Sim City V

[RedMileDJ]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

after playing the beta, i'm starting to regret my pre-order. the plot size is so ridiculously small, it doesn't feel like a city more than a small suburb. looking at the screens where the developers show a high density city is kinda ridiculous, all these highrises packed in this tight little box then nothing around them but empty space

i think Maxis really lost sight of what makes a SimCity game with this one. they've gotten so focused on the small details that they neglected the progression of scale that you had with 1-4. start with a small town, build up to a small city, expand a bit more to a large city, and eventually you get to manage your own metropolis. but in 5 all you get to to is go from a small town to a slightly larger town

also taking away the terrain modification is a huge let down. SimCity 5 feels like a Call of Duty game (on rails, forcing you on a single path) more than a creative city design sim

Originally Posted by Brannigans Law

I think this goes back to a conscious decision they made that they want a beautiful modern looking game but can't make it work with a huge map. All the simulations aren't graphics intensive at all, and I'm sure a well coded sim engine is a piece of cake for multi core processors. Nope what happened here is EA wanted to make a fancy graphics game at the cost of small maps and so we're stuck with a kind of crappy experience until they give us larger maps. I mean, jeez, Sim City 4's large maps were already too small.

I feel exactly the same.

Just got out of my beta hour. It feels small. And I haven't played SimCity in years. The last version I played was 3000.

If March 5th is the date, I hope they make bigger maps by then. Otherwise I'm going to cancel my pre-purchase. Very disappointed.

But it was still fun. Lots to do.

[PsYcNeT]

I have a feeling this game is going to suffer from Civ-syndrome.

That is, in Civilization, the first ~250 turns are the most fun, and then the game kind of bogs down as you have to micromanage everything to the nth degree to succeed in the long game, and manage dozens of units and warfronts etc, so turns 250-500 take literally 5x longer to play than 1-250. The feeling of progression stops and the tinkering point sets in.

That said, I will play turns 1-250 hundreds of times (already have in Civ 2, 3, 4 & 5) and will likely do the same here. Eventually you make a game of it for yourself and set a bar of expectation by x turn (or x days in Sim City). Who knows what the long-game Maxis has planned looks like, but I can only imagine there is a benefit to having a really well run city, though who knows how fun it is.

If there's any sort of difficulty, it should take 50-75 hours of trial, error, and repetition just to min/max your cities output by the point of map saturation.

Also, map variation (terrain, resources, proximity to trading partners, etc) should make it interesting in repeated plays.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by Red-Mile-DJ

I feel exactly the same.

Just got out of my beta hour. It feels small. And I haven't played SimCity in years. The last version I played was 3000.

If March 5th is the date, I hope they make bigger maps by then. Otherwise I'm going to cancel my pre-purchase. Very disappointed.

But it was still fun. Lots to do.

is there a way to cancel a pre-order in Origin? i can't find anything

for anyone on the fence, i recommend not buying at release and instead waiting a few months until it hits a sale and/or the inevitable DLC comes out that expands it into a proper game. right now it just feels like an expensive tech demo

[RedMileDJ]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

is there a way to cancel a pre-order in Origin? i can't find anything

for anyone on the fence, i recommend not buying at release and instead waiting a few months until it hits a sale and/or the inevitable DLC comes out that expands it into a proper game. right now it just feels like an expensive tech demo

When I was placing my pre-order last night, there was a reminder that said you could cancel your pre-order anytime, BEFORE release date, and get a full refund.

I can't find a link or anything, so I assume you would need to call Maxis or EA. Still searching. I'll update if I find anything.

[RedMileDJ]

Did a bunch of searching on their forums.

If you have pre-purchased, you have up until the DAY BEFORE RELEASE (March 4th, 2013) to cancel and get your money back / stop payment.

http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/li....page#25247498

Please reference your order confirmation e-mail and contact Origin with the details requested below:

If you need to cancel your order, Contact Us: https://help.ea.com/contact-us

You will need an active EA Member account. In order to expedite your request, be sure to include the following important information.

Platform & Game
Full Name
Order Number
Date Ordered
Game Ordered
Phone Number

I've just played another round (1 hour) and I'm seriously thinking of emailing them tomorrow.

[Kavvy]

This might have been said and obiouse to people, but the hour limit only applies to the city you play, meaning, you can start again from scratch for a new hour.

[RedMileDJ]

Looks to be an online person / chat thingy when you go to cancel.

Average wait time, now, is 75 to 80 minutes. No email that I can see. Have to chat with them.

Well...I have until March 4th to be convinced.

[cDnStealth]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

after playing the beta, i'm starting to regret my pre-order. the plot size is so ridiculously small, it doesn't feel like a city more than a small suburb. looking at the screens where the developers show a high density city is kinda ridiculous, all these highrises packed in this tight little box then nothing around them but empty space

i think Maxis really lost sight of what makes a SimCity game with this one. they've gotten so focused on the small details that they neglected the progression of scale that you had with 1-4. start with a small town, build up to a small city, expand a bit more to a large city, and eventually you get to manage your own metropolis. but in 5 all you get to to is go from a small town to a slightly larger town

also taking away the terrain modification is a huge let down. SimCity 5 feels like a Call of Duty game (on rails, forcing you on a single path) more than a creative city design sim

Honestly, I've only played a half hour and I wasn't very impressed. Graphically, the game isn't impressive at all. I suppose I expected a higher level of detail for the small map trade off but I am just not seeing it. I don't know. I am probably going to skip this one or wait until it goes on sale.

[Nehkara]

Hey guys, I ended up being out all day unexpectedly. I'm sorry to hear a bunch of you had issues. That sucks. I had some problems as well (CTDs, blue screen).

Hopefully things will be fixed up by launch time.

I love the game, I will be playing a lot. Look forward to creating a CP region in a few weeks!

[SebC]

You know what would be amazing in a SimCity game? To be able to plan your city within the interface. Like if you could plot your arterial roads and irregularly shaped landmarks/civic buildings on the maps without actually paying to build and operate them. Then you'd have the option to build your planned structures later.

[QuadCityImages]

I played 2 and a half 1 hour chunks (didn't realize it wouldn't save a partial playthrough) and I'll probably still buy the game. It seemed like I was just scratching the surface of what's available.

[Ashasx]

And for some reason, Origin is working again. I don't understand. A little too late.

Nothing to do with my firewalls, as I turned all of them off... it's like I was banned.

[worth]

I think the Civilization comparison is apt. These are niche games, and even though they sell a lot of copies, they will never sell the same as a shooter. They take planning and strategy which is part of the appeal of these types of games to a lot of people.

Civilization 5 came out a couple years ago and fans were afraid that they had dumbed it down to much for the masses. They did and it was sort of a cartoonish version of previous releases. They took what made Civilization that type of game and got rid of it so they could sell more to people who had never played the game before. The same sort of thing seems to be happening here.

I don't think it has anything to do with plot sizes, but they have simplified the game to the point of there is an extremely limited amount of planning that needs to be done in order to try to appeal to a wider audience.

I'm not going to cancel my pre order. I actually had a lot of fun in the beta and am still looking forward to the game. It's just that I think we've all seen this song and dance before and we all know how it turns out. Slightly disappointing because that something at the core of the game is missing.

During the beta I played in cheetah mode as to get the highest population possible. I don't think I will do this in the actual game since there is no time limit. Hopefully that will slow things down a bit and better planning for a city will take longer. I hope there is still a lot of things to do to your city after zoning is done, and I hope integration between cities in regions works well because I didn't really try that at all.

Edit: One thing I didn't mention though was city specialization. This should give the gameplay longevity because of the number of different types of cities you can build. Not all cities need education and that crap. if you're going to build a gambling city, just want to make as much money as possible. An oil city is going to be cool to build as well so I am looking forward to that aspect that you don't really get in the beta.

[Teh_Bandwagoner]

Ugh just my luck. I was out for most of the day yesterday. Finally sat down around 2:30 a.m. last night to play through beta. Finished up the tutorial, and maybe got about 30 mins into my playthrough, when suddenly around 3:30 power goes out in my house. Barely got to touch the game.

[metallicat]

Ok, critique these two video card upgrades:

http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX40143

http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX39808

Note, my current video card is an nvidia GeForce GT620 and it ran this game like crap.

[Brannigans Law]

If the extra hundred isn't a big deal get the 7870. It blew away the other card in civ 5 which I think is a good comparison

[PsYcNeT]

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/548?vs=536

Says all there needs to be said about a 7770 vs a 7870.

On the other hand, a 660 cost ~ the same as a 7870, but outperforms it in certain games, but is outperformed in "meant to be played" games...so that's something to consider.

[Kerplunk]

I got in a one hour block of play time, and overall it didn't seem too bad, although the plot size did seem a bit small, and some planning type features would be useful. However, for what it seems to give it doesn't feel like a $60 game. Maybe if they chopped the price in half I would consider getting it at launch.

[TorqueDog]

I didn't get a bloody SECOND of playtime in on Beta 2. $@#%!!

[DownInFlames]

Nm