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Thought Maxis was done making Simcity sequels as it's been awhile since SC4, but just found out SC5 is coming out sometime in 2013....can't wait. Played every version of this game :)

 

 

 

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This series is so famous, but I got caught up in Sacred , never really had a chance to hunker down and get into sims like this, though I knew a great many who did

 

:)

 

gogo

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Used to fiddle around with the first ones way, way back, when my comp couldn't handle much else. Remember it bogging down when the city got somewhat (too) big. :P

Those were the days... Guess I don't quite have the attention span for this genre anymore. Sure, I can spend hours grinding with King's Bounty and the likes. Guess I'll try the demo, if one's aviable, for the sake of the old times.

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Thought Maxis was done making Simcity sequels as it's been awhile since SC4, but just found out SC5 is coming out sometime in 2013....can't wait. Played every version of this game :)

 

Maxis was done with the SimCity series. Fired all the staff just as BAT was being released. But the game didn't die, it flourished and the SC4 Devotion site has some wonderful creations. I was a guest artist (name in manual stuff) for SC3 and Beta tester for BAT. My guess is this game will do OK, but if they don't have a user creation element to it, it won't last long. If you ditched SC4 without downloading some of user creations, you don't know how much you missed. Look for BSC creations and items by SWI21. Also, check out the mods that transform the terrain and add surface water. Download a few things from the LEX esp Landmarks. http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php SC4D works better on Internet Explorer

 

DebussyManChurch.jpg

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  • 1 month later...

The free Simutrans developed from a german govenment payed transport-simulation for german schools. A decade or so ago the code was released and it grew a lot. But since most programmers are interested in the simulation routines and not in music:

 

It is really complex, probably best simulation even if compared to paid games, but lacks a bit in upzodate graphics and music. But hey, it is free...

 

1022px-Simutrans_pak128.Britain.jpg

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  • 4 months later...

Beta is is the weekend of Jan 25th-28th. You have to sign-up for beta by the 20th for a chance to get in.

 

The game itself is due out in March :)

 

Looks like I can invite friends to make neighboring cities and collobarate towards improving our cities and certain major projects like world wonders

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well played the beta quite a bit this weekend. Could only play for an hour at a time and then you had to start over. So didn't see a lot of stuff that is in game. But here are a few thoughts/impressions from this weekend

* City size is much smaller than it was in SC4. I could fill out the entire city grid within the hour allotted. But you can control up to 16 cities by yourself or with friends in the region

* The intricacy and depth is really not there like in SC4. The game over all is much simpler and not as much control or micro-managing now

* No terraforming :o :o

* Graphics and music are pretty good

* on-line play only :(

* Many buildings can be upgraded. For instance instead of adding another High School when the 1st one maxes out in enrollment, you can now add more classrooms onto the school and even add more busses. For the police you can add more jail space or add a helicopter to increase service range

 

Seems like they 'dumbed' down the game quite a bit. It was still a lot of fun to play but not sure about the re-playability. Building a region with friends looks to be fun and can combine resources between cities and colloborate in building Wonders. I was really hoping for an in-depth building simulation where I could manage everything. Just seems all games these days are getting simpler. I call it the 'Farmville Syndrome'. Make an easy game with eye-candy, add some DLC and you got a money-maker.

I had already pre-ordered before the beta came out, just because I've been addicted to the series since SC1 came out. I probably would still buy it now after the beta but would have bought the cheaper of the 2 versions. Hopefully when it comes out on March 5th I'll be pleasantly surprised. Like I said I could only play for an hour and a lot of the content was locked, so I'm crossing my fingers here.

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Feh.. Farmville Syndrome - You know, simple can be good. Farmville at it's peak, had something like 32 million players. Not quite sure what it is these days, but it does seem that while there are plenty of players who leave, there's plenty more starting every single day.

 

Simpler games always attract more players. Make something too complex and you turn them off. The non-rocket scientist set gives up out of frustration. The rocket scientists give up because they want something that helps them relax. They don't want something so complicated that it seems more like another job. So you only wind up with with a very limited audience.

 

In the meanwhile... Farmville gets it's share of people moaning, groaning and gnashing their teeth. There are players who are dealing with bugs and other issues who give up because they're sick of it. There are also those who give up because there's too much new content being released and they get overwhelmed. And it's a really simple game. Just plant, gather supplies by asking neighbors for it, harvest, etc... It ain't rocket science.

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Games like Farmville have their place. I have nothing against a mindless game to pass the time. Just that I expected SC5 to be much more in-depth. Having to plan everything out from commute times to taxes to happiness. Those things are still there but I barely have to do any thinking on them. It's just smple addition instead of alegebra now :(

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Games like Farmville have their place. I have nothing against a mindless game to pass the time. Just that I expected SC5 to be much more in-depth. Having to plan everything out from commute times to taxes to happiness. Those things are still there but I barely have to do any thinking on them. It's just smple addition instead of alegebra now :(

 

I think you just made my point. Most people (at the moment) can still do simple addition in their heads without having to remove their shoes. Algebra is a bit more of a strain on the brain cells.

 

Zynga programmers are the exception... They sometimes release quests where you have to harvest some critter or other 5 times in a week - and it takes 3 days to make that critter ready for harvest. 5 x 3 = 15 days and that's WELL over 7 days. But that's besides the point.

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Games like Farmville have their place. I have nothing against a mindless game to pass the time. Just that I expected SC5 to be much more in-depth. Having to plan everything out from commute times to taxes to happiness. Those things are still there but I barely have to do any thinking on them. It's just smple addition instead of alegebra now :(

 

I think you just made my point. Most people (at the moment) can still do simple addition in their heads without having to remove their shoes. Algebra is a bit more of a strain on the brain cells.

 

Zynga programmers are the exception... They sometimes release quests where you have to harvest some critter or other 5 times in a week - and it takes 3 days to make that critter ready for harvest. 5 x 3 = 15 days and that's WELL over 7 days. But that's besides the point.

Be that as it may, Sim City has always been known for all taking into account all of these little things that knuckles suggests and so if they've dumbed it down, it's hard to get as excited about it for any old fans. Exactly like S3 for those of us who come to it from the original and Sacred 2. It has always been that complexity that made sim city the fun it was.

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by chattius, Posted 09 September 2012 - 09:04 AM

[..] but if they don't have a user creation element to it, it won't last long.

 

by Knuckles, Posted 29 January 2013 - 12:38 AM

* City size is much smaller than it was in SC4. I could fill out the entire city grid within the hour allotted. But you can control up to 16 cities by yourself or with friends in the region

* The intricacy and depth is really not there like in SC4. The game over all is much simpler and not as much control or micro-managing now

* No terraforming :o :o

* Graphics and music are pretty good

* on-line play only :(

* Many buildings can be upgraded. For instance instead of adding another High School when the 1st one maxes out in enrollment, you can now add more classrooms onto the school and even add more busses. For the police you can add more jail space or add a helicopter to increase service range

 

I've known about this for a while now. Most people who loved SC4 won't have much fun with it's successor.

It just CitiesXL, for those of you who know about that, with a couple of additions to not be an entire ripoff.

Anybody want to ask, why I'm so concerned about S3?

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

Well I haven't had time to really play this since work got crazy. And I kind of think it's a good thing. I hear launch was a disaster and the game is basically broken. The RCI standard that all Simcity games are based off of isn't working at all and multi-player doesn't work. And the number of bugs would make Sacred blush

 

Guess the game has already been marked down 20 bucks to 39.99 and EA gave everyone who purchased Simcity by March 25th a free game from a list of 8 titles. I still would like to play it but I think it's gonna collect some (digital) dust for a few months until they get everything sorted out.

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I've been playing this game for a while now, starting 2 days after it launched. By then I was able to access servers without a problem, the game wasn't lagging or anything, there were enough servers available; so that problem is solved.

 

Yet, I've decided yesterday to abandon the game for the moment. Main reason: game balance is totaly screwed up.

To give a few examples:
- the area a public service like firebrigade, ambulance or police covers is too small compared to the cost you make;
- the moment you add another vehicle or building to the public services, you start to loose money, even if the cost of the vehicle/building is less as your previous income.
- When expanding roads into those able to handle more traffic, the traffic all the sudden decides to use the roads unable to handle that much traffic.
- To use the roads able to handle higher amounts of traffic, you all the sudden can't upgrade them; but need to bulldoze the old road and lay entire new roads, thus destroying the RCI buildings

Other "anoyances":

- The translation is a complete dissaster. By the look of it they hadn't any Dutch testers, or they haven't tested the Dutch language; Either way, it looks like Google-translate is used.
- No option to turn down specific sounds.
When zooming in to one of the public services, the sound of the sirene's is maddening. I live near a main road in my hometown, yet I've heard more sirines in about 2 weeks of SimCity as I heard in the 6 years I'm living near that main road.
Similar goes with casino's, the moment you zoom in, their sound is way too loud.
The building area is pretty small compared to previous versions. You're able to seperate your RCI area's, however the moment your city grows, all area's are next to one another in no time.

IMHO the best one can do right now is to leave the game as it is, wait for 2-3 months and check how it plays. Hopefully it's patched decently enough to make the game enjoyable.

 

Thorin :)

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Sounds like a hasty release, good review though.

Isn't this game's publisher's pockets loaded?

You'd think they'd have better Q and A before putting it out

 

:)

 

gogo

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Gogo: What else can we expect from EA, really? We've seen it so many times with their games. Only couple of games keeps me from drowning Origin into Oblivion and giving whole EA "The Finger". Mostly Mass Effect 3 and Kingdom of Amalur. ME3 being greatest, 'cause there's no really a way to play it legitimately otherwise.

I watched in horror when EA consumed some parts of THQ... Can only hope the legacy is strong enough for those series to last the "EAaliazion", so to speak... Yep, not a great fan of 'em, really. But what can one do? These giants keep on sucking smaller companies into 'em..

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IMHO SC5 can become a great game, IF EA decides to listen to its customers for a change. (Yikes, sentence with almost more capitals than normal letters. :blush: )

The fact the MP-servers got overloaded not long after release, just because so many players wanted to log into the game, shows there is a large group of people playing it. The problem is that EA's focus have been too much at the MP part of the game, instead of the gameplay.

The way I see it now, is that this game goes the way of D3. Released too soon, getting to many negative complaints from the players and eventually is "improved" by patches. The only thing that most likely isn't added is a difficulty setting, although that is one thing a lot of players would like to see.

 

So I'm playing Mass Effect 3 for the moment - although I don't like the camera setting of it as well as missing a load of hotkeys - until SC 5 is patched up enough to make it better playable.

 

And Gogo, just a reminder:

EA's official slogan is: "EA Games. Challenge everything".
EA's official slogan is: "EA Games. Shatter everything." ;)

 

 

Thorin :)

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  • 3 months later...

haven't played for quite awhile.....huge letdown for me too....basically if the city size doesn't get a lot bigger I don't see me ever playing it :(

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