are going to be huge. But every now and then something would crop up and cause a confused face; the first one was the small plot of land, I shrugged it off and thought theFirst off, I had no connection problems, it probably helped that i'm in New New Zealand. So as I began exploring the game and its features I thought to myself, wow, this is a well built game, the modding capabilities are going to be huge. But every now and then something would crop up and cause a confused face; the first one was the small plot of land, I shrugged it off and thought the mechanics must be different. The second confusion showed its face when I first hit the 100,000 mark, at that point I noticed the city I had built had become so squished with tall buildings that it no longer resembled a typical city, to make matters worse, I could not build all the structures I would have liked to, this led me to understand that the game does not want me to play alone, it wants me to either play other plots of land in the same region and specialize them to support each other, or wait for online players to join in. The frustration was starting to set in heavy at that point. 1. I do not like loading and reloading all these different cities that don't even look like cities just to support the one city you care about. 2. When I attempted to start a multiplayer game, no body joined. So with a final attempt at giving the game a chance, I looked for existing maps to join, but very few were active longer than 3 days and those that were, are full; so no hope there either.

Maxis, if you read this, you have a valuable game sitting here, this is only going to be successful for you right now: release the modding tools, but if you won't do that, at least focus the game for single player, doubling the plot size would be a welcome start. If something does not happen within the next few weeks, I'm sorry to say goodbye to another could-have-been. Just take the plunge and listen to us gamers for once.… Expand

theSCARAYone

Apr 1, 2013

7

This game really deserves 2 separate reviews: One reviewing the actual game when it works, and one talking about the horrible decision of always online DRM. But alas, I can't do 2 reviews so I'm stuck with 1. Starting with the game when it works; it's wonderful. I personally feel that when it comes to the game play aspects of this game in one city, they were almost perfect. I love buildingThis game really deserves 2 separate reviews: One reviewing the actual game when it works, and one talking about the horrible decision of always online DRM. But alas, I can't do 2 reviews so I'm stuck with 1. Starting with the game when it works; it's wonderful. I personally feel that when it comes to the game play aspects of this game in one city, they were almost perfect. I love building a city and watching it grow. They simplified the way water and electricity works, you no longer requires power lines or pipes. Building and maintaining your economy is easy and long as you don't do anything stupid. It's just overall a lot of fun. In my book these aspects of the game deserve an 8.5/10.

Now we'll talk about the negative things. DRM is never the solution to any single player game, ever. All the arguments that it "stops piracy" or "enhances your game play experience" are total bull shiest. DRM is limiting the people that pay for your game and only slows down those who would steal it. Take a look at Diablo 3, there are more than 10 torrents online that include server emulators. It doesn't stop piracy, it only slows it down. I also can't stand how small the area is that they give you to build your city's. City's in SC4 or SC3000 could be up to 15 times bigger. The excuse that "it won't run on dad's computer" is also bull shiest. I don't have "dad's computer" I have my computer that I spent a good amount of money on so that I could run things like that, stop limiting the people with the better machines to what the people with the lowest machines can handle. These aspects deserve a 2/10.

Also, anyone who re-reviews this game after giving it a negative one at launch shouldn't. Don't excuse the current game for the failings at launch. I didn't have the game at launch, but if I pay $60 for anything, I expect it to work whenever I want to use it.

So overall I think the game is a 7. All the right ideas are there when it comes to game play, but they are severely hindered by the Always on DRM.… Expand

ashkonh

Mar 9, 2013

7

The new SimCity is another victim of the Cloud. Online-only is probably the worst decision Maxis could have made. SimCity is for stormy days when you have no internet connection and you make yourself a hot chocolate and create a fantasy city. Now it's dependent and social. Although in this edition they have taken out the most annoying aspects of the last game (SimCity 4 Deluxe for PC IThe new SimCity is another victim of the Cloud. Online-only is probably the worst decision Maxis could have made. SimCity is for stormy days when you have no internet connection and you make yourself a hot chocolate and create a fantasy city. Now it's dependent and social. Although in this edition they have taken out the most annoying aspects of the last game (SimCity 4 Deluxe for PC I mean, not tablet or handheld games) such as having to draw water pipes, they left out some of the best aspects. One of the greatest joys when playing SimCity used to be making the terrain yourself before you started your city. Now you can't even control the terrain, so there literally IS going to be a PERFECT city that somebody in Korea designs. I'm not cool with that, it takes all the imagination out of it. They also left out the ability to drive around doing missions, move in your own Sims, and (I am saying it again) control the size of your city. I am giving the game a 7 because I am trying to take a step back from my years of experience with the previous games and what they have given me, and just looking at SimCity from an objective angle. It's fun, pretty, and conducive to teamwork, and the possibilities for creating unique and interesting cities are enormous.… Expand

reticle2020

Mar 8, 2013

6

Well despite the glaring server issues, bugs and inability to play offline. This game is actually a lot of fun. I was able to play for several hours last night, however, on one of the European servers. There are some game crippling bugs I will admit. It's a shame that Maxis is under the thumb of EA I honestly believe that, if they were under the banner of any other producer they wouldWell despite the glaring server issues, bugs and inability to play offline. This game is actually a lot of fun. I was able to play for several hours last night, however, on one of the European servers. There are some game crippling bugs I will admit. It's a shame that Maxis is under the thumb of EA I honestly believe that, if they were under the banner of any other producer they would have waited, ran proper beta testing and released the game when it was ready, instead I think big brother EA was pushing them to release a product to meet their budget. It's a shame really, because once your able to play the game it's really a lot of fun!… Expand

runbmp

Mar 9, 2013

5

I had the chance to spend 23hrs in simcty 5, unfortunately both cities I worked on are now corrupted and the suggested rollback has left them inaccessible...

The game play is a lot of fun and the game does guide quite a bit on how to take on the problematic issues within your city. The GUI and over aesthetics are already well craft, more so the graphs and animation for water, sewageI had the chance to spend 23hrs in simcty 5, unfortunately both cities I worked on are now corrupted and the suggested rollback has left them inaccessible...

The game play is a lot of fun and the game does guide quite a bit on how to take on the problematic issues within your city.

The GUI and over aesthetics are already well craft, more so the graphs and animation for water, sewage and electricity. I do think a little more effort and assets could of been given to variety of buildings and detail. However that's just me.

One of the things lacking, which is noticed within an hour of the game, is the how small the regions are and the dismissal of macro management which has been removed. (when compared to Simcity 4 For me these are two things that had been come back to simcity 4 to this day.

However, with the server issues still on-going, looks like I may have to play Simcity 4 just a bit longer. With the server issues in mind, which are game affecting, I can't give it a full rating sadly. It also begs the questions, how long with Simcity 5 last until EA shuts down the server.… Expand

s0cks

Aug 26, 2013

7

Most of the user review scores are from the time of release. The game has been through 7 major patch updates since then and is a lot more fun.

One has to remember that this was a reboot of the franchise and not a normal iteration or sequel. The old games were statistically based and what you saw on screen was just a representation of what might be happening in the city (hence why carsMost of the user review scores are from the time of release. The game has been through 7 major patch updates since then and is a lot more fun.

One has to remember that this was a reboot of the franchise and not a normal iteration or sequel. The old games were statistically based and what you saw on screen was just a representation of what might be happening in the city (hence why cars faded in and out around corners).

This new game simulates using an agent based system. Now every home has sims that need work, need education, happiness, money, etc... For example, Andy will leave home in the morning and must get to work before 9am. So long as he makes it, when he leaves at the end of the day he will bring home money. That money will be spent in shops which will make him happy. And so on, and so on. That my friends, is revolutionary! You can really start to appreciate how difficult this must have been for them to create.

I'm not saying this is an excuse to release a buggy, half-finished game, but those who wanted SimCity 4 with updated graphics need to look elsewhere. This is not what the game was intending to be.

To add to that city builders are difficult! Look at Cities XL, and before that, SC4. Both were, and still are really buggy! Not just that, but they bring even the best computers to their knees. There is just so much to calculate (even with a statistically based model)!

I find this game fun, and if you go in with an open mind and play the game as was intended it can be a LOT of fun! I recommend it highly. I gave it 7 due to launch issues, if the game released in it's current state it would have got an 8 perhaps in another 6 months it will be a 9.… Expand

minijeffrey

Mar 14, 2013

5

The game has one major problem: everything works and is broken at the same time. The bugs and gameplay-problems I have seen are unbelievable: from a locked time (5:40 PM) to complete broken traffic and money-systems. A realistic simulation game, failed.

GuardianQ

Apr 6, 2013

7

In this review I will ignore any issues with the servers or saving mechanics.

I wasn't excited about receiving SimCity, I bought it as something to do in those long, endless holidays, but that is always what it has been. I have briefly played other SimCity games, but not to a great extent or particularly recently. In reality, I was going in blind. Initially, the menus feel a bitIn this review I will ignore any issues with the servers or saving mechanics.

I wasn't excited about receiving SimCity, I bought it as something to do in those long, endless holidays, but that is always what it has been. I have briefly played other SimCity games, but not to a great extent or particularly recently. In reality, I was going in blind.

Initially, the menus feel a bit clunky despite their beauty and this is a truth throughout. I was disappointed by the lack of choice of regions (eight in all from memory), and then even more so by the lack of space to develop a city. I guess it's a 50-50 as it encourages you to be efficient in your planning but in reality the most efficient design is rows and rows of city blocks which look ugly. The small cities really limit the ability of the designer player to build the city of their dreams and still achieve the same successes as was possible in older games.

The actual game is executed well but not superbly. I like the 'modular' style buildings that you can spring up and all the individual animations of every building and every sim are mesmerising. The specialisation possible in this game is fairly well thought out and the city constraints mean that once you specialise, you don't really have room for a lot else.

The depth of animation is spectacular and there are many layers which you have to consider in order to get your city running well. That said, there are numerous different approaches to doing that and there's always something you can tweak to work that little bit better, which is always very satisfying. Furthermore, despite the small cities, you can always go out and claim another in the same region and use it to bolster your main one, be that as a commuter hub or power station and they all interlink very well and that is something I feel a lot of players forget.

I'll be brief with the problems. There are numerous graphical glitches when on certain zoom levels which shouldn't be, I don't feel there is a great selection of buildings to place yourself (there are verging on a million parks, but little else), and I don't feel the AI systems particularly controlling traffic flow are very intelligent. Coupled to this, the way in which your city develops when density starts increasing isn't always smart and I feel as though when starting with a cosy suburb with wavy roads, it starts to upgrade and you get this big, rectangular apartments all of the same size which in turn make half your roads obsolete. I think there are ways in which high density buildings can have small footprints and this should be explored.

This game is good and well made, but there are problems here and there which can drive you away after a couple of hours. By all means buy it, but don't expect to be blown away.… Expand

Daikaze

Mar 5, 2013

7

I'm not a fan of the DRM or the map size, but the game is actually quite enjoyable. It really seems like most of the reviews are dishonest. The negative reviews are largely from players that didn't buy the game and the positive reviews are bloated as people feel the need to "balance" things out. After some time with the beta and live builds of the game, I can say it is quite enjoyable. TheI'm not a fan of the DRM or the map size, but the game is actually quite enjoyable. It really seems like most of the reviews are dishonest. The negative reviews are largely from players that didn't buy the game and the positive reviews are bloated as people feel the need to "balance" things out. After some time with the beta and live builds of the game, I can say it is quite enjoyable. The small map size makes things a bit more challenging because you don't have room for error when it comes to maximizing your population/income. The map size really puts emphasis on city specializations, and I'm okay with that. It's a bit different, but it ends up playing well. The game is simple enough for novice users and offers plenty of challenge for experienced users to work with. It's a shame they didn't offer a 1-hour demo build for everyone to try.… Expand

Keoki

Mar 6, 2013

7

One of the worst release of a game I ever seen, by the way the game is good, and I hope it will be better in the future. Hope all the problems be fixed soon!

dustin12345678

Mar 14, 2013

5

I am going to ignore the server issues per this review. Great looking game. Great concepts. Specializations nice. The biggest issue with this game is the map size and inability to edit regions. Not possible to focus on nice looking City. Instead, game forces you to really manage how City functions. Older SimCity games allowed you to manage but ALSO focus on aesthetics. Not really sure whyI am going to ignore the server issues per this review. Great looking game. Great concepts. Specializations nice. The biggest issue with this game is the map size and inability to edit regions. Not possible to focus on nice looking City. Instead, game forces you to really manage how City functions. Older SimCity games allowed you to manage but ALSO focus on aesthetics. Not really sure why it forces you to play online because me and my buddy haven't been able to connect on a private region for over a week now. I feel like Maxis and EA dropped the ball on this. There was no point to have agents and individual people simulated in this game. Should have just built off of what made SimCity 4 great. I am going to hope this gets better a year from now (bigger maps, regional editing capabilities, off-line play), but i'm not going to hold my breath. I have been waiting ten years for this? guess i'll open SC4 back up.… Expand

PwQt

Mar 8, 2013

6

SimCity is a GREAT game. When it's working! EA hasn't learned over the fail-Diablo III release problems, and me, I wasn't able to play for a ONE day after downloading the game, cause of the servers overloading. EA seems to be working on this problems, and now we can play this game, but several features are off. SimCity, and similar games were always about single-player experience, so weSimCity is a GREAT game. When it's working! EA hasn't learned over the fail-Diablo III release problems, and me, I wasn't able to play for a ONE day after downloading the game, cause of the servers overloading. EA seems to be working on this problems, and now we can play this game, but several features are off. SimCity, and similar games were always about single-player experience, so we should have the possibility to play OFFLINE, but the games' DRM-system requires connection to EA servers at all times Disconnect for 1 second possibility of losing several hours of gameplay.

Game also suffers from claustrophobic maps. After one-two hour session, you can finish creating one city, without space to create new places to live on your City. You have to create another city to do other things.

Nevertheless, the Glassbox simulation engine is doing it's best to simulate real city life, and it does it PERFECTLY. When you solve one problem(f.e. Sewage), you must be aware that this could cause another problems, needed to be solved quickly. Personally, I like SimCity, the score is low, because of the fail start, and possible problems in future (servers could be off in ~5-6 years). Gameplay does perfectly the thing called "just one more hour".… Expand

Rosey-dee-veto

Mar 6, 2013

6

It really breaks my heart to rate this game so low, because it really is an incredible game with immense depth that provides a much needed breath of fresh air to the genre If you manage to log in.

That's right, the hotly contested decision of SimCity being an online game (needs to be connected to servers in order to play) ended up being a total disaster as so many people predicted.It really breaks my heart to rate this game so low, because it really is an incredible game with immense depth that provides a much needed breath of fresh air to the genre If you manage to log in.

That's right, the hotly contested decision of SimCity being an online game (needs to be connected to servers in order to play) ended up being a total disaster as so many people predicted. Forget the problems of not being to download the game on Origin when it launched, the big problem now is that the servers are way overtaxed; so much so that I've been trying on and off every 10 minutes for the past 6 hours to log in with no luck. This fatal flaw is the only reason I have not rated this game at least a 9/10.

The gameplay is a little different in that your city borders are smaller and you need to specialize your city and work with other cities in the region to run efficiently. Regions range from 2 city regions up to 16, and you can either decide to play it solo by claiming all the cities in a region for yourself or with others by allowing others to join the region and create their own cities. I admit, however, that it is rather difficult managing more that 2 or 3 cities in a region and although possible, this is not how Maxis intended for you to play the game. It's also noteworthy that Maxis has stated that they will increase the city sizes "eventually" as this is one of the more common complaints among play testers and consumers.

I won't give you a huge breakdown on how the gameplay works check out any professional review site and you'll get that. I will tell you that the game is crazy addictive and incredibly fun. Just wait until Maxis EA Origin work out the server issues (as they have promised to do) before you buy it.… Expand

PossumSocks

Mar 5, 2013

7

Ok so lets begin by me saying that I find this game extremely fun. The problem with it is not the game itself, but EA being a total dickbag.

EA is very stupid. DRM on this game hurts the players so much more than pirating. When I first hear people talking about this game and the DRM problems. When I heard that the DRM was stupid, I thought back to Steam where I buy most of my games. OnOk so lets begin by me saying that I find this game extremely fun. The problem with it is not the game itself, but EA being a total dickbag.

EA is very stupid. DRM on this game hurts the players so much more than pirating. When I first hear people talking about this game and the DRM problems. When I heard that the DRM was stupid, I thought back to Steam where I buy most of my games. On Steam you need to be logged in... and that is no problem because the servers are plentiful. This is why I was somewhat blind-sided by SimCity. I did not have to wait the first time playing. And the experience was great. But after about 2 hours, the server began to clog up. Now I understand some hiccups on launch day but it is sad when you cannot play because the server shuts down on you and kicks you off. Now to be honest. DRM only hurts the people who buy the game. I could probably go on ISOhunt or Piratebay right now and find a copy of the game that is working fine, but I like supporting the game devs.. MESSAGE TO ALL GAME CORPORATIONS!!!! DRM DOES NOT SOLVE ANYTHING!!!

Now to sum up the game itself. I only played about 2 and a half hours, but what I did play was pretty great. I love the way cities can now have more organic themes with the new options like curvy roads and such. The game is fairly easy to grasp from the beginning and the controls are smooth. The only problem I had with the game itself is the maps feel a little small, meaning that your cities will become hard to control with so little space.

My scoring: 10
-0.5 for the small maps
-0.5 for removing subways
-2 for the DRM that ruined the experience
=7/10

Final notes- This game could have been an 8 or 9 but the DRM caused the servers to crash... disallowing me to play the game.

also, you guys should stop giving this game a 0 for DRM... honestly that is ridiculous. I know DRM is bad and some may not be able to play the game but in my opinion, you should wait a day and play the game instead of giving it a zero. It is not the game that is terrible, it is EA and Origin that are ruining it.… Expand

ImRatherStartld

Mar 5, 2013

7

To all the people giving this a 1/2/3 because of the always online DRM this is supposed to be a review of the game, not of a company's (poor) choice in piracy protection. Now i absolutely hate EA for their ridiculous DRM protection, but simcity is a beautiful game, with a good interface and is actually pretty damn challenging. yes EA are stupid with the always online drm. yes theseTo all the people giving this a 1/2/3 because of the always online DRM this is supposed to be a review of the game, not of a company's (poor) choice in piracy protection. Now i absolutely hate EA for their ridiculous DRM protection, but simcity is a beautiful game, with a good interface and is actually pretty damn challenging. yes EA are stupid with the always online drm. yes these probably will be micro transactions (once again, pretty stupid) but the game is decent… Expand

ABoone

Mar 5, 2013

5

I'll start off by saying its a good game, however the longevity has been completely spoiled by the map size and insistence on 'Multiplayer'. Maxis and EA have forgotten some of the key aspects of what made the SimCity franchise so great such as the aspect of individual immersion. When I play SimCity I don't want to talk or interact with anyone, the door to my room is closed and unlessI'll start off by saying its a good game, however the longevity has been completely spoiled by the map size and insistence on 'Multiplayer'. Maxis and EA have forgotten some of the key aspects of what made the SimCity franchise so great such as the aspect of individual immersion. When I play SimCity I don't want to talk or interact with anyone, the door to my room is closed and unless something important comes up all I want to do is make my city look totally awesome. The people who play SimCity tend to range from kids to people not too far off my grandfathers age and quite honestly I don't think these two demographics particularly want or need to interact with each other. Out of all the games that exist that EA could have chosen to force an 'Always On DRM' I don't think you could have picked a worse game than SimCity. Focusing further on the demographic for a SimCity game, it would appear that EA and Maxis now just assume everybody owns a highspeed internet connection and a relatively powerful desktop computer. One of the dev's I believe had been quotes as saying they wanted to make a game that 'Could run on your dads pc'. Well unless your dad likes to keep up to date with new processors, graphics cards and RAM I think this game will struggle with your every day family PC. As for having an internet connection, I'm sure the developers of a game called 'SimCity' must have come across a thing called a 'Village' or even a 'Small Town' because believe it or not some people who live in such places struggle to have an internet connection that will perform over 24 hours, let alone at a high speed. Moving on to gameplay however, yes, it is an entertaining game. Starting a new city is fun and you can easily get hooked for a few hours trying to manage your city and keep it both proftiable and expansive whilst maintaining your sim's happiness. Being able to choose different paths for your city is fun, going down the root of a Casino town, University town or Industrial town is a lot of fun and the process of achieving your goals is relatively smooth and cathartic. Then after two hours or so, you've filled the map and you have to start all over again on a new plot. How am I expected to grow any emotional attachment to my cities If I can't spend hours upon hours building it up and overcoming obstacles to gain a real sense of achievement? How can I build a city to look unique and have areas such as poor districts for my labour workers, rich districts for my city slickers and the suburbs along long winding roads for the middle classes if I am forced to create a generic high density city grid structure across the entire area? That is not how cities look like! EA may decide to fix these problems with DLC, however quite honestly if I were to buy any DLC from EA it would feel like supplying semtex to the IRA. Everyone knows that EA are quite shameless in their ability to charge people money for DLC that could have quite easily already been in the game, or to charge people money for the right to cheat. Or to charge people money for items within the game, which destroys any form of difficulty curve.

This puts many people in a worrying position. As someone who likes many of the games and franchises under EA, for example FIFA, Mass Effect, Dead Space etc. If I refused to buy any game release by EA on moral grounds then I would be missing out on quite a lot. However, everytime I purchase an EA game, their disgusting money grabbing antics continue to ruin the market. What I can say though is don't buy SimCity, unless you have the money to burn and don't mind playing something you will get bored of in just a few weeks.… Expand

adamwouldcould

Mar 8, 2013

5

Time for me to pile on also. I've lost several hours of gameplay due to server issues. I know it's ultimately my fault for expecting more... but the nostalgia of playing the original made me do it. The DRM is the problem for me.

godlymonkey

Mar 19, 2013

6

Buggy gameplay leads to a frustrating gameplay experience. Resources not shared, or being used when readily available. Cant join multiplayer games, all suggested are always the same and are full.

PlatinumFlyTrap

Mar 22, 2013

7

This would be a 7.5 if I could rate that.The cities are very small but depending on the region you choose can have multiple cities. These cities can interact but not as much as I expected. Disasters have to be unlocked in regular mode and all... well everything has to be built along roads. Online DRM was a problem at first but it's perfectly fine now except on very few occasions. CityThis would be a 7.5 if I could rate that.The cities are very small but depending on the region you choose can have multiple cities. These cities can interact but not as much as I expected. Disasters have to be unlocked in regular mode and all... well everything has to be built along roads. Online DRM was a problem at first but it's perfectly fine now except on very few occasions. City specialization is vague but it makes you need to make a decision. Pro stadiums and expo centers can make TONS of money and are really "overpowered" in a sense. It is fun and beautiful but has it's flaws game-play wise. I am sure mods will allow for larger cities but until then, have fun in your village.… Expand

BobLennon

Mar 22, 2013

6

I really do not understand all these people who are giving this game 0's 1's and 2's. Ok, the game has problems: Servers that malfunction, no subway, small maps (this decreased my grade of this game by 1).
But the rest, is, Awesome. Wether your city is bad or really good you are, in the end, really proud of your result. Seeing huge buildings pop up in your city is just great. The game isI really do not understand all these people who are giving this game 0's 1's and 2's. Ok, the game has problems: Servers that malfunction, no subway, small maps (this decreased my grade of this game by 1).
But the rest, is, Awesome. Wether your city is bad or really good you are, in the end, really proud of your result. Seeing huge buildings pop up in your city is just great. The game is beautiful (eats up resources though), the road system is almost flawless and the new module concept is enjoyable (sometimes annoying though when you have allot of money and you have to put the modules 1 by 1 instead of having some button that makes that building automatically go at max), the game is challenging and finally it is NOT buggy at all. Depending on how much you are a fan of the series, you will probably, like me, get 20 hours of super fun on this game (for myself 27 with the beta). The problem here is that after that 20 hours, the game will start being boring, even when you take your time. The biggest reason for this is the repetitiveness of the cities. They really will look similar. A 6/10 seems like a justifiable result for this game. Simcity 4 is definitely better but this game is fresh anyway. and thanks Maxis for the free game.… Expand

DubCheezy

Mar 6, 2013

6

After a couple of days with the new SimCity game, my feelings are most certainly mixed. On the one hand, SimCity is an incredibly deep and engrossing simulation you could lose hours in. On the other hand the game is a flawed with bugs and backed by unreliable serves to maintain the "always online" requirement. There are also unnecessary limitations that appear to set the stage for DLCAfter a couple of days with the new SimCity game, my feelings are most certainly mixed. On the one hand, SimCity is an incredibly deep and engrossing simulation you could lose hours in. On the other hand the game is a flawed with bugs and backed by unreliable serves to maintain the "always online" requirement. There are also unnecessary limitations that appear to set the stage for DLC to be purchased in the in-game store down the road. Lets look at game play first, for the most part the game's engine is stable, I experienced no crashes due to the software itself. SimCity is a much more colorful and vibrant than it's predecessors, resembling the SIMs more than anything else. The depth and detail of the game engine is incredible when you consider everything that goes on in a city at once, all being tracked by the software. You can even select an individual SIM and follow them all around the town as they go from school, to work etc. Building your city has never been easier with a multiple road types including curved roads. And your buildings can be customized in new ways by adding modular additions to hospitals, city hall, and many others. I did however notice some hiccups in the game engine that need to be addressed by the developers; mainly erratic and strange behavior by certain SIMs on the roadways. Delivery trucks and buses would sometimes randomly stall out or just simply drive around aimlessly. Usually a restart would correct this problem, but these errors slowed my city's development to a craw. I also ran into irritating problems placing roads; the game prohibiting me from placing a road where I know it should be able to go. The New SimCity also uses much smaller map sizes for each city. I didn't mind this as much as some people, because once you fill out one map you can move on to the next-door map in the region. Since the cities in the region can share resources, jobs, etc I decided to dedicate each map as a "segment' of a larger city. Now my whole region is one giant city, with one map being the residential area, one map being industrial, and so on. The developers stated the smaller map size was due to limitations of people's computers to run the game with bigger maps. I call BS on that one, checking resources, my 3-year-old PC can run this game on max settings, utilizing less that 70% of the system resources to do it. I expect to see EA cramming DLC large maps down our throats at a later date. Most of my issues with the SimCity are a result of the "Always-online" DRM built into the game. This is not about, whether DRM is "right" or not, or even fair. The issue is the DRM was done very poorly and negatively affects the game-play to a point where it actually hinders the player's ability to enjoy the game they paid 60 bucks for. I was disconnected 5 times form EA's overwhelmed servers, two of those 5 times I had to wait longer than 20 minutes to log back in. Considering I was playing a SINGLE PLAYER game, and I'd paid 60 bucks for it, I didn't expect to have to wait in line to play the game. That's like being told by Ford that you can only drive your new car when/where THEY want you to. If the roads are open, they should be free, and I should be able to drive where I want. The reality is Game companies will continue to do this only if the consumer continues to open their wallets. That being said it's tough to punish SimCity for it's publisher's shady tactics, the game is very fun. But DRM IS PART OF THE GAME, it IS a FEATURE. If a game had a terrible installation program that didn't work on many computers, reviewers would most certainly account this into their review score. DRM must also be considered in the review scores of this game because it is part of the game, just like every other feature whether it be a building or a menu. The bottom line is if you love SimCity, you'll love this game, DRM or not. The DRM does limit the game (and that's the real reason they made smaller maps) and it does make the game downright unplayable at times. This is because when you buy SimCity, you're not just buying the game software, but your buying bandwidth and space on EA's servers, and quite frankly EA hasn't been up to the task so far.… Expand

Tornnight

Mar 8, 2013

5

-3 for Server downtime fiasco during release. Even if their division isn't big on multiplayer, this is unforgivable. They should have known better. I can forgive DRM and online only, but not if it doesn't work. This is worse than an alpha game in this state.
-2 for Map Size which is ridiculously small. You can almost 'finish' a 'city' in one play session
+1 for over fun while you're-3 for Server downtime fiasco during release. Even if their division isn't big on multiplayer, this is unforgivable. They should have known better. I can forgive DRM and online only, but not if it doesn't work. This is worse than an alpha game in this state.
-2 for Map Size which is ridiculously small. You can almost 'finish' a 'city' in one play session
+1 for over fun while you're still developing your 'town'
-1 for blurry graphics and poor terrain textures unless you zoom in enough.
+1 for the fun disasters
-1 for lack of any terrain adjustment options. A little, limited ones would have gone a long way.… Expand

dkao12

Mar 19, 2013

7

Simcity 5 is an intriguing game and has a lot of potential such as specialization and the complex gameplay. It isn't a bad game, it just had a really bad launch and EA is trying to fix their servers (heck they're willing to give out a free title with your purchase of Simcity). It's the steep learning curve makes it really difficult to start out and inability to change the settings andSimcity 5 is an intriguing game and has a lot of potential such as specialization and the complex gameplay. It isn't a bad game, it just had a really bad launch and EA is trying to fix their servers (heck they're willing to give out a free title with your purchase of Simcity). It's the steep learning curve makes it really difficult to start out and inability to change the settings and rules of the map is ridiculous. The tutorials don't help much and the in-game tips barely give me useful information. I couldn't even start my own city by myself because the amount of money is given to you at the beginning is too little (playing at normal) and the fact that I have to specialize on one thing and cooperate with the other city is even harder. Since you have to upgrade your town hall to city hall which needs a lot of residents then add a department of transportation to ship or gain workers and a trade depot to trade resources WITH ONLY $50,000 which I find ridiculous! It forces you to play with others or claim other lands which shouldn't make me do that and the land size is so small that I can barely call this game simCITY... hey I'm not talking about a metropolis here but the amount of space you get is a one block in the map. The more I played this game the lower my score got... and I'm not judging this game on its servers which I never do. It had great potential and I'm pretty sure it must have been awesome on paper! But I think this game falls short and it does not impress me very well. Bummer... I really wanted to immerse myself in this game but i can't unless I build multiple cities by myself or have to constantly rely on other cities. It's not a bad game but it is disappointing to anyone who is a SimCity fan, it just missing a lot things and the basics.… Expand

Cordacc

Mar 6, 2013

5

I have played, or at least tried to play this game. The tiny amount of time I could get on without crashing was fun and a real sim game with only the city size being any sort of major game play complaint. However I looking at the scores started wondering whether all of the people who gave it a 10 had well, even played the games, especially with many containing simple factual errors. SO II have played, or at least tried to play this game. The tiny amount of time I could get on without crashing was fun and a real sim game with only the city size being any sort of major game play complaint. However I looking at the scores started wondering whether all of the people who gave it a 10 had well, even played the games, especially with many containing simple factual errors. SO I have quickly done some excel work and I think when you take a look at this low user score, as low as it is, it should be lower. Of The current positive scores only 30% wrote a review as compared to the 58% of the negative ratings being reviews. Interesting isn't it that there were son many anonymous positives. Now if we look at the current 60 positive reviews, of the people giving these ratings the average of ratings given by each individual reviewer was 1.75, compared to the positives where the average number of rating per rater was (among the most recent 100) Was 4.33. Now why do you think this could be, I took a closer look and Of these 60 negative reviews 44 of them, 73%, of the raters had given exactly one review and one rating that is only for this one game. And of the remaining 16 people 9 of them had given only 2 reviews and 2 ratings. Leaving only 7 of the 60 raters with more than 2 rating and 2 reviews. People always say that the company will tell employees to rate their games highly or get people to do that for them, this is a little over the top. I just thought that if you are planning on buying this game, you should realize that only 12% of the reviews and probably a lower percent of the ratings were given by any sort of actual thoughtful human. This disgusts me.… Expand

EyEmAtchOo

Mar 12, 2013

7

*Reviewed after 30 hours of playing* (This game has some wonderful potential, yet see below for game play issues.) If you like city sims, I still think this one is worth checking out. The graphics are beautiful and the game play has a lot of polish and fun factor. We spent an entire weekend lost in the fun of nurturing our towns and taking pride in our metropolises. The DRM issue is*Reviewed after 30 hours of playing* (This game has some wonderful potential, yet see below for game play issues.) If you like city sims, I still think this one is worth checking out. The graphics are beautiful and the game play has a lot of polish and fun factor. We spent an entire weekend lost in the fun of nurturing our towns and taking pride in our metropolises. The DRM issue is offensive, the day 1 server problems were inexcusable, and the handling by EA has been somewhat contemptible. (EA refuses refunds to customers who bought the game directly from them and couldn't play it due to EA's incompetent server scheme!) But, all that said, chances are none of these thing will affect your enjoyment moving forward. The actual game is largely as good as you hoped it would be. The city land size is not huge, but it's sufficient for an interesting city to be built. Being able to follow your citizens around in full 3D really makes you feel invested in the community you're creating. The amount of detail can be a bit mind blowing. Yet there are still several issues you should be aware of: //

Game Breaking Problems:
- Water is a finite resource, sometimes shockingly limited, and there is no way to import it from outside the region. The workaround seems to be to have a sewage outflow pipe dump sewage in the ground, and have a water pump with only filtered pump modules running next to it. This is pretty lame.
- Recycling Centers are bugged, causing them to stop working, and leading to a pile up of recyclable garbage that is followed by massive ground pollution and a crippling health pandemic.
- Traffic becomes very difficult to mitigate in a city of only 200 thousand residents. There are no highways you can build, only avenues, and every intersection results in more stop and go bottlenecks. If you make a road higher capacity, that is intrinsically connected with allowing higher density buildings there. So better roads actually causes more traffic there, and don't fix the problem for long.
- Sims on the road don't yield to emergency vehicles. Soon crime, fire, and health problems can't be kept in check because all service vehicles all stuck in traffic with their sirens on. Garbage collection also starts to fail completion due to traffic, and also because garbage collectors seem to only randomly wander looking for trash to collect. Thus adding more garbage trucks to one garbage center becomes less and less helpful, since they tend to clump up near that center and follow each other around, leaving distant areas without any coverage. Adding a second center, even one with no dump of its own, seems to help. The region's Wind speed starts dramatically dying down after a few game years, making wind play like an unrealistically limited resource. Annoyances:
- The game must be played by connecting to one of the (now many) EA servers. These servers don't coordinate at all. You might start a city on one server, and later find it is too crowded to connect. EA says "just connect to a different one", but then that server won't have your city available, and perhaps your friends are still on the first server. Even worse, the first time you connect to each server, it makes you play through the first time player tutorial all over again. The sim is great about showing you how things are right now. But it's hard to appreciate this in context with practically no historical data available. There no longer seem to be any graphs over time, aside from population, unlike the past SimCity games. I would really like to observe cause and effect by charting things like ground pollution over time alongside health problems over time. Or city income compared to education levels over time, or any of a large number of things.
- You can't upgrade a road to an avenue without destroying every building on that road. If this is your $150K municipal building, too bad, you'll have to destroy and rebuild it.… Expand

OnlyJoe

Mar 6, 2013

6

This game has many good parts to it, as well as some frustrating parts. I was amount the group of people who couldn't actually download the game until hours after it was released. So that put me in a bad mood at the start. Then there is the whole cloud and always online issue, being online didn't seem too much of a problem for me, but not know when it saves is annoying. A number of timesThis game has many good parts to it, as well as some frustrating parts. I was amount the group of people who couldn't actually download the game until hours after it was released. So that put me in a bad mood at the start. Then there is the whole cloud and always online issue, being online didn't seem too much of a problem for me, but not know when it saves is annoying. A number of times it has crashed, and taken me to the desktop, so I log back in and the city has gone. But the good things are the sims, amazing seeing every person and every car, and you can follow them all the way to work. It like they are actual people, and traffic is real because too many cars. Public transport does seem very used by sims, put in busses and the car more than half.
They have put more focus onto having to get the buildings to upgrade, which give more of a challenge. And upgrading buildings is great, and means you spend less time waiting to save up to buy something. Bad things: 1. the map size feels so small, and there is not enough space to match the demands. For me sim city was always about rapid expansion.
2. When you play with other people, there are loads of plots of land someone has claimed and then not built anything in. And other cities are really important in this version, you have to share sims and resources. And people don't really work together, they just make a tiny city the same as everyone else on the map. Plus everyone wants to get the nice flat area's first, leaving just the cliffs or island levels.
3. There feels like there is so much missing content. One way streets, highways, subways, etc.… Expand

SlubbertKing

Mar 20, 2013

7

Its a good game though i feal that the cities ar a bit to small and the fact that you got an allways online drm on it kinda drags it down. THough when it works its a fun game.

AronSora

Mar 6, 2013

5

I like the small maps, the game play mechanic is amazing. Each city is an interesting puzzle and there is no solution as the global market prices for stuff are ever changing. IT's cool having to rebuild who sections of your city. I wish I had 10% more space, I just quiet solve the puzzle, but it's fun. The dam servers however, are crap. I would wait for about a month until they tripleI like the small maps, the game play mechanic is amazing. Each city is an interesting puzzle and there is no solution as the global market prices for stuff are ever changing. IT's cool having to rebuild who sections of your city. I wish I had 10% more space, I just quiet solve the puzzle, but it's fun. The dam servers however, are crap. I would wait for about a month until they triple their server capacity. It also sucks that regions don't transfer between servers.… Expand

mIX

Mar 7, 2013

6

The game play is awesome and interface is much easier to use that past versions. This really is a great update to the Sim City series. Unfortunately the launch for this game has been horrible! I played the beta and it ran great. The real thing runs like crap right now... and EA should have known they'd need more servers... we paid enough for the game.

chris514

Mar 7, 2013

6

This is a good game but don't buy it in its current state. If and when i can connect I have enjoyed it. Problems I have encountered include non functioning menus, inability to connect, inability to use normal functions such as PLAY. Bugs such as a recycling plant that does not function and an inability to see the area map or start a new town. the list of problems is numerous and untilThis is a good game but don't buy it in its current state. If and when i can connect I have enjoyed it. Problems I have encountered include non functioning menus, inability to connect, inability to use normal functions such as PLAY. Bugs such as a recycling plant that does not function and an inability to see the area map or start a new town. the list of problems is numerous and until its fixed don't buy it. Once it is fixed i would give it a solid 8.5 Cheers.… Expand

xo220c

Mar 10, 2013

7

look i see why people are giving it negative reviews but what is the point in playing the game. The point is so that you can see what it is like yeah it may have its flaws but all in all its a good deep simulated city and that is what we wanted at the launch of any pc game the servers will always be at maximum capacity but if you think about it we asked for the game to be launched earlylook i see why people are giving it negative reviews but what is the point in playing the game. The point is so that you can see what it is like yeah it may have its flaws but all in all its a good deep simulated city and that is what we wanted at the launch of any pc game the servers will always be at maximum capacity but if you think about it we asked for the game to be launched early so we brought all of the glitches on ourselves the one thing i do have to say is that the game always skips a frame… Expand

StukaJU87c

Mar 15, 2013

7

The user scores are pretty ridiculous here. I mean yes the launch was all kinds of messed up, even still it can be hard to actually play the game...but aside from that I believe it's a decent game...until you run out space to build. The city size is a crippling limitation. Don't feed into the BS that it's because of the inter connectivity of the different cities in a region....that couldThe user scores are pretty ridiculous here. I mean yes the launch was all kinds of messed up, even still it can be hard to actually play the game...but aside from that I believe it's a decent game...until you run out space to build. The city size is a crippling limitation. Don't feed into the BS that it's because of the inter connectivity of the different cities in a region....that could easily be scaled up. The largest maps contain 4 regions of 4 city lots. One city should take up not just those lots, but the entire area...the entire map even if the player chooses. I will give it a 7 because aside from those aspects, the game is nice. Cities XL '13 has better graphics...I will probably go back to playing that.… Expand

Friendzie

Mar 15, 2013

6

People go on and on about the online-only, but that is only a temporary issue. The biggest problem with Simcity that's been discovered since its launch is that the AI the game uses for the citizens is absolutely abysmal. Citizens don't really live anywhere or have jobs. They just appear out of houses each day and roam around looking for jobs. If they cant find any, the housing losesPeople go on and on about the online-only, but that is only a temporary issue. The biggest problem with Simcity that's been discovered since its launch is that the AI the game uses for the citizens is absolutely abysmal. Citizens don't really live anywhere or have jobs. They just appear out of houses each day and roam around looking for jobs. If they cant find any, the housing loses happiness. It doesn't matter if all your jobs are connected via roads. The citizens will simply march to the nearest jobs and keep going door to door. What this means is that your important mining industry on the other side of town will keep closing due to worker shortages, while some citizens will still complain they couldn't find a job. The only way for a player to fix this is by meticulous trial and error or by making the city have only one winding snake-like avenue with a good distribution of zones so that it's impossible for citizens to not find the local shopping and industry every day. Somehow the game is still pretty fun for a city-builder, but I hope they fix the idiotic AI.… Expand

SumoScott

Mar 9, 2013

7

Although the issues logging in are from gone, the game overall is brilliant. Such a shame, if it weren't for poor management SimCity would have scored alot higher.

mountainpony

Mar 14, 2013

7

First off, I have to get this out of the way; I am not nor have ever been employed by EA or Maxis (or by anyone, for that matter, with even loose ties in the gaming industry). I am just an avid gamer. I hold no grudges against any developers or publishers, although, as in this case, it's pretty evident when one, or both, of them slips up.

EA undeniably soured the release of an otherwiseFirst off, I have to get this out of the way; I am not nor have ever been employed by EA or Maxis (or by anyone, for that matter, with even loose ties in the gaming industry). I am just an avid gamer. I hold no grudges against any developers or publishers, although, as in this case, it's pretty evident when one, or both, of them slips up.

EA undeniably soured the release of an otherwise sweet game with SimCity, albeit not in the usual way they're accused of. But when we look passed the Always Online DRM, how much of gamers' quibbles with SimCity are actually EA's fault?

To begin, there have been some redeeming things EA have done (or tried to do) in response to all the anger and frustration aimed at them. On March 18th for instance, "a free PC download game from the EA portfolio" will be available to all active SimCity users. It took less than three days (which by industry standards is blazing fast) to drastically improve server load and performance and increase the total number of servers. How long has Crysis 3 been out? Black Ops 2? Have they even acknowledged the issues with their servers? (For those who don't know what I mean by this, I have been unable to get a consistently lag-free connection with either those games in multiplayer, especially Black Ops 2, and it's certainly not my IP)

But let's focus on the major complaints from gamers regarding SimCity: small city sizes, forced multiplayer, micro-transactions, inability to save/load on HDD, and Day One DLC. At least one of these isn't even true, and all seem quite clearly to me as design choices made by the developer, Maxis. Let's get two of the easy complaints out of the way; privatizing a game is as simple as checking a box, and I have yet to find ANY micro-transaction opportunity (I don't even see what purpose they'd serve beyond catering to the laziest of players), and even if they were everywhere, they're little more than a purchasable cheat, having no effect on gameplay for those who choose to ignore them. Day One DLC can be controversial, but really? This "DLC" is a tourist attractions package of sorts that offers real-world wonders and buildings such as the Eiffel Tower. Unless you want to recreate Paris, there is absolutely nothing you're missing out on. SimCity was always a creative game where you built cities from your imagination.

The inablitiy to save onto a private hard disk is kind of dumb but necessary to the whole idea of a pseudo-MMO city simulator. Your cities breathe and produce and work with (or against) other players and their cities. That can't happen if players can simply load a past save when something doesn't go their way. I personally like this feature and don't mind that my saves are located in a "cloud" instead of a physical disk (although the option for both would certainly be preferable). The lack of a save/load feature, however, is a direct result of the more fundamental design choice regarding online play, one that I find very implausible was forced upon Maxis by EA. Many of the game's design choices in general stem from the questionable decision to make SimCity an "online game," like Diablo III or even Guild Wars, which is decision made by Maxis. And if you insist that EA forced Maxis to make SimCity online only from the reboot's inception, then I find it very hard to believe Maxis couldn't get the as big a game as SimCity published under another company that didn't choose to force online play, if they were against the idea that is.

The final complaint and also my personal gripe is indeed the city size. They're simply too small. The ability to connect multiple cities, using them in tandem to create a mega city, does help mend this but there should be an option to extend city boundaries, or at least a game mode where the limit is removed. A recent interview with a lead game designer from Maxis states that they intend to increase the size limits "eventually."

Now, EA has been receiving the blame for this design choice since the beta, when it's quite clear to me Maxis should be receiving the brunt of it. I don't quite understand why anyone would even sneer in EA's direction on this one; am I to assume their unabashed greed somehow accounts for them not allowing Maxis to increase the city limits? I don't see how it earns them a profit; in fact it's done the opposite.

In the end, EA screwed up big time with the servers, but they've made evident and serious attempts to rectify their mistake (at least I feel that way). Meanwhile, Maxis has gotten out seeming guilt-less, when it seems they're liable for most of the complaints. True, the DRM needs to go, not only from EA but industry-wide (I'm looking at you Blizzard).

I'm judging the game for what it is in it's current playable state, a solid 7. Given time for updates and player mods, I'm sure this game will be incredible and the city limits will hopefully be expanded sooner rather than later.… Expand

Mehlicious

Mar 8, 2013

7

First two days of release I spent 3 hours each night failing to login the appropriate servers for my region (NA East 1 and 2). Last night and this morning, I was pleasantly surprised with stable access and unhindered playability. Although certain details of the game have been removed, overall, the sandbox-like atmosphere of past generations is still there. Aside from an initial shock toFirst two days of release I spent 3 hours each night failing to login the appropriate servers for my region (NA East 1 and 2). Last night and this morning, I was pleasantly surprised with stable access and unhindered playability. Although certain details of the game have been removed, overall, the sandbox-like atmosphere of past generations is still there. Aside from an initial shock to just how unstable the Simcity/EA always on DRM can be, I will most likely continue to play this game. I knocked off 2 points for requiring an always on DRM for single player sandboxes, which clearly can and have ruined playability. There is nothing worse than an unintentional rollback of a city hosted on EA servers because of a crash from server side. The fear of a rollback to my work is in my head every second I play this game, but I will admit it wanes as the stability persists from this point forward. Finally, one other point was taken because the map sizes are too small. I would like to see a larger map size and single player always on DRM removed. Since the developers/staff have been working so hard to stabilize servers and bring additional server capacity online, I logically think that future patches will only strengthen this game and fix the concerns I have stated with map size and single player always on DRM.… Expand

FLyNn

Mar 15, 2013

7

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The best new thing in Sim City is: you can help your friends with means. And also the new buildings makes the game more beautiful than the other "Sim Cities".
The worst thing in it is: you really needs to connect to the server to play, and now there are many "network disconnects".… Expand

Abuk007

Mar 7, 2013

6

Ok. No big issues with the game itself, city size is the only big flaw. DRM destroys the experiance. Game is unplayable because of EA's servers 3 days after release. If Multiplayer aspect was optional and singleplayer was guaranteed without Internet requirement game would have been better. Now it's unplayable.

Tropicantroll

Apr 4, 2013

6

I were too kind to Simcity in the first place.. Theres still Huge Problems, Like Online RDM.. Seriously? The servers aren't atleast full anymore.. but also.. the Cities feel too "American" i mean of course most of the players are mostly american.. But, i mean.. School buses? Seriously?? But well, Forget that.. But what about the London, French and the german Expansion? Well.. They are someI were too kind to Simcity in the first place.. Theres still Huge Problems, Like Online RDM.. Seriously? The servers aren't atleast full anymore.. but also.. the Cities feel too "American" i mean of course most of the players are mostly american.. But, i mean.. School buses? Seriously?? But well, Forget that.. But what about the London, French and the german Expansion? Well.. They are some waste of money.. i didn't see anything change in the city! It feels like i wasted 100 NOK (norwegian Crowns) for the Packs! Why they do that?

Well i haven't given up the hope yet, hopefully they might do something to fix alot of the stuff' they have alleredy fixed the servers.. But theres still a chunk of Problems they have to fix:

1. More realistic Traffic.. i mean.. They only take the shortest way.. Seriously?
2. Less Limit for the city to Grow.. I mean.. I can't even make wonders in the Normal Mode.. AT ALL..
3. Why is there only hotels in Casinos? They shud had made Hotels outside of that.. I mean Only Hotels in Casinos? What were they thinking??
4. I know theres some bugs with people going into wrong houses.. But i don't really mind about that..
5. Horrible to search for a game with an Empety place.. I mean.. You can't SEARCH?? YOU CAN'T?? They should had fixed that..

Now, i will try to update this review if theres stuff they fix.. But the game won't probaly go up in ratings so much.. Cos of the fact that the game had a horrible release.. but they have got people more Happier now.. cos before there were 1.6 in user score.. now there is 1.9.. Now that isen't so horrible..
And there were alot of things that were good at the game.. I mean the game is actuly fun in the beginning.. The Citizens make a nice view.. And you can see them talking.. theres some humor in it too.. But still The Building limit is the WORST monster.. I mean.. With that, you will just rage to the end.. Please Remove some of the limits atleast..… Expand

Mooseda

Mar 14, 2013

7

I definitely overall agree that the online-only DRM management for this game is superbly silly. But I really feel for the developers and engineers behind this project that made it come alive. I bet you they have been pouring their soul into this project for years BUT the head producers and directors and managers all made this absurd blueprint on trying to put a fight on piracy when inI definitely overall agree that the online-only DRM management for this game is superbly silly. But I really feel for the developers and engineers behind this project that made it come alive. I bet you they have been pouring their soul into this project for years BUT the head producers and directors and managers all made this absurd blueprint on trying to put a fight on piracy when in fact, I bet you there's less than a 8-13% population out there that REALLY know how to install a cracked game. If I was creating a great game and only 8-13% of them are hacking it because they figured out how to, by all means I would not mind. It's the head of EA that took in the developers of Maxis and corporate-ized them into a DLC and DRM machine. I support the game because of the engineers and the engine.. but I DO NOT respect the politics on how this game was born and how its maintained for audiences.… Expand

CoachCager

Mar 7, 2013

7

The Sim itself is amazing.
I am not a fan of the DRM, though I understand where they are coming from.

My major dislike is the size of the "towns" I used to love building big sprawling metropolises. I can understand that why the size is small due to the level at which they are simming.

malfunkt

Mar 9, 2013

5

Got this game after reading the early praise and then much of the anger after the technical issues. Perhaps as I work in application development I have a bit more patience, and I have no wrath towards the EA team. I know they are going to iron out the technical issues and once they do, what's there is actually pretty cool. I have not encountered any issues as yet. So I can only speak toGot this game after reading the early praise and then much of the anger after the technical issues. Perhaps as I work in application development I have a bit more patience, and I have no wrath towards the EA team. I know they are going to iron out the technical issues and once they do, what's there is actually pretty cool. I have not encountered any issues as yet. So I can only speak to the game experience. What we have here is a great simulation engine, it's like having a digital ant-farm that you cultivate and create again. It is an MMO of sorts and for a myriad of reasons, EA and Maxis have forced a multiplayer experience. I can see why many customers are asking for an offline, large scale sandbox equivalent that is after all what SimCity has always been. I would like this too, but that is not what I bought the game for.

The game feels a bit more alive knowing that there are other cities growing beside you. The interaction is limited and just enough that you can play in your sandbox without someone coming over and destroying your creation.

As a game, it's fairly easy to set up a functional town. Specializing and leveling up is more of a fun chore. Its enjoyable to watch the impressive details. The first time I saw criminals and police have a gun fight with funky music thrown in I knew the devs had more details in store. Also, the game has an addictive and casual nature to it. I've been so immersed in first-person shooters (Red Orchestra 2, Counter Strike Global Offensive, BF3) that I thought this would be a nice break more relaxing and less demanding. It's perfect in that regard.

Expect to EA monetize it to bits. Which will be okay providing they provide quality content. Buy this game if the premise, detail, lively town-sized maps, persistent online regions, always on connection has appeal or if you can live with some of the DRM downsides. Do not buy this game if you want massive SimCity sprawls, reliable offline play, terraforming, and user mods. Oh and performance is solid too, most computer should run this well providing they have dedicated graphics card.

For those that have shelled out your dough, had a rotten first week, give this a chance. If they get it running consustently (which by latest accounts is where it looks like thus isheading), compensate for the week of lost gaming, and continue to update and tweak then its worth reconsideration.… Expand

wallpaper_01

Mar 15, 2013

7

Crazy reviews on here, so many 0's... Common, chill out!

I was discussing this with my housemate last night and I think that this game is done so well that it is getting negative reviews! Let me explain... It has a brilliant UI, everything is simple to understand and it is so accurate that we almost want it to do everything! Cities in real life are so complex and this game really isCrazy reviews on here, so many 0's... Common, chill out!

I was discussing this with my housemate last night and I think that this game is done so well that it is getting negative reviews! Let me explain...

It has a brilliant UI, everything is simple to understand and it is so accurate that we almost want it to do everything! Cities in real life are so complex and this game really is pretty accurate, its amazing to watch. Because there are no subways, terraforming etc we get angry, why are they not there?! But so much is there!

Anyway DRM, people chill out who cares honestly, I waited 4 days after release to play and it all works fine except Leaderboards. I will mark down 1 point for DRM. Also because I can't play it offline on the move, I don't want to but I could see some people would want to. Seeing people give this game 0 because of DRM is idiotic.

I mark down another point for the map sizes, this is my main gripe about the game. I want to 'design' my city but I feel like you can't. You can at first but demand makes you need to create packed in dense cities that all end up looking the same. You have the tools to be able to, like different class ranges but the city is far too small to do that. Plus specialist cities? No, I want option of all in one like LA, which has everything.

3rd mark down is for little things missing like subway, little bugs, I don't like the big works idea, I just want a full airport 'in' my city, no bridges when you want them etc...

Can or will all this stuff be fixed with a patch? I think it could be, but will it? Probably not. If the sims is anything to go by, there will be many expansions to this game.

7/10… Expand

BreckenTheDude

Mar 6, 2013

7

Okay, yes, there are a of problems with this game. But honestly, the added features are great. The security features (always online DRM) was a horrible addition yes, and the maps are a bit too small, but it really is fun. If you are new to the SimCity series I recommend this one then go onto something like SimCity 4 with a much bigger map and that is slightly harder to play.

TyBallz

Mar 6, 2013

7

The game itself is actually pretty great. The server issues, while frustrating, aren't too bothersome if you have more patience than a two year old child. I'm sure everything will be smoothed out within a week or two. The unable to save for a lot of users (including myself) is the most annoying 'error' I've encountered so far. If you're thinking of buying the game, maybe give it a fewThe game itself is actually pretty great. The server issues, while frustrating, aren't too bothersome if you have more patience than a two year old child. I'm sure everything will be smoothed out within a week or two. The unable to save for a lot of users (including myself) is the most annoying 'error' I've encountered so far. If you're thinking of buying the game, maybe give it a few weeks until EA/Origin and fix connection/server problems.… Expand

SylarHRG

Mar 6, 2013

7

One of my favourite game franchises of all time did not get the reboot that I expected. Let alone the cries about always online (which I don't mind as long as it properly functions), a single day in, I enjoyed the time I put in but couldn't help feeling like it was missing some of it's previous genious that truly made the game playable for hunfreds of hours. The game is truly built on aOne of my favourite game franchises of all time did not get the reboot that I expected. Let alone the cries about always online (which I don't mind as long as it properly functions), a single day in, I enjoyed the time I put in but couldn't help feeling like it was missing some of it's previous genious that truly made the game playable for hunfreds of hours. The game is truly built on a DLC model (which EA has stated) but I feel slightly ripped off at $60. WIth the game being built on the DLC model, probably a $30-$40 price point would be more fair from what I have seen so far, which would make me more likely to look at purchasing DLC down the road. At this point, with $60 in, I expect my game to go a bit further, which we will see in the coming days/weeks.… Expand

dprkforum

Mar 5, 2013

7

The good: Intuitive interface with large and pretty graphics. I really like the snap grid for easily laying out my city. I am a fan of the auto-connection for utilities (but takes away the challenge of planning infrastructure/costs). The finite resources is an interesting idea, and am curious how that will play out in the long run once resources are exhausted. The multi-city region toThe good: Intuitive interface with large and pretty graphics. I really like the snap grid for easily laying out my city. I am a fan of the auto-connection for utilities (but takes away the challenge of planning infrastructure/costs). The finite resources is an interesting idea, and am curious how that will play out in the long run once resources are exhausted. The multi-city region to connect to others is not a new idea, but the way it was executed was clever, and I like that a lot. The multi-player aspect seems like it could be fun, but I will steer away from it until I get used to the game. The bad: I am not a fan of always on DRM's. If you do not like this type of DRM, steer far, far away from this game. I was not happy when I saw this requirement in the agreement, but knew what I was getting into before plunking down $59.99 which by the way, is NOT what this game is worth. I wish the city limits were larger, but I can easily see expensive DLC's being released to compensate for this and other obvious missing features such as subways. In all, I am pretty satisfied with this game. Again, if small city sizes and intrusive DRM's are not your bag, this is NOT a game for you.… Expand

capthavic

Mar 16, 2013

7

SimCity 5 is a very good game that has been ham stringed by bad corporate decisions. Some changes have been made for better or worse but overall it is a very fun city builder. Getting connected wasn't much of an issue for me, never had to wait in a queue and losing connection doesn't kick you out instantly. My advice: if you are interested then wait a few more weeks for things to settleSimCity 5 is a very good game that has been ham stringed by bad corporate decisions. Some changes have been made for better or worse but overall it is a very fun city builder. Getting connected wasn't much of an issue for me, never had to wait in a queue and losing connection doesn't kick you out instantly. My advice: if you are interested then wait a few more weeks for things to settle down, then get it and enjoy.… Expand

TheMaximalist

Apr 16, 2013

7

The launch was rocky but once you start playing the game you realise how much you missed building these metropolises, albeit small metropolises. It does feel limited by the removal of god mode and the map size

Thunderballs

Oct 26, 2013

6

It's a decent game, but it gets old after only a few cities. Origin is a pain in the behind and isn't even close to being on par with Steam. Unless you want to constantly drop $30 for expansion packs (Think Sims 3 style)... than I wouldn't bother getting this game. Sim City 4 will get you immensly more entertainment value for your hard earned

Mathew952

Mar 17, 2013

5

I can honestly say I am very disappointed with Sim City (2013) as a lifelong fan of the Sim City Franchise. The game is riddled with bugs; you will watch your city burn as fire trucks drive around the same block over and over, and as cars take the most bizarre routes totally jamming your streets; even with a really thorough mass transit network, the city is impossible to get runningI can honestly say I am very disappointed with Sim City (2013) as a lifelong fan of the Sim City Franchise. The game is riddled with bugs; you will watch your city burn as fire trucks drive around the same block over and over, and as cars take the most bizarre routes totally jamming your streets; even with a really thorough mass transit network, the city is impossible to get running smoothly; perhaps this is to be expected of a very dense city, but building a very dense city is your only choice! The maps are very tiny, especially when the game's balance is totally dependent on specializing on some sort of huge space consuming industry. You have to build mines and oil wells, refineries, trade depots, HQs; There's something absolutely bizarre about having and oilfield in the equivalent of downtown New York!. In addition, everything _must_ connect to a road, which now also provides power, water, and sewage; and it's permanently attached to that road. Want to upgrade a road to an avenue? Say bye bye to EVERYTHING on that road, EVEN IF you _instantly_ replace the road. Not only that, but even parks and ponds need road access, since it would be utterly impossible for people to walk to a park behind their house, and since space is at an ultra premium, you will simply ignore parks. Simply put, Sim City looks nice, sounds nice, and has so much promise, but is crippled by a long series of terrible design choices that ultimately reduce Sim City (2013) to a boring mess. Pass on this, avoid the DRM nightmare, and get either Cities XL or even Sim City 4.… Expand

ChoicestGames

Sep 9, 2013

7

The new SimCity is a casual, online-only, sandbox game involving lots of micromanagement with little useful data to guide your actions. The pretty miniature cities means you can create good looking desktop wallpapers but that's about all it's really good for once you've figured the game out. This is fine if that's what you're looking for in this game but it's about as far from the originalThe new SimCity is a casual, online-only, sandbox game involving lots of micromanagement with little useful data to guide your actions. The pretty miniature cities means you can create good looking desktop wallpapers but that's about all it's really good for once you've figured the game out. This is fine if that's what you're looking for in this game but it's about as far from the original SimCity formula as you can get. While Maxis should be lauded for being bold and trying something new the design and implementation was so poorly done they may have done irreversible damage to their reputation.… Expand

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