DragonSworne
Banned
Sim 40 Acres and a Mule is a more appropriate name.
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New(ish) Sim City is currently $20 on Amazon (US) - worth it?
- Thread starter Czigga
- Start date
No. It is a fundamentally flawed game, shrunk down and simplified so much that it destroyed what made the original series so fantastic to begin with (and that's not even mentioning things like the shitty loading times or bugs). Buy any of the older games, or if you have them, just play those instead.
chrominance
Member
The only things SimCity (2013) has going for it over SimCity 4 are curved roads/no grids, prettier graphics and, er, I guess network/cloud play. That's it. Everything else is better in SimCity 4, or can be improved to better than SimCity with mods (which will never happen with SimCity). Meanwhile, in SimCity you have to contend with limited city sizes and a broken simulation engine where citizens don't even have set residences or jobs, simply migrating to the first available home/job/"shopping encounter."
Xisiqomelir
Member
Zuhzuhzombie!!
Member
NEVER EVER BUY THIS GAME. IT'S NOT EVEN WORTH FREE.
I have played every SimCity game so far except Societies, and own SimCity (2013). My opinion on 2013 is that it is a very mixed bag. It did some things really well and other things poorly. The main issues have been explained in great detail in other threads on this site so I'll go over the biggies, and include information on some upsides too.
Small cities: The game is divided up into regions, with reach region being about 3-16 or so city plots (perhaps some more in content updates). Each of these plots allow you to build a city on them, but the size of each plot is uniform (geography is different, though) and that size is fairly small, at least compared to previous titles. This makes for less freedom to design a "complete" city featuring residential, commercial, and industrial areas with full services. All that being said the game does include a number of city specializations that can reward you for directing the efforts of a city to one or two specific goals, and provide the region with benefits, such as a gambling or tourism city providing money to less well off cities and providing their citizens with places to shop and be entertained.
Region interactivity and DRM, AKA "always online": In order to play SimCity you have to have a internet connection, as the game has a multiplayer focus. The game code does not require this, as some unofficial mods and tweaks have discovered, but it is the route Maxis decided to take. When you create a region you can make it only for you or open up to friends or even public players, with you being able to assign different city plots to other players or yourself (you can change this at any time). Each city interacts with each other, with citizens traveling to other cities for jobs, shopping, and entertainment if their home city is lacking. Mayors can also share services such as power, water, garbage/recycling, and police/fire/medical services.
The simulation: This was a feature touted by the creators before launch and it has not lived up to the hype. The game tries to simulate every person living in your region, with each having needs for school/employment, housing, and fun, either gained via shopping or tourism. It also tries to simulate the creation of goods and services from industrial areas, power plants, sewage, water, etc etc and ship them to where they are needed. Traffic is also supposed to be simulated, with people trying to take the most expedient path to their goal and make detours when they encounter congestion. Where things fall off the rails is that all of these "agents" as the devs call them are not always intelligently routed, simply traveling along the nearest road and making the first turn that gets them to something that they needed to fill as things are first come, first serve. In the case of electricity/water this can sometimes be problematic where you have more than enough power/water to meet your city's needs but it does not reach something at the end of the line because of hogs towards the beginning, or just plain dumb pathing. Traffic has also been a major problem with MANY patches released to try and improve it. They made some good efforts, though I have not played it recently to see how much.
In all it is not great game, nor is it bad. SimCity 4 is a bettler, if dated title and you should probably get that if you do not already have it. If you do have it, and are a fan of the series, then I'd say it may be worth 20 dollars provided you don't go in with super high expectations.
Edit: As Tempy pointed out the large regions are broken up into subsets of 2-4 highway connected cities and some cities connected via rail or river/ocean, at least with the launch regions. My post does not include every issue with the game, it is merely meant to cover enough so that you can make reasonably informed decision on whether to purchase or not. There are more pros and cons in the game than I went over.
Small cities: The game is divided up into regions, with reach region being about 3-16 or so city plots (perhaps some more in content updates). Each of these plots allow you to build a city on them, but the size of each plot is uniform (geography is different, though) and that size is fairly small, at least compared to previous titles. This makes for less freedom to design a "complete" city featuring residential, commercial, and industrial areas with full services. All that being said the game does include a number of city specializations that can reward you for directing the efforts of a city to one or two specific goals, and provide the region with benefits, such as a gambling or tourism city providing money to less well off cities and providing their citizens with places to shop and be entertained.
Region interactivity and DRM, AKA "always online": In order to play SimCity you have to have a internet connection, as the game has a multiplayer focus. The game code does not require this, as some unofficial mods and tweaks have discovered, but it is the route Maxis decided to take. When you create a region you can make it only for you or open up to friends or even public players, with you being able to assign different city plots to other players or yourself (you can change this at any time). Each city interacts with each other, with citizens traveling to other cities for jobs, shopping, and entertainment if their home city is lacking. Mayors can also share services such as power, water, garbage/recycling, and police/fire/medical services.
The simulation: This was a feature touted by the creators before launch and it has not lived up to the hype. The game tries to simulate every person living in your region, with each having needs for school/employment, housing, and fun, either gained via shopping or tourism. It also tries to simulate the creation of goods and services from industrial areas, power plants, sewage, water, etc etc and ship them to where they are needed. Traffic is also supposed to be simulated, with people trying to take the most expedient path to their goal and make detours when they encounter congestion. Where things fall off the rails is that all of these "agents" as the devs call them are not always intelligently routed, simply traveling along the nearest road and making the first turn that gets them to something that they needed to fill as things are first come, first serve. In the case of electricity/water this can sometimes be problematic where you have more than enough power/water to meet your city's needs but it does not reach something at the end of the line because of hogs towards the beginning, or just plain dumb pathing. Traffic has also been a major problem with MANY patches released to try and improve it. They made some good efforts, though I have not played it recently to see how much.
In all it is not great game, nor is it bad. SimCity 4 is a bettler, if dated title and you should probably get that if you do not already have it. If you do have it, and are a fan of the series, then I'd say it may be worth 20 dollars provided you don't go in with super high expectations.
Edit: As Tempy pointed out the large regions are broken up into subsets of 2-4 highway connected cities and some cities connected via rail or river/ocean, at least with the launch regions. My post does not include every issue with the game, it is merely meant to cover enough so that you can make reasonably informed decision on whether to purchase or not. There are more pros and cons in the game than I went over.
You can't even do this with every town in a region - only with towns directly adjacent to your own town. So in a region with 16 towns, you only share services with 3 other towns. There's a region I believe where 7 towns can share with each other, but yeah. Also, lots of dead, useless towns when I was playing as more and more people stopped playing.
endresults
Member
I bought it for full price and have never felt so ripped off.
Dandy Lyin
Member
Just to re-enforce what others have said... No, not worth it. The cities are so small, it just isn't fun.
No, I got it on launch day and have yet to have a single second of enjoyment. It is the most horrible gaming experience I think I have ever had.
Then I played when some of the things had been ironed out and thought that if it worked like this on launch day, it wouldn't be regarded as such a disaster, it would just be forgotten about as a wholly boring experience.
Then I played when some of the things had been ironed out and thought that if it worked like this on launch day, it wouldn't be regarded as such a disaster, it would just be forgotten about as a wholly boring experience.
I bought Sim City 4 Deluxe on Steam, works for me. Running Windows 8.
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
That's not quite right.
If there's a road connection, you can share fire, police, ambulance, and garbage trucks. You can also share sewage, water, and electricity, since those travel along roads. You can also share commuters (workers, shoppers, and students), as those sims will travel along the roads by car or by bus (provided there is a regional bus station in at least one city, and bus stops in both cities).
If there isn't a road connection, utilities and services can't be shared. However, sometimes cities are also connected via rail and boat. You can see this based on the layout of the region's rail lines and waterways. You can share workers and shoppers via rail and ferry.
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
Yes we do, and yes we have. A lot of people on GAF actually bought this game, as you can see from the OT. Mostly all of them wish they hadn't.
LifeIsLife
Banned
Im a fan of the series, a huge fan, i even still have the game installed on my computer so i can go back every once in awhile and check it out, but its still a terrible game. The fact that building a long winding road is the most efficent system to use because there is no actual simulation is insane. Agents go to the first house or job they find, alternate " R I R C R I R C" and youve created the stupidest yet most efficient and effectively the only way to play the game. Top that with the fact that I can build a city in 20 minutes and there is nothing to do after that other than to hit fast forward and wait for it to grow, cmon. The sizes are so small that they are ineffective. Oh yeah, but lets not forget about the fact that they just start making up numbers. 40k people in your city? Yeah, but only 1000 agents doing anything. Like i dont even care that they fudge the numbers, but if your gonna sim 1000 agents, atleast do that and not just fake everything
I bought it for 20 dollars, and I wish I would not have. I knew the towns were small but did not expect what I played. You have to look at what you can tear down to get the advanced items in your town. It just is not fun. After playing the game, I was not happy but sad.
If you want to spend money to do something that makes you sad, go for it.
If you want to spend money to do something that makes you sad, go for it.
These two points sum up my experiences with the game, and i definately tried to make it work, making cities on large maps with friends, trying to experience "multiplayer" as intended, but as i kept seeing ourselves shelving cities and making new ones every 2 hours or so, and then jumping to new maps along with them (having exhausted or wanting to "restart" the map) I decide i spent all the time i was ever gonna spend on this game
Hip Hop
Member
I loved it and still play it. The online never bothered me. It was spotty at launch but everything has been fine since.
Yeah, the cities are small but everything else it has going for. The multiplayer is quite fun if you have friends that have it.
I like that it is fairly easy to get into and nothing complicated. The older games are too archaic to play imo.
one of my top games for 2013.
Yeah, the cities are small but everything else it has going for. The multiplayer is quite fun if you have friends that have it.
I like that it is fairly easy to get into and nothing complicated. The older games are too archaic to play imo.
one of my top games for 2013.
timetokill
Banned
No, no, no, no.
Not worth $20. It's not worth the space on your hard drive.
Get Sim City 4 Deluxe Edition.
Not worth $20. It's not worth the space on your hard drive.
Get Sim City 4 Deluxe Edition.
20$ is a little too much, but for 10-12$ i would recommend it, especially if You have friends to play with.
Its not a bad game in the sense, You can have quite a lot of fun with it, like at least 20-30h of fun. Its just generally worse than older titles in many ways.
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They could, but most of their audience PCs would not run them in more than 6-7fps unfortunately. They need better paralleled algorithms, consumers need better CPUs.
That said, even 4 times bigger tiles would make this game so much better. I really would want a proper sequel in 2015 that focuses on 4 core CPUs and big worlds.
Its not a bad game in the sense, You can have quite a lot of fun with it, like at least 20-30h of fun. Its just generally worse than older titles in many ways.
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They could, but most of their audience PCs would not run them in more than 6-7fps unfortunately. They need better paralleled algorithms, consumers need better CPUs.
That said, even 4 times bigger tiles would make this game so much better. I really would want a proper sequel in 2015 that focuses on 4 core CPUs and big worlds.
Dacvak
No one shall be brought before our LORD David Bowie without the true and secret knowledge of the Photoshop. For in that time, so shall He appear.
Are you all serious? I can't believe that this is so unanimous here. I played the demo and thought it was great fun. The game looks awesome and sleek, and it seems pretty streamlined, which I like (as a more casual Sim guy). The cities being too small is a legitimate complaint, but other than that, I really loved the demo and was disappointed when the game came out with all the server issues, since that prevented me from buying it.
But I always meant to come back and buy it when it was in the $20 range. I don't care about the DRM, nor do I care about EA shutting it down sometime in the [hopefully] distant future. All I'm looking for is a solid 10-20 hours of SimCity fun.
Is it *really* not worth it?
But I always meant to come back and buy it when it was in the $20 range. I don't care about the DRM, nor do I care about EA shutting it down sometime in the [hopefully] distant future. All I'm looking for is a solid 10-20 hours of SimCity fun.
Is it *really* not worth it?
timetokill
Banned
Dude, if it was any good at all I'd tell you. I'm a huge SimCity fan, and this game was the biggest disappointment of the year for me. I wanted to like this game more than anything.
You might be able to fool yourself for a few hours into thinking the game is good. But the simulation is fundamentally broken in serious, significant ways. You will run into issues where things will happen and there won't be a good reason for it, or it's just bugged, or whatever.
It's broken. Seriously.
I'd imagine the game demos really well. It's just short enough to give you a taste of the slick building interface, and not long enough for you to realize all the game breaking bugs and design mechanics.
It's not entirely impossible to have fun with this. It's a very throwaway casual game, and there's nothing wrong with that...except that it has the Simcity name.
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
That was the beta you're talking about. There's a reason why the beta was locked at only one hour of gameplay. Any more than that, and your city grows too big and gets all fucked over with traffic.
You really have to have a good understanding of what's going on under the hood of the game in order to not have your city turn out badly. This is why many people give up on their cities after several hours, and only a few of us know how to boost their cities' populations above 800,000 without it turning into one giant clusterfuck.
Hip Hop
Member
Like I said, I loved it and I couldn't really go back to play the older ones, they haven't aged well.
Sometimes you need to try things out for yourself.
$20 is not really breaking the bank here.
You don't have the $5 coupon? You could bring it down to $15.
ndawgdrake
Member
I wouldn't play it unless someone paid me to play. Don't buy this abomination of a SimCity game. Don't give EA more money for single handedly ruining this beloved franchise.
BlastProcessing
Member
The DRM and server issues almost did the game a favor because they drew focus away from the fact that the game is not very good. Other people have said "fundamentally flawed" and that's a really good way to put it.
I did not get 10-20 hours out of it, more like 4-5. I also enjoyed the time-limited beta, but once you see the limitations in how the systems work you can't unsee it and it just ruined the game for me completely.
It did. Most people were very excited after the beta especially since we were still expecting proper map sizes, or at least something larger than the beta maps. One hour time limit was pretty genious even if you could circumvent around it. But then they launched the full game. Or attempted to launch it, anyway.
The game looks absolutely gorgeous, one of my favourite looking games of all time. The simulation engine might fool you for five to twenty hours. With the small map size you might go through a phase like "oh man these map sizes", "well maybe they aren't so bad", "I can always start another city and use it to supply this one", "I mean the maps ARE really small..", "fuck this game!" But ultimately most people end up being disappointed. Some might play the game for tens or hundreds of hours and enjoy most of it, but in the end still realize all the wasted potential.
Nastrodamous
Member
i bought it today and i already hate, I wish i would have gotten sim city 4
EternalTruth
Member
Game is a blast to play but as others have stated the small city sizes soon become a major issue. It is fundamentally flawed 
ThreePiMatt
Member
The best part of the Giant Bomb GOTY podcasts this year was Jeff's epic rant(s) about Sim City.
V AA D E R
Neo Member
Absolutely not. Even once you get past all the bugs and issues the core gameplay itself sucks and is too constrained.