SimCity

 PC
User Score
2.2

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 4557 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 602 out of 4557
  2. Mixed: 428 out of 4557
  3. Negative: 3,527 out of 4557
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  1. Keron_Heruman
    Aug 28, 2023
    5
    Not good, not fun... It looks pretty and includes some good new concepts to city builders, but the obligation to specialize your city and the tiny space for build your city, kills the possibility to play as sandbox
  2. Izoeros
    May 10, 2022
    5
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  3. Jim74656
    Dec 2, 2021
    6
    REVIEW EDITED: I originally had given this game a 0/10 due to a glaring issue where you could not start multiple cities, however since the last review this issue seems to have been resolved, so I am changing my score to reflect the changes, I just hope EA would continue to improve the game like making city build areas larger, much larger, as this game had potential!!
  4. reviewslol
    Sep 18, 2021
    7
    Is it a good simcity game? No, but it's a decent online game. If you didn't play simcity, you should get this game.
  5. Fallconex
    Dec 17, 2020
    5
    Did not live up to expectations. Weak mechanics, boring gameplay. Don't even try it
  6. Miotke
    Dec 1, 2019
    5
    Meh                                                                                      
  7. PaulJazz24
    Feb 8, 2019
    5
    Graphics are wonderful with those pastel colors: everything seems a plastic model seen through camera lens: Stunning.
    The gameplay is completely different from SimCity 4, but very fun and addictive.
    It has many big bugs, never fixed, the game was abandoned 1 year after the release. What a pity! Otherwise it deserves 10.
  8. Review123
    Feb 18, 2018
    7
    simcity review 2, oh yeah now thats better, they fixed a lot of bugs, but i still feel that something is needed.
  9. JulienFizzy
    Oct 22, 2017
    5
    At any given time the game system becomes tediously boring. It was quite unusual that agricultural sectors and more diversity in the transport system were not included. There was also no possibility of expanding the land. Looking back, you can see that they stayed halfway despite innovating with GlassBox game engine.
  10. rrafemi
    Jan 15, 2017
    5
    Estoy realmente decepcionado. Es muy frustrante que el juego directamente no te permita hacer NADA de nada. A cada paso das te dice que "no es posible esto o colocar lo otro"

    Habiendo espacio de sobra para colocar un parque o un monumento el juego te lo impide porque "se superpone con una casa" cuando hay espacio mas que de sobra y ni toca la línea marcada de la casa. El juego no da    Estoy realmente decepcionado. Es muy frustrante que el juego directamente no te permita hacer NADA de nada. A cada paso das te dice que "no es posible esto o colocar lo otro"

    Habiendo espacio de sobra para colocar un parque o un monumento el juego te lo impide porque "se superpone con una casa" cuando hay espacio mas que de sobra y ni toca la línea marcada de la casa. El juego no da lugar a la imaginación. Es realmente frustrante no poder hacer nada porque el juego siempre te lo impide.

    Las versiones anteriores de la saga no ponen tantos impedimentos a la hora de construir y poner incluso cosas simétricas. Ni siquiera el juego para móviles te pone tantos impedimentos.

    Un despropósito y una enorme decepción.    … Expand
  11. JakGLaDOS29
    Dec 30, 2016
    7
    I still havent come across a computer powerful enough to give a decent experience. The graphics require a horrendous amount of energy and GPU strength. But when in game, its an amazing experience. In single player, building a city in sandbox mode will forever be one of the best game experiences I've had. The game would have been a great success. Its gameplay is incomparable, and I reallyI still havent come across a computer powerful enough to give a decent experience. The graphics require a horrendous amount of energy and GPU strength. But when in game, its an amazing experience. In single player, building a city in sandbox mode will forever be one of the best game experiences I've had. The game would have been a great success. Its gameplay is incomparable, and I really love it. Maxis decided to do so many things wrong, it turned into a nightmare. Online only, unforgivable tech requirements for us people running old business pc's that have fans louder than a hairdryer, or MacBooks which do run the game, but don't give you the experience it advertises. I mean maybe it is 2016, but I'm a casual gamer and I'm not looking to blow so much money on a computer to play one goddarn game. At its core, Simcity is epic, but all the faults came together at once and spoiled it for everyone. I mean even the price was ludicrous. It is worth playing now if you have the means, but at release it was an utter flop.… Expand
  12. 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
  13. eddroos
    Feb 21, 2015
    6
    THE REAL PROBLEM IS ONLY ONE: Maps size!

    The game is perfect until you can't edit the map, trees, lakes and more. Also until the public transport and more things has changed, the game and graphics are really, really good! But the main problem is that the map size is so small, so when you are starting, like 2 hours you have constructed in the half of the map and in 4 hours your map is    THE REAL PROBLEM IS ONLY ONE: Maps size!

    The game is perfect until you can't edit the map, trees, lakes and more. Also until the public transport and more things has changed, the game and graphics are really, really good!

    But the main problem is that the map size is so small, so when you are starting, like 2 hours you have constructed in the half of the map and in 4 hours your map is full. So you start to boring as you don't have anything to do, you only can see your city and after some hours your city crashes and is the end of it.

    So is a good game at the beginning, after some hours, no days, it's boring and you feel frustrated as you have to do the same ALWAYS!
    You can do different things, but always the map is full after some hours and the city collapses!

    Good graphics, new things, etc., but you don't have the correct map size.    … Expand
  14. newalu
    Jan 17, 2015
    7
    I've owned this game on 17 Dec 2014 and im writing this based on the build of that day.the copy i have was the complete edition with all the DLCs included.
    I've been a huge fan of simcity4 and played it for a very long time, i can see why ppl are upset about this game, it had lost of problems when it first started and it had DRM up the ass, however i think EA realized that and they (with    I've owned this game on 17 Dec 2014 and im writing this based on the build of that day.the copy i have was the complete edition with all the DLCs included.
    I've been a huge fan of simcity4 and played it for a very long time, i can see why ppl are upset about this game, it had lost of problems when it first started and it had DRM up the ass, however i think EA realized that and they (with time) worked around it.

    you can actually play offline now and you can port maps form online to offline.

    now the game it self is pretty fun and gets you what you expect out of a simcity game, it is a bit easier and less challenging that simcity4, however this is not the biggest problem with this game, the biggest problem is that the map size is WAaaay too small. you can fill it up in 1 hour or 2 Max. this is a huge let down as the game is beautiful and form what i seen lots of thoughts went to it.this leads up to you filling up the landscape before you can build most of its buildings.

    if you get this game its a very beautiful game with lots of things that you can try, i recommend getting the complete edition because of the content it ships with it.however as i said before this space which you can build on is really small and you wont be able to build a huge metropolis as you could on simcity4 or other games.

    this games is not bad on its own but its not any better than other games ether in the same series or other competitors.    … Expand
  15. Supat97
    Nov 20, 2014
    7
    Did You Guy Remember The Sim City DRM Disasters In Last Year In This Year They Have Patch That You Can Play Offline But The Maps Is So Small and Few Bugs However This Is Good Way To Go Check It Out
  16. Qutory
    Sep 23, 2014
    5
    Fun game overall. However i found it having a lot of bugs or dead end situations. A tunnel blocked in a mountain without being able to remove it, exit to main menu without reason, stuck in a mini tutorial because lacking some prerequisite or the fact that i am unable to reset a city are just a few things that ruin the overall experience.
  17. 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 previous    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 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
  18. 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.
  19. AAHK360
    Jun 20, 2014
    7
    I played this game for around 29 hours, and I can say that SimCity 4 was a lot better.
    Now what I hate about it that there is no "blocks" meaning that you can build even stuff, It's so random so you will have some empty places that you can't build anything on, which I hate, in SimCity 4 you could see the actual blocks in the ground and when you put a building you knew exactly how many    I played this game for around 29 hours, and I can say that SimCity 4 was a lot better.
    Now what I hate about it that there is no "blocks" meaning that you can build even stuff, It's so random so you will have some empty places that you can't build anything on, which I hate, in SimCity 4 you could see the actual blocks in the ground and when you put a building you knew exactly how many blocks it's going to take.
    also, you can't longer modify terrain, and you only have what they gave you, small cities which I also hate.
    I really can't find words to describe, but I prefer to play SimCity 4, and it could've been better for them to add the new stuff and increase the graphics to the older SimCity and call it a new SimCity!
    It's still playable though, and there is some nice stuff here and there, but the way that you build and the small cities just kills every thing.    … Expand
  20. vXxo0oxXv
    Jun 16, 2014
    7
    I think this game is great. I've owned it for a few days now, and for those few days I have not stopped playing. I haven't had this much fun with a city builder in a long time.

    I understand some of the hatred here. Firstly, the maps are pretty small. This can seem like an annoyance at first, but it really makes you think a lot more about how you layout everything. Megatowers also let    I think this game is great. I've owned it for a few days now, and for those few days I have not stopped playing. I haven't had this much fun with a city builder in a long time.

    I understand some of the hatred here. Firstly, the maps are pretty small. This can seem like an annoyance at first, but it really makes you think a lot more about how you layout everything. Megatowers also let you build your city up, instead of out, so you can still have high populations, without taking up so much surface area.

    It it's current state, the game has no bugs, no server problems, and the option of offline play. So you can flush 99% of the complaints here down the drain.

    EA/Maxis took a pretty big risk changing the game as much as they did, but I appreicate that. Most sequels these days just regurgitate the same game and put a 60$ tag on it. The new presentation and UI is very nice, and I think it's awesome they added trading, and commodity resources. It really adds a new appeal to the classic SimCity theme.

    Not to mention multiplayer! Playing with friends is a lot of fun, and it's cool coordinating city roles with your buddies online, and filling in for each other's gaps.

    Picked it up with the expansion on sale. Great buy.    … Expand
  21. DanteV
    May 23, 2014
    6
    Not the worst but its not the best SimCity neither. The game contains too many bugs and glitches like Maxis trying to launch this game on deadline. I would say the new expansions like Cities of Tomorrow and other more did made the game a little more interesting, but bugs and glitches ruined it. Also the city size is a little dumb-down, limiting the player's creativity.
  22. 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 and    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 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
  23. XhAPPYSLApX
    Mar 20, 2014
    7
    (After the "Offline Update" was released.) Before I start... I get why everyone hates this game. But dang it I just can't hate it, it looks nice, plays nice, and it just is a good game. The interface is really well made, I like the idea of roads being what controls the density, and I love how the city looks, and it is much faster to create a big city than it is in Simcity 4, and yet it(After the "Offline Update" was released.) Before I start... I get why everyone hates this game. But dang it I just can't hate it, it looks nice, plays nice, and it just is a good game. The interface is really well made, I like the idea of roads being what controls the density, and I love how the city looks, and it is much faster to create a big city than it is in Simcity 4, and yet it made a single mistake, a mistake that ALMOST ruined it for me. The city sizes, or should I say the lack there of. They should not have done this, but the reason why is so that they could force multiplayer on us, but now that the offline update is out, why not make new regions with much bigger cities for singleplayer play only? but even then I still get much enjoyment out of seeing my city grow, only if I could see it grow even more. If I were to compare this to SimCity 4 I would rate it a 6/10, but on its own, it is a pretty good game imo.… Expand
  24. 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
  25. 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
  26. djferris
    Nov 19, 2013
    5
    Simcity is the best bad game ever. When you first get into it, the happy go lucky nature of it coupled with its bubbly and user friendly UI and graphics will have you smiling ear to ear. As you start to "complete" your first city or two the flaws really come to surface and they really take away a lot of the fun.

    It's lost the charm of the Simcity series but you can still find a good few    Simcity is the best bad game ever. When you first get into it, the happy go lucky nature of it coupled with its bubbly and user friendly UI and graphics will have you smiling ear to ear. As you start to "complete" your first city or two the flaws really come to surface and they really take away a lot of the fun.

    It's lost the charm of the Simcity series but you can still find a good few hours of entertainment here. Hopefully the next installation will get rid of the "dumbing down" and back into actual city building like Simcity 4.    … Expand
  27. COLOAGNT1
    Oct 29, 2013
    6
    I'm relatively new to the game so far and have the following to say:

    PROS Beautiful graphics Nice new features (ie adding features to existing structures) Streamlining of "monotonous" tasks (ie power lines/water pipes) CONS Small build sites Some say this is unimportant, definitely not true. Hopefully since this game is an "online" game that can theoretically "evolve", this can    I'm relatively new to the game so far and have the following to say:

    PROS
    Beautiful graphics
    Nice new features (ie adding features to existing structures)
    Streamlining of "monotonous" tasks (ie power lines/water pipes)

    CONS
    Small build sites Some say this is unimportant, definitely not true. Hopefully since this game is an "online" game that can theoretically "evolve", this can eventually be expanded. If city sites are to be small, they should also show some variation instead of just being same sized square boxes.

    Some reviewers state that a city in real life "cannot have all things"... simply not true. New York City for instance is not "buildable" in the games current form. The game really does need the ability to "expand" beyond a square box borders.

    Elimination of some items (ie subways)

    Fact that you're "buying" a game that may someday be no longer supported, in a sense you're "buying" a game that's in some ways being treated as a rental.

    While a good start (I hope they don't stand pat), the regions concept is just not realistic in the sense that you have multiple "squares" for cities... while the land separating these squares are never "develop-able".

    In the end, I'm not sure if I had it to do all over again, I would spend $60. The online feature of the game is not that big a deal however the unrealistic nature of the game (in the name of multi-player) is pretty disappointing when compared to past versions. I'm open to something "new" but not if it only "limits" your "powers", so to speak.

    Right now, I'd advise people to wait to see if the developers improve the game. In some ways it's an improvement but in too many others, it's a regression.

    Looking forward to playing it but overall, fairly disappointed.

    One last thought Similar to EA Sims franchise, they tend to "nickel and dime" you for every new minor feature... that seems to be where they're headed with this as well. Before offering all these new "bells and whistles" for a price, they really need to expand the space on which you are able to build.

    It's interesting they did not name it SimCity 5... Truth be told, it's more like SimCity 2.8 3.2...

    Sim City 4 is still superior to this new effort.    … Expand
  28. Jake_
    Oct 29, 2013
    5
    I have begun to really hate EA and Origin recently, too many bad decisions have resulted in SimCity being unplayable most of the time, due to servers being full or not having a good enough internet connection. The Game is good, you just can't get on there 50% of the time. EA It's in the game (of you can actually get on it in the first place).
  29. 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
  30. 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
  31. 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 cars    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 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
  32. 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
  33. Waclaw
    Aug 1, 2013
    5
    After a while since the official game launch, I thought to review the game and I don't really know where to start...

    The game has some design flaws that make it really hard to enjoy once you finally accept the fact that you no longer control a city but need to take care of a bunch of them in order to reach the upper levels of development or cooperate with friends or random people.    After a while since the official game launch, I thought to review the game and I don't really know where to start...

    The game has some design flaws that make it really hard to enjoy once you finally accept the fact that you no longer control a city but need to take care of a bunch of them in order to reach the upper levels of development or cooperate with friends or random people. Still, the difficulty level is so low (with limited options in terms of finance or policies that were present in past SImCity games), that people looking for a challenge should steer away from this product as the problems you may get come from faulty game mechanics, not the level of proficiency needed to design and maintain a city. There are still major problems with connectivity after so many months and it's more than just a nuisance when you can't even play singleplayer because servers are full... Plus, you can loose a city you built! Regions just disappear from the servers or they are there but you won't be able to access them getting an error message frustrating at best.

    Given the franchise history, the developer of the game and the publisher, this should have been at least a 8/10 game. At the moment, after a countless number of patches focused on resolving issues with people being able to play at all, not addressing real issues like malfunctioning game design (horrible transportation aspect for instance and constant problems with that no matter what you try to do with it), this game is a 5/10 for me and that's only because I still hope that major problems will be resolved and that this game will be playable.

    If you're new to the genre, go play something else. Veterans you have been warned.    … Expand
  34. Luckistas97
    Jul 30, 2013
    5
    I honestly have to say that Simcity 5 disappointed me very much. All of us where waiting for the return of the Simcity saga with a stunning performance of Maxis, but instead of having a master game and they gave us just a simplified version of the previous game Simcity 4, but we must say that the graphical advances of this game are a huge advance.

    Talking about the negatives points,, as    I honestly have to say that Simcity 5 disappointed me very much. All of us where waiting for the return of the Simcity saga with a stunning performance of Maxis, but instead of having a master game and they gave us just a simplified version of the previous game Simcity 4, but we must say that the graphical advances of this game are a huge advance.

    Talking about the negatives points,, as I said at the beginning: this is a simplified version ,I mean that the lots o transports that were in SC4 like highways (that are already there by the game), monorail, subway, train, etc. were all removed. Another thing that has get the most of the critics is the fact that you must be online to play a single player game, that's something incredible, in this game is well know by the users that if the server reached its maximum capacity you can play and you will have to wait until you are allowed to play and the server has a little space four you game, another thing that captured our attention us that the space for the city is too small, you can't rise a metropolis in that tiny space. And finishing the negative points, we see that the buildings for every tools or service is limited to 3 or 4 compared to SC4 where in police you could have like 5 or 6 buildings, but that's obvious, isn't it? a few things for a little space.

    In the other hand, this game has some positive things. Starting from the 3d camera that allows you to see every corner of the city and the extraordinary graphics that it has. For me there are two important things that wasn´t in the previous games of the franchise:
    1) The multiplayer mode: it allows you to play with other people in the world if you have an Internet or LAN connection, it's based in a region where the players have a city and they interact with the other ones for better or worse, and every city has a role.
    2) The city role: in CS4, the cities interact with each other but It wasn´t like now, in Simcity 5 the cities perform a specific role, for example: you have a tourist city, an industrial city, a casino city, a city based on minery and other kinds.
    Others things like, the add-ons in the buildings is another advance and the realistic geographic conditions, like the places were is water under the ground, the way the wind blows or the mineral that are in the ground.

    In conclusion. I can say that the users expected more of this game, and for now we will go on using Simcity 4, almost we must admit that correcting this negatives things and we combine this with SC4 I can ensure you that this will be the best urban simulator ever, but by now we will have to wait until EA and Maxis decide to take this franchise more seriously and take it back to the place it must be.    … Expand
  35. Uncivil_Servant
    Jul 30, 2013
    7
    It seems like most of the technical serer problems have been resolved at this point in time. I have been playing the game for several months without problems. It is a fun game but considerably than earlier incarnations. being able to play and interact with others is interesting. I miss the terra-form and don't like the way cities are limited. Still addicting and worth having.
  36. DrPepperPhD
    Jun 30, 2013
    7
    Most of the server issues have been resolved, and it seems the devs still haven't abandoned ship (yet), updates are slowly being released, mostly focused on fixing the incompetent agents and traffic AI. While not the best game in the world right now, it defiantly shows potential to becoming the game it should have been at release.
  37. level5dwarf
    Jun 29, 2013
    5
    The game now, a few months after release, is good and quite enjoyable. The game alone i'd rate as good as any other simcity, about an 8 rating. The downside of the game now is that despite best efforts it didn't bring anything new to the table with the multiplayer aspect. That said... at release it was awful as the negative reviews show, and it really would make me think again beforeThe game now, a few months after release, is good and quite enjoyable. The game alone i'd rate as good as any other simcity, about an 8 rating. The downside of the game now is that despite best efforts it didn't bring anything new to the table with the multiplayer aspect. That said... at release it was awful as the negative reviews show, and it really would make me think again before buying anything with DRM such as this or any EA/Maxis product again as they were caught lying and time after time refused to refund a completely unplayable (at the time) game.… Expand
  38. Azorax
    Jun 27, 2013
    7
    To really review this game as it is now, you might think that most of the bad reviews are just because people are biased because of server problems. However I am going to compare this game to its predecessors with reference to its supposed 'cloud processing'.
    - It was fun playing with a friend, this was not due to the supposed multiplayer, but it was fun because we could see each other's    To really review this game as it is now, you might think that most of the bad reviews are just because people are biased because of server problems. However I am going to compare this game to its predecessors with reference to its supposed 'cloud processing'.
    - It was fun playing with a friend, this was not due to the supposed multiplayer, but it was fun because we could see each other's development and we strived to make a sustainable and still a good looking city.
    - Cities feel so so very small when we think about what the older simcities were like. My friend and I both agreed that cities should be bigger as it felt very crowded when we made high rises and large buildings and landmarks.
    - More maps and links. We see these maps are even more of an unnecessary restriction, why are we unable to connect every city and great work via road/railways, this would encourage us to play more in order to get every great work and create more cities since they are connected.
    - Ferries are so useless (imo)
    - I believe that they have attempted to (i forgot the word for it) re-make/re-publish this franchise a bit, however they should definitely remove the oh-so many restrictions this game has. Whether it be offline play, or large cities, or amount of cities on one map. I see simcity as a sandbox where I can create whatever I like and how many I want to make, and if you restrict me in this way, I really can't enjoy it to the fullest. While I do take into account that they may or may not be telling the truth that they require cloud processing and if restrictions were not placed then it might be too much, then they could spend more time seeing if they can utilise multi-core properly.
    - I feel that it was rushed and ruined by EA being their publisher. I feel for maxim.
    - Saying that, I have enjoyed the game for most of the 77+ hours (the is because origin booted me out and didn't save more of my hours) that I've played
    - 7/10 for me. I still put more hours into this game than most, though I don't know if the enjoyment factor was as much. I recommend picking this up if you are/were into simcity when it gets discounted/down to a low price    … Expand
  39. Jessrond
    Jun 19, 2013
    5
    Before SimCity came out, I was hyped for it. The idea of working with friends (and even strangers) to build a region was something I've wanted to do for a long time. I knew going in that the game would not be quite as detailed as SimCity 4. But at launch, and even a few months later, hardly any of the "online play" features have come to pass.

    You have to sign in to Origin to play, yet    Before SimCity came out, I was hyped for it. The idea of working with friends (and even strangers) to build a region was something I've wanted to do for a long time. I knew going in that the game would not be quite as detailed as SimCity 4. But at launch, and even a few months later, hardly any of the "online play" features have come to pass.

    You have to sign in to Origin to play, yet the region rankings and other leaderboards hardly seem to work at all. Disappointing. The game itself isn't terrible. The missions are enjoyable and the game maintains its sense of humor and excellent music that have been with the series for its entirety.

    But overall, it's just not what I was hoping for, and I still play SimCity 4 more than I play this.    … Expand
  40. zGeneral
    Jun 16, 2013
    5
    This is not Simcity
    The maps are tooooo small
    very limited road options.

    I am not playing the game until they make larger maps and fix the roads it is a joke.
  41. 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.
  42. 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 sometimes    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 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
  43. Arco
    Jun 2, 2013
    5
    Sim City is a nice game, however, it's had a rough start. The maps are too small and sometimes it's just not enjoyable to play.
    Servers are unstable sometimes, game crashes.
  44. Father_death
    Jun 1, 2013
    7
    The score needs to be reset... This is kinda total I don't like EA but still this game is good people judged it by the starter not the actual game! people are idiots... this game should have a 8-10!
  45. 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.
  46. HaloFreak78
    May 8, 2013
    7
    Now, while the game-breaking bugs and server crashes are fairly annoying, the gameplay itself is fun and nicely balanced. The data maps are cool, the simulation flows nicely, and the graphics have the whole model train set feel which I find charming. The bugs are the real let-down though. I feel as though if EA and Maxis took more time to fix out the kinks, this would be the best strategyNow, while the game-breaking bugs and server crashes are fairly annoying, the gameplay itself is fun and nicely balanced. The data maps are cool, the simulation flows nicely, and the graphics have the whole model train set feel which I find charming. The bugs are the real let-down though. I feel as though if EA and Maxis took more time to fix out the kinks, this would be the best strategy game on PC now. The multiplayer is also a huge letdown and a waste of time. If you can handle the bugs and crashes, you will find a gameplay experience both challenging and fun.… Expand
  47. Annoymous1
    May 3, 2013
    5
    It is shocking to see such a good series become terrible within 2 hours of playing it. Seriously, EA forces you to use internet in this game, despite great internet, it repeatedly says 'NO INTERNET' and then after at least a few seconds it crashes. The only good things were the graphics and the rioting but it still doesn't develop realistic characteristics
  48. 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 big    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 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
  49. 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
  50. 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.
  51. CobraCarl
    Apr 28, 2013
    6
    First of all, i have to say that the games is very fun to play.

    BUT i has some problems:
    -Streets are always clogged up, because Sims don't drive around traffic jams.
    -Some of my cities cant be loaded anymore since the last patch.
    -Cities are way to small.

    When maxis is improving on some of the games problems it could be an awesome game.
  52. 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.
  53. lok1999
    Apr 20, 2013
    7
    when I first reviewed this I was disappointed about the fact that I HAD to play online all the time but when I actually started playing this game to give it a proper score I was really surprised about the gameplay it is so good I've never really played SimCity before but have seen other people play it before and they were really good but the fact that u have to play online all the time Iwhen I first reviewed this I was disappointed about the fact that I HAD to play online all the time but when I actually started playing this game to give it a proper score I was really surprised about the gameplay it is so good I've never really played SimCity before but have seen other people play it before and they were really good but the fact that u have to play online all the time I would give it a higher score but I have to stick with a score of 7/10… Expand
  54. Gageracer
    Apr 17, 2013
    5
    I loved Simcity 4 and i was expecting all in 4 more with better graphics in new SC.That's not what i get at all.First of all forget getting the huge sizes in 4, and forget that you are actually building a city.This is Sim Town but i can live with this for now.All those patches server issues, wtf? Is this an MMO or a Simulation game?Ok i get it you want to make sure nobody plays it as aI loved Simcity 4 and i was expecting all in 4 more with better graphics in new SC.That's not what i get at all.First of all forget getting the huge sizes in 4, and forget that you are actually building a city.This is Sim Town but i can live with this for now.All those patches server issues, wtf? Is this an MMO or a Simulation game?Ok i get it you want to make sure nobody plays it as a non-original copy.You want your money.But why in the hell i cannot select whatever server i want and continue my fckn game?I open a space with my friends than that server becomes non-playable.Great lets start again...Secondly, game is clearly not finished at all.It is still a beta game.I don't know how cities this game "forced" me to destroy just because it cannot merge my actions to servers.When that happens game just tells you to remove the city or go back and when you say go back it goes too back.The server is pointless cause it cannot save your game, it is just a DRM! I've stopped playing SC cause i am sick of loosing all my data and this game completely destroyed my ambition for a Simcity game.Yes it has graphs and music etc. but it is not finished, still a beta game.Finally i don't know why you can't get an item when your friends send you at the same time.It tooks for ages and you forgot that you send/get anything.… Expand
  55. 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
  56. 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
  57. Diosys
    Apr 14, 2013
    5
    This was by far the worst thing EA and Maxis could have ever done to the Legendary city simulator. The small, focused cities allow no freedom to build the cities the player wants and instead determines that players need to work hard to maximize their populations. Their achievement system even reinforces this. Their non-working game mechanics allow rather dumb strategies to work in a city,This was by far the worst thing EA and Maxis could have ever done to the Legendary city simulator. The small, focused cities allow no freedom to build the cities the player wants and instead determines that players need to work hard to maximize their populations. Their achievement system even reinforces this. Their non-working game mechanics allow rather dumb strategies to work in a city, where a real city could never function.

    City Simulation should not be based around a social experience. I liked the idea of a neighbouring city being built by another player, but they should have adopted a similar region concept to their previous titles, the fact that they used this is asinine. EA games needs to pull their heads out of the ground and start listening to gamers about always online DRM. Plenty of other companies show healthy profits. Maximizing profits does not earn you my dollar, respect does. It sucks that this company has ruined so many great and legendary gaming franchises. Hopefully Cities XL will pick up on all the problems of SimCity and never repeat them.    … Expand
  58. QuimbyDownUnder
    Apr 10, 2013
    7
    I'm writing this after playing for the past few weeks. I was initially flabbergasted and dismayed by the server issues, but that has "mostly" been resolved. No one likes DRM either, but I doubt we can do anything about it so I'll leave that beast lie. I have played EVERY SimCity since 1994. I consider myself a city-building connoisseur. This new game has many great features that fans likeI'm writing this after playing for the past few weeks. I was initially flabbergasted and dismayed by the server issues, but that has "mostly" been resolved. No one likes DRM either, but I doubt we can do anything about it so I'll leave that beast lie. I have played EVERY SimCity since 1994. I consider myself a city-building connoisseur. This new game has many great features that fans like me have been waiting decades for. Curved roads, upgrade-able buildings, specialized industry, actual tourism. Under-road utilities removes the headache of power-lines and pipes. I have had an enjoyable time learning the system and playing. If you are a true SimCity fan you'll find plenty to enjoy here. That being said.... you will also be frustrated by some of the limitations. City size is a major draw back for me. I always feel boxed in and forced to "go big or go home" so to speak. No room for low density neighborhoods in advanced towns. The size also makes large scale mass-transit impossible, so no highways or subways, which I loved in SC4. Traffic bugs and simulation quirks are also present some areas of improvement but it looks like Maxis is working on updates. This is not a perfect game by any means. It is better in mechanics than anything since SC4. If you like city builders you should try it... maybe once the price comes down...… Expand
  59. Geracritic
    Apr 7, 2013
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Sim City is a great game where you learn a lot of cities, the acting is good management, but has many problems on maps and graphs that present technical difficulties in large scale.… Expand
  60. TheHof125
    Apr 6, 2013
    7
    Despite everything that has been said about SimCity, it is an incredibly addictive game. It may cost a lot more than it's worth and you can be disconnected instantly, but the fact that I've put 25 hours into this game already has to say something. A good buy, that at time's will frustrate you, but still is worth a great time.
  61. 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 bit    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 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
  62. 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
  63. Loler13gr
    Apr 3, 2013
    7
    Althought the first few days were horrible with lots of problems I must say the game is pretty good... I had a lot of fun playing it and I can say that I will play this for a long time to come.. The graphics are great and the fact that you can zoom in and be able to see what your sims do and what they think is amazing.. The only problem is that the maps are a little small which means thatAlthought the first few days were horrible with lots of problems I must say the game is pretty good... I had a lot of fun playing it and I can say that I will play this for a long time to come.. The graphics are great and the fact that you can zoom in and be able to see what your sims do and what they think is amazing.. The only problem is that the maps are a little small which means that in order to do everything you have to expand and build more cities in the region and the always-online DRM... This last one is the biggest mistake of the company and if the company doesn't do something about it then they might have a problem...… Expand
  64. 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
  65. scruffycavetrol
    Mar 27, 2013
    7
    Everyone is aware of the disasterous release. The server issues have been corrected and playability is stable now. Online DRM is still a bad idea, and even moreso for a traditionally single player game. Although, I do like the idea of having actual people in a region making cities and trading with other players, it's a very interesting part of it, but playing with friends seems to beEveryone is aware of the disasterous release. The server issues have been corrected and playability is stable now. Online DRM is still a bad idea, and even moreso for a traditionally single player game. Although, I do like the idea of having actual people in a region making cities and trading with other players, it's a very interesting part of it, but playing with friends seems to be troublesome as you all have to be on the same servers, and finding an open game just to join is also a chore....but always online drm isn't needed for that. The game is fun, but it does have its problems. Traffic seems to be a constant problem, how they handle ground water seems to be unrealistic, and some other general oddness. It does seem though they really wanted people to make specialized cities as opposed to the mish-mosh of RCI that we'd normally see. You can still do the traditional cities, but the specializations do make it interesting and are really how to get those high tech buildings people want. Visually the game is nice, and being able to zoom to street level and see sims and thoughts is cool. There are texture problems here and there with building flickering in and out of existance. Play areas are fairly small compared to the old titles, but you will run into the same issues regardless of map size (overcrowding, homeless, etc), and in some ways makes the player focus more on making the areas more desirable. you can however make multiple cities in a region and have them work with each other. So I guess being mayor of 3 or 4 small cities is like being the mayor of a big one. The game is not terrible, although probably had one of the worse releases I have seen in 20+ years of playing video games. It does have its issues, and falling retail prices reflect that. So, if you can get the game on sale at Target, go for it.… Expand
  66. krovosos111
    Mar 27, 2013
    5
    регионе.

    All regions are clogged, filter by region, and there is no possibility of finding an empty area, too, the whole line launched in the toilet if you do not have any friends with this game you'll play alone in the region. Google Translate
  67. 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
  68. 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 and    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 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
  69. 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
  70. 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
  71. 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
  72. rocketsatdawn
    Mar 23, 2013
    7
    The game was a nightmare to access at launch, but they've since resolved most of the issues by adding more servers and regular updates. There are still some problems that need addressing including contradictory information in game and instances where the server is not syncing with the cities, so you end up having to roll back to a previous state essentially losing all your recent progress.The game was a nightmare to access at launch, but they've since resolved most of the issues by adding more servers and regular updates. There are still some problems that need addressing including contradictory information in game and instances where the server is not syncing with the cities, so you end up having to roll back to a previous state essentially losing all your recent progress. But apart from that its a really good game that is incredibly fun to play. It would be nice to have an offline mode but I have found the multilayer aspect extremely rewarding as I share my region with a couple of my buddies. It's great building different types of cities and either sabotaging your citizens lives or building lots of parks and keeping them happy. Of course its seriously entertaining when you get a zombie outbreak and you can watch them annihilate your population. One real problem with the game play itself is how small the cities are. It's great building multiple cities that work together, but It can be frustrating running out of space especially when nearly all of your buildings are already high density. Its a shame considering how you could make enormous cities in Simcity 4. This is something that should be amended because it really does put a limit on how long you can play the game for. It gets to a point that all you can do is leave your old city and start a new one.… Expand
  73. 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 is    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 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
  74. 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
  75. 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
  76. 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
  77. 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.
  78. 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.
  79. 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 multiplayer    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 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
  80. 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
  81. 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
  82. 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.
  83. 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 just    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 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
  84. 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
  85. Darkcrusader8
    Mar 17, 2013
    6
    I feel that the game has a low survivability, as this is on the cloud and server based. This means that if a hacker decides to screw around with the servers and delete all the datas, you'll possible not get your cities that you painfully made back.

    However the guides stuff and the NPCs are good.

    I won't play this game for a long period of time though, prob once a week or so when I'm bored.
  86. Deliriouskiller
    Mar 17, 2013
    7
    Although the release of this game has been somewhat of a failure- the in-game aspect of the game is nothing less than superb. The city building game offers thousands of possible scenarios that you could put (or not put) your citizens through. You can use a large region to fashion a sprawling urban empire- or select a somewhat smaller region and create a suburban haven- with one or twoAlthough the release of this game has been somewhat of a failure- the in-game aspect of the game is nothing less than superb. The city building game offers thousands of possible scenarios that you could put (or not put) your citizens through. You can use a large region to fashion a sprawling urban empire- or select a somewhat smaller region and create a suburban haven- with one or two 'city slots'. Crime, fire protection, education, health care, sewage, power, water- are the key aspects that need to be managed when creating a small or large city, and with many types of addons, you can have them function or look exactly how you want them to. Having said all of this, the game is hindered by its omnipresent bugs, errors, crashes and connection issues- leaving it with a positive, yet relatively low score of seven from me.… Expand
  87. 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
  88. Spacerogue
    Mar 17, 2013
    5
    I rather like the game, but after a few hours of working I have not been able to play anymore, it simply will not start up and I'v tried EVERYTHING by now. Sadly enough I live in a place where PC games can't be refunded so I'm screwed once again. I'm guessing its the draconian DRM locking me out for no reason. I'm giving it a 5 because I feel sorry for the artists working on this game. I'mI rather like the game, but after a few hours of working I have not been able to play anymore, it simply will not start up and I'v tried EVERYTHING by now. Sadly enough I live in a place where PC games can't be refunded so I'm screwed once again. I'm guessing its the draconian DRM locking me out for no reason. I'm giving it a 5 because I feel sorry for the artists working on this game. I'm guessing the coders where playing Plants VS Zombies and everyone seemed to be fine with this as the PR made up wonderful stories of a game that people wanted but won't exists.… Expand
  89. 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
  90. 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
  91. User_Critic
    Mar 16, 2013
    5
    The GlassBox thing is obviously raw. AI is dumb. Etc, etc. But most of these things can be patched. Yet there is 1 serious issue that cannot be, most likely. It is the plot's size. At present it looks like a small town. And by the sounds of it the GB just cannot handle big and huge maps well. So, if one wants to build a City, Cities XL Platinum is a safer bet. In terms of complexity theyThe GlassBox thing is obviously raw. AI is dumb. Etc, etc. But most of these things can be patched. Yet there is 1 serious issue that cannot be, most likely. It is the plot's size. At present it looks like a small town. And by the sounds of it the GB just cannot handle big and huge maps well. So, if one wants to build a City, Cities XL Platinum is a safer bet. In terms of complexity they are about equally easy (Cities just try to simulate the city in more depth, while SimCity tries to simulate the sims). But Citites looks like a City when you zoom out, while SC looks like a shiny town.… Expand
  92. 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
  93. 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
  94. 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
  95. 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 is    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 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
  96. 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 otherwise    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 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
  97. 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
  98. 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
  99. 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.
  100. 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
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Awards & Rankings

2
#2 Most Discussed PC Game of 2013
21
#21 Most Shared PC Game of 2013

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
64

Mixed or average reviews - based on 75 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 26 out of 75
  2. Mixed: 39 out of 75
  3. Negative: 10 out of 75
  1. PC Master (Greece)
    Jun 5, 2013
    65
    Given enough patches and DCLs, SimCity might eventually become the game that should have been on its release and justify the ambiguous choices that its developers made. [May 2013]
  2. Games Master UK
    May 9, 2013
    68
    Hints at great things but is limited by small cities and promises it can't deliver on. [June 2013, p.80]
  3. Hyper Magazine
    May 9, 2013
    40
    There's more problems with this game than I have words. Looks great though. [June 2013, p.80]
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