Sim City Beta

knowing EA -- beta means how it will be upon release. According to the web the game is due out march 5th.

So they have pretty much 30 days to fix whatever sucks about it? Sorry, you can't undo years of stupid decisions in 30 days, especially not at some huge brainless corporation.

I'd never pay $60 for any version of the game -- I'd pay $40 if it was good. But from the bits I'm seeing all over the web this is more of a $15 bargain bin game.

It's the same song as other games EA has raped in the past - always online DRM, much more limited game options than past Sim City Titles. It's like buying a car and things that were standard in the past (like cupholders or windows) are now options or not even available on the new model.

Too bad - I loved Sim City 4 - never fully mastered it, but was super fun. I'm sure it will show up on pirate bay soon enough -- I can give it a spin for an hour and then move on with my life, sad in the fact that EA has raped and destroyed another classic.
 
collegeboy69us said:
knowing EA -- beta means how it will be upon release. According to the web the game is due out march 5th.

So they have pretty much 30 days to fix whatever sucks about it? Sorry, you can't undo years of stupid decisions in 30 days, especially not at some huge brainless corporation.

I'd never pay $60 for any version of the game -- I'd pay $40 if it was good. But from the bits I'm seeing all over the web this is more of a $15 bargain bin game.

It's the same song as other games EA has raped in the past - always online DRM, much more limited game options than past Sim City Titles. It's like buying a car and things that were standard in the past (like cupholders or windows) are now options or not even available on the new model.

Too bad - I loved Sim City 4 - never fully mastered it, but was super fun. I'm sure it will show up on pirate bay soon enough -- I can give it a spin for an hour and then move on with my life, sad in the fact that EA has raped and destroyed another classic.
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I will still play sc4, a game 10 years old that has yet to be equalled. Shame.
 
So if I didnt receive a beta invite my email, I guess it is safe to assume no beta for me?
 
This beta is more like a DEMO, you can only play 1 hour at a time and then your game is over. You can start a new one.
 
I wonder how much IGN gets in terms of the almighty dollar to write completely bullshit previews such as that (http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/01/25/six-hours-in-simcity) and kissing EA's ass just to keep that garbage site in business.

You've got to be kidding... could they be more transparent?

It's why I only trust user reviews, people on forums etc (when they give non-jaded feedback) such as what's being said on the Simtropolis forums.

The game is a mess from top to bottom, and gives of the impression of being complete devoid of any depth, missing a ton of features, far too simplified, and game-breakingly small and limited.

Why, when they could potentially make fucking millions by making a truly quality, city building game, would they just half-ass shit and, in the end, screw themselves over? I know EA aren't the brightest bulbs in the bunch, but being as money hungry as they are, you'd think they'd be smart to enough to realize they'd make more money by actually making a good game, instead of half-assing shit.

At least then they'd also have less reason to worry about people complaining about things such as always-on DRM bullshit and cloud saving nonsense because, hey, they'd have a great game on their hands that people would want to spend their hard-earned money on.

It's a serious disappointment, because it looks like it could have tremendous potential to be what everyone has always wanted in a game like this, and EA could be rolling in yet more money. Of course, there are still those who will buy it, but the loss they're going to take is going to far outweigh what it cost to develop the engine and the game, then you know what comes next... "Shut the servers down, we're not making enough money".

It's too bad stupidity isn't painful in life. People might just wise the hell up.
 
It's not as bad as some people make it out to be.

Yes the beta is short so you don't get to see the whole picture.

I see people complain about maps being too small but if you look at the big picture and don't focus on the one city you'll see that the size of them is fine. Let me explain.

The city size is 2kmx2km same as a Medium city in simcity 4, Large in SC4 is 4kmx4km or 4 cities in Simcity 2013, and an Extra Large city in SC4 is 8kmx8km which is 16 cities in Simcity 2013.

Maxis has said the Regions can vary from 4 cities to 16 cities at launch. Meaning the smallest region is equal to a large city and the largest region is equal to an extra large map in SC4.

now one of the key thing to think about when playing simcity2013 is that cities and regions really mean something different than they used to in previous games. While they have similarities to previous games there are some key differences that need to be accounted for that should make you think differently about how you treat the game while playing it.

The way services and really everything you do in one city in a region can and will impact the other cities in the region from ambulances to crime, pollution, police, power, trash, tourists, so on and so on means the cities are really connected on a level not seen before in a sim city game on a level so deep that you can actually call the Region a City, and you would call the cities in the regions neighborhoods or districts.

What this means is that if you go to play solo which that is what a lot of people want to do, you would end up treating the whole region as your city meaning you would have 16 neighborhoods/districts to mold in your city you could make an all industry district in one, all residential in another, a commercial district in another, gambling strip in another district and so on allowing you to finely tune and mold each one in a much more manageable way because while you work on one neighborhood the other ones are put in suspended animation which can keep things from getting out of control.

if 16 districts is too much for you too handle you can play in a region with 4 districts, which woud be the same size as a large city in sc4, or 8 districts.

The one thing that kinda takes away from this way of thinking is the region view because of the excessive distance between the districts in the region/city but its not that big of a deal since for the most part you'll only be in the region view when you are switching between your districts.

With the multi-player component, it allows you to give your friends access to your city/region and they can help mold the overall experience with you. you can develop a district and give that already partially developed land to a friend so they can continue off your vision or you can give them an empty lot and let them make a crime filled hell hole.

EA can be at fault for this because regions are really cities i dont think they have explained it like this before.

To sum it up, if you play the game solo you have just as much land 8kmx8km in a 16 city region as you do in SC4's Extra large cities its just broken up so you can specialize each area better and manage the overall land mass better.
 
Wildace said:
It's not as bad as some people make it out to be.

Yes the beta is short so you don't get to see the whole picture.

I see people complain about maps being too small but if you look at the big picture and don't focus on the one city you'll see that the size of them is fine. Let me explain.

The city size is 2kmx2km same as a Medium city in simcity 4, Large in SC4 is 4kmx4km or 4 cities in Simcity 2013, and an Extra Large city in SC4 is 8kmx8km which is 16 cities in Simcity 2013.

Maxis has said the Regions can vary from 4 cities to 16 cities at launch. Meaning the smallest region is equal to a large city and the largest region is equal to an extra large map in SC4.

now one of the key thing to think about when playing simcity2013 is that cities and regions really mean something different than they used to in previous games. While they have similarities to previous games there are some key differences that need to be accounted for that should make you think differently about how you treat the game while playing it.

The way services and really everything you do in one city in a region can and will impact the other cities in the region from ambulances to crime, pollution, police, power, trash, tourists, so on and so on means the cities are really connected on a level not seen before in a sim city game on a level so deep that you can actually call the Region a City, and you would call the cities in the regions neighborhoods or districts.

What this means is that if you go to play solo which that is what a lot of people want to do, you would end up treating the whole region as your city meaning you would have 16 neighborhoods/districts to mold in your city you could make an all industry district in one, all residential in another, a commercial district in another, gambling strip in another district and so on allowing you to finely tune and mold each one in a much more manageable way because while you work on one neighborhood the other ones are put in suspended animation which can keep things from getting out of control.

if 16 districts is too much for you too handle you can play in a region with 4 districts, which woud be the same size as a large city in sc4, or 8 districts.

The one thing that kinda takes away from this way of thinking is the region view because of the excessive distance between the districts in the region/city but its not that big of a deal since for the most part you'll only be in the region view when you are switching between your districts.

With the multi-player component, it allows you to give your friends access to your city/region and they can help mold the overall experience with you. you can develop a district and give that already partially developed land to a friend so they can continue off your vision or you can give them an empty lot and let them make a crime filled hell hole.

EA can be at fault for this because regions are really cities i dont think they have explained it like this before.

To sum it up, if you play the game solo you have just as much land 8kmx8km in a 16 city region as you do in SC4's Extra large cities its just broken up so you can specialize each area better and manage the overall land mass better.
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I feel like all you're doing is trying to rationalize and defend poor decisions.
 
Dallows said:
I feel like all you're doing is trying to rationalize and defend poor decisions.
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thats not what im trying to do, thats just how the game is ment to be played with the region essentially being the full city.

sure its not what alot of people were expecting but its prob the best way to allow for multi player in this type of game while also keeping things under control performance wise.
 
Dallows said:
I feel like all you're doing is trying to rationalize and defend poor decisions.
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Exactly.

No offense, but he's been nothing but a monolithic apologist for EA and this game from the start.

Being open-minded is one thing, and I'm as open-minded as they come. Change can be good, if it's good in and itself. However, the design decisions in this game are flat-out bad, and it handicaps the game, making it an extremely limited version of what it could be, which has massive potential.

I don't want to play in 16 different smaller cities. I want one large area to build and create within. So stating that having all the different cities in the region somehow "makes up" for the bad design decision, is just outright ignorant and self-blinding out of his own defense of the game. It's ridiculous.

However, I just found another video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7Fed07sg4M which sort of baffles me. Is it just me, or does that area look larger than 2km?

Look at the starting size, then jump towards the end and see how much more area there is... no, it's not huge, and not what should have been offered with the game in terms of size, but it looks a little bigger than what I thought.

It's still far too small, however, especially if you want to be creative and not just build tightly packed squares, which is what truly sucks and handicaps the game. That's where the real problems come in regarding size.

Looks like you can fit a (sort of) decent amount in, but if you want that much, you're stuck just simply building in tight little squares, which really kills any creativity, unless you want a very small city/populace in every area, which again, defeats the purpose of a game like this... and having 16 separate areas doesn't "make up" for that; it kills creativity having to separate everything you're building.

It looks like it could be alright to mess around with, but the quality of what's offered is nowhere near a $60 game, I don't give a shit how you look at it or how much of an apologist you want to be, twisting things to fit some imagined "positive outlook" on what's actually sub-par... it's very poorly designed.

Oh, and at one point in the vid, the guy zooms in... what's with the textures looking like shit? Not crisp as in EA's videos. They look blurry. I think SC4 looks better, and that's just ridiculous.

Wildace said:
thats not what im trying to do, thats just how the game is ment to be played with the region essentially being the full city.

sure its not what alot of people were expecting but its prob the best way to allow for multi player in this type of game while also keeping things under control performance wise.
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Again, being an apologist.

It has nothing to do with it's "not what people expected"; taking the game on it's own merit, without making comparisons, it's poorly designed and very limiting.
 
I like it, probably because there aren't any other games out there I'm interested in, and I've always liked Sim City games. It's buggy and has flaws, but it's a decent time sink
 
Wildace said:
thats not what im trying to do, thats just how the game is ment to be played with the region essentially being the full city.

sure its not what alot of people were expecting but its prob the best way to allow for multi player in this type of game while also keeping things under control performance wise.
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Obviously that's how they want it to be played, but they made a mistake. They didn't make a game the fans wanted. They made something either they thought they wanted (based off... what no evidence) or made something they wanted.

In both scenarios it doesn't matter because the execution is poor.

And you're curiously ignoring all the other complaints. It's just a poorly made game at this point. Dumbed down, stripped of features and functions. And it's not fun.

I can sum this up in one example. I can't see my zone colors in any view except when you go to actually zone areas. How am I supposed to design my city if I can't see the zones that I've setup? Unless I missed the view somewhere. It's a huge issue to me, maybe not to you or some others, but to me it's a big problem and just goes to show that they weren't thinking when they designed this game.
 
My first time playing a game like this so the beta with the step by step walk through was really nice. Definitely getting the game when it comes out.

When the demand for retail stores by high end sims does that mean when I build retail block blocks it makes a higher end store? Sorry if that sounds confusing...
 
Anybody have an extra key? I probably put that I played SC4 to much in the beta survey so they didn't give me a key thinking I wouldn't like the game.
 
trust me im not here to be sympathetic to EA or make apologies for them. i despise EA they have ruined almost every IP they have touched over the years from battlefield, dragon age, C&C ect.

i love the sim city series and im not happy about the city sizes and hope that we do get larger cities in a patch or expansion / dlc.

i do see larger cities and other things coming to the game in the future ( im a psychic ) this is EA after all they will try to cash in on anything they can and aslong as its city is popular they will continue to release content for it and fix issue people have.

but if people stop playing it chance of them improving it is 0 thats how EA works

does sim city have flaws yes it does, are alot of the changes what everyone wanted most likely not.

i for one hope in the near future they release a region thats tightly compact so the city boarders are touching and not filled with gaps all over.

the beta isnt even full featured or long enough if people are basing their opinon on the beta alone they shouldnt and if you are on the fence about buying it im not here to get you to buy it, by all means dont buy it if you dont enjoy it.

i already purchased it so is my opinion biased? maybe. i really do hope they improve some of its short comings but until then i plan to enjoy making my region and treating it as one large city filled with neighborhoods, one could be a low income crime haven and the other end of my region could be filled with rich snobs i havnt layed out the ground work for my city (*cough* i mean region) yet.
 
Dallows said:
I can sum this up in one example. I can't see my zone colors in any view except when you go to actually zone areas. How am I supposed to design my city if I can't see the zones that I've setup? Unless I missed the view somewhere. It's a huge issue to me, maybe not to you or some others, but to me it's a big problem and just goes to show that they weren't thinking when they designed this game.
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There's an all view button in the lower right, IIRC.

LOCO LAPTOP said:
Am I the only one that somewhat likes the game?
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Nope, I enjoyed it as well. A little rough, but gave enough of a peek to decide I'm going to buy the game when it comes out. I can understand why some folks are seriously pissed off, because I too would like a proper successor to SimCity 4. This game obviously isn't it; but nonetheless it's a fun game imo.
 
I actually enjoyed it and for $40 from amazon Ill take it. i hope they open up the world a little more so I can sell resources to other ppl not on my island.
 
tech crazy said:
I actually enjoyed it and for $40 from amazon Ill take it. i hope they open up the world a little more so I can sell resources to other ppl not on my island.
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you can buy/sell resources to the global market i think.

pretty sure they said the global markets prices are player driven
 
I like the game thus far even though it feels like it's being geared more toward the casual/social gaming crowd. Jumped on the $40 amazon preorder myself and seems like it'll be worth it for that price.
 
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Neb said:
There's an all view button in the lower right, IIRC.



Nope, I enjoyed it as well. A little rough, but gave enough of a peek to decide I'm going to buy the game when it comes out. I can understand why some folks are seriously pissed off, because I too would like a proper successor to SimCity 4. This game obviously isn't it; but nonetheless it's a fun game imo.
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I just don't like how SimCity 4 utilities are done. 5 seems to take care of it.
 
Neb said:
There's an all view button in the lower right, IIRC.
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Nope. Those are data maps where you get that all white view.

I'm talking about this. See how the zones show up all the time you can actually see what you're doing?

a%3E
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I'd post a comment on the forums but I'd rather not get banned.
 
Snakebitten said:
I like the game thus far even though it feels like it's being geared more toward the casual/social gaming crowd. Jumped on the $40 amazon preorder myself and seems like it'll be worth it for that price.

Also for anyone needing it here, I have an extra beta key:

BLQY-CNM5-3ZP6-3YGA-CM7E
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Someone used it already. :(
 
This 1 hour thing is lame for sure... But I turned it into a beat the old city game. So far I made a city of 30k people in one hour with 300k spare cash.
 
LOCO LAPTOP said:
Am I the only one that somewhat likes the game?
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Far from it,
There are plenty of people who will be turned off by the always online DRM, and that's a very legitimate complaint.
There are also a lot of people who wanted Sim City 4-2, this isn't anything like that game.

The hour demo probably isn't enough to settle any arguments, but I found it to be a solid city builder. The underlying simulation comes out pretty clear and is obviously very strong. Switching from player designated to need/usage based densities is neat way of showing the 'living city' they try to build. I'm not sure I understand the way city-wide services (Police, Fire, Health and Education) work over distance to say if this is bad or indifferent. Placement (the green streets nearby) seems to suggest that proximity does have an impact on the value to different residents, but I really couldn't see that other than a small happiness bonus to nearby houses.

Though, the lack of time for creating a proper region and developing either city specializations or interactions between cities really hurts the impression. Those are two key items to making the smaller cities work and neither comes out at all in the limited play-through you get. In Sim City 4, you always trashed one small city in your region and made it the coal power producing, garbage bag collecting center of the universe. The exchange of workers, resources and money in the new Sim City seems to have the potential to make that a much more significant part of the game. A real shame that wasn't introduced in the demo.

Overall, looking forward to playing it.
 
the game just got better..

something that starts with the letter Z and rhymes with cookies just broke out in my city.
 
harsaphes said:
Zookies?
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If the game has Zookies -- I'm in.

Seriously though - probably won't buy it till there are some solid and detailed reviews about it. If they dumbed it down just to capture some more kiddie gamers... then I'll keep my money.
 
I'm having a good time in the Beta...



key is gone, sorry!
 
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tech crazy said:
I actually enjoyed it and for $40 from amazon Ill take it. i hope they open up the world a little more so I can sell resources to other ppl not on my island.
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I signed up for the amazon pre-order, got the beta invite from it, but then decided to cancel the pre-order. I am going to buy the game but it's going to be through Origin's India portal where the game is roughly $18. I can't justify paying $40 for this SimCity. The game seems quite polished, however the cities are just too small. It looks like you'll build three cities per region, but I want a single massive city instead.
 
I have another problem with this game so far. Why are there no small fire houses, clinics and police stations? I have to have $20K to build the base fire house. That's nuts.
 
nice city loco, last one i did was around 33k population but im getting tired of hitting the 1 hour wall.

i really want to play with some of the other special buildings like mining for ore or coal and drilling for oil.

destroyed one of my towns with the tornado disaster also.

have to say the the highlight of the beta for me was the zombie outbreak and seeing the police scramble trying to kill them
 
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