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. dethedrus
    Mar 7, 2013
    0
    An absolute travesty. The dumbing down of the single best city building franchise... the one that literally created the genre back in the late 80s. I've played every PC version since the original, and I'm floored at just how much got left on the cutting room floor or badly botched (traffic modelling is particularly abysmal). Or worse, reserved for copious DLC consumption. Add in theAn absolute travesty. The dumbing down of the single best city building franchise... the one that literally created the genre back in the late 80s. I've played every PC version since the original, and I'm floored at just how much got left on the cutting room floor or badly botched (traffic modelling is particularly abysmal). Or worse, reserved for copious DLC consumption. Add in the positively craptastic backend "support" from EA and it's one of the single worst game launches I've ever see. It makes Diablo 3 and Elemental look like shining paragons of good coding and infrastructure.… Expand
  2. wickewitch1983
    Mar 7, 2013
    1
    The game itself is good,actually it is great.I dont mind the addition of "multiplayer" but the always online has made the game not playable.I am not a computer gamer and this has definetly ruined any chance of me buying another one that requires always on internet.The customer service from EA has soured me on them.I will never buy another EA game.i advised a friend of mine who is an avidThe game itself is good,actually it is great.I dont mind the addition of "multiplayer" but the always online has made the game not playable.I am not a computer gamer and this has definetly ruined any chance of me buying another one that requires always on internet.The customer service from EA has soured me on them.I will never buy another EA game.i advised a friend of mine who is an avid simcity player not to buy the game,at least not now, due to the inability to play.If I could return it I definetly would but the gaming industry as a whole has prevented this.I worked hard and saved my money for this game and its gone without an apology or any offer of compensation from the manufacturer about this fiasco.So to summarize please dont buy this game no matter how good it is when you play, it is impossible to even play it.… Expand
  3. drkplx
    Mar 7, 2013
    0
    GG ea on blowing the release of an otherwise good game (from what I hear). I wouldn't actually know because I can't even play the game I paid $60 for. Apparently some people have received refunds via their support chat, however I had no luck. Boycott, boycott, boycott.......
  4. Marra82
    Mar 7, 2013
    0
    The game itself is fun, but I can't give this anything else than a 0 just because it's basically unplayable for longer periods than a few minutes at a time. Stupid DRM destroys everything for all the honest paying customers who have longed for this game for ages.

    My origin account says I've played SimCity for 14 hours, but I'm certain I haven't been building cities for more than 30    The game itself is fun, but I can't give this anything else than a 0 just because it's basically unplayable for longer periods than a few minutes at a time. Stupid DRM destroys everything for all the honest paying customers who have longed for this game for ages.

    My origin account says I've played SimCity for 14 hours, but I'm certain I haven't been building cities for more than 30 minutes, tops. That kinda sums it all up.    … Expand
  5. Phakt
    Mar 7, 2013
    0
    Metacritic, how much did EA pay you to write this tripe? Even when the game works it is a baby's toy. It's great for a preschooler. Also, you have to be online to play single player? That is sickening. Sorry, not only did EA lose a customer, you lost a site visitor.
  6. ramonfelipe
    Mar 7, 2013
    0
    Always on DRM is retarded, and can turn a great game into complete crap. Hopefully they are still in time to reconsider this strategy and apply a patch to allow offline play.
  7. Cannily
    Mar 2, 2014
    1
    SimCity is a great idea with a bad engine.
    Maxis is an innovative developer with an evil publisher.
    So what does this mean? The engine is rubbish because it can't simulate a city. Each citizen lives in the nearest free home in relation to his position at the moment he wants to go home. Thus each citizen lives each day in a different home and because every citizen does this, there is    SimCity is a great idea with a bad engine.
    Maxis is an innovative developer with an evil publisher.

    So what does this mean?
    The engine is rubbish because it can't simulate a city.
    Each citizen lives in the nearest free home in relation to his position at the moment he wants to go home.
    Thus each citizen lives each day in a different home and because every citizen does this, there is always a huge traffic jam, because every citizen goes to the same home, than to the next and so on.
    This is also true for work, shopping etc.
    In conclusion the roads ware always full and a city with more than 10.000 people (which aren't exactly 10.000 units, more 100 or so) will not work, the jams will hold your trucks which are needed for your production line. Of course, fire trucks and the other public service cars will stuck in traffic too. They don't get an extra lane, the even have to wait if the lights are red and no car will make room for them. Thus your city will burn down. Because of the engine, every truck will drive to the next fire, not to a fire with no truck already moving in.

    But never the less this game is fun to play, until you notice, that you can't optimize the roads and your public service because of the broken engine.

    So if this was it, I would give this game a 4 or 5 out of 10, because it will take you a while to notice.

    But EA lied about this game and is still lying because the are selling it as a simulation of a city. But this game does not simulate anything.
    The even bring out DLCs and AddOn which make the problems worse or are simply overprices and/or bring ingame advertising with them instead of fixing the engine (maybe it's not possible).
    The maps are ridicule small sized and the DRM is a pain, because the benefits (trade with neighbor cities) are not working proper.

    So I give this game a 1, it is more a 0 but if you naively think that your city planing is the issue, like me, it is fun to play a while until you notice the limits of this fake simulation engine ;)    … Expand
  8. jimbob2100
    Mar 8, 2013
    3
    Couldn't play at midnight as the servers went down, then I had to wait over 20 mins today to get on. Played for 2 hours, then server crashes and I get kicked out of the game. Actual game is brilliant which is why I'm not giving it a 0 (although the city size limit is ridiculous). I just don't understand why a SINGLE PLAYER game has this NEED to be online. I get they are trying to forceCouldn't play at midnight as the servers went down, then I had to wait over 20 mins today to get on. Played for 2 hours, then server crashes and I get kicked out of the game. Actual game is brilliant which is why I'm not giving it a 0 (although the city size limit is ridiculous). I just don't understand why a SINGLE PLAYER game has this NEED to be online. I get they are trying to force this multiplayer way of thinking into the game. And I actually think that its a good idea and it opens possibilities to expand the game further from a gameplay perspective. But they should have at least given the option to turn it off. I don't know how it works exactly but maybe they could've had like an authentication process that requires a internet connection and after that it doesn't matter, you can play an offline single player mode with an option to turn on your multiplayer when you feel like it. The always on DRM is retarded and will always be retarded. Until game publishers realise this then consumers are gonna get screwed over time and time again… Expand
  9. BrainBreak
    Mar 8, 2013
    0
    It's like paying for a lap dance and after 3 days, you still don't get a friggin' lap dance. Not even a comped drink. Just more lies about how they are appreciate you as a customer and that they are working on getting the dancers on the dance floor. Hey, EA, I played for a lap dance. On second thought, just give me my money back.

    The game doesn't work and EA refuses to response or give    It's like paying for a lap dance and after 3 days, you still don't get a friggin' lap dance. Not even a comped drink. Just more lies about how they are appreciate you as a customer and that they are working on getting the dancers on the dance floor. Hey, EA, I played for a lap dance. On second thought, just give me my money back.

    The game doesn't work and EA refuses to response or give refunds. Call your credit card carrier, and dispute the charge with reason "DEFECTIVE PRODUCT, MANFACTERED REFUSING RETURN".    … Expand
  10. AN1NSAN1TYH0UR
    Mar 8, 2013
    0
    Do NOT waste your money on this broken game. EA's "Always On DRM" has ruined what could have been a great game. Long (and sometimes eternal) server wait times and a broken save system have rendered SimCity unplayable. This is also not a "true" city building game, for you can only build a portion of a city (120x120 square). The true tragedy is it did not have to be like this, for if you areDo NOT waste your money on this broken game. EA's "Always On DRM" has ruined what could have been a great game. Long (and sometimes eternal) server wait times and a broken save system have rendered SimCity unplayable. This is also not a "true" city building game, for you can only build a portion of a city (120x120 square). The true tragedy is it did not have to be like this, for if you are granted the ability to play on EA's servers long enough you will find that there is a fun game underneath all of EA's imposed restrictions. Ultimately, EA has killed yet another one of my favorite series.… Expand
  11. rhiwn
    Mar 8, 2013
    1
    I've been playing games for 20 years. This is the most expensive game I've ever bought. And the worst experience ever. Have sat and waited for hours to play. What a load of rubbish
  12. JJRambo
    Mar 8, 2013
    0
    Always online DRM means all types of problems, and SC improves on them in the worst way possible with lots of bugs. It also means less play, server's issues are beyond ridiculous. But also cities wayyyyy to smal, it's frustrating the neighbor colaboration. Broken game.
  13. Shallowheart
    Mar 8, 2013
    0
    I can not see any other way to rate this game than 0. I bought the game for almost 60€ from Origin and can not even play it. All the European servers are in full capacity so i can not join those, i can join to American ones, but it disconnects all the time so i can not really play. One time i could get into the tutorial part but i could not click anywhere, i had to exit. Hoping to playI can not see any other way to rate this game than 0. I bought the game for almost 60€ from Origin and can not even play it. All the European servers are in full capacity so i can not join those, i can join to American ones, but it disconnects all the time so i can not really play. One time i could get into the tutorial part but i could not click anywhere, i had to exit. Hoping to play this game someday.… Expand
  14. VilePirate
    Mar 8, 2013
    0
    So disappointed, but hey it's EA. At the end of the day it's not about the game or experience, but it's about the Benjamin's. The fact that day one DLC and DRM to prevent piracy only proves this point. Hit EA where it hurts and do not buy this game.
  15. ultra-kitten
    Mar 8, 2013
    0
    With the always-online-DRM you are at the mercy of EA at all times, given you do have a internet connection. You don't own the game, you rent it on the conditions set by EA. If they pull the plug on the servers, you are no longer able to play the game you bought. The very first Sim City released in 1989 still works today. I have major doubts the 2013 release of Sim City will work in 5With the always-online-DRM you are at the mercy of EA at all times, given you do have a internet connection. You don't own the game, you rent it on the conditions set by EA. If they pull the plug on the servers, you are no longer able to play the game you bought. The very first Sim City released in 1989 still works today. I have major doubts the 2013 release of Sim City will work in 5 years time, considering server shut-downs by EA for games using similar DRM technology.… Expand
  16. OrzoKnight
    Mar 8, 2013
    2
    My number one complaint is that you have to be online to play this game, even if you're playing by yourself. Number two complaint is the city size. They're downright tiny. I would like to be able to build much bigger cities. Lastly, it's a very frustrating process to even try to play, mainly because servers are always busy. It's taken me up to 30 minutes to be able to connect. I know thisMy number one complaint is that you have to be online to play this game, even if you're playing by yourself. Number two complaint is the city size. They're downright tiny. I would like to be able to build much bigger cities. Lastly, it's a very frustrating process to even try to play, mainly because servers are always busy. It's taken me up to 30 minutes to be able to connect. I know this is a launch issue which will get solved eventually, but people who payed $60 to be the first to play this highly-anticipated game probably are feeling cheated.… Expand
  17. Nicke
    Mar 8, 2013
    0
    First it took me seven hours to download because of my slow internet connection, and once installed I find out that it has selected my native language for the game, which can not be changed from within the game. I like to use English instead of my native language, but in order to change the language I have to remove the game from my computer, change language settings in Origin and thenFirst it took me seven hours to download because of my slow internet connection, and once installed I find out that it has selected my native language for the game, which can not be changed from within the game. I like to use English instead of my native language, but in order to change the language I have to remove the game from my computer, change language settings in Origin and then download and re-install the game again... wasting another seven hours.

    Once the game is installed I can't actually play because there are no servers available, and since it only plays online I have to wait in queue for a server slot for about 20 minutes... while in queue I can't check for other available servers, or the waiting time will be reset to 20 minutes. Well, I finally managed to get into a server and from then I thought I'd be able to play the game within a few minutes, but with the server connection working randomly from one minute to the next, I never managed to get into the city builder... I tried to start the game for 2½ hours before running out of patience; I've now removed the game from my computer, and regret ever paying any money for it. What a catastrophic release!    … Expand
  18. ryan1923
    Mar 8, 2013
    0
    the only thing going for the game is the graphics. everything else is broken. i wouldnt pay $20 for this game, let alone $60. please listen to me dont spend any money on this game. go get sim city 2000 and enjoy sim city, the way it's meant to be. not with DRM that is required. if EA makes it optional, or better yet removes it entirely, and gives us single player, then i might change mythe only thing going for the game is the graphics. everything else is broken. i wouldnt pay $20 for this game, let alone $60. please listen to me dont spend any money on this game. go get sim city 2000 and enjoy sim city, the way it's meant to be. not with DRM that is required. if EA makes it optional, or better yet removes it entirely, and gives us single player, then i might change my mind, but if that doesnt happen, this garbage game is going in the trash.… Expand
  19. shall0917
    Mar 8, 2013
    0
    What a joke. SimTown is a completely broken game. If you enjoy error messages, not being able to save, or flushing money down the toilet, then go buy it. If you're the type of person who wants to use something they buy, you might wanna steer clear of this train wreck. This is the first time I've ever rooted for the pirates to win. Always on DRM is a joke, EA Origin is a joke, and theWhat a joke. SimTown is a completely broken game. If you enjoy error messages, not being able to save, or flushing money down the toilet, then go buy it. If you're the type of person who wants to use something they buy, you might wanna steer clear of this train wreck. This is the first time I've ever rooted for the pirates to win. Always on DRM is a joke, EA Origin is a joke, and the biggest joke is on me, since I bought it.… Expand
  20. dme1970
    Mar 8, 2013
    1
    Great game when you can play. I had no problems on launch day other than a random restart. Since then I cant play mostly because the servers keep crashing. Even better yet if I find a server that is working, then I get to go through tutorial again. You would think there would be file that would tell the server you have already done the tutorial, or even better yet a skip option.
  21. giraffe
    Mar 8, 2013
    0
    Sorry, but if you actually still give money to EA at this point you deserve everything you get.

    They see theirs customers as enemies and don't care about quality of games. They're agenda-driven, corrupt and totally unethical.

    Never buy a game published by EA.
  22. Nanoflex
    Mar 8, 2013
    0
    Great game but it does not deserve a single point if you are going to shove always on drm down my throat have the decency to DO IT RIGHT. Instead during simcity launch I will be playing Civilization wait doesn't that have online play as well OH WAIT, IT DOES. Enough Said
  23. ryanweb
    Mar 8, 2013
    1
    I can no longer contain my frustration. Between the game's limited features vs previous titles and the nagging, persistent server issues causing both 1) inability to play the game and 2) severe data loss, this game has officially crossed the threshold into awful. They've had over three days to fix these problems and I know that FedEx and UPS can deliver some servers within that time frame.I can no longer contain my frustration. Between the game's limited features vs previous titles and the nagging, persistent server issues causing both 1) inability to play the game and 2) severe data loss, this game has officially crossed the threshold into awful. They've had over three days to fix these problems and I know that FedEx and UPS can deliver some servers within that time frame. Give me a break.… Expand
  24. clikzip
    Mar 8, 2013
    0
    The 30 minutes ive got to play this game were fun. Other than that ive spent over 12 hours trying to play it. The always online DRM put in place to prevent the 5% bad eggs has spoiled it for the rest of us. I want my $60 back...
  25. Mujaidin
    Mar 19, 2013
    1
    I have a feeling that the residents in the city will increase beyond the things we do as mayor. I think the game mechanics are too simple and trivial!
  26. sl5581
    Mar 24, 2013
    0
    promised online features don't work until now (no rankings, region play full of errors)
    - tiny map sizes
    - dumped down difficulty (only problem is the fight against bugs) - no logic simulation recognizable (traffic ui terrible, sim behavior terrible, satisfaction system terrible) - less complexity than in sim city 4 (no water, electricity lines, no orders) - much less buildings     promised online features don't work until now (no rankings, region play full of errors)
    - tiny map sizes
    - dumped down difficulty (only problem is the fight against bugs)
    - no logic simulation recognizable (traffic ui terrible, sim behavior terrible, satisfaction system terrible)
    - less complexity than in sim city 4 (no water, electricity lines, no orders)
    - much less buildings diversity (no highways, trails, monorail, fusion power, toll system, one way street, metro, military base)
    - few statistics

    everything i liked in sc 2000/3000/4 has been canceled/dumped down DONT BUY    … Expand
  27. Ripoz4200
    Mar 23, 2013
    0
    Please let this be a lesson to single player game devs. The marketplace does not want DRM. Please do not support Game Companies that are forcing us to have access to the internet to play a game. I love my ISP but I dont want to have to be connected to play a game I paid $60 for. EA sucks and so does DRM... Avoid both...
  28. luquinhass12
    Mar 24, 2013
    0
    The size of the city is awful! It destroyed the entire game, not sure what was going on in the minds of developers to make that decision. Crazy? Who knows!!
  29. Limonka
    Mar 24, 2013
    0
    Too bad they sold (and released) an alpha with a broken DRM system.

    Even if you ignore the overly stupid, useless and idiotic DRM, the game doesn't stand on its own: they haven't made a proper AI for each element of the game, many parts of the game logic/mechanisms aren't even fully implemented and finished. That product needed 6 to 12 more months (at least) to be finished, but    Too bad they sold (and released) an alpha with a broken DRM system.

    Even if you ignore the overly stupid, useless and idiotic DRM, the game doesn't stand on its own: they haven't made a proper AI for each element of the game, many parts of the game logic/mechanisms aren't even fully implemented and finished.

    That product needed 6 to 12 more months (at least) to be finished, but apparently EA just doesn't care.    … Expand
  30. MtaWrldPc
    Mar 24, 2013
    3
    I have enjoyed several of the previous SimCity games (original SimCity, 2K& 3K). I downloaded the game this weekend, hoping the server startup issues had passed. I spent 24 hours with it this weekend, so I have a pretty good feel for it. I will list the major problems I feel are still there at this time.

    (1) The first thing that hit me was the horrible user interface to select a    I have enjoyed several of the previous SimCity games (original SimCity, 2K& 3K). I downloaded the game this weekend, hoping the server startup issues had passed. I spent 24 hours with it this weekend, so I have a pretty good feel for it. I will list the major problems I feel are still there at this time.

    (1) The first thing that hit me was the horrible user interface to select a server. Selecting a server (East 1, etc., is not based on any actual information). Once in the game menu, it is very difficult to find a game. (2) The second and most major issue I have is that I couldn't get a multiplayer game to work. I am not sure if they disconnected the multiplayer functionality, but I was not able to find any active games to join, despite trying for quite a while. (Sorry, I don't have friends who were up for a weekend of SimCity, and I certainly wouldn't recommend that anyone else purchase the game.) (3) So, I just played solo and built multiple cities, switching back and forth which is my next issue with the game, also not a significant. The regional interactions are not very smooth, which I would say is my next issue with the game. This is necessary b/c the maps are to small to have a complete city in one. I think having smaller, specialized cities could be fun, (e.g. one city has as powerplant, the next city has sewer/water, mining, oil, etc.) except the interactions are messy and quite frankly don't seem to work. i.e. I have one city with ample sewage treatement for 4 cities and it doesn't work for the neighboring 2 cities. I was unclear if any of the statistics or trade options are accurate or beneficial. (4) A MAJOR problem: the in-game crashes. In 24 hrs of play I had about a 15 lock ups, error messages, and even a couple "blue screens." Most of these issues resulted in loss of my progress. I have a pretty nice desktop, and I have not had issues with any other games.

    (5) There are a lot of little bugs and annoyences within the game. It is hard to figure out how to plot things out, as just a fraction of a box can cause you to redo expensive building. The budget doesn't account for the trade income, for some reason, making it very unpredictable to budget. Some of the improvements that are costly (e.g. trade buildings) seem to not help at all.

    I would say the graphics are the best of any SimCity game and are pretty impressive. If nothing else, the engine has promise to create a good game in the future. None of the previous SimCities were perfect, but this one has way too many bugs. YOU MAY HEAR PEOPLE SUGGESTING THE PROBLEMES WILL BE PATCHED, BUT I DOUBT IT. If there was a good solution for the server issues I think they would have found it by now. As far as the user interface and in-game issues, it seems like most of the issues would take tons of man hours troubleshooting and rewriting the code. I would not recommend buying it unless you really want to see for yourself. I would at least wait until the price drops to less than $30.    … Expand
  31. Master_V
    Mar 30, 2013
    1
    EA broke SimCity.
    EA requires you to be online to play this game. Not that it is needed by the game itself, hackers have shown that to be unneccessary; The game can be hacked to work locally. Of course this DRM breaks the game in many senses. To ease the load off the servers they have restricted the speeds you can set for your cities. They have restricted map sizes to tiny areas and in    EA broke SimCity.
    EA requires you to be online to play this game. Not that it is needed by the game itself, hackers have shown that to be unneccessary; The game can be hacked to work locally. Of course this DRM breaks the game in many senses. To ease the load off the servers they have restricted the speeds you can set for your cities. They have restricted map sizes to tiny areas and in addition the servers are quite unstable, so you'll be kicked out from time to time. Randomly.

    Sadly, it's not only the demand for internet connectivity. The game itself has problems. You can experience that your ambulances drive in circles instead of ever getting to patients or the hospital, whichever is the case. All of your fire trucks may respond to the same fire at the same time, even if there are multiple fires. Police cars respond poorly too. And all of them stop on red lights.
    Furthermore the economics must have been made by a republican and a tea party member with a libertarian boss who all decided that hey, expensive public services are cool, but no-one should pay a dime for it. By which I mean the tax system is nonsensical. The taxation is normally flat, unless you build a special attachment to your city hall, but raise taxes above 9 or 10% and the people go bananas. The price of public services you MUST have though is so high you can't easily manage to provide the services the public demands.
    Mind you these are just a few of many issues. I cannot possibly cover them all in this review. Therefore, in conclusion:

    Avoid this game. It is not worth it. I know the graphics are worse in SimCity 2000, but despite being made in the mid nineties it is a much much better game.    … Expand
  32. EA_Sucks
    Apr 3, 2013
    2
    "DO NOT BUY THIS GAME." That's what I told everyone who would listen a couple of weeks ago. I have now cooled down, and will now say this: This game is worth 10£. Not more. One user here said it was a 80£ Facebook game, which is pretty much the most accurate description of the latest Sim City I have seen.

    I am not an EA hater (please disregard my nickname). I don't even mind Origin, or    "DO NOT BUY THIS GAME." That's what I told everyone who would listen a couple of weeks ago. I have now cooled down, and will now say this: This game is worth 10£. Not more. One user here said it was a 80£ Facebook game, which is pretty much the most accurate description of the latest Sim City I have seen.

    I am not an EA hater (please disregard my nickname). I don't even mind Origin, or the insanely annoying always-on DRM system. Hell, I can even accept overpriced digital downloads if they're for a decent game such as Mass Effect or Star Wars: The Old Republic. I'm a grown man, I can afford a fiver here and a fiver there. The number one problem with this game is that is completely, utterly dull. Replayability: Zero. I had been looking forward to this game since it was announced, but started to worry when I was bored in the beta even before the mind numbingly stupid one-hour time limit was up.

    When the game was released, my worst fears came true. Nevermind the fact that I couldn't play for two days because EA didn't want to spend money on server capacity. Maxis, hopefully bullied around by the suits in EA, had utterly ruined one of my favorite franchise. The list of reasons why this game completely fails to live up to its predecessor is long. Very long. Here are a few game-breakers.

    - City size. You -will- use all the available land within an hour or three. After that, it's all about understanding how the game's traffic system works. Or doesn't, depending on how you see it.

    - Traffic. As mentioned, it is horrible. The agent system in Sandbox (Sim City's engine) simply does not work for traffic. Emergency vehicles get stuck in traffic, city services (garbage trucks, school buses etc.). Google "Sim City traffic" and you will see just how realistic looking cities that "work" in this game are.

    - AI is non existent. The PR people at EA bragged much about how each sim would have his or her own job, personality, home etc. That was a lie. Every morning, every sim goes out looking for a job, stopping at the first available job for his or her education level. It is impossible to feel attached to your citizens, because the only thing their zombielike behaviour does is messing up traffic even more.

    - Multiplayer is worthless, there is very little (if any) cooperation and interaction between cities in a region.

    - No terraforming. Your territory acts like a plot from one of the Sims games. Just more static.

    - It is impossible to build a realistic city. All the reasons above contribute to that fact, and if you ever hoped you could simulate your home town like you did in Sim City 4 or one of the earlier games, forget it. This game won't do it.

    - City specialization is far from deep enough, and stops being interesting after a few hours.

    I'm going to be generous and give this game a score of 2. I might have given it 3 points if it didn't break such an amazing franchise. The dumbed down graphics look nice, in a model landscape sort of way, which was supposedly what the devs were going for, and the game will keep you entertained for a few hours. Oh, and there's a color blind mode.

    If you see this game on a 10£ sale I have no doubt that we will see very soon) go for it, but don't believe for a second that the critic reviews aren't biased. This is a terrible, terrible game.

    Buy any of the Tropico games, Cities XL, Cities in Motion or any of the other city sims out there. They are much better. Sim City 4 is still the king.    … Expand
  33. DGR52
    Apr 3, 2013
    0
    Want to thank all you guys for the sharp reviews, It truly saddens me that so much potential has been wasted by EA games with the SimCity franchise. While I'm still a fan of this company for the Sims 2 and Sims 3 games, I always had a special place in my heart for Sim City. Anyway, because I fortunately didn't have time to open Sim City 5 (plus a $14 gameplay book) I bought a fewWant to thank all you guys for the sharp reviews, It truly saddens me that so much potential has been wasted by EA games with the SimCity franchise. While I'm still a fan of this company for the Sims 2 and Sims 3 games, I always had a special place in my heart for Sim City. Anyway, because I fortunately didn't have time to open Sim City 5 (plus a $14 gameplay book) I bought a few weeks ago, I was able to return them to Target this morning. Some of the $70 I just saved will be going to Sim Pegasus and Sim Devotion for all the great downloads they've provided Sim City players all these years. (Already gave to Simtropolis!)… Expand
  34. holton0289
    Apr 3, 2013
    0
    Been a simcity fan since back when it was on super nintendo, over 2 decades. All creativity is gone with this version. No uniqueness is allowed. Small city sizes. No mods like simcity 4. Oh and the always online drm just doesnt work. regret buying this game. Why would i play a sity simulator with other people? I dont need anyone else messing up my region. Server problems, lostBeen a simcity fan since back when it was on super nintendo, over 2 decades. All creativity is gone with this version. No uniqueness is allowed. Small city sizes. No mods like simcity 4. Oh and the always online drm just doesnt work. regret buying this game. Why would i play a sity simulator with other people? I dont need anyone else messing up my region. Server problems, lost cities. Cities bound to the server it was created on. Dont buy this game… Expand
  35. MasterRanger
    Apr 4, 2013
    0
    Launchtime was, of course, a nightmare for anyone who wanted to actually play. By the time it became available, I had quit caring. Too bad really, the beta was ok. However: the map sizes were too small, the documentation for more advanced things and concepts was non-existent. All in all, what should have been a very detailed, powerhouse of an updated retro-game has become aLaunchtime was, of course, a nightmare for anyone who wanted to actually play. By the time it became available, I had quit caring. Too bad really, the beta was ok. However: the map sizes were too small, the documentation for more advanced things and concepts was non-existent. All in all, what should have been a very detailed, powerhouse of an updated retro-game has become a demonstration in how frustrated you as a gamer can become..… Expand
  36. CritiqueFreak
    Apr 6, 2013
    3
    I'm not even going to say anything about the servers, because everyone already knows about those pieces of crap. The gameplay was fun for a while, but the game does seem to get boring after a while. You try to build a new city, but you end up with an extremely high deficit. The game is full of bugs. The people of your city ask for something, you plop it down, and they still ask for it.I'm not even going to say anything about the servers, because everyone already knows about those pieces of crap. The gameplay was fun for a while, but the game does seem to get boring after a while. You try to build a new city, but you end up with an extremely high deficit. The game is full of bugs. The people of your city ask for something, you plop it down, and they still ask for it. When on sandbox mode and you disable things like fires, crime, sewage, etc. some if it doesn't go away. And even if it does, when you restart the game, SOME of your restrictions you toggled are gone. For instance, say you toggled everything off, you quit the game, and the next day you came back on. Some things will stay toggled off and others would be on. Very very frustrating. There are many other bugs, but I don't want to spend this whole thing talking about them. I am rating this a 3 because the gameplay IS fun for a bit, but it does get boring, there are many glitches, and the servers, of course.… Expand
  37. blogfirstlast
    May 11, 2013
    3
    I wondered I wondered why all of you hated this game! This was until it crashed every time I did anything. Since I have a great computer I looked up this just to see that more than 600 people have complained about this on various websites. Now I can't play it and I wasted 60 dollars. Other than that this game is decent.
  38. comensee
    Apr 10, 2013
    2
    I've been a Sim Cities fan ever since I picked up Sim City 3000 when I was a kid. I bought this game a week after it was officially released and so far I've been disappointed. The first serious problem you come across once you launch the game is trying to find a map that has open slots. Not only is there no way to filter the maps with ones that have spots open, but they're listed from theI've been a Sim Cities fan ever since I picked up Sim City 3000 when I was a kid. I bought this game a week after it was officially released and so far I've been disappointed. The first serious problem you come across once you launch the game is trying to find a map that has open slots. Not only is there no way to filter the maps with ones that have spots open, but they're listed from the oldest to newest! I had to click through through pages and pages of servers and I spent almost 20 minutes trying to find a map with open slots!

    Now, once you get to building your city things start to get interesting. The graphics are very good, but the tutorial is very limited on teaching you the major dynamics of the game such as zone densities, freight, etc. It plays out just like every other Sim City game, but it's remarkably much easier than Sim City 3000 & 4000 to stay in a positive budget. Building your city is very fun and challenging if you have to build around terrain or natural resources, but you very quickly come to realize just how small the maps are.

    The maps are about half the size of what I remember from any Sim City game and it literally doesn't take that much time before you're trying to squeeze out every inch of space in your city. Eventually you do hit the point where you have no more space. Also, the game's density system is overly complex and you will eventually hit a bottleneck where your city can't get any bigger.

    Literally I would say 5-6 hours into my city I would run out of space, couldn't increase my population any further, and I was making so much money that my city had millions in the bank. Also, the game's AI is very bad with it comes to trash collection, buses, and just about everything else.

    TLDR; too easy, gets boring fast, crappy map browser, great graphics, crappy AI, and SMALL MAPS!!!    … Expand
  39. philoscience
    Apr 23, 2013
    0
    Horrible game, even if you exclude all the ridiculous bugs and DRM-related flaws, the underlying game is itself deeply flawed. Shallow simulation, no clear relation between the needs of your city and the actions you should take to fix them, horribly crippled simulation where look was obviously placed far ahead of depth. Add in the shady as business practices of EA and Maxis, the laughableHorrible game, even if you exclude all the ridiculous bugs and DRM-related flaws, the underlying game is itself deeply flawed. Shallow simulation, no clear relation between the needs of your city and the actions you should take to fix them, horribly crippled simulation where look was obviously placed far ahead of depth. Add in the shady as business practices of EA and Maxis, the laughable patches which make the issues WORSE not better, and the colgate DLC campaign and you've got yourself the most laughable game of the year.… Expand
  40. Klyne
    Apr 25, 2013
    0
    Couldn't play the game for several weeks after launch. The Simulation is extremely simplistic. Bug-laden and apparently just a tool for marketing. Would not recommend you ever touch this.
  41. ground4hog
    Apr 26, 2013
    1
    I love strategy games. I love builder games.
    This is the worst implementation of either that I have ever played. It is the worst PC purchase I have ever made. Even if you get passed the online-only, "you cant save your own game" DRM issues, the game mechanics are a complete failure. The 2 kilometer (2k x 2k) map size restriction is unbelievably restrictive even insulting, there is NO    I love strategy games. I love builder games.
    This is the worst implementation of either that I have ever played. It is the worst PC purchase I have ever made. Even if you get passed the online-only, "you cant save your own game" DRM issues, the game mechanics are a complete failure. The 2 kilometer (2k x 2k) map size restriction is unbelievably restrictive even insulting, there is NO relationship between residential/commercial/industrial (no, really none), and the function of the sims/agents/components is so bugged as if to suggest they placed no real effort into planning or executing the code.

    It looks nice. But the game is awful.    … Expand
  42. Kruos_95
    Apr 26, 2013
    1
    Huge disappointment.

    This 'reboot' is a big cut in the licence, the glass engine is joke, this game has no depht. It is just another DLC machine for EA. EA kills another ancestral licence.

    Shame on you EA.
  43. Ghostmarauder
    May 8, 2013
    0
    most successful scam in gaming history. there is not a single redeeming quality to this piece of trash. it is an insult to the franchise for which it is named. the ea team has consistently and unfailingly lied to the playerbase time and time again. do not buy this game.
  44. Malorey
    Jun 9, 2013
    1
    Months after this game was released and it is still full of bugs and the only way you can get any enjoyment out of the game is by exploiting and manipulating the bugs in your favour. In the meantime Maxis/EA continue to release DLC for their broken game. A total travesty!
  45. hemmo1986
    Sep 9, 2014
    5
    Simcity holds a special place in my heart. Being able to create your own living and breathing city is always addictive and great fun, and it's no different for this entry to the series.

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

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

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

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

    What could have been an amazing game is unfortunately ruined by a few bad design choices.    … Expand
  46. Gameplayer7
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    It's now september 2013, and server issues are still persisting. EA seems to not be making any effort at all at doing something about the most common problems plagueing this game.

    I wonder why I ever bothered paying for this game, knowing it had new EA DRM... This new DRM delivers absolutely nothing for the player, cities are so small they could be simulated on your 4-year old phone.    It's now september 2013, and server issues are still persisting. EA seems to not be making any effort at all at doing something about the most common problems plagueing this game.

    I wonder why I ever bothered paying for this game, knowing it had new EA DRM... This new DRM delivers absolutely nothing for the player, cities are so small they could be simulated on your 4-year old phone. I'm extremely upset about their shoddy attempt to sell an 'always-online' experience.

    Past few days:
    - Frequent disconnects
    - Two cities inaccessible
    - One city disconnected, and when I got back most of the work was gone    … Expand
  47. Hugotrd
    Sep 11, 2013
    0
    If Electronic Arts is going to make a game with the basic premise being that no city is an island, if they're going to stress the interaction among cities, if they're going to make playing alongside other people a cornerstone of the design, if they're going to force my creations into tiny boxes that cannot exist past a certain point without the help of other tiny boxes, they're going toIf Electronic Arts is going to make a game with the basic premise being that no city is an island, if they're going to stress the interaction among cities, if they're going to make playing alongside other people a cornerstone of the design, if they're going to force my creations into tiny boxes that cannot exist past a certain point without the help of other tiny boxes, they're going to have to do the hard work of making it actually work. And ideally, that hard work should be done before they sell people the game, not after they've been caught flat-footed for botching it so completely. Best Description ever of this game.. Also this game sucks.. waited so much for it, then this comes out.. 0/10… Expand
  48. georgoi123
    Feb 26, 2014
    0
    EA knew the game would not work at launch.

    Background: 1. EA was aware of the number of games sold by preorder and presumptively capable of being able to calculate sales at launch. This is one of the primary functions of their marketing department. 2. EA did not adjust download capacity at launch to meet these requirements. 3. EA did not adjust server capacity to meet the on-line    EA knew the game would not work at launch.

    Background:

    1. EA was aware of the number of games sold by preorder and presumptively capable of being able to calculate sales at launch. This is one of the primary functions of their marketing department.
    2. EA did not adjust download capacity at launch to meet these requirements.
    3. EA did not adjust server capacity to meet the on-line play requirements at launch or subsequent to launch.

    Conclusion:

    1. EA deliberately launched a game which they knew they could not fully (or even in part, apparently) support.
    2. EA deliberately sold a game which they knew its customers would not be able to play in full or in part for some period of time, to be determined, after launch.
    3. As many have pointed out in the past, this is effectively fraud. Deliberately selling a product that does not work is unacceptable in almost any industry, and should be considered criminal.
    4. These actions show once again that EA treats its customers with complete contempt. It has been rated as the worst company in America in 2012 for good reason.

    Solution:

    1. Do not buy this or any other games from this EA.
    2. Do not buy this or any other game requiring on-line play for single player games.

    This is the only way they will pay attention. As long as we continue to give them money, they will continue to perpetrate this fraud. Hit them in the wallet and they will wake up in a hurry. Do it now, before these greedy companies ruin what is left of the gaming industry.    … Expand
  49. Troublewalking
    Feb 21, 2014
    5
    I rate this game a 5. As it is a SimCity game and it featured most of the things you would of expected from a SimCity game. It even had some nice features like you could play online with others. It had a nice feature where you could play multiple cities in a region at the same time. Specializing each city. Therefore one could be the commercial area. Another the residential. Another theI rate this game a 5. As it is a SimCity game and it featured most of the things you would of expected from a SimCity game. It even had some nice features like you could play online with others. It had a nice feature where you could play multiple cities in a region at the same time. Specializing each city. Therefore one could be the commercial area. Another the residential. Another the industrial. So in theory and what you got when you bought it, it was probably a 10.

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

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

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

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

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

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

    In the end the game launched so badly that EA had Origin give players a free game. Which is okay, if you actually enjoy having to log into someone else's server just to play a game. But it's quite annoying when it destroys a classic franchise. And a game that should be able to be enjoyed offline.    … Expand
  50. Elscorpeo
    Feb 28, 2014
    6
    I found the game to be somewhat fun and irritating it seems to me that EA failed to to give and deliver there promise to make the game fun instead the game is just sad yet amusing now that simcity has "multiplayer" make's it worse and that online DRM isn't helping ether and there isn't even a single player or an offline mode. simcity 5 i should say this game make's all the other simcityI found the game to be somewhat fun and irritating it seems to me that EA failed to to give and deliver there promise to make the game fun instead the game is just sad yet amusing now that simcity has "multiplayer" make's it worse and that online DRM isn't helping ether and there isn't even a single player or an offline mode. simcity 5 i should say this game make's all the other simcity game's look like gold. i feel sad for Maxis for partnering up with EA and destroying one of my favorite game's.… Expand
  51. Bob_Log
    Mar 2, 2014
    0
    I am a long time fan of the "Sim" series (Simcity **, SimCopter, etc..) hell I even pre-ordered the first Sims game on release (although I traded it for Quake 3 shortly thereafter). When I saw this Sim City come around, I had all the hopes that this game would be more SimCity and less; The Sims play: Sim City. Unfortunately, the game is like "The Sims play Sim City with horrible gameI am a long time fan of the "Sim" series (Simcity **, SimCopter, etc..) hell I even pre-ordered the first Sims game on release (although I traded it for Quake 3 shortly thereafter). When I saw this Sim City come around, I had all the hopes that this game would be more SimCity and less; The Sims play: Sim City. Unfortunately, the game is like "The Sims play Sim City with horrible game breaking social media functionality that you don't want".

    I mean this in the sense that all atmosphere that you would find in an original SimCity title is lost, do not come here looking for experiences paralleling the games of the past.

    Unfortunately though, the game has little in the way of redeeming qualities outside the beautiful visuals and music. It's simply equivalent to a Farmville-like game app or Facebook minigame, it is not even close to a stand alone title.

    Never mind the fact that simple things that should be included in the core game are pay-to-play DLC's. This game will forever be a milestone and example of all that is wrong in the gaming industry today. Nevermind all the ridiculous Origin/Online only play, bugs, limited city size (smaller than any previous game and more like Sim Town) and the Agent system that they tout as a boon to this genre of gaming, which simply restricts everything you'd like to do in the name of "actual people" running around as individual agents.    … Expand
  52. munjeni
    Apr 17, 2014
    2
    1.EA..that greeeedddyyyy bastards..that's all i will say about that
    2.Graphic : Graphic is beautiful..for sim city and CoT , from 1-10..pure 9
    3.Servers : i mean..realy ??? realy ??? 3-5 or more hrs of work and then "unable to load city..try later" or similar..if..but that's BIG IF you load your city after crash you are damnnnnn lucky - from 5 cities,at least 2 times on each has crashed    1.EA..that greeeedddyyyy bastards..that's all i will say about that
    2.Graphic : Graphic is beautiful..for sim city and CoT , from 1-10..pure 9
    3.Servers : i mean..realy ??? realy ??? 3-5 or more hrs of work and then "unable to load city..try later" or similar..if..but that's BIG IF you load your city after crash you are damnnnnn lucky
    - from 5 cities,at least 2 times on each has crashed and i was able to load..gues how many ?? 1.. ONE.. (later when crash this one goes to hell to..what a surprise.. -.-)
    4.Borders : you (if you lucky (online)) will play about 3-5 hrs if you screw with the game..if not,you wil play 2 hrs at most,for ofline ..same..per one city
    5.Graphic design of menu : easy to navigate and clearly
    6.Bugs : I will not even start with this..damnnnn
    7.Would i recomend this game : Helllll NOOOOOOOOO..play 3 or 4---->3 are my favorite,4 is nice for verryyy big city..
    8.If you have nerves for to damn bugy game and you want to play realy let say smal part of city (town)..buy..otherwise..don't even bother with this piece of crap
    One more thing : EA - thank you for ruin my favorite game and take my money for **** -.-    … Expand
  53. TheKingJpiter
    May 27, 2014
    1
    EA made a crapy game full of crap it has a small city sise game breaking bugs and it's boring an creativity in your city is small and the forced mult- player aspect is bad why do you need internet all the time with internet but luckly single player was added and cities of tommrow dlc was added and why sim city is 60.00 dollars plus tax and if you buy the dlc pack you also have pay 30.00EA made a crapy game full of crap it has a small city sise game breaking bugs and it's boring an creativity in your city is small and the forced mult- player aspect is bad why do you need internet all the time with internet but luckly single player was added and cities of tommrow dlc was added and why sim city is 60.00 dollars plus tax and if you buy the dlc pack you also have pay 30.00 dollars plus tax and the crapy drm stuff… Expand
  54. isradv
    May 8, 2014
    1
    This is a horrible version compared to its predecessor Simcity 4. Boring, without remarkable improvements and high resources-consuming. I would never buy this game again.
  55. wolfe1924
    Sep 14, 2014
    2
    I loved sim city 4 a lot, for some reason when I play this im not sure if its because im more stupid now or something but I don't understand the game cant grasp around it very well. the building on the zones especially has to be connected to the road to build the zone instead of previous versions you could just make zones then worry about roads later and how zones take a certain size imI loved sim city 4 a lot, for some reason when I play this im not sure if its because im more stupid now or something but I don't understand the game cant grasp around it very well. the building on the zones especially has to be connected to the road to build the zone instead of previous versions you could just make zones then worry about roads later and how zones take a certain size im not sure just rubs me the wrong way.

    even after the tutorial this games learning curve seems really streamlined but yet oddly steep at the same time im trying to figure out if the games just to different so I don't understand it or don't like it or what. I gave this game 3 chances spaced out a couple between each and well still makes me want to hurl to be honest.

    I got this game after all the online crap got sorted out so have nothing to say about that overly. the city size is small as all other people have said you need to make other cities to help your city cause you cant build a mega metropilis on this small lot (sims reference :p ) where on sim city 4 you could make wonderful huge cities even on smaller areas with everything packed into it it had a hard learning curve to get a good economy and money in the positive but it made so much more sense.

    conclusion this games not good for majority of sim city players will not like this at all, I can see more sim players liking this over sim city players (not insulting sim players by the way) it looks pretty and that's about it this game feels like a demo of sim city 4 just prettier is all. instead of building a huge city with every building in it sometimes almost 1 million people they give you this dumb downed little plot of land to make a small town (it feels like it anyways) I regret buying this game I tried to like it but even how they changed the interface of building and nerfed city size I try to like it but I cant.

    final advice if your still considering this game after all these reviews people have done make sure you watch tons of review videos, gameplay videos etc learn everything you can about it at first glanced looked pretty good seemed somewhat similar but after I installed it started it up waited 3 hours for updates ontop of that started the game itself made my little plot of land and puked in my mouth it seems.

    First review for a game on here (sadly this one) and all those reasons up there is why its a 2/10 for me.    … Expand
  56. Securion
    Sep 24, 2013
    0
    Always online DRM.
    EA lying to their customers about need to be online.
    Extremely expensive DLCs.
    City sizes the size of a small football field.

    STAY FAR FAR AWAY FROM THIS ONE!
  57. montana
    Apr 9, 2013
    3
    MAP SIZE WTF!!!???

    The "always online" feature is painfull, but not as painfull as the map sizes. Gameplay is now extremely limited. What happened to sprawling cities where you build and manage big areas and you get to chose exactly where in this big area housing, industry, skyscrapers etc. goes?? Now you are confined to a bunch of small towns and freedom to design your dream city is    MAP SIZE WTF!!!???

    The "always online" feature is painfull, but not as painfull as the map sizes. Gameplay is now extremely limited. What happened to sprawling cities where you build and manage big areas and you get to chose exactly where in this big area housing, industry, skyscrapers etc. goes?? Now you are confined to a bunch of small towns and freedom to design your dream city is out the window!    … Expand
  58. skelling_jen13
    Jul 19, 2014
    1
    Seeing as every time I try to start the game it says, "servers unavailable," this is the worst waste of money I have ever had the mistake of buying. Do not buy the game, I can only imagine its a scam if every time I try to play it won't let me.
  59. Revenge
    Apr 23, 2013
    0
    It's interesting how a new game in a series used to mean adding MORE content. While it's quite nice visually, it's missing a huge number of features that were present in other SimCity games. The forced always-online system is frustrating, not everyone always has a stable internet connection. Was very glad when the mod was developed that made it offline by literally changing just a coupleIt's interesting how a new game in a series used to mean adding MORE content. While it's quite nice visually, it's missing a huge number of features that were present in other SimCity games. The forced always-online system is frustrating, not everyone always has a stable internet connection. Was very glad when the mod was developed that made it offline by literally changing just a couple of lines of code. Now they are introducing their MicroTransaction store, on a game the players have ALREADY paid full price for. You can be wildly disconnected from servers as they fluctuate in reliability, and regularly lose progress because of it. No support from EA on any issue you might have aswell. The entire game is just a massive exercise in messing around their player base, making it inconvenient and expensive to just play the darn thing. Returning to previous iterations of SimCity is actually making me enjoy those more, just knowing the trash like this I could have been served masquerading as a game.… Expand
  60. jeffindenver
    Sep 13, 2014
    0
    Every once in a while, I try to play the game. Then I soon remember how pointless trying play it really is. It's fundamentally flawed. Why? To make the city function, you have to build an absurd road network that does not come close to reality, and because you will always be constrained by the itsy bitsy area.
  61. Niixx
    May 7, 2013
    3
    Almost 2 months after release and the game is still very broken. The first 10 or so hours is some of the most fun i've had, however after that the bugs show up and the rest of the time is spent fighting against the game mechanics or bugs (often almost impossible to tell the difference). Traffic is by far the worst and shows that basing the sims (people) off the same AI that runs theAlmost 2 months after release and the game is still very broken. The first 10 or so hours is some of the most fun i've had, however after that the bugs show up and the rest of the time is spent fighting against the game mechanics or bugs (often almost impossible to tell the difference). Traffic is by far the worst and shows that basing the sims (people) off the same AI that runs the sewage was a horrible mistake.

    Maybe with a few more MAJOR updates this game could pass as something more that a Farmville wanabe on Facebook... Great potential but very very poorly executed.    … Expand
  62. RazgrizG
    Mar 24, 2013
    0
    For a game that suppose to be primary SP playing game, it has to be consistently online. The result of such idiotic method is that whenever the sever the game connected to becomes unstable or overload, (which it had happen within hours of the lunch of the game,) you will be completely locked out from playing the game. Maxis has claim that DRM is needed because that every single Sims in theFor a game that suppose to be primary SP playing game, it has to be consistently online. The result of such idiotic method is that whenever the sever the game connected to becomes unstable or overload, (which it had happen within hours of the lunch of the game,) you will be completely locked out from playing the game. Maxis has claim that DRM is needed because that every single Sims in the game has its individual goal and movement, and as a result, it needs not only your computer but also cloud sever to share the processing power. Now as we all know that reason is completely rubbish. What EA and Maxis did is they wanted to protect its game from being hack, at all cost, at player's cost. And within few weeks of the release of the game, the game got hacked regardless of such self-fish measure. So what does all it mean? Well, in short, it means that when you buy this game, which I stupidly did, you bought a game that suppose to be SP but can't really because you need to go online to play it even if you just want to play it alone. it means you have to rely that Maxis or EA to keep those sever go on as time goes by. And that means if EA wants to cheap out( which they always do) they might shut off the sever and you end up paying 90 bucks for a game that might only last few years. In a more detail, the city size is limited, in your map, you are force to choose the reset areas, which is unheard of for a sandbox creative game. And on top of that, the boarder between city is idiotic, simply because it left so much space you can see but you couldn't use. Transport system is totally junk, All bus go into the same direction, same as street cart. On top of that, you only have few choice for transportation system, unlike in simcity 4. No highway, you only have one exit point toward the rest of the region because every map is reset. No highway. You can't really play SP on this game because if you don't have another player playing within the region, you can't do trades. You can have two city building at the same time in the same region, but they don't update, so you can't send support between two city. So basically they turn a suppose primary SP game into a MP game. For 90 bucks to buy a broken game, I think I am very kind to give it a 0. If I have a choice, I would give it a minus 10… Expand
  63. usrevenge
    Mar 22, 2013
    0
    always online DRM means no servers no playing game didn't need it, they put it in there for no reason.

    can't share saves and you HAVE to save to their servers city sizes are terribly small, in fact you can probably build a bigger city in sim city 2000 which came out in like the 90's the AI is terrible, you will have fire fighters drive in circles or wait in traffic. it's stupid.    always online DRM means no servers no playing game didn't need it, they put it in there for no reason.

    can't share saves and you HAVE to save to their servers

    city sizes are terribly small, in fact you can probably build a bigger city in sim city 2000 which came out in like the 90's

    the AI is terrible, you will have fire fighters drive in circles or wait in traffic. it's stupid.

    if you want a real city builder, get cities XL, tropico 4, or go back and play sim city 4, if you support this game you don't support gaming.

    the 0 score is for not working, and the few times it lets you play, the gameplay is terrible.    … Expand
  64. Dusty_Hayes
    Dec 30, 2013
    0
    SimCity 2013 is greedy money grabs & anti consumer practices like this that is the reason why EA has earned and deserved the Golden Poo award two years running EA stop turning games into services that nonbody wanted
  65. DrMutomofobo
    Jun 23, 2013
    4
    In this version of SimCity you compete and cooperate alongside other mayors within a larger region containing several areas. Citizens, resources and economies all interact with eachother across the borders, and the decision of one city influences the development of another in quite an intriguing manner.

    This really could have been a great game if it hadn't been for the fact that it's    In this version of SimCity you compete and cooperate alongside other mayors within a larger region containing several areas. Citizens, resources and economies all interact with eachother across the borders, and the decision of one city influences the development of another in quite an intriguing manner.

    This really could have been a great game if it hadn't been for the fact that it's not. Not right now at least but with a couple of patches and an expansion or five it could be. At present there are so many issues that despite the new and interesting features and it's obvious potential overall gameplay suffers vastly. The 5000 characters permitted won't be sufficient for me to list the game's every shortcoming, so I'll just focus on the most essantial ones.

    First off, the area you're given is so small you can hardly fit a small town in it far less a metropolis. Nothing more to say about that really... if you like it cramped you'll marry this game and carry it's children no doubt. And these cramped buildspaces are particularly annoying seeing as how certain disasters (who seems to occur quite frequent) leave large portions of land uninhabitable for long (near infinite) periods of time.

    And to add to this misery of small build-areas, you can't even interact properly with the tiny patch of land you're given. Even the simplest of landscaping functions such as leveling/flattening the terrain in order to make more room for buildings has been removed and seeing as how the placement of buildings is dependent on the terrain the tiniest elevation can ruin any hope you have of properly planning the outlay of your city.

    How can you construct a city, if you're unable to interact with the terrain? Have you ever seen someone build a house without first adapting the ground? There are bulldozers in the game but appearantly these only work on removing buildings and rubbles of buildings.

    Even The Sims has terrain tools even in that game where you're only constructing houses they understand the value of this yet in SimCity where you're supposed to manage an entire city they've chosen to remove this option entirely.

    And speaking of stupid...

    The regions you choose are all preset. You are unable to create new ones like you could in SimCity 4, and the ones you're stuck with gets dull real fast. Especially seeing as how you can't even influence which areas of the region are made available nor the landscape within in these areas.

    Why anyone would take away the ability for users to customize or create own regions is beyond me. Adding such features can keep a game fresh for years without any effort made on behalf of the developers at all and well-designed user-content is a potential source of income too.

    As of now you can't even kick an inactive player from your regions your influence on setting up your own game is actually *that* limited. So if the person controlling your neighboring city decides he doesn't want to play anymore, you're stuck with his deteriorating community forever. And seeing as how one city's development influences the next, this can effect your area quite profoundly.

    So... To conclude...

    All in all I enjoy this game. At first I didn't. I got hung up on it's issues and comparing it to SimCity 4 which I hold very dear and this blinded me of it's uniqueness and it's potential. But after having played it a couple of days it's actually grown on me. It delivers many new twists and concepts that can be challenging and rewarding in their own ways but this fascination won't last unless they add more interactivity to the concept and solve some of the major and deeply annoying gameplay and design issues.

    Because this game *does* have plenty of issues the ones mentioned here are far from all of them and if it is to reach it's full potential they have to be addressed. Otherwise it will end up in mediocrity, be one of many games you buy, play for a while and then uninstall for a long period of time before you one dull day decide to reinstall it again hoping it's not as limited as you remember it to be only to find yourself disappointed once more.

    I won't recommend anyone buying this game at present, if I could do it over I'd most likely wait a couple of months when it's clearer in which direction it's headed but it's not so horrible I would warn against it either.

    I've already had my money's worth of fun and it's only been a couple of days since I got it, and despite all the issues and the fact that it lacks much of what I enjoyed from previous games it also has a lot to build on.

    Let's just hope whoever decided to leave out landscaping tools is long gone when they do, and that the sensibility of the rest is larger than the maps they've provided us with so far. Otherwise, this game is doomed.    … Expand
  66. faceless-1
    May 4, 2013
    0
    Well another butchered Legend. This is by far the worst instalment of Sim City. DRM is BS, Cities are too small and everything is dumbed down. On the other hand Congratulations EA on your secund Worst Company in America.
  67. CodBall
    Apr 9, 2013
    2
    Although I'm sure many people have already made their mind up about this game, I thought I'd send my review none the less. Sim City....is dead, or at least the franchise that many of us are used to is anyway. Gone are the expansive maps and the hours of offline play we used to have. Gone is the steep learning curve and satisfying feeling from The always online requirement, although calledAlthough I'm sure many people have already made their mind up about this game, I thought I'd send my review none the less. Sim City....is dead, or at least the franchise that many of us are used to is anyway. Gone are the expansive maps and the hours of offline play we used to have. Gone is the steep learning curve and satisfying feeling from The always online requirement, although called a "development decision by Maxis" certainly stinks of anti-piracy DRM. Maxis ensure there is no way to disable this but the problem being of course that sources within Maxis have denied that this is a requirement but a simple trigger within the code. I have seen people play this game with no water, no electricity, no jobs and high pollution and yet their plot of land has developed into a huge city of skyscrapers, this to me suggests it's less of a simulation than you may think which takes away from the reason people play the game. Sim City isn't without it's pro's, graphically it's aesthetically pleasing with the hustle and bustle of a city being animated fairly well, albeit traffic forming where it shouldn't. The city overlays are also a nice addition, showing the water, electricity and sewage in real time you can also look at the bars of happiness and likeliness to expand for each house. Aside from these pro's, the game seem's extremely poor, closer to Farmville than Sim City 4. If you're new to gaming, don't want a challenge and have an extremely stable internet connection then perhaps Sim City is for you, however if any of the above don't fit your criteria I'd suggest staying way clear.… Expand
  68. CatinHat
    Mar 24, 2013
    0
    Not a sim nor a city building game. They dropped the ball on this game. Way too many bugs and server issues. They devs even tweeted they have no idea how their own game works. http://i.imgur.com/0Qbreq3.jpg

    This was my first SimCity game and last SimCity game.
  69. gustavohw
    Apr 11, 2013
    0
    Broken game design, stupid DRM, ULTRA-FOCKING SLOW PATCHES. I'm not even going to talk about NISSAN DLC, PLEASE MAXIS, get your together. Buy Cities in Motion 2 instead.
  70. Deeperlook
    Apr 11, 2013
    0
    can't log on, DRM at it's worst, your saves be deleted if you fail to logon correctly, que time can reach up to 90min, this is not a game, this is a full-on RIP OFF! no if, maybe, or but. this is a atrocious effort from EA. i am more then convince that EA don't want to make games anymore, but just to take your money. i highly recommended that you cut your loses and close your origincan't log on, DRM at it's worst, your saves be deleted if you fail to logon correctly, que time can reach up to 90min, this is not a game, this is a full-on RIP OFF! no if, maybe, or but. this is a atrocious effort from EA. i am more then convince that EA don't want to make games anymore, but just to take your money. i highly recommended that you cut your loses and close your origin account a uninstall origin itself because i'm pretty sure that if and when the gaming crash comes, EA will raid all the credit card accounts, then disappear. the law states that you can't sue a company for fraud and theft if the company itself dose not exist anymore.… Expand
  71. Canettieri
    Jan 2, 2014
    0
    Each update, a new launcher error! Always need to search in the web how to fix this errors... if you find a way!! Don't buy this game, i'll lose your money!
  72. SergioEngles86
    Apr 19, 2013
    0
    This game is still broken and the developers are still trying to fix it one month after its release.

    This game is so bad that Amazon.com initially pulled it from their digital store shelves and halted all sales for it. How bad does a game have to be for Amazon.com to yank it from the shelves? Wow! The developers still insist that this games needs ALWAYS ONLINE when proof exists that    This game is still broken and the developers are still trying to fix it one month after its release.

    This game is so bad that Amazon.com initially pulled it from their digital store shelves and halted all sales for it. How bad does a game have to be for Amazon.com to yank it from the shelves? Wow!

    The developers still insist that this games needs ALWAYS ONLINE when proof exists that modders have gotten this game to run offline.

    This game is the single biggest piece of video game fail since E.T. on the ATARI.    … Expand
  73. Tibster
    Mar 24, 2013
    1
    Another game that could have been sooo good, but ended up boring and lame......and its EA to blame !!

    I really wanted to like this game, but after som hours playing i dont feel like playing it anymore.

    Last game i'll ever preorder ever again
  74. Adhikm
    Mar 24, 2013
    2
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. It ridiculous that EA dont want to hear us as their customer. The original habits of Simcity are offline, easy to safe the games, user can act as god who able to create their own land contour and the city should large or huge. But this Simcity 2013 is far from those features.
    1. I always have to connect to internet (and the server sometimes are full)
    2. The server cannot synch our files to other alternative servers they offer (It so shame)
    3. The synch between the games and server only when we out from the games (imagine if it crash after we play for 4 hours, which is always happened)
    4. The city is so small, dont event thinking to have Hi way surround the city... the area more like a village rather than a city.
    5. Crash while gameplay, and after that... even though have a feature Roll Back but still the city cannot be open. I have report this to EA and no solution until now.
    6. The AI of traffic, dump truck route and bus are even worse

    Plus point of this games is only graphics.    … Expand
  75. myhooha
    Mar 24, 2013
    0
    They should renamed this as SimTampa, since that's the closest you'll get to creating a city. Shame on you EA and Maxis, for allowing this to happen.
  76. netpunkradio
    Mar 25, 2013
    0
    This game is nowhere near what was advertised. Even with all the launch issues and DRM issues aside, it's just not what was advertised. The connectivity of the cities (the whole reason they used for DRM) just doesn't exist, the interaction is not noticeable at all.

    On a purely simulation standpoint... there is no simulation... zoning purely residential still results in your city    This game is nowhere near what was advertised. Even with all the launch issues and DRM issues aside, it's just not what was advertised. The connectivity of the cities (the whole reason they used for DRM) just doesn't exist, the interaction is not noticeable at all.

    On a purely simulation standpoint... there is no simulation... zoning purely residential still results in your city flourishing. You can build 5-6 medical clinics and still only cure 23 out of 50 sick people... the same as if you had just a single clinic.

    The specialty buildings are just as limited if not more limited than they were in prior titles. The buildings that had unique pro's and con's to them that dramatically altered your city. Now they are dumbed down into categories that don't even work.

    In the end I should've known better, EA keeps putting out unfinished or unpolished products and people still buy them. I'm really disappointed and if I could get my money back I would.    … Expand
  77. aMaG1CaLmAnG1Na
    Mar 25, 2013
    1
    There were initial server issues which to me were made up for by getting a free copy of Dead Space 3 (or one of the other options). The only issue is after a few days of being able to get on and actually play the game got boring, and fast. There are so many glitches and issues (multiple trading depots too close keeps them from working, poor traffic flow, etc,) it makes the gameThere were initial server issues which to me were made up for by getting a free copy of Dead Space 3 (or one of the other options). The only issue is after a few days of being able to get on and actually play the game got boring, and fast. There are so many glitches and issues (multiple trading depots too close keeps them from working, poor traffic flow, etc,) it makes the game frustrating. Add on top of that the fact that the city areas are so small by the time you have your power plant, sewage, water, garbage, city hall, police, fire, hospital, elementary, high school, college and residential you have used 70% of the space. Now try to build enough mining, refining, smelting, trade depots etc. and you are completely out of room. The game FORCES you to have multiple cities and rely on the region, which seriously takes a lot of the fun out of it. I bought the game with 3 friends on release day to all play together, we are all over it already and regret the purchase.… Expand
  78. t847275
    Mar 26, 2013
    4
    Keep loosing my cities.. files corrupt or can't find the city The game is ok but i'm tired to restart city again and again because they can't save it correctly. Last one was a city with 53 mil and 24hr of work... seriously that not supose to happen with a game from EA and for a nice 80$ game.
  79. DDKain
    Mar 26, 2013
    2
    Many bugs, crashed savegames 'cause of server issues, a non-balanced gameplay. Less functions, options building space and buildings than you have sim city 4.
  80. koinsky
    Apr 3, 2013
    1
    The game is a complete failure from my point of view. Simulation is broken or faked. Towns are small and often erased by the server. Allways-on connexion depends on servers ability to hold the charge, which was also a failure. Multiplayer is unimpressive and not interesting to me. To conclude, the game is pricey and some bad dlc is already coming out (publicitary dlc for car brands comeThe game is a complete failure from my point of view. Simulation is broken or faked. Towns are small and often erased by the server. Allways-on connexion depends on servers ability to hold the charge, which was also a failure. Multiplayer is unimpressive and not interesting to me. To conclude, the game is pricey and some bad dlc is already coming out (publicitary dlc for car brands come on EA.... after all this mess you do that To be avoided.… Expand
  81. JinShepard
    Apr 7, 2013
    3
    The bad;

    Always on DRM It is bad, as gaming goes, you should always be allowed to choose online or offline, it is a form of entertainement you choose, not forced. Regions They are far to small, some of the specialised buildings are so big, it takes a large portion of your map and people end up with only square city's, not very sim like to me. Traffic Doesn't work with the    The bad;

    Always on DRM It is bad, as gaming goes, you should always be allowed to choose online or offline, it is a form of entertainement you choose, not forced.

    Regions They are far to small, some of the specialised buildings are so big, it takes a large portion of your map and people end up with only square city's, not very sim like to me.

    Traffic Doesn't work with the agents system, jams, buses, street-carts, cars, police, fire-trucks even people who walk walk as if they all hold hands, it looks incredible ugly, buggy and completely unrealistic.

    Region relations Having tried multiply times to build 1 residential, 1 commercial and 1 industry region, it doesn't work one bit, people don't migrate enough to keep any of the three regions working.

    The good;
    Graphics It looks good and feels good.
    Music The music is nice and relaxing

    Overall score and suggestion 3, and don't buy it for a long long time. I started playing this game at patch 1.7, I can fully understand everyone everyone giving this a 0 before that patch. The game is broken to its core, and is far from a Simulated City as the name suggests on the box, no, this game is destroyed by EA and Maxis and once more another franchise is ruined.    … Expand
  82. davej42
    Apr 11, 2013
    0
    IF you like wasting countless hours to a game and loosing all your work ten this is the game for you. The inability to do local saves and the fact that there servers are so messed up makes the game almost unplayable. I have been a simcity fan for years but because of this experiences i no longer am. I wouldn't pay for an EA game again.

    MAC users don't wast your money on this. The only    IF you like wasting countless hours to a game and loosing all your work ten this is the game for you. The inability to do local saves and the fact that there servers are so messed up makes the game almost unplayable. I have been a simcity fan for years but because of this experiences i no longer am. I wouldn't pay for an EA game again.

    MAC users don't wast your money on this. The only way EA will learn is to lose the bucks$$$$.    … Expand
  83. akratic
    Apr 24, 2013
    2
    Graphics nice. Rest, bad. This is a facebook-style game. EA made it un-piratable (always DRM). The question to EA is: Does it justifies the low scores and bad reviews, hatred from people who bought the game?
  84. dupapa
    Apr 15, 2013
    0
    I have never felt compelled to write a review for a game, but honestly, this game hands down is the WORST iteration of the simcity franchise to date. unfortunately, they have taken our loved complex foundation of previous titles then stripped it down to 5 year old's level, they have also added a multitude of limitations that affect the core game experience.

    as others have said this is a    I have never felt compelled to write a review for a game, but honestly, this game hands down is the WORST iteration of the simcity franchise to date. unfortunately, they have taken our loved complex foundation of previous titles then stripped it down to 5 year old's level, they have also added a multitude of limitations that affect the core game experience.

    as others have said this is a £60 Facebook game. nothing more.

    i base my review on roughly 100 hours of play since the title went live,    … Expand
  85. Noel3679
    Apr 19, 2013
    0
    @SimCity is the worst game of this year(2013). I spent over $60 USD to buy a copy of #SimCity Deluxe Edition, but now I want to a full refund of #SimCity. There're too many bugs, rollbacks, and dumb A.I. @SimCity is a huge in a gift box.
  86. Dovahbear
    Apr 18, 2013
    0
    This is game is pure mixed with "EA guaranty of pure ****TINESS". I bought the game full price and In launch day game was rendered unplayable! Then you are lying that the "AGENTS" are controlled server side and PC couldn't handle it offline, then you are saying we are so sorry for that. You can lip my ass now! I sold origin account with this absolutely ****ty game to my schoolmate for 30€This is game is pure mixed with "EA guaranty of pure ****TINESS". I bought the game full price and In launch day game was rendered unplayable! Then you are lying that the "AGENTS" are controlled server side and PC couldn't handle it offline, then you are saying we are so sorry for that. You can lip my ass now! I sold origin account with this absolutely ****ty game to my schoolmate for 30€ at least or I could simply kill myself from this horrific game that completely killed the franchise!… Expand
  87. AzumiRM
    Apr 25, 2013
    2
    Words can not describe my utter disappointment at this game. Being the still proud owner of Sim City 4 that I am, I really looked forward to Sim City with the utmost enthusiasm. Was I ever disappointed.
    I will start with the thing that most have complained about. The Anti-Piracy measures that EA Games decided to attach to this game (Digital Rights Management). I understand that you need    Words can not describe my utter disappointment at this game. Being the still proud owner of Sim City 4 that I am, I really looked forward to Sim City with the utmost enthusiasm. Was I ever disappointed.
    I will start with the thing that most have complained about. The Anti-Piracy measures that EA Games decided to attach to this game (Digital Rights Management). I understand that you need to put a stop to piracy but at the cost of your paying customer base? This was a bad move on behalf of EA and could have been handled so much better.
    Next is the size of the city which you can build. 2Km x 2Km. Most small towns I know of are bigger than this. It makes you feel extremely limited while also feeling that you could be doing so much more. I got the feeling that EA will be releasing paid for content which will increase the map size though.
    I gave this a 2 based on the quality of graphics, 0 was my first option. I found the graphics to be fairly pleasant to look at when you eventually prove that you didn't steal the game and are able to log in. The engine needs some work as it can be a little choppy but overall the visuals are good.
    To sum this up: I hope that EA have learned that there is a limit to what you can use as an anti-piracy measure before it becomes too much for the legitimate customer base to put up with. Presuming that people who downloaded the pirated version of previous games would have paid for a genuine copy is incorrect. Most of them probably wouldn't have so you can't call it a "loss" and then to implement measures which kill your developers game and reputation is just selfish and naive, especially of a large company like EA. Digital Rights Management (DRM) as an anti-piracy measure doesn't work. To top all this, a pirated version was released anyway.    … Expand
  88. winter33
    Apr 27, 2013
    6
    I have spent quite a bit of time playing Sim City. For a AAA title the game is not bad but some serious bugs with gameplay. E.G. recycling bug, fire trucks etc. The graphics are nice and it runs pretty smooth. Currently Sim City is average at best.
  89. hsram
    May 11, 2013
    1
    A prime example as to why DRM will not work as the game is still getting pirated and causing nothing but problems for the legitimate consumer but I digress. If you want to play with anyone that isn't a friend of yours, forget it. The multiplayer aspect looks like it was thrown together in about 10 minutes. You can't filter anything and the list is just thrown together. Every game you tryA prime example as to why DRM will not work as the game is still getting pirated and causing nothing but problems for the legitimate consumer but I digress. If you want to play with anyone that isn't a friend of yours, forget it. The multiplayer aspect looks like it was thrown together in about 10 minutes. You can't filter anything and the list is just thrown together. Every game you try to join to play with others, it's full or has abandoned cities which has to wait a certain time period before it disappears completely. Graphics are not optimized in the least and with 3 major updates now it still doesn't express concern with major issues like the multiplayer aspect.

    This game is fantastic if you like small maps and playing by yourself (only if EA's DRM allows it). A disgrace to the SimCity series, shame on you EA Maxis.    … Expand
  90. adbksdb
    May 14, 2013
    3
    Foreword: this review does NOT take into account DRM, server problems or comparison with older titles of the series.

    For me, city simulators have always been about building immense megalopolis that fulfill my dreams AND are realistic, sometimes recreating real-life cities. This is completely impossible in this SimCity, because of the ridiculously small map size, the pre-made regions    Foreword: this review does NOT take into account DRM, server problems or comparison with older titles of the series.

    For me, city simulators have always been about building immense megalopolis that fulfill my dreams AND are realistic, sometimes recreating real-life cities.
    This is completely impossible in this SimCity, because of the ridiculously small map size, the pre-made regions with fixed city placement (with empty landscape in between) and fixed intercity transport network, and the lack of realistic skyscrapers and such (you can't have realistically sized skyscrapers otherwise they would pretty much look oversized on the tiny map).
    I reckon that most players are not interested in creating realistic cities but they just want to have fun with the simulation. Well this game is really bad in that respect too.
    The agent-based simulation? Great idea, but all in all what I see (and interact with) in the game are the *effects* of the simulation, and it really doesn't matter if it's the single citizens who are simulated, or just the overall city data. Moreover, as everyone knows, the agent-based simulation has been really poorly implemented and it's still full of bugs after 2 months and many patches.
    Even if they completely fixed all the bugs and the sims' idiotic behaviour, the tiny map size would still hamper the depth of the simulation: you can have the most advanced transport pathfinding and traffic simulation in the world, but what does it matter if the longest road in your city is not even 1 mile long?
    The game still shows great promise but unless they *at least* fix all the bugs and add way larger map sizes, it will remain no more than a (very expensive) facebook game.

    And there is one last thing to consider. I have my simcity4 cities on a usb key. If I wanted I could reinstall the game and play with the cities I made 10 years ago. While I highly doubt simcity5 servers will still be online 10 years from now...    … Expand
  91. PCgamer68
    May 14, 2013
    1
    I won't buy a single player game that requires always online connection. I wanted to buy diablo 3 but never did for the same reason. People that bought the game and are complaining about the always online connection....why? I really wanted to give blizzard (diablo 3) some money, heck, I would have given them a $100 for a single player game that didn't require an always online connection. II won't buy a single player game that requires always online connection. I wanted to buy diablo 3 but never did for the same reason. People that bought the game and are complaining about the always online connection....why? I really wanted to give blizzard (diablo 3) some money, heck, I would have given them a $100 for a single player game that didn't require an always online connection. I loved diablo 2. EA is doing other stuff (origin) that has made not buy their games despite me wanting to. This might not be fair but I give this a game a big ZERO because of this. EA/Blizzard etc must think everyone is weak minded and will accept stupid requirements because of past games success. Then again, looks like they are still making a lot of cash off these games anyway.… Expand
  92. shoti66
    May 15, 2013
    0
    What a catastrophe. EA has destroyed yet another game. I have been playing Simcity since the first in the franchise. I bought all of them over the years and still play SC4. I love SC4 for the mods that all the fans have developed. No more of that stuff for this latest iteration of the game I'm afraid. No! Now they'll make you purchase any extra content after you've paid full price for aWhat a catastrophe. EA has destroyed yet another game. I have been playing Simcity since the first in the franchise. I bought all of them over the years and still play SC4. I love SC4 for the mods that all the fans have developed. No more of that stuff for this latest iteration of the game I'm afraid. No! Now they'll make you purchase any extra content after you've paid full price for a broken game. This is a huge scam and someone should take legal action.

    Unfortunately I couldn't bring myself to buy the latest offering from EA. Luckily I had read the reviews before I went to purchase so I knew how badly EA had stuffed this up. I mean come on, SC was NEVER a multiplayer game. The people that play SC don't want to interact with other players. They play so they can be God and build their own cities without relying on someone else to supply the essentials.

    And what's with this always on DRM? No. Just No. I will not but a game that is dependent on servers to function If I pay upwards of $80 for a game I want to be able to play it whenever wherever and for as many years as I like just as I do with SC4 which is now going on 10+ years.

    The contempt that I have towards EA for ruining this fantastic game is monumental. I have sworn to NEVER EVER buy another EA game just on principle. I hope they sink in a quagmire of their own making. When they go bust I'll through a party cause it'll mean that they won't be able to ever again ruin another game.

    And the map sizes???? They should have called it Sim Suburb. EA couldn't have done any worse if they'd tried.    … Expand
  93. MaxGayLord
    May 16, 2013
    5
    Look, I'm not saying it's a bad game, but it's a bad game. SimCity had potential to be a great game, but Maxis and EA flubbed up with the DRM and the many under the hood mechanics.
  94. coochnader
    May 21, 2013
    0
    Horrible waste of time and money.
    Oversimplified and yet tedious to do anything with the user interface.
    As others have said, cannot play offline. While this is crap, the game itself is a much bigger disappointment. They have severely limited the type of buildings. About 30 minutes of tedious game play and then you'll be asking "That's it?" Go buy Sim City 4 and you'll be much    Horrible waste of time and money.
    Oversimplified and yet tedious to do anything with the user interface.
    As others have said, cannot play offline. While this is crap, the game itself is a much bigger disappointment. They have severely limited the type of buildings. About 30 minutes of tedious game play and then you'll be asking "That's it?"

    Go buy Sim City 4 and you'll be much happier. At a loss of words for whoever was in charge of product direction on this 5th sim city.    … Expand
  95. DaveS
    May 24, 2013
    1
    The requirement for online play is not only annoying, it doesn't work. The fact that it exists ONLY as a way to enforce DRM is evident in that they didn't even bother to create a way to find servers with available plots.

    On to the game. Graphics are well done. The fact that there really is no proper connection to the RCI demand from teach category (e.g. the nonsense of having all    The requirement for online play is not only annoying, it doesn't work. The fact that it exists ONLY as a way to enforce DRM is evident in that they didn't even bother to create a way to find servers with available plots.

    On to the game. Graphics are well done. The fact that there really is no proper connection to the RCI demand from teach category (e.g. the nonsense of having all residential cities) is just bad mechanics. Traffic is still horrible, and impossible to manage. Linking the density to the rods is also poorly done, since you cannot choose to have roads that eliminate traffic, without also allowing more density, thus increasing traffic.

    You can't build a decent size city unless it is building consumer electronics because there is no way to generate enough money otherwise. This becomes a boring thing you have to do in one city in the region generating money, to have any chance of building up other cities for fun.

    Cities are absolutely too small. There is no way to create real city. You are making little towns that (sort of) interact, when tho online thing decides to work.

    Traffic is still out of control, even after a couple of patch attempts. Basic problem is that vehicles STILL don't make a decision based on the highest-capacity, lowest traffic route. Poor path finding. is inexcusable because they had to KNOW how important it was for SimCity4.

    Eventually traffic just chokes everything. I didn't sign up for SimTraffic-jam.. Real Life provides that one just fine.

    I keep trying to play it after each patch, and I keep being frustrated, disappointed and saddened. I really wanted to like this game.    … Expand
  96. Jerrika
    May 26, 2013
    4
    I tried to like this game. I really did. I spent a whole 32 pounds on this and I thought it'd be rude to not play it, so I gave it a go. What I got? A large laggy sack of disappointment. The Game itself has to connect to the Internet or you can't play, so I can barely play it. When you do start, you get an overly long laggy tutorial that has some useless features. And if you playI tried to like this game. I really did. I spent a whole 32 pounds on this and I thought it'd be rude to not play it, so I gave it a go. What I got? A large laggy sack of disappointment. The Game itself has to connect to the Internet or you can't play, so I can barely play it. When you do start, you get an overly long laggy tutorial that has some useless features. And if you play multiplayer, thieves and other can arrive from other players city and mess up yours. Things cost too much coins in game, so you can barely upgrade roads or build well needed things. And Sandbox mode isn't even Sandbox, you have limited money and not everything is unlocked. And the lag... oh I hate it. I am not one to care about graphic, but I had to turn off shading, shadows clouds etc to make it not lag. And then it looked like an Elementary School Drawing. Give this a miss. But the only good thing is that if your city sucks, natural disasters occur. So hey, you don't fell bad.… Expand
  97. Narkul
    Jan 4, 2014
    0
    Ah! the Simcity reboot. A broken interactive screensaver. Let your imagination fly on the tiniest simcity maps ever. Watch traffic come to a halt and back up on the single roads connecting your cities. Watch your cities grow without any industrial zones. Watch EA take your money while your thinking that the latest DLC will fix this game. Ahh! the fun you'll have playing when your internetAh! the Simcity reboot. A broken interactive screensaver. Let your imagination fly on the tiniest simcity maps ever. Watch traffic come to a halt and back up on the single roads connecting your cities. Watch your cities grow without any industrial zones. Watch EA take your money while your thinking that the latest DLC will fix this game. Ahh! the fun you'll have playing when your internet goes down. Amazing social multiplayer experience. You must buy this game to really experience how bad it is, and then have fun trolling the five people that like it on the simcity forums.… Expand
  98. nikhilsamkumar
    May 29, 2013
    2
    SimCity 5 is the degraded Version of SimCity 4 Never Expected this from Maxis. NO facility for bridges /flyover. Monorail and elevated rail are gone. Area provided for Building the city is too small. No teraforming This game really Sucks.. l repent purchasing-this game. Maxis give me back my money!: CITIES XL is still the best city building game ever built.
  99. lolfactor100
    May 29, 2013
    1
    SimCity is a very boring game that requires many monotonous hours before you get any good at it. I personally didn't enjoy playing it at all and will probably never play it again. I'm lucky that I didn't have to waste $60 on this sad excuse for a game.
  100. Jakovas
    Jun 3, 2013
    6
    I love SimCity, this is a great game and really sates my desire for well polished sandbox city simulation, however it is a great game with some serious flaws.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
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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