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. FancyTuxedo
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    Can't connect to servers, can't create a new city, just awful. I have an excellent online connection, EA's servers just can't handle the influx of gamers. How can such a wealthy company not have the hardware to handle their games? Hate DRM, I hate everything about it. This is NOT an mmo, there's no reason for a constant connection.
  2. mnl148
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    Always on DRM ruins the game. Day 2 and still can't play because EA servers are down. Be prepared to not be able to play when you want. The game has a lot of problems. Only one of them actually matters. Never support always online DRM for a single player game. Lots of people cannot play their single player game because of this and gamers need to do everything they can to stop developersAlways on DRM ruins the game. Day 2 and still can't play because EA servers are down. Be prepared to not be able to play when you want. The game has a lot of problems. Only one of them actually matters. Never support always online DRM for a single player game. Lots of people cannot play their single player game because of this and gamers need to do everything they can to stop developers from including it.… Expand
  3. Noend
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    Unable to connect to sim city servers................can not play.......................$59.99 ........................the pirates win and the paying customer gets the shaft.
  4. Ollirg
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    It took me two and a half hours to cover all map. Two. And a half. But let's track it back a bit, for the moment I thought of Buying Sim City. .
    The first time I've played a SC was on my SNES. No, not the computer, but Nintendo Console, and it drag me in. I was fascinated with the idea of building my city in a way the game punish me for my mistakes by making the city drown in it's own    It took me two and a half hours to cover all map. Two. And a half. But let's track it back a bit, for the moment I thought of Buying Sim City. .
    The first time I've played a SC was on my SNES. No, not the computer, but Nintendo Console, and it drag me in. I was fascinated with the idea of building my city in a way the game punish me for my mistakes by making the city drown in it's own failed concept. Loved it so much that bought SC 2000 to my PC. And the game had turned into an adult experience. I was a boy, but the game didn't care: If I think like a child, my city will fail. .
    So it came 3000, and it brought a even more complex and awesome face to the series. Sim City 4 got everything they've done right in All Sim City and turned it into one of the best video-games ever! Then, years of gameplay in SC4 has passed and they announced SC, the reboot. I smiled and praise every god! Then they told me about the Always-on. I don't buy games with AO or DRM, but this is Sim City, man! So I decided to make an exception. And now totally regreted it. TOTALLY! .
    First of it all: It took me almost a day to download it. I was anxious. I wanted to play my game, 'cause I've already bought it, Right? They shoud have given me more band. After the long wait, the game was FINALLY here. So LET'S PLAY... not. The first hour (Yes, HOUR) I couldn't connect to the server. Then, almost like a miracle, I logged in. .
    "Where are the Graphs?", I asked myself. How can I Manage my city to total Awesomeness by seeing my development in curves to compare to other cities? Well, I can't. The game is officially dumbed down, with a crappy live economy that only exists to make you stay on-line. .
    "Wait, I can't do ANYTHING with the terrain?" No, I can't. I have to accept the map as it is. No big mountains. No great planning for a really awesome tunnel.
    .
    The map is really, really small! Smaller then I thought it was by looking at pictures. I made a road the crossed all the map and started planning my city. Some minutes passed and I've tried to sell resources (electricity and water) to neighbour cities. For some reason I couldn't (still don't know, and the same is happening for many people). .
    And then things got worse: I was Diconnected! Yes, I've played arround 40 minutes and somehow I couldn't play anymore. On the screen, they're telling me it will try to connect again in 20 minutes. TWENTY. F**KING. MINUTES. Clock reaches zero AND... Couldn't log in. AGAIN IN 20 MINUTES! WHAT THE F**K? I've just bought the DAMN game and can't play it because YOUR servers are DOWN and this CRAPPY DRM won't let me even see my city? WTF, EA? .
    So I waited. And sometime later it connected again. And I'm building my city. And it's growing. Despite the lack of administration tools with minimum complexity, I'm getting richier. First I expanded North (the place I called North, anyway), and when I reached the border, started to expand south. And then I realized I had NO MORE ROOM TO BUILD! I'ts Over, friends! Can't expand anymore! It Took me two and a half hours to ocuppy the WHOLE map! From this point on, if you wish to keep playing, it turns out you are in a SOCIAL THE SIMS, where you need to keep looking at the mood of sims to make them happy. No more Building, just a clown trying to make people smile! Want to play more? Try building another small boring city!
    . And that's how my love for Sim City is officially over. It was a good fun, but EA needed to cheat on me. And That's why, since I can't give this game back, I'm giving it a zero on my first review on metacritics.    … Expand
  5. mfusco76
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    Here is a spoiler... No one can play the game. Wow what a useless piece of crap. This has to be the worst release of all time. Working on day 2 of not being able to play the game. Hoping that at some point it might get there. The response from EA/Origin is terrible. Yeah your cutesy tweets aimed at "Mayors" are just even more infuriating. How about they come out with something thatHere is a spoiler... No one can play the game. Wow what a useless piece of crap. This has to be the worst release of all time. Working on day 2 of not being able to play the game. Hoping that at some point it might get there. The response from EA/Origin is terrible. Yeah your cutesy tweets aimed at "Mayors" are just even more infuriating. How about they come out with something that actually resembles an apology and an offer to make things right for the people who have been completely screwed over by EA/Origin's inability to provide the service that many people have paid good money for. Or just turn the damn always online DRM off already. You people suck.… Expand
  6. Soulcrusher
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    COULD be a great game but I'll only say one thing: DRM online :(

    And in the future, if the servers go down, how can I play my game (yes, I paid for it), and my save, what guarantees I'll have?
  7. zanith
    Mar 6, 2013
    1
    Broken down into (1) Betas; (2) Launch Day; (3) Post Launch; (4) Gameplay

    (1) The betas: (4 out of 10) The betas had a lot of problems regarding the servers' effectiveness and efficiency in carrying the load. Several times throughout the first beta, I was repeatedly kicked because the servers crashed. Furthermore, there was issues with the tutorials and the general interface. I had fun    Broken down into (1) Betas; (2) Launch Day; (3) Post Launch; (4) Gameplay

    (1) The betas: (4 out of 10)
    The betas had a lot of problems regarding the servers' effectiveness and efficiency in carrying the load. Several times throughout the first beta, I was repeatedly kicked because the servers crashed. Furthermore, there was issues with the tutorials and the general interface. I had fun but I rated it roughly a 4 out of 10 because it had an always online-DRM and also it was buggy, but I saw potential. The second beta was only a day long, and EA dropped the ball and excluded several people that should have had access to the game. I only had access to it because I pre-ordered it from Amazon as opposed to Origin.

    (2) The Launch Day (0 out of 10)
    This is the most blatant bait-and-switch tactic I have ever seen and most definitely could be considered for legal action for equitable estoppel and unjust enrichment. The consumers had reasonable expectations of a service that would be delivered in a timely manner. Furthermore, EA made assurances that the game would be released on time and they took the necessary precautions regarding the server loads even at the behest of most customers and most industry warnings that online-only DRMs are very tricky to successfully do. They repeatedly stated that they would be releasing the game at 12:01 AM EST and that the servers could perform the task.
    The result was far from a 12:01 AM EST release. For the vast majority of customers the game was not available for download until well past 12:40 AM. I, myself, was not able to download the game until roughly 1:20 am CST (This is nearly an 2 hour and 20 minutes AFTER the official release time). Mind you this was AFTER tech support for their phone line was done for the business day, and their online service for tech support had nearly a 360 minute wait, and I recall only 2 official statements. One was from an EA representative telling people to restart their Origin client, the other was from TWITTER and NOT their official forum. The sheer LACK of information regarding the status, updates, and whether the game would be available for download was laughable, even more so considering that EA decided not allow pre-loading in the face of growing concerns by both customers and several industry writers. I was fortunate enough to play the game without the problems that other people faced, albeit I did have to switch the server from US East to US West and had a large patch to run through. I began playing roughly around 2:20 AM CST (a good solid 3 hours later).

    (3) Post-Launch (4 out of 10)
    The game has been very buggy. The region walls work only 1/2 of the time and if they do its nearly a 3-5 minute delay. The in-game chat interface is worthless. There is no notification of when someone speaks, therefore, it goes largely ignored. The global trade is a complete failure. I went from having nearly $1 million ("$1M") to only $120,000 because I was not getting income for my trades. Furthermore, there is no adjustment in the prices even after I FLOODED the market with my plastic supply when it did work. Currently, I am waiting for the game to finish its second round of patches in an attempt to fix the bugs in the game, involving the region wall, trade, and connectability issues. I will give credit where credit is due. EA is doing its best trying to fix the issue of the post-launch. They are opening new servers, trying to keep people informed via their forum, etc. (Much better than the launch-day blackout). I would say this is probably the most botched game-day release I've seen however. I would consider Diablo III as a success in comparison, seeing as the volume of players was much larger for the latter.

    (4) Game Play (2 out of 10)
    The game is still buggy. I was able to literally build a zone underwater because the road tool drew the road underwater. The traffic simulation is horrible. How more roads equates to higher traffic congestion and thousands of Sims ignoring a clear 6 lane avenue a block away from the congested one makes no sense. The worst is the multiplayer feature. YOU CANNOT TURN OFF OTHER CITIES FROM LEECHING FROM YOU, which EA conveniently excluded. I built a 140k population city and the cities around me leeched power and water, while dumping their sewage into my sewage plants. I cannot choose to cut off their power or water nor choose to reject accepting their sewage and get a measly fee for it and have to use valuable space to keep up with their rising demand or my city suffers for inadequate services. I literally went from a booming hi-tech industry to the basic utility provider for my region without ANY way to stop it from happening. The neighboring cities then abandoned their cities leaving me with a dump and in debt    … Expand
  8. davesmylie
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    Always on drm? For a single player game? DRM that breaks and stops you from even playing the game that you LEGITIMATELY PURCHASED? Don't waste your money

    This is absolute rubbish....
  9. Omnizero
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    Installed game, updated drivers, waited 3 hours before i was able to play for 15min before the crash and had to change servers to play for another 20min, repeat most of night. I'm sure they will streamline the server issues, however it's no longer a fun and relaxing game. I want a refund and will be sending emails to the board of directors of EA. They need new executives in that company.
  10. Callaginn
    Mar 6, 2013
    3
    The game itself is awesome...if you can even play it. The server load time, however, is unacceptable. Most of the time, it gets stuck on the "Checking for Updates" screen with a status of 0%. I've also encountered numerous times where it gets stuck in a server queue for 30 minutes at a time. When I buy a game, I want to play it...not make it an all day event just waiting for the stupidThe game itself is awesome...if you can even play it. The server load time, however, is unacceptable. Most of the time, it gets stuck on the "Checking for Updates" screen with a status of 0%. I've also encountered numerous times where it gets stuck in a server queue for 30 minutes at a time. When I buy a game, I want to play it...not make it an all day event just waiting for the stupid game to load.… Expand
  11. HateDRM
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    i cannot believe the always on DRM. it is absolutely ridiculous, and there is no reason for it. i hate drm, hence my handle. and also its stupid. but we still all gave EA money. i dont know how to solve this problem
  12. EAruinedgaming
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    A hard copy of the game SC5 arrived at 10:00. Thanks Amazon. I went home and installed it. And updated it... And updated it.. and updated it. East coast servers down. Put me on west coast Europe. I got into a region. It wouldn't let me choose a city. I was booted. I opened Origin again. This time I was asked to do the tutorial. It loaded. I couldn't do anything but move the camera. ItsA hard copy of the game SC5 arrived at 10:00. Thanks Amazon. I went home and installed it. And updated it... And updated it.. and updated it. East coast servers down. Put me on west coast Europe. I got into a region. It wouldn't let me choose a city. I was booted. I opened Origin again. This time I was asked to do the tutorial. It loaded. I couldn't do anything but move the camera. Its been almost 48hrs since launch. Whats the hold up?
    I Hate EA.    … Expand
  13. Langrisser
    Mar 6, 2013
    1
    I play games when i have time to play them, not when the game is able to be played. I would encourage everyone to demand money back, lets stop this always-on nonsense.
  14. Kalistro
    Mar 6, 2013
    1
    Don't be fooled by this game. This is Diablo 3 all over again. Tiny map, not allowed to make big cities. Worst $60 bucks ever wasted. Do some research, watch the game being streamed, even people who love it are about how restrictive the map size is. The game forces multiplayer on you. This game is not like any other sim city ever made.
  15. Darmog
    Mar 6, 2013
    1
    As a long time fan of the series this game is very disappointing. The cities are way too small. The AI for fire, police, traffic, and mass transit are terrible. The online DRM is infuriating, especially when there are server issues. The game crashes far too often, especially when selecting cities. They charge full retail price for digital delivery. It's hard to make any kind of decentAs a long time fan of the series this game is very disappointing. The cities are way too small. The AI for fire, police, traffic, and mass transit are terrible. The online DRM is infuriating, especially when there are server issues. The game crashes far too often, especially when selecting cities. They charge full retail price for digital delivery. It's hard to make any kind of decent large city without going bankrupt, how not to do so is not very apparent at first. Cities in regions only connect with cities in the same corner. There a few new and interesting concepts but all in all the game is a huge disappointed and not worth the premium price, especially for digital delivery. Oh, and launch-day content for extra cost, bad form EA. Put it in the game and add content later.… Expand
  16. HighAltitudes
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    Another great game franchise down the toilet. Microsoft screwed up Flight Simulator with the abomination "Flight" and now EA sends this stinky effluent called "SimCity" down the pipe. The online problem is a deal killer, no way, no how. Why not just have a logon and then a choice of online play or offline? That way your installation is verified to satisfy EA and you get to play atAnother great game franchise down the toilet. Microsoft screwed up Flight Simulator with the abomination "Flight" and now EA sends this stinky effluent called "SimCity" down the pipe. The online problem is a deal killer, no way, no how. Why not just have a logon and then a choice of online play or offline? That way your installation is verified to satisfy EA and you get to play at your own leisure without dropping off the server and losing your work. Epic failure. Avoid like herpes.… Expand
  17. Ciugi
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    All I can currently say is "Go yourself, EA". Your politics of game distribution accessibility are a terrible excuse. You're no longer a company worth of publishing any quality product. This SimCity got broken due to your ignorance, inability to accept the fact that people does not want to be milked cows, buy and smile. Forget your huge profits. Soon, they'll be gone for the greater goodAll I can currently say is "Go yourself, EA". Your politics of game distribution accessibility are a terrible excuse. You're no longer a company worth of publishing any quality product. This SimCity got broken due to your ignorance, inability to accept the fact that people does not want to be milked cows, buy and smile. Forget your huge profits. Soon, they'll be gone for the greater good of games industry. Wait and see, you filthy whore, EA. Gamers still hold the power to control your greed.… Expand
  18. lukejamieson
    Mar 6, 2013
    1
    At the time of the Australian release this game is unplayable. If the dedicated Oceanic server isn't full, it's down and crashed. Connecting to an international server does not help either as they will frequently drop out and your city would have been erased. Not even the graphics look like they're from this decade.
    1/10 the loading screen has a nice back drop.
  19. ragedujoi
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    I remember the days of failure in WOW, it seems like nirvana compared to the complete lack of direction by Origin
    This is a city simulation, let us do that offline!
    I have had 4 cities wiped by them
    2013 and we still cant have persistent server access
    oh wait we can, GW2
    I think i may want my monies back I am also a little pissed i cant have subways
  20. mo_karney
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    This game has TOO MUCH DRM! Do not buy the game in order to send EA a message about their sh!tty Origin authentication! I for one will not buy it but pirate it JUST to piss off EA.
  21. wtfea
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    I paid $59 for a game that I cant play 2 nights in a row. Cannot in any way play. If multplayer was temporarily broken, I would have no problem, but the game is simply unplayable. Im done with EA. Let them keep their sports game monopoly, they are running those into the ground anyway.
  22. photographydude
    Mar 6, 2013
    1
    This is a really really bad way to do business in the modern video game world. Why in the world would they release another game with online DRM and a require connection just to play the game. There must be some way to go after EA on this. You pay a price for a product and because of pure lies and chaos on the suppliers side you are unable to play. What happens when the servers go down?This is a really really bad way to do business in the modern video game world. Why in the world would they release another game with online DRM and a require connection just to play the game. There must be some way to go after EA on this. You pay a price for a product and because of pure lies and chaos on the suppliers side you are unable to play. What happens when the servers go down? How about when they decide enough Sim City 5 and shut the servers off. ITS BULL CRAP!! If this game was not tied to the internet and DRM it would be amazing. Unfortunately this has crippled it.… Expand
  23. barashin
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    This game could be great, but I will never know. I have been a Sim City fan since the early 90's, I own all of them (original, 2000, 3000 and 4) and the great thing is as old as they are I can go back and play them whenever I want. Since the new game requires a constant Internet connection to play and therefore will only work for as long as EA keep the servers open you never truly 'own'This game could be great, but I will never know. I have been a Sim City fan since the early 90's, I own all of them (original, 2000, 3000 and 4) and the great thing is as old as they are I can go back and play them whenever I want. Since the new game requires a constant Internet connection to play and therefore will only work for as long as EA keep the servers open you never truly 'own' the game, I will not be buying this game. In 10 years time everyone who bought this game can enjoy their Sim City branded coasters while I go back and play Sim City 4.… Expand
  24. Cerulean
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    I was really psyched for Sim City. Everything I read about it from the gaming sites made it sound really interesting, but all the comments from gamers wanred me about EA and their dreaded online-only play. So I shellled out $90 for the DELUXE edition of the game and have spent two days doing nothing. EA servers are down and I cant play the game. When I can get on, my cities areI was really psyched for Sim City. Everything I read about it from the gaming sites made it sound really interesting, but all the comments from gamers wanred me about EA and their dreaded online-only play. So I shellled out $90 for the DELUXE edition of the game and have spent two days doing nothing. EA servers are down and I cant play the game. When I can get on, my cities are missing. I'm sorry to say I have learned my lesson. Don't buy EA games. Dont buy games from companies that let DRM get in the way of enjoying the game. Waste of $90.… Expand
  25. h2theizzo
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    Just want my money back at this point. Here are the cons:

    1. Always on DRM. nuff said. 2. rinky dink map size. The interesting thing is that as long as #2 exists, #1 is a non issue as nobody will be playing this game in a year, nevermind 5 years when the shut it down. If they fix 2 we're still SOL as we need to be online to f-ing play. Can we start a petition to try and    Just want my money back at this point. Here are the cons:

    1. Always on DRM. nuff said.
    2. rinky dink map size.

    The interesting thing is that as long as #2 exists, #1 is a non issue as nobody will be playing this game in a year, nevermind 5 years when the shut it down.

    If they fix 2 we're still SOL as we need to be online to f-ing play.

    Can we start a petition to try and get refunds?

    What a POS.    … Expand
  26. Drusifer
    Mar 6, 2013
    1
    So very, very frustrated. Could not play a single-player game because the servers were down. Finally got a server. After 2 hours of play the server disconnected. Lost everything I had done. Never, never again, EA.
  27. bstmstrxellos
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    SimCity is a single player game, but since EA is insisting on an always online connection to prevent piracy, I am unable to play if their serves are full. There needs to be a local single player option as EA does not have the ability have enough servers for everyone to play. I paid $60 to have a game that I cannot play at all. Even when you can get on a different server, since theSimCity is a single player game, but since EA is insisting on an always online connection to prevent piracy, I am unable to play if their serves are full. There needs to be a local single player option as EA does not have the ability have enough servers for everyone to play. I paid $60 to have a game that I cannot play at all. Even when you can get on a different server, since the cities are not saved locally but on the server, you cannot load your city.… Expand
  28. Grey3000
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    After much anticipation I bought the game, while game play seems up to snuff, EA's handling of the launch and insistence of always on DRM has pretty much killed the joy. The servers have been bouncing every few hours. While the SimCity userbase warned EA of the problems of always on DRM and no offline play, EA ignored them and the users predictions came true. As of this review the gameAfter much anticipation I bought the game, while game play seems up to snuff, EA's handling of the launch and insistence of always on DRM has pretty much killed the joy. The servers have been bouncing every few hours. While the SimCity userbase warned EA of the problems of always on DRM and no offline play, EA ignored them and the users predictions came true. As of this review the game is really unplayable, which is very sad considering the cost.… Expand
  29. eppurcentral
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    Es un gran juego pero no está acabado, para poder disfrutar de el tienes que estar pagando todo el rato los contenidos descargables, desde el primer día. Además hay que estar constantemente conectado a internet ¿que pasa si quiero jugar en otro lugar donde no tengo internet? He pagado pro el y no puedo disfrutar de el donde quiera, además de tener que instalar Origins aunque no quiera.
  30. rfz88
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    Simply terrrible. Once again EA are too greedy for what should even be allowed. This exploitation of EA owned franchises needs to stop...

    /ANTI-EA
  31. Morfarpower
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    Yet another horrible design choice by the EA that yet again disguises a blatant DRM as a "game feature" Always connected alienates most users who like to enjoy a solo game and not sit in a queue for hours, EA has ruined many franchises and companies and runs a monopoly on everything that brings cash and not quality, and the fact that you can't progress in some parts of the game withoutYet another horrible design choice by the EA that yet again disguises a blatant DRM as a "game feature" Always connected alienates most users who like to enjoy a solo game and not sit in a queue for hours, EA has ruined many franchises and companies and runs a monopoly on everything that brings cash and not quality, and the fact that you can't progress in some parts of the game without help from other players is laughable

    I've never liked EA mostly because of how the business is run, and how they've pocketed most companies i hold dear, Once again the pirates who download this illegally will have a good time playing single-player and the loyal paying costumer who care for the Sim city franchise gets to wait in queue and have to play on EA's low quality servers whom probably will be shut down in a few years, so it's like you're renting the game for a long time :D... I had hopes for this game, but thanks to users speaking their voices and telling it like it is, i will NEVER purchase this, and strongly consider not buying anything that EA has direct control over ever again, I may sound Cynical and angry, but the game may be as good as a 10/10 and i would still stand by these words, because the basic principle of how EA runs their companies is so ruthless sometimes, it's only good for a boycott, if i could go back in time i would cut the head of the growing beast that is EA and instead nurture indie and promising companies that can stand competition, most companies learned from past DRM fiasco's but not EA, that's my opinion anyway.    … Expand
  32. Soulure
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    Absolutely unacceptable. Game forces the install of Origin bloatware. Downloads are slow for large post-launch updates. Games are saved per server so if the server you created your saved game on is down or under maintenance, you cannot access your city. You cannot play this as a single-player game at all without always-connected forced DRM, meaning you cannot take it with you on a getawayAbsolutely unacceptable. Game forces the install of Origin bloatware. Downloads are slow for large post-launch updates. Games are saved per server so if the server you created your saved game on is down or under maintenance, you cannot access your city. You cannot play this as a single-player game at all without always-connected forced DRM, meaning you cannot take it with you on a getaway vacation to a location with limited or no internet. Cannot resell the game when you're done. Worst part of it all is that after the last maintenance, game saves on the servers were all reset so all the work you put into your city was lost with no way to do a local restore. Can't rate a game higher than 0 that you can't play. Best part of the game is that Amazon is allowing returns.… Expand
  33. LanSacro
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    This should go back to the oven. It's clearly not done yet.

    I have to rate this pretty low, which is unfortunate as the brief time I was allowed to play seemed like fun. However, the fact that I cannot even load up the game consistently means that I have to rate it as such.
  34. BSaget
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    Always online for no reason, can't play at launch because of server queues for a largely single player game. Poor graphics, bugs, pathetically small "city" size. Should have called it SimTowns or SimNeighborhoods.
  35. sudz
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    The Game itself is not bad at all. A bit glitchy, But overall quite nice. It gets difficult when your city becomes larger, and disasters seem to be rather frequent (once an hour?) However on the whole, it is a very enjoyable game to play. My Main complaint, however, is that I cant play it. Despite many assurances that this launch would go without a hitch, I was able to play for 2 hours onThe Game itself is not bad at all. A bit glitchy, But overall quite nice. It gets difficult when your city becomes larger, and disasters seem to be rather frequent (once an hour?) However on the whole, it is a very enjoyable game to play. My Main complaint, however, is that I cant play it. Despite many assurances that this launch would go without a hitch, I was able to play for 2 hours on release day before it crashed, and crashed, and crashed, then no longer allowing me to log in. There was a Beta to test load How did they get caught unaware? The preorder and Number of games shipped/printed should have been enough to allow them to predict load. next time, Stagger the launch date by location. Maybe this will help.

    For this reason, I give it a zero, as I paid 60 dollars to be frustrated for 2 days, and for that, Ultimately, the entertainment value of this purchase was non existent. I'd rather have wasted the 60 dollars to go see all 4 twilight films in theater.

    Ok no, I take that back. But you get the picture.    … Expand
  36. Blacknegger
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    I'm (was?) a huge fan of the SimCity franchise. But in this game, i gotta admit: EA really *ucked it up. You need an internet connection to play a single player game, and sometimes you got even to wait in order to play it. This was definetly my last purchase at origin. Don't waste your money in this game.
  37. damnleperchons
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    Always on DRM for a single player game. Unable to login to actually play. Brilliant idea EA, to sell a product that we are unable to use! Worthless way to prevent pirating. If any it will encourage it.
  38. Ranzsig
    Mar 6, 2013
    2
    The Good: Beautiful game, good soundtrack, they added a lot of cool new features since Sim City 4 and went away from the train wreck that was 'Societies'.

    The Bad: Tiny, little maps. I want to build a massive, pollution-belching metropolis like in SC4, but you can't. You are limited to the same sized Cities as in 'Societies'. With all the great features implemented in this title there    The Good: Beautiful game, good soundtrack, they added a lot of cool new features since Sim City 4 and went away from the train wreck that was 'Societies'.

    The Bad: Tiny, little maps. I want to build a massive, pollution-belching metropolis like in SC4, but you can't. You are limited to the same sized Cities as in 'Societies'. With all the great features implemented in this title there is no room to use them. The game also requires that be online to play, unfortunately EA didn't plan for the launch. I've spent more time trying to play than actually playing. In trying to load one of my 4 Cities it reports that I cannot due to the servers being down. Maxis is a good developer, at least they were until they got gobbled-up by EA. I will certainly think twice before buying any additional EA titles in the future. It's clear that they care less about your gaming experience then they do about your dollar.    … Expand
  39. yogibbear
    Mar 6, 2013
    5
    Played the game for 3 hrs today. Thought waiting two days would make everything OK. Game crashes after 3 hrs of happily playing an online game with 6 other people... guess what... this is why online saves are terrible and you get metacritic stomped... because the entire save is gone and none of us have any of our 3-4 hrs of progress to continue with. The experience of all building ourPlayed the game for 3 hrs today. Thought waiting two days would make everything OK. Game crashes after 3 hrs of happily playing an online game with 6 other people... guess what... this is why online saves are terrible and you get metacritic stomped... because the entire save is gone and none of us have any of our 3-4 hrs of progress to continue with. The experience of all building our cities to help each other is simply lost in the cloud forever. Well that's a 5/10 or below in anyone's book. Fix this please. It is depressing that even 2 days post launch you still don't have the cloud side save system figured out if you're going to go live with this sort of DRM it better damn well at least save the game.… Expand
  40. rav_
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    I don't believe the reasons EA gives for always-online-DRM.
    PCs can handle definitely the calculations.
    Cloud save should be optionally on top of local save just like "Steam". This is EA's strategy to sell an online service model and DLC/microtransaction. They should not have sold it at retail price. This type of model is ok for free-to-play; not retail. All the convolutions to make    I don't believe the reasons EA gives for always-online-DRM.
    PCs can handle definitely the calculations.
    Cloud save should be optionally on top of local save just like "Steam".
    This is EA's strategy to sell an online service model and DLC/microtransaction.
    They should not have sold it at retail price.
    This type of model is ok for free-to-play; not retail.
    All the convolutions to make a single player game to appear as an online multiplayer game to justify their model.    … Expand
  41. Rockstorm
    Mar 6, 2013
    1
    After waiting for around 30 minutes in a queue to finally play the game, my city gets corrupted and I lose some of my progress so far. This is unacceptable. This is for all intents and purposes a single player game and there's no reason to be always online. DO NOT BUY!
  42. IRSmurf
    Mar 6, 2013
    1
    SimCity is a buggy mess. First, the UI stopped responding due to their overloaded servers. I couldn't even close the game, since it didn't want to close until it synchronized with the server. A server which was refusing connections. I Alt-F4'd out of it and tried to get back in the game. I had to spam the login, clicking it over and over, pressing the OK button saying the servers were busySimCity is a buggy mess. First, the UI stopped responding due to their overloaded servers. I couldn't even close the game, since it didn't want to close until it synchronized with the server. A server which was refusing connections. I Alt-F4'd out of it and tried to get back in the game. I had to spam the login, clicking it over and over, pressing the OK button saying the servers were busy over and over. I got in after about twenty minutes until I got in. Once I got it, it made me play through the tutorial again. Except this time, the dialogue boxes wouldn't load, since the servers were over capacity. I couldn't complete the tutorial. So I walked away from my computer for a while.

    I tried logging in again, and this time the game had a queue. Except it wasn't a queue that guaranteed access to the game after a specified wait. It was simply a retry button on a TWENTY MINUTE timer. For nearly half an hour I spammed the server selection screen, clicking US East, (Error: Busy), Server, US West (Error: Busy), Server, US East, (Error: Busy), Server, US West (Error: Busy), Server, US East, etc. I finally got in. I got into my city and went to region view. I worked on a new city in my region for another half hour and then the screen went black and SimCity closed. After a while I was able to reconnect. ALL MY WORK WAS GONE. I started a new city in the same area and IT HAPPENED AGAIN! It erased my progress.

    EA, this is horrible. If you don't have the server capacity to handle the launch of your always-on DRM scheme, you can't implement an always-on DRM scheme. I will never pre-order another EA title with always-on DRM.

    The fact that EA has the nevrve to say this disaster of a launch has only affected a smaller number of players is like rubbing salt in the wound. They're completely full of crap. Their lie only validates my opinion that EA has contempt for their customers.    … Expand
  43. simcool
    Mar 6, 2013
    10
    This is a really fun reboot of the simcity franchise. The multiplayer side of the game actually improves gameplay. It's interesting to be able to claim an abandoned city and improve someone else disaster.
  44. KMcQuach
    Mar 6, 2013
    2
    Wow! I'm so disappointed with how the game going so far. I lost 2 newly start-up cities already because of disconnection. I've high expectations for this game since it cost $60.
  45. maxhym
    Mar 6, 2013
    2
    I am so disappointed that i want to cry. HUGE fan of sim city 4 (certainly more than 1 000 hours in 10 years) This game isn't a sim city anymore, it is a f***ing Facebook social sim village-city. Ridiculously easy, stupidly small and uselessly social. IT is a shame Maxis and EA, shame on you And shame on sold video games websites that gave this game a good rate, which is certainly notI am so disappointed that i want to cry. HUGE fan of sim city 4 (certainly more than 1 000 hours in 10 years) This game isn't a sim city anymore, it is a f***ing Facebook social sim village-city. Ridiculously easy, stupidly small and uselessly social. IT is a shame Maxis and EA, shame on you And shame on sold video games websites that gave this game a good rate, which is certainly not deserved. I hope Desperately that some TRUE sim-city fan will develop a kickstarted project.… Expand
  46. JohnG75
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    What score would you give to a restaurant where the food was supposed to be pretty good, but instead of being served the meal you ordered, the waiter just tells you that you have to wait another half hour for the next 2 hours and then have to leave hungry because you never got a meal? And so, you leave to go to work and come back the next day and still are told that you need to wait a halfWhat score would you give to a restaurant where the food was supposed to be pretty good, but instead of being served the meal you ordered, the waiter just tells you that you have to wait another half hour for the next 2 hours and then have to leave hungry because you never got a meal? And so, you leave to go to work and come back the next day and still are told that you need to wait a half hours. What do you think the review for that meal should be?

    Would you give it a "8" because you hear the meal is supposed to be pretty dang good or would it be the same score I am giving SimCity?

    When the service (needing to be online to play single player) and the food (the game itself) are the same thing, you need to think about it. There is no excuse for it. If you cannot handle the initial brunt of people trying to use your product, it shouldn't have limitations that keep them from doing it.

    I can't rate this game any higher as after 2 days, I still can't actually play it because there are other people playing it. I'm glad I didn't buy it for myself, but I feel bad that I have to lie to my friend who did buy it for me as a gift.    … Expand
  47. ashief
    Mar 6, 2013
    1
    Traditionally Simcity has been a fun game to play in my spare time. I have anticipated looking forward to this game for a while.

    However, the current incarnation is -not- enjoyably. The always on DRM which forces you to connect to servers to sit in a queue make this game un-playable at the moment. There are ways to *play* if you don't mind playing on European or Oceanic servers,    Traditionally Simcity has been a fun game to play in my spare time. I have anticipated looking forward to this game for a while.

    However, the current incarnation is -not- enjoyably. The always on DRM which forces you to connect to servers to sit in a queue make this game un-playable at the moment.

    There are ways to *play* if you don't mind playing on European or Oceanic servers, but any progress you make in the game will not carry over to American servers.

    Once in there are annoying quirks and bugs within the game that can destroy your city building strategy, I.E. Recycling Plants being bugged and not picking up Recyclable items NO PROCESSORS for you!

    Overall the potential is there for a fun game, but the always on DRM, server queues, constant server downtime, and gameplay bugs make this a terrible game for anyone.

    There were other games which were released on 05-March that I would have bought over this in retrospect (I.E. MLB The Show).    … Expand
  48. hiel
    Mar 6, 2013
    4
    Server reached maximum capacity and so I was placed in a queue and was not allowed to play a single player game because it forces me to constantly be online.
  49. BrewerBill
    Mar 6, 2013
    4
    This game is plagued with problems. First, the obvious: The server overload proves correct all the folks who have been screaming about the always needing to be connected to the servers. I wasn't worried about DRM and no local saves originally, assuming people were just being anti-EA alarmists and that the game would work fine for me, but I was wrong. While it's broken, I can't even play aThis game is plagued with problems. First, the obvious: The server overload proves correct all the folks who have been screaming about the always needing to be connected to the servers. I wasn't worried about DRM and no local saves originally, assuming people were just being anti-EA alarmists and that the game would work fine for me, but I was wrong. While it's broken, I can't even play a single player game which is all I want to do in Simcity anyway. That's stupid. I've also had the game crash a dozen times and lost progress. Also, EA is simply telling folks to use a different server if one is busy. A)They're all busy. B)The city you've put hours into doesn't transfer from one server to another, so you have to start all over if you use a different server. I also thought people were overstating how tiny the maps are, but again I was wrong. The map size is severely limiting. I've managed to make large cities, but they all just feel cramped and generic as you have to use every inch of space to get an even decent population. Do you really need skyscrapers to reach 60K citizens? What if I want to build my real-life home city? I can't. Also, I understand the idea of specialization and not needing to build a large amount of industrial or residential in every city, but I find myself constantly having to bulldoze hospitals and police stations (which I had to pay money for) just to make room to put new roads that allow greater density. (also, why can't I simply pave over a dirt road with a high density road? They're the same size). Lack of subways, lack of farms, lack of map size, lack of customization all feel like an eventual cash grab. There's going to be so much DLC for this game it should be free to play. Even the day one DLC is $10 just to make a few of your buildings look German and give you one special landmark. Save yourself some money and buy the eventual "game of the year" edition which will include more. By then the servers should be fixed... if they haven't shut them off by then rendering the game unplayable. I'm really disappointed overall. I've played Simcity from the beginning. While I think the game engine is incredibly impressive, the graphics and music are good and there are moments of brilliance when the game works well, the whole thing is brought down by attempts to maximize money gouging at every possible turn. It just seems like a good game ruined by a cynical cash-grab. Feel free to wreck new games EA, but why destroy a beloved game that's been sitting on the shelves untouched for ten years?… Expand
  50. YOUDY
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    Honestly simcity is a beautiful game and a great addition to the series been on it last few days, but i cannot over look the always online DRM, poor decision EA,
  51. xxysyndrome
    Mar 6, 2013
    1
    I'm not the type to complain over every little fault in a game, especially one as ambitious as SC5 right after release. But little faults aren't this game's problem it's massive, fundamental design decisions that have completely changed the way this game is to be played, and overwhelmingly not for the better.

    City size too small this is a mind-blower. Did the developers really think    I'm not the type to complain over every little fault in a game, especially one as ambitious as SC5 right after release. But little faults aren't this game's problem it's massive, fundamental design decisions that have completely changed the way this game is to be played, and overwhelmingly not for the better.

    City size too small this is a mind-blower. Did the developers really think people would rather have nearly invisible microeconomic individual sim simuation rather than the ability to build full, complete cities that didn't look like ridiculous postage stamps? I get that it's a performance issue my machine is a beast let me have bigger cities. Let us ALL have bigger cities and get rid of the unhelpful low-level modeling. We came to build cities first, and enjoy drill-down metrics later.

    Always-on DRM: I don't like this mechanism in general, but I don't dismiss it out of hand either. For some online games, it can be useful to limit or prevent hacking and cheating. Diablo 3 needed that, and even though it takes away a lot from the game and can add much frustration, it has its positive points as well. But I cannot for the life of me figure out why in the hell SC5 has a mandatory on-line requirement to simply play the game. It makes no sense whatsoever. A good multiplayer option is always nice, and hopefully it actually works in this game, unlike some other city sims of late, but Sim City is at its core a single-player game that invites the user to experiment, tweak, mess around and generally goof off sometimes. Now? You can't even set a save point to go back to. You make a mistake, too bad. You ruin your economy? Start over from the beginning. Does EA not know what a "simulation" is? I didn't sign up for a Roguelike. Of all this game's misfires, this one is the hugest of all. How am I supposed to learn how to build anything efficiently or aesthetically or economically when the game punishes the living crap out of you for experimenting? I mean PUNISH, as in hours and hours of your life wasted, with very little learning payoff. It's a really huge problem that destroys this game. Never mind that the first 3 times I was able to play the game crashed and nothing was saved on the server anyway. But really bugs get fixed, and they don't ultimately deter me. But awful design decisions do.

    It's impossible to play this game without almost suffocating in the understanding that this game is going to do everything it can to nickle and dime you to death. Hell, they had DLC available the first day! $60 and I get a no-frills economy model? At least PRETEND like you aren't going to charge for every stupid park and church and billboard or whatever and give me a sense, however fleeting, that I have in my possession a complete game with loads of content. Stuff that was in the initial release of SC2K and SC4 is gone here. Gee, wonder how I can get it. Make a great game, give me great content up front and I will pay at least a little for great NEW content. The cynical microtransaction scheme in place here is ham-fisted and infuriating.

    The Glassbox engine is beautiful. The data maps are even moreso. This game is GORGEOUS. I love the tilt-shift look a brilliant design decision. The music is fine and the animations are ok, I hate the stupid Sim language but I can easily get past that. And that's what REALLY kills me this game could be, nay SHOULD be a great game. The technology is there. I mean right there on your machine. Glass box, microeconomic simulation, expensive production all right there waiting to be turned into a really cool game. But the implementation here is so bad, the overall game experience so misguided, and so radically different and worse than any SC before, that this game can ultimately only be considered a huge, massive and crushingly depressing flop. It's hard to imagine that you can take a brilliant game like SC2K or even SC4, add 10+ years and a customer base with PCs literally 1000x more powerful, and THIS is what you get. EA, I have never said this about any game ever, but I want my money back. This is a travesty.    … Expand
  52. Stiksu
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    Last game I'll be buying from EA. Dragon age 2 was a disaster, mass effect 3 ending was a piece of and now this always on DRM crap for simcity. I really would not be that much pissed off if it worked but expending 5 hours in a city and then crash and lose all of it is the final drop.

    The always on DRM is not the only issue, getting to have multiplayer without any kind of matchmaking    Last game I'll be buying from EA. Dragon age 2 was a disaster, mass effect 3 ending was a piece of and now this always on DRM crap for simcity. I really would not be that much pissed off if it worked but expending 5 hours in a city and then crash and lose all of it is the final drop.

    The always on DRM is not the only issue, getting to have multiplayer without any kind of matchmaking and players dcing on a multi city based (sadly) game can ruin the experience that is not so good to begin with.

    EA killed my childhood franchise, I'll do what I can to help see them rot as a company.    … Expand
  53. jonathanyts
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    Server issues and Constant On-line requirement screw this game up. Started multiple cities to only have them erased. Then later on every 5-10 minutes the game would crash.
  54. moedin
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    This game was going to be a winner but the total mess with DRM has limited to one play session, can't log back in due to server capacity and EA support has been useless in telling me to be patient. Not one apology or showing any form of culpable responsibility for this mess. For that, I offer you this score EA. As always, you never fail to flop on something with such promise.
  55. JasonIvanny
    Mar 6, 2013
    1
    Pros
    -Great City Simulator
    -Graphics are nice -Addictive Gameplay Cons: -Must always be connected to the internet for what is primarily a single player game -Seriously issues at launch that cause people to be unable to play the game -Not always obvious what you are doing wrong when building city The serious launch issues combined with the fact that you always need to be    Pros
    -Great City Simulator
    -Graphics are nice
    -Addictive Gameplay

    Cons:
    -Must always be connected to the internet for what is primarily a single player game
    -Seriously issues at launch that cause people to be unable to play the game
    -Not always obvious what you are doing wrong when building city

    The serious launch issues combined with the fact that you always need to be connected to the internet even when you don't want to use any of the online features is a serious issue with this game. We cannot continue to allow developers to force us to be always connected.    … Expand
  56. abbagod13
    Mar 6, 2013
    1
    I just learned an $80 lesson, because I bought the Limited Edition, but failed to look at the requirements. Had I reviewed it properly, instead of assumed that the gaming software could be operated in a standalone mode, I would NOT have wasted my money. A vast majority of people in the U.S. still live in rural areas where internet is unavailable, too expensive or just down right crappy.I just learned an $80 lesson, because I bought the Limited Edition, but failed to look at the requirements. Had I reviewed it properly, instead of assumed that the gaming software could be operated in a standalone mode, I would NOT have wasted my money. A vast majority of people in the U.S. still live in rural areas where internet is unavailable, too expensive or just down right crappy. DO NOT BUY THIS GAME unless you have no problems staying on your internet connection the whole time. I wanted this game to have on my system so that I could play with it during travel or without the umbilical cord of the internet. What 'executive' decided on this modus operandi? Obviously some rich fat cat! ID10TS...… Expand
  57. brunchman
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    Im a prepurchaser and was not only let down by the launch, but as a loyal gamer was slapped in the face by this "always online" RDM ball and chain. I will not be supporting this type of RDM game again.
  58. IrradiatedNun
    Mar 6, 2013
    10
    This game is vibrant, beautiful and deep. I hate that people that are having slight server issues during launch are getting so upset. I just hope they don't give up and miss the greatest city builder available. I know y'all don't like the practices and I can appreciate that but I won't lie and say its a bad game. It's easily the best city builder I've played. It has flaws but I've alreadyThis game is vibrant, beautiful and deep. I hate that people that are having slight server issues during launch are getting so upset. I just hope they don't give up and miss the greatest city builder available. I know y'all don't like the practices and I can appreciate that but I won't lie and say its a bad game. It's easily the best city builder I've played. It has flaws but I've already put 6 hours into it and I plan on hundreds more. Thanks for your time.… Expand
  59. PunkStarStudios
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    Anyone giving this game a positive review must be a shill.... someone working for EA who can actually play the game as opposed to the poor slobs trying to play it from home.
  60. imnumberQ
    Mar 6, 2013
    1
    Bought the game through amazon. Put the product code in and it told me the game was unreleased.....so I'm gonna be that guy and slam the user reviews until they can figure something out
  61. DaBigMac
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    I loved playing the betas and would probably love to play the game too except having shelled out for the deluxe edition I am still unable to play. Origin says I have played it for 9 hours haha! Three times I was able to get on the game crashed. Three others times I lost contact with the server and all progress on the game. I have had to use three different servers and can now no longerI loved playing the betas and would probably love to play the game too except having shelled out for the deluxe edition I am still unable to play. Origin says I have played it for 9 hours haha! Three times I was able to get on the game crashed. Three others times I lost contact with the server and all progress on the game. I have had to use three different servers and can now no longer access any of them as they are on busy servers. Now I cannot even connect to available servers. No Origin I have not had 9 hours of playing I have had what feels like days of frustration (and this is after I was only able to downlaod it 6 hours after launch). I am sorry to review like this but it is rubbish and I feel conned. EA, be very ashamed.… Expand
  62. SplendidGrendel
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    This Game Doesn't Work! how could you give it a 9? Its us unplayable by sooooo many people! I don't buy the reasons they gave for this! I want a refund.
  63. Aeudian
    Mar 6, 2013
    2
    I have been very excited for this game, in fact this is the first EA game for me in a very long time. Coming from many MMO's I expect server outages, patching, etc. However I do feel that EA/Maxis brought this on themselves with lack luster beta testing. The fact is they only allowed for beta for a total of two days separated by 2 weeks each time and only allowed you the play the gameI have been very excited for this game, in fact this is the first EA game for me in a very long time. Coming from many MMO's I expect server outages, patching, etc. However I do feel that EA/Maxis brought this on themselves with lack luster beta testing. The fact is they only allowed for beta for a total of two days separated by 2 weeks each time and only allowed you the play the game for 1 hour and not all the features worked. So what to do you...servers not properly tested. The whole "you need internet to play this game because real cities need outsides" is BS. This game should of had an option to play online or offline. How is it that I create a city (mark it as private) and don't allow anyone to join but me any different then playing offline? Its not. The fact is the game is 100% online because EA/Maxis wants to make it hard to steal the game.

    Over the past 48 hours I have clocked in a total of 3 hours of actual play time due to server issues and login problems.    … Expand
  64. RFD
    Mar 6, 2013
    1
    I really like this game, it is so cool, some die hard SimCity 4 Mayors might not like a few things, but I am not one of them. But all the detail, depth, and greatness of this game is obsolete if you cannot get into the game. You cannot even launch the game without logging into EA's servers and the servers have been down more than they have been up. When they are up there are so many peopleI really like this game, it is so cool, some die hard SimCity 4 Mayors might not like a few things, but I am not one of them. But all the detail, depth, and greatness of this game is obsolete if you cannot get into the game. You cannot even launch the game without logging into EA's servers and the servers have been down more than they have been up. When they are up there are so many people trying to log into them that they quickly go back down. Last night, I waited in a queue for 40 minutes to get in only to get kicked back out after 20 minutes and forced to wait in line again to get back in. The cities that you create on one server do not propagate to the other servers, so when one server goes down they say "well you are free to play on server 'b', but because we are forced to play online we cannot save our cities locally so server B does not have my city on it, so I have to start over again, until server b goes down. I like this game, I really do, but I spent 160.00 (one license for me and one for my wife) on this game and I am unable to play it. I know everyone says this (I may have even said it myself before), but I am done with EA, I will never give them another dollar of my money. I don't care what franchise they buy out next, it could be the greatest game in the world, I will not buy it, everything they touch they ruin. I hope other do the same, it is the only way that they will ever learn that it is unacceptable to take your customers money pre launch and then give them the shaft post launch.… Expand
  65. FreddyGotF
    Mar 6, 2013
    3
    I don't understand why a lot of the backlash is a surprise to anyone, least of all Maxis and EA. Every one of these issues were raised ad nauseum in the months leading up to the release and neither Maxis nor EA refused to acknowledge that they were problems. Instead, it was all about justification and explaining that they were 'heading in a different direction'. What company in their rightI don't understand why a lot of the backlash is a surprise to anyone, least of all Maxis and EA. Every one of these issues were raised ad nauseum in the months leading up to the release and neither Maxis nor EA refused to acknowledge that they were problems. Instead, it was all about justification and explaining that they were 'heading in a different direction'. What company in their right mind tries to tell the consumer what they want? The problem is, I doubt EA will learn any lessons from this because they're surfing the wave of popularity that already surrounds SimCity. They didn't earn it for themselves. What a bunch of pricks.

    Sure, the graphics are updated and 3D and the civic buildings can be modified and it's nice to watch sims running around doing their 'thang', but this is a SIMULATION, which demands realism and high levels of control, especially because this is the sixth incarnation and by this stage Maxis should freakin' know what works and what doesn't. What do we get? No subways. No terraforming. No highways. No control outside of the assigned squares. PITIFUL square sizes (what's the point of making curvy roads when you're discouraged from using them because there's no space). No ability to use height restrictions. Determining density from the type of road is just plain bizarre and awkward. And, I might add, not what's done in the real world.

    The thing I truly hate about this is that even if I try to be as creative as possible and build up my population, it's just gonna look pathetic because it'll be a bunch of small square skyscrapers with nothing but grass in between.

    Hey Maxis and EA here's a newsflash for you. I want to decide where my highways go, and what parts of my region are green, and how big my cities are, and where I want high density to go, and if my city has a subway system or not. I want it all to be my choice, not YOURS.

    And I haven't even mentioned the DRM or DLC, which no doubt will attempt to correct some of the glaring problems... for a modest fee, of course.

    I want a refund.    … Expand
  66. RoboGeoff
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    I can't review the actual game since I'm not on a privileged reviewers server, but it's been 2 days of constant struggles and no more than 10 minutes worth of actual in game play. First, EA's failure to allow preloads meant that I waited 3+ hours from launch before I was given the priviledge of downloading the game I paid for. Secondly, once installed, the user must play server roulette,I can't review the actual game since I'm not on a privileged reviewers server, but it's been 2 days of constant struggles and no more than 10 minutes worth of actual in game play. First, EA's failure to allow preloads meant that I waited 3+ hours from launch before I was given the priviledge of downloading the game I paid for. Secondly, once installed, the user must play server roulette, in hopes of finding of simply starting a private game. The last of local saving, and the always-on DRM design of the game means everyone who plays this game is at the mercy of the server Gods. Despite ensuring everyone that always-on DRM will not be a concern and there will be plenty of servers, this is not the case. Maybe one day I'll actually get to play this game. Don't expect anything but the most frustrating gaming experience ever if you buy Simcity from EA Origin. Stay away until they figure things out... if they can.… Expand
  67. ErrantPoster
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    I made an account here just to express my disappointment with this game...a game I've really been looking forward to. It's tiny, It doesn't look nearly as good as I was expecting. It runs rough on a good rig. DRM. The social gaming thing seems...necessary. At least if you buy this...buy it with your eyes open.
  68. gonzothegunnut
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    Can not access game. Always on DRM. If you want to play this game just download it for "free" the first chance you get. Single player games should not require you to be online, it's as simple as that. I bought this game for my wife, she was super excited.. I bought her lunch and took our son out so she could have some fun alone time that she hasn't gotten in months. So of course sheCan not access game. Always on DRM. If you want to play this game just download it for "free" the first chance you get. Single player games should not require you to be online, it's as simple as that. I bought this game for my wife, she was super excited.. I bought her lunch and took our son out so she could have some fun alone time that she hasn't gotten in months. So of course she was upset when she couldn't play it. If Blizzard can't pull off always-online DRM without screw ups, I don't know what makes EA think they can.… Expand
  69. soggyburrito
    Mar 6, 2013
    4
    when you buy a game you probably expect to be able to play it. EA's servers are constantly down so playing this game when you want to is not something you can expect. You'll be playing when EA wants you to and a few years down the road when they stop paying for servers, you won't be able to play at all. This happens to MMOs when they cease to be profitable. This should never happen to awhen you buy a game you probably expect to be able to play it. EA's servers are constantly down so playing this game when you want to is not something you can expect. You'll be playing when EA wants you to and a few years down the road when they stop paying for servers, you won't be able to play at all. This happens to MMOs when they cease to be profitable. This should never happen to a single-player game like SimCity.… Expand
  70. moremodestthanu
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    Need to cancel out all of the 9&10's. THIS GAME IS A TRAVESTY! Pros: Graphics Cons: EVERYTHING ELSE! Enough yelling, sorry, but I am really disappointing by this game and the ongoing trend of releasing "sequels" with less options and features. Sim City 4 is better in every way other than graphics. Are they serious with how small these "cities" are?

    ... and then you get to the always on    Need to cancel out all of the 9&10's. THIS GAME IS A TRAVESTY! Pros: Graphics Cons: EVERYTHING ELSE! Enough yelling, sorry, but I am really disappointing by this game and the ongoing trend of releasing "sequels" with less options and features. Sim City 4 is better in every way other than graphics. Are they serious with how small these "cities" are?

    ... and then you get to the always on DRM Day 1 DLC atrocities. You know people are going to want to play the game on day 1, why you suck so much, EA? Aren't you making enough money ruining all of the other franchises? I just want to pull my hair out.    … Expand
  71. ramenos
    Mar 6, 2013
    4
    Sim City is beautiful and the interface is perfect (really good job on it guys). But what happened to the real Sim City This game is really frustrating for 2 major points and 1 other reason:
    - The size of map is ridiculous (we can fill a map in 2 hours max). No possibilities of creation for a gigantic city.
    - The game is easy. Even if I add a lot of taxes to my population, it's still    Sim City is beautiful and the interface is perfect (really good job on it guys). But what happened to the real Sim City This game is really frustrating for 2 major points and 1 other reason:
    - The size of map is ridiculous (we can fill a map in 2 hours max). No possibilities of creation for a gigantic city.
    - The game is easy. Even if I add a lot of taxes to my population, it's still easy to keep your city safe.

    The last point concerns your DRM it's fully on-line and this is annoying. If Origin doesn't work, you can't play. Why did you do the same mistake as Diablo 3 ?

    My fear concerns the future: if Maxims adds a lot of paid DRM for special building bigger maps, that would be the glory of shame. I hope I am wrong but for now, as a Sim City fan, I am disappointed.    … Expand
  72. buttski
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    this game is published from ea. this alone is reason enough to keep away from it, as good as it may be. ea is known to be the worst publisher ever. can't believe that maxis didn't went to another one.
  73. gainsmaster
    Mar 6, 2013
    1
    I beta tested this three times, what should have been a fun game has been completely ruined with the inability to play in single-player offline mode. The servers were fraught with problems even during the third beta, which was set up only to stress-test the servers. I am disappointed that they did not fix the issue even by launch day! The game itself is good (albeit not as great as itsI beta tested this three times, what should have been a fun game has been completely ruined with the inability to play in single-player offline mode. The servers were fraught with problems even during the third beta, which was set up only to stress-test the servers. I am disappointed that they did not fix the issue even by launch day! The game itself is good (albeit not as great as its former self), but DRM is so overwhelmingly intrusive that it is not even worth the $60. Also, they took out the subways and a bunch of other stuff...I understand people want to blame the execs but the out-of-touch marketers and programmers should also be blamed for nerfing this game.… Expand
  74. Chewieflakes
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    If you condone EA's terribly consumer-unfriendly business practices and countless butchered classics by buying this game you should be ashamed. If you are lucky enough to even be able to PLAY the game you payed so much money for then you'll be surprised to see most of the official game reviewers have been paid off by EA for favorable ratings, which is typical. Also expect dozens of dlc forIf you condone EA's terribly consumer-unfriendly business practices and countless butchered classics by buying this game you should be ashamed. If you are lucky enough to even be able to PLAY the game you payed so much money for then you'll be surprised to see most of the official game reviewers have been paid off by EA for favorable ratings, which is typical. Also expect dozens of dlc for content that was suppose to be in the original game. Do not buy this game.… Expand
  75. hellrazr99
    Mar 6, 2013
    5
    This game is simpler than ever! Great UI and much easier to get off the ground running than previous versions. The always online aspect of this game is horrible at this point. For the digital copy I had to download, install which only took around an hour. Then the headache came and the game had to download more; four hours later the game was finally ready to play. When I say ready to playThis game is simpler than ever! Great UI and much easier to get off the ground running than previous versions. The always online aspect of this game is horrible at this point. For the digital copy I had to download, install which only took around an hour. Then the headache came and the game had to download more; four hours later the game was finally ready to play. When I say ready to play I mean ready to open, not actually play. Game has crashed several times on me already, the tutorial doesn't run, and now the servers are down so I can't even play a private game. EA needs a shakeup and maybe we can get one game to have proper server support at launch.… Expand
  76. Arkaynne
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    No game which requires the user to be online and connected to external servers during solo play should ever receive a score above 0. This sort of invasive DRM must be stopped. We should not be forced into maintaining an outside connection for no other purpose than to assure some overly greedy and paranoid corporate executive that we are not criminals.
  77. Sharra65
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    I purchased this game to the hefty tune of 60 X2 yes both myself and Boyfriend have a copy. Here's what I've seen so far. The game itself is good. The mechanics are well thought out, and complex enough to keep interest. There's some graphical glitches. The plot size for the cities are smaller than preferred. You definatley have to manage your space effectively. Now for the problems andI purchased this game to the hefty tune of 60 X2 yes both myself and Boyfriend have a copy. Here's what I've seen so far. The game itself is good. The mechanics are well thought out, and complex enough to keep interest. There's some graphical glitches. The plot size for the cities are smaller than preferred. You definatley have to manage your space effectively. Now for the problems and they are game breaking. In 5 hours of attempted play on two computers here is what we experienced. Delays in invites to the game, 10 minutes. In ability to claim a city once the invite was accepted. Once we sorted that out and got our cities claimed, and were playing two of the 3 people in our region were kicked from the server, re logging in showed we weren't invited to the game we'd been playing at all. Had to be re-invited to get back to our existing cities, which had reset completely to the default although were showing we'd claimed them. 3 disconnects a piece for myself and the boyfriend. Never at the same time, so it wasn't really servers crashing. I should mention we play in the same house. Inability to get back into the game without a 20 minute queue. At one point the 20 minute queue ticked down and reset to another 20 minutes... at this point i shut it down. This morning when i logged in, it had lost 2 hours of progress from last night due to synching issues. My bf experienced this a couple times yesterday as well. Basically the online component need fixed yesterday or the games dead.… Expand
  78. Mars138
    Mar 6, 2013
    1
    Pros: Fun gameplay* and beautiful graphics. (*Assuming you can actually play.)
    Cons: Highly restrictive city map size.
    Conclusion: Simcity is a spectacular game rendered next to useless do to the fact that your chances of actually getting on EA's haggard servers is questionable. It gets a 1 out of 10 which I feel is generous considering I can't even play the game.
  79. supamun
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    Purchased game, installed, started game, created city, game crashed, no saves. Restarted game, created city, played for 15 minutes, game crashes, no saves. Ate lunch. Restarted game, unable to created city due to error. Closed and restarted game, unable to authenticate with server, tried different server, unable to authenticate. Closed game. Write review.
  80. 102Viking
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    Forced online DRM, worst servers ever, extremely limited building area (should be called SimVillage or something like that. EA, never go full greed.
  81. spewey
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    Maxis should never have rolled this out without providing for the robust server support it should have known was necessary. I've hardly been able to log in; most attempts failed. At least this has kept me from fuming about the small size of cities we are limited to. Maxis' insistence on DRM may protect them from a few pirates, but it has greatly inconvenienced thousands of their users,Maxis should never have rolled this out without providing for the robust server support it should have known was necessary. I've hardly been able to log in; most attempts failed. At least this has kept me from fuming about the small size of cities we are limited to. Maxis' insistence on DRM may protect them from a few pirates, but it has greatly inconvenienced thousands of their users, and turned the most anticipated game of the year into a massive disappointment.… Expand
  82. thom0975
    Mar 6, 2013
    1
    Are you kidding me? Even when you can get through to play a game you can play for approximately 30 minutes before the servers begin to have issues- and then you're lucky (LUCKY) if you're 30 minutes are synced. What's more- once you try to reestablish a connection- you're usually greeted with another queue to get back to the game the server kicked you off playing.
    That's okay- you    Are you kidding me? Even when you can get through to play a game you can play for approximately 30 minutes before the servers begin to have issues- and then you're lucky (LUCKY) if you're 30 minutes are synced. What's more- once you try to reestablish a connection- you're usually greeted with another queue to get back to the game the server kicked you off playing.
    That's okay- you think- I'll just go to sandbox mode--- that can't possibly require a constant connection- Wrong-O! Hmm--- maybe a Private Sandbox--- that's another whole lotta Nope. What could be a charming and successful sim is marred- irreparably so- by a faulty and slipshod implementation. Chalk this user up to another that will (WILL) be getting refunded by EA, or disputing a credit card charge.    … Expand
  83. Algorath
    Mar 6, 2013
    1
    It's the DRM, plain and simple. A beautiful game marred by EA; I have no interest in sharing regions; I'm unable to play my purchase, and I don't believe it's the core game to blame.

    Which is a shame but I can't, in good faith, recommend or rate a title highly if the peripherals mar the experience.
  84. mrpuck
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    So I took the bait. Even after all the research I did on other Simcity forums from those who played beta I bought the game.
    Spent about 4 hours with it yesterday and I am quite disappointed in it.
    Let's get out the Pro's: Graphics Yes it looks very pretty. Even though I was shocked to see the "sims" looking like lego characters, overall the buildings and houses etc are very pretty.    So I took the bait. Even after all the research I did on other Simcity forums from those who played beta I bought the game.
    Spent about 4 hours with it yesterday and I am quite disappointed in it.

    Let's get out the Pro's:

    Graphics Yes it looks very pretty. Even though I was shocked to see the "sims" looking like lego characters, overall the buildings and houses etc are very pretty.

    Modular upgrades Excellent idea, and works very well. I never did like the idea behind "I need more firetrucks? build 5 more fire stations". Now I can add onto the Firehouse and expand it's coverage that way. Works very well for Police, Fire, Schools, etc.

    Curved Roads I can actually build a realistic looking town. The curved roads are great. However they leave issues with putting down homes and buildings on them at times.

    Now for all the Cons:

    Online DRM I know everyone complains about this. I was willing to deal with it. Then the servers went down and I couldn't play. Is it first day issues? I'm not sure but it was almost ironic when the servers went down.

    City Size Of course a huge complaint, other reviews mention this. Filled up my entire town in a little over an hour.

    Diversity of buildings Where are all the buildings I want to build? I'm talking places like Museums, Churches, Zoo's, Post Offices, etc. etc. I can think of tons of missing content. Were these left out so EA can sell us buildings for $1 each later down the road?

    Transportation So far it seems all you get are buses. No Train stations, no subways, etc. I do believe you can build an airport eventually.

    The whole "Upgrade town hall to unlock stuff" Seems silly and unnecessary. I can't build a hospital because I already used my TownHall upgrade for something unrelated so I have to wait.

    It's hard to really say all the issues with the game in just bullet points. One of the biggest issues I have is simply with the density of zones. Let me paint a picture for you. You have a nice suburban part of your town, where say you want your middle to upper class to live. They would live on nice single lane roads with maybe some cul da sacs shooting off that road etc. You can build the road system, and then zone it for residential. That's it.... So what happens? You get mobile homes all over, and the only way to get the houses to "upgrade" to nicer establishment is to put parks/recreation all over nearby (and their effect is small size wise). Or you have to upgrade the road. Now who lives on a 4 lane road in a mansion? Not many people I can think of. It's absolutely idiotic.

    The game is definitely driven to have you share resources with neighboring regions. If you try to do it all in your one small city, you're in for a mess. So you have to essentially pause your game, and go to another city and start fresh there. Whether in the other city it's creating better jobs, or focusing on utilities to provide to your other city, etc.

    Overall, I am extremely disappointed in this game. A lot of the issues CAN be patched, fixed, upgraded with a lot of work from Maxis. But in the state the game is now, it should never have been released. This will probably be a game I shelve for a bit, and hope that in a few months it becomes playable. As it sits now, I paid for a beta copy. If I could return this to EA I would.    … Expand
  85. xaero1ne
    Mar 6, 2013
    1
    well lets see, i may have been able to give this game a better score but since its now been out for almost 2 full days, i have yet to be able to play it for more then 20 minutes due to all the stupid errors and server issues. i though you guys ran a beta to prevent all this. good job EA, just know that i will NEVER, EVER, not in a million years, ever, pre-purchase one of your games. EVER!
  86. foxofblades
    Mar 6, 2013
    1
    The problem here is that the game may indeed be great, epic, huge improvement, etc but with road blocks as big as not being able to play, glitches in menu, unclear saving/loading processes, and horrible game technical support make this an incredibly unreasonable purchase. I looked forward to this game very much and had high hopes even through the low user reviews. But here me now, I haveThe problem here is that the game may indeed be great, epic, huge improvement, etc but with road blocks as big as not being able to play, glitches in menu, unclear saving/loading processes, and horrible game technical support make this an incredibly unreasonable purchase. I looked forward to this game very much and had high hopes even through the low user reviews. But here me now, I have learned the lesson I should have learned when I bought Diablo 3 do not make this purchase.… Expand
  87. strcrft15
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    The game is completely unplayable. Can't create a city, can't join an already existing game, can't run the tutorial... this isn't just a launch day issue. This is second day. I didn't pay money to wait to play. Waste of time.
  88. RunsreyM
    Mar 6, 2013
    9
    A lot of stupid reviews as usual on the user reviews. If you bought this game thinking that it wasn't ALWAYS ONLINE, you're an idiot. Been playing this game a ton since it became available i was able to download it amazingly fast which was a nice suprise. I figured with so many people trying to access it, that it would take a long time to get. Got right into the game with my origin accountA lot of stupid reviews as usual on the user reviews. If you bought this game thinking that it wasn't ALWAYS ONLINE, you're an idiot. Been playing this game a ton since it became available i was able to download it amazingly fast which was a nice suprise. I figured with so many people trying to access it, that it would take a long time to get. Got right into the game with my origin account info. Love that aspect and how you can see others around you with their origin accounts as well. I've had ZERO que wait times and the game loads fine almost every time. I had one instance when i came home for lunch and had to log out of origin and then back in to get into the game. Took me all of 30 seconds. Firstly, on the game play itself. It's smooooottthh. Everything you need is right there and easily accessible. you can scroll in and view your city at the sim's level, which is really cool. The map sizes are smaller for a reason. In SimCity 4 i would first lay out just a massive amount of farming and then build a small city center from there and then slowly build into a metropolis. With SimCity 5 it forces you to really analyze how you want your city laid out and how to make it look asthetically pleasing as well as economically viable. The specialization is probably the best idea in the game. The first city i build is not so pretty so i had to start demolishing sections of town as i was making it more of a cultural center for tourism (I'm saving casino's for last as i think they'll be a lot of fun). It really emphasises on basic theory behind specialization. For instance, with culture i wanted places easily accessible to tourists so i built a nice bus system with close stops all around the attractions. Then i decided to build some nicer commercial areas around and my revenue just went through the roof! Now i'm trying to build a highly educated city with top research so this means with top research/gadget production i need a really good market and way to export my goods while keeping the land value around these areas. These are all things that SimCity makes you think about! An oxymoron to put it is that it's so much easier to play, however it's much harder to master than previous simcity games. If you let go of the old you'll love this game. I even wake up a bit earlier before work to put in 30min into my city. There are so many cool little nitches with this game i won't go through all of them. Better to discover on your own!

    For the downsides, some of the road building can be annoying. I want to build a road in a certain way and the game will snap it in particular ways sometimes. I like things to be exactly how i like them in my city as i usually want it a certain way so something else will fit well within that area. Ie. i wanted to build a really nice park center within my high income sims and because the roads wouldn't work exactly how i wanted them within the park it didn't look at natural (Asthetically pleasing as i had envisioned). The other downside to me is that it's easier to manage your city funds. I remember in SimCity 4 you could really get yourself in trouble. In 5 it's really easy to keep your income up to where you're always in the black. For example, in prior sims i would be really sketchy of taking out a bond/loan. In 5 i'll take out a bond, build some homes, infrastructure, and/or other revenue generating ventures and never really worry about it. I'd like a bit more thought into taking out bonds than what is currently there.    … Expand
  89. uncoldolan
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    This game is the steaming pile of raw sewage you would have been able to pump into neighboring cities had the game servers actually worked. EA has proved they simply care about the money and not the product. This games launch issues were worse than Diablo 3 and have not gotten any better. Sad EA ruined such a historic franchise.
  90. OCsmart
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    Servers always booting me out. connection lost how i am hard wired into the internet! be only to play on-line is a huge pain in the a** am cant save your city on your desktop and then have it sync to the cloud. then you can swap server because you lose your city completely i been playing this game since the launch date. my computer at home plays it just fine. then i get to work and playsServers always booting me out. connection lost how i am hard wired into the internet! be only to play on-line is a huge pain in the a** am cant save your city on your desktop and then have it sync to the cloud. then you can swap server because you lose your city completely i been playing this game since the launch date. my computer at home plays it just fine. then i get to work and plays for like an hour then boom game stops responding, it due to the graphics card over heating video card hog. my call of duy Black Ops 2 doesnt even take that i can play for hours and they dont get hot. this game is a heat generator. i wish i could play it on the plane or in the car but you have to be connected always to the internet make me wonder how much data is being transfered all the time. and there is no auto sync so if you get blown out of the game you have to start all over again sucks.… Expand
  91. nightred
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    The updated graphics is nice but the lack of options for transportation that makes any difference the lack of larger maps where you would actually care about creating a large city with interesting design.
    This feels like a demo of a full game we will get next year.
    Oh ya and the DRM is horrid constraining and adds nothing, absolutely nothing to the game.
  92. iamweard
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    The minimum needed to be called a game is the ability to play it. As i cannot play the game that i purchased it is of no function or value, it is not worth the money i payed for it. If i wanted to play this game after the launch date i would have waited and bought it when it goes on sale. This always on must end, DO NOT BUY. DOES NOT WORK.
  93. kozzy420
    Mar 6, 2013
    10
    Amazing entry in the simcity series.
    Yes there is server issues but in all honesty this happens for MANY games the few days of release.
    Yes I wish it had an offline mode, but in the end its a very well made game overall, it just has a few issues. There is some bugs, Always on DRM sucks,etc.. but the actual gameplay is fantastic. It is fun has hell, has great gameplay, good graphics    Amazing entry in the simcity series.
    Yes there is server issues but in all honesty this happens for MANY games the few days of release.
    Yes I wish it had an offline mode, but in the end its a very well made game overall, it just has a few issues.
    There is some bugs, Always on DRM sucks,etc.. but the actual gameplay is fantastic.

    It is fun has hell, has great gameplay, good graphics and most importantly its fun as hell.
    I am a long time simcity fan and I enjoy this game alot. Yes there is issues but there is also A TON to enjoy in this game also.

    I say buy the game if you dont mind the issues the game has.    … Expand
  94. wormhole
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    Always online DRM, can't save game when I want, smaller cities, day 0 DLC. Don't bother to get this game. And the best: you can't play single player because of full servers...
  95. Ampanaron
    Mar 6, 2013
    2
    Yesterday, I was able to play this single player game for maybe an hour before becoming disconnected from the server; waited in queues for 30 minutes at a time only have my queue restarted at the end of each 30 minutes. Middle of day 2, my region won't load. It goes without saying that the release of this game is a fiasco, but what is rightfully upsetting is that EA has broken very logicalYesterday, I was able to play this single player game for maybe an hour before becoming disconnected from the server; waited in queues for 30 minutes at a time only have my queue restarted at the end of each 30 minutes. Middle of day 2, my region won't load. It goes without saying that the release of this game is a fiasco, but what is rightfully upsetting is that EA has broken very logical convention for a game of this type, and really gone out of its way to put its customers at risk of dealing with this inconvenience. If EA were a TV manufacturer, an airline, a pharmaceutical company....they would be issuing refunds right now. In the least case, they owe a very public apology to their customers who preordered or purchased before they had their servers working. As far as the DRM is concerned, I cannot imagine a poorer way to treat paying customers.
    As for the actual gameplay that I was able to experience: If I had to sum it up in one word, unfortunately that word would be "lame". Aside from the day one bugs, such as not being able to sell power to my partially-grown neighboring city, I was seriously let down by the abnormally anemic size of the cities and by the shallowed complexity as compared to SC4. I miss the graphs...they were the best way to show you how well you have done over time, and what elements changed in your SC4 city. The demand system is not doing well: I had half of the acreage of my city covered in middle-wealth families, a quarter in middle-wealth commercial, and a quarter in middle wealth manufacturing. What are the sims telling me? The residents say there are no jobs and not enough shopping. The shops say there are not enough potential employees or shoppers. The factories say there are not enough potential employees or "places to ship their goods", i.e, shops. So yeah, that is perhaps the most essential system in the game and it's currently half-baked. It is visually decent, but the animations are still buggy (i.e. sims jittering around as if possessed).
    I believe it is completely fair to compare this game to SC4, particularly as the developers have spent plenty of time alluding to the connection between the two. At this moment in time, SC4 is hands-down a more challenging, more complex, and, without a doubt, more rewarding game. The multiplayer aspect was a bold diversion from the logical direction, and has thus far not only failed to add anything meaningfully positive but has made the game literally unplayable for the core market who preordered or purchased in the first days. Obviously, fixing this issue is priority one. Expanding the city size is priority two. These two glaring issues need to be fixed before we can pretend that this game is worth more than $20 (issue one needs to be fixed before this game is worth a penny!). I'm not sure we're ever going to see this game being worth the $60 that so many of us have paid.

    I'm rating a zero, obviously, for the fact that on day two I still cannot play the game. If I were to pretend that I could play the game, I would give it a 3.5. Overall rating rounded up to 2.

    To remake a lyric from Team America: "I miss you more than Electronic Arts missed the mark, when they made SimCity..."    … Expand
  96. twesterm
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    Hard to write a review for a game I can't play. Even on available servers every time I try to claim a city I get an error message.

    I was able to play about an hour (which was mostly the tutorial) on launch day and since then I haven't been to resume my single player region and city (due to the server being full) and I haven't been able to start a new city.
  97. 4en1vanm
    Mar 6, 2013
    3
    This game has been such a disappointment considering what it could have been. While the game play itself is decent the lack of city space (Only 2km square) and the obvious nickel dime that EA is planning by not having basic city options, such as subways, and already including $20 of additional buildings in an $80 purchase makes this game not worth it until you find it on a discount rack.This game has been such a disappointment considering what it could have been. While the game play itself is decent the lack of city space (Only 2km square) and the obvious nickel dime that EA is planning by not having basic city options, such as subways, and already including $20 of additional buildings in an $80 purchase makes this game not worth it until you find it on a discount rack.

    Oh and did I mention its DRM requires always online internet connections. This little gem of and idea just won't go away even though gamers have strongly voiced their disdain against it. I guess EA liked being named 2012's worst American company that they wanted to be in the running for it again in 2013. Until EA completely sells Maxis to a competent software company that listens to gamers avoid any and all EA or Maxis games including this POS!    … Expand
  98. bobloblaw010
    Mar 6, 2013
    1
    Fantastically fun game, but Maxis doesn't have control of its servers. I spend most of my time playing alone anyways, they might as well have it be a game that is on your computer. I know they are trying to make money with this DRM business, and Maxis' unwillingness to waiver on this makes the game unplayable (literally unplayable. Even when the servers aren't busy, there is a 25% chanceFantastically fun game, but Maxis doesn't have control of its servers. I spend most of my time playing alone anyways, they might as well have it be a game that is on your computer. I know they are trying to make money with this DRM business, and Maxis' unwillingness to waiver on this makes the game unplayable (literally unplayable. Even when the servers aren't busy, there is a 25% chance that I can play the game at all). Do not buy SimCity.… Expand
  99. Lsslave
    Mar 6, 2013
    1
    Always online, too small of city space, some good ideas ruined by terrible design choices that should never have been approved. Much like Diablo 3 and its terrible design choices, Sim City has proven it is no longer capable of being the number one city management game. Goodbye Sim City, you used to be cool.
  100. DubCheezy
    Mar 6, 2013
    6
    After a couple of days with the new SimCity game, my feelings are most certainly mixed. On the one hand, SimCity is an incredibly deep and engrossing simulation you could lose hours in. On the other hand the game is a flawed with bugs and backed by unreliable serves to maintain the "always online" requirement. There are also unnecessary limitations that appear to set the stage for DLCAfter a couple of days with the new SimCity game, my feelings are most certainly mixed. On the one hand, SimCity is an incredibly deep and engrossing simulation you could lose hours in. On the other hand the game is a flawed with bugs and backed by unreliable serves to maintain the "always online" requirement. There are also unnecessary limitations that appear to set the stage for DLC to be purchased in the in-game store down the road. Lets look at game play first, for the most part the game's engine is stable, I experienced no crashes due to the software itself. SimCity is a much more colorful and vibrant than it's predecessors, resembling the SIMs more than anything else. The depth and detail of the game engine is incredible when you consider everything that goes on in a city at once, all being tracked by the software. You can even select an individual SIM and follow them all around the town as they go from school, to work etc. Building your city has never been easier with a multiple road types including curved roads. And your buildings can be customized in new ways by adding modular additions to hospitals, city hall, and many others. I did however notice some hiccups in the game engine that need to be addressed by the developers; mainly erratic and strange behavior by certain SIMs on the roadways. Delivery trucks and buses would sometimes randomly stall out or just simply drive around aimlessly. Usually a restart would correct this problem, but these errors slowed my city's development to a craw. I also ran into irritating problems placing roads; the game prohibiting me from placing a road where I know it should be able to go. The New SimCity also uses much smaller map sizes for each city. I didn't mind this as much as some people, because once you fill out one map you can move on to the next-door map in the region. Since the cities in the region can share resources, jobs, etc I decided to dedicate each map as a "segment' of a larger city. Now my whole region is one giant city, with one map being the residential area, one map being industrial, and so on. The developers stated the smaller map size was due to limitations of people's computers to run the game with bigger maps. I call BS on that one, checking resources, my 3-year-old PC can run this game on max settings, utilizing less that 70% of the system resources to do it. I expect to see EA cramming DLC large maps down our throats at a later date. Most of my issues with the SimCity are a result of the "Always-online" DRM built into the game. This is not about, whether DRM is "right" or not, or even fair. The issue is the DRM was done very poorly and negatively affects the game-play to a point where it actually hinders the player's ability to enjoy the game they paid 60 bucks for. I was disconnected 5 times form EA's overwhelmed servers, two of those 5 times I had to wait longer than 20 minutes to log back in. Considering I was playing a SINGLE PLAYER game, and I'd paid 60 bucks for it, I didn't expect to have to wait in line to play the game. That's like being told by Ford that you can only drive your new car when/where THEY want you to. If the roads are open, they should be free, and I should be able to drive where I want. The reality is Game companies will continue to do this only if the consumer continues to open their wallets. That being said it's tough to punish SimCity for it's publisher's shady tactics, the game is very fun. But DRM IS PART OF THE GAME, it IS a FEATURE. If a game had a terrible installation program that didn't work on many computers, reviewers would most certainly account this into their review score. DRM must also be considered in the review scores of this game because it is part of the game, just like every other feature whether it be a building or a menu. The bottom line is if you love SimCity, you'll love this game, DRM or not. The DRM does limit the game (and that's the real reason they made smaller maps) and it does make the game downright unplayable at times. This is because when you buy SimCity, you're not just buying the game software, but your buying bandwidth and space on EA's servers, and quite frankly EA hasn't been up to the task so far.… Expand
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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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