Well. Well, well, well. Where the hell do I start? For a long time, EA have been losing my trust and custom. We’ve all seen what they’ve done to Need for Speed, right? Now they’ve completely lost it with this, abomination they’re calling a “reboot” of the SimCity name.
Before I get too far, I know the game is still in development. I know it doesn’t represent the final product. So I’d appreciate if you don’t scream that at me later.
Firstly, what on earth is with the new art style? SimCity 4 had it absolutely spot on. It looked damn good. Now I feel like I’m looking at another horrific cartoonie kids game! Everything seems so overly saturated and why do we need a “tilt-shift” perspective?! Completely unneeded but “the leet kiddies think it looks cool!!!”
The introduction of curved roads. Love it, best idea since sliced bread. But why oh WHY does this now mean every building along a curved road (and even on straigh roads I’ve seen) have such a space between the next? SimCity 4, everything was packed tight, like many cites are. Sprawling suburbs of 2 story houses next to each other, not with a great big piece of land just left in the middle. Looks awful. Which brings me onto my second point, where are the huge downtown areas? The dazzlingly high skyscrapers? Its like we’re stuck with a US Midwest city set. AND THAT’S IT.
Power and water being transported via road. Just, no. Why change from SC4 again? Power via zones was good. Water only by pipes made sense. But lets dumb it down for the kids! Just place roads and away you go! What happened to “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”?
Multiplayer and “Great works”. EA let me drill something into your greed fueled soul. NOT EVERYONE WANTS MULTIPLAYER. SimCity 4 was a single player sandbox. I don’t want some kid ruining that experience, setting up silly trade offers or messing up this “global economy (may not be in, I dunno)” I’ve seen. Same applies to “Great Works”. I’ll never play with friends on SC, most of my friends aren’t interested in it. So now I cant build an international airport (or i’ll seriously struggle) unless I play with other people? Not a good way to go guys, not at all.
The water thing, no no no! If I want to build a water tower out in middle of nowhere I damn well want to! I don’t want to be limited to areas that have high water content it just doesn’t make for a fun game mechanic at all.
The business aspect. I’m a mayor building a city. Not a hotshot millionaire who wants to set up his business in MY town. Totally unneeded mechanic.
Why has the micromanagement pretty much gone? Spoke to someone who played at an expo and he mentioned how power stations could “only be turned on or off, not have their funding changed to reflect usage”. Makes no sense at all! I hope the intricate tax and budgeting systems are still in place…
Lastly, where is the terraforming? Why are the “cities” so small? Why are you doing this to us, your loyal customers?
Credit where credit is due, I love the new idea of your population becoming sick from pollution and being unable to work. I love how it looks like trams are included off the bat and with integrated road tracks too!
If you’ve read this far, include the word “facepunch” so I know you’ve bothered to take this stuff on board, ta!
I’m sorry EA, but you’ve lost yet another sale for this “reboot”. Why didn’t you just expand on SC4’s base? Why did it need a reboot in the first place? Your incompetence at creating decent games then rehashing them into the ground I guess? Believe me I’m not the only one who has voiced concern and wont be purchasing SimCity. All I ask is when it fails and you pull the servers (which you will do, we know EA…) please don’t let the series die. Let Maxis work at their own pace, making a damn decent game and make your consumers (who are not 12 years old) happy for once instead of the constant letdowns.
Take a look guys, are you really happy with what you’re going to be paying over £40 for?!
First of all, you are not Required to play multiplayer, one player can make a private region, and build all of the cities he/she wants! And the Graphics are A definite Improvement, but I can understand that it takes over 9 years to get over simcity 4.
Also, the simulation engine, glass box, is some CUTTING EDGE cr**!
It makes everything so much better, but…
I agree, the graphics change wasn’t necessary, Psyche!
Hmm, I don’t agree with everything posted here. I’ve played the game myself so I can share light on some things.
The new art style is subjective. I agree that it does looks far less realistic than previous titles, especially 4, but in person it’s beautiful. But I understand that some people may not like it. But at the end of the day, it might help towards the game performing better so I’m all for it. The tilt-shift effect also helps draw you into your city more as it feels like it’s your own model city that you’re toying with. Maybe a mod or an in-game option will let you disable it though if you don’t like it.
I too was worried about curved roads meaning more empty space, and while there is a fair bit of empty space, I think the game does a good job at working with curved roads. Better than some other games anyway. But from what I played, most of the time everything looked natural and there wasn’t a high amount of wasted space. I do agree with the lack height to cities though, but that may just be because we haven’t seen a lot of skyscrapers yet (and there were none in the demo I played). Cities do look smaller too which is a shame, but I’ve only played on a small map and the 3D only makes things look far smaller than they actually are anyway. If SC4 was 3D its cities would probably look smaller as a result too.
As for roads carrying water and electricity, I’m all for it, especially electricity. In the past, all I ever used to do was attached a small power line from the power plant to the main city and voila, job done. It’s not a huge loss that I no longer have to do that small task. I did enjoy placing water pipes in the past, but I can live without doing it.
I’m glad Maxis are adding multiplayer to the game but I do wish it was a standalone option. I agree that sometimes playing on your own and building your own city of you dreams without input or interruption from others will be a lot more fun, but unfortunately it’ll just have to be something we live with.
I’m not sure what you mean in regards to the water tower. You are able to place the water tower wherever you want, even in areas without much water. The water data visualisation layer just shows you where the most water is so you know the most ideal areas to place one. You don’t have to put them there if you don’t want to. Why would they force that?
I’m pretty sure you CAN change funds and taxes and all that, I just don’t think it was enabled in the demo at various expos. Or if it was, they simply (me included) couldn’t find the option. But I’m positive it is in the final game. After all, it is one of the main aspects of the franchise. I wouldn’t worry about it not being in the game just yet.
I am a bit gutted about the lack of terraforming, as is most of the player base. There’s no denying that it will be sorely missed by everyone. The only reason I can think of as to why it’s not in the game is because of the multiplayer aspect and how you are only given certain areas of a region to build a city on. They probably wouldn’t be able to add that reconcile edges feature if it affected other player’s cities and whatnot.
Also, Need For Speed has only gotten better in the past few years. Shift/Shift 2, Hot Pursuit and Most Wanted are great games. The only iffy one is probably The Run, but even then I’d say it’s a lot better than some of the NFS games in the past.
There is a private, or non-multiplayer mode, where you could do what you want, and have it all to yourself!
You’re forgetting that it still requires an INTERNET connection. While you are playing by yourself, it’s not a true offline, single player experience.