new "real" Sim City in 2013

[RickD]

A few more discoveries like the debug mode and I might actually buy this game. 

[NCGAIO]

   -    No one can be  naive as to believe that all these points raised today were not fully aware of the creators and producers. ( E.All  )

Just read the countless articles spread on the network during the past year and the answers to every "why?" there are hidden between the lines.

But one of them I have to agree that was explicitly placed all very clearly and repeatedly stated on several of those occasions.


.                               .     

.                   .- Get to the gameplay more quickly  &  Deploy same gameplay in multiple devices! -

This is a simple simulator small because that was the intention from the start and a objective  of  project imposed by the direction of  business of publisher.

This vision of having dozens or even hundreds of millions of users accessing Origin is the engine that drives the company today and ensures that even in front of any failure, it continues treading the same path as fierce a locomotive that crushes everything in the way. Even consumer rights!

Do not believe ? remember Diablo and wait for the next game .... Meanwhile a litle fun.

http://www.youtube.com/v/2uFEYIVKOwA

[Diggis]

Bahaha, that dude needs to take it easy on the monitors

[Haljackey]

Made some highways with the debugging tool.

You can't zone along them so they're pretty useless... but they could work ok with frontage roads:


They also like to derp a lot.



Very difficult to construct, but you can construct them outside of the city boundary too.

Maxis/EA/Origin/Whatever stated that you will get banned if you mod the game, but I'm not sure of the debugging tool counts.

Imagine if you got banned for modding SC4... 

[TEG24601]

It seems like the roads are derp in SC4, much like how much work you have to do to correctly model roads in Cityscape, except you don't have the ability to modify the roads, change their height, etc., at least not that I could find during the beta.

[j-dub]

So you can't even raise the ground elevation, and build over that? It's too bad SC13 didn't follow where Cityscape left off. The only thing close to that was Monte Cristo, I felt they had some of the same feel CS had. Ironically with EA, I mean they even asked during the beta signup, regarding competing games like monte cristo's, and when the first City Life came out, I felt it had everything going for them during their launch, where as this new SC2013, I was not surprised was going to crash and burn with this DRM crap.

I mean, I feel in the old days, more in the 90's and earlier start of the 21st century, that EA was a pretty well known reputable company, back then, as opposed to now. I feel maybe they should of titled this new SimCity as SimCity Online from the start, since it was not going via numerical, but they can't even cover their own hide! The other mistake, SimVille, was renamed with a final title as SimCity Societies, and you know how that turned out. I was at Best Buy today, no one picked up any copies of the new game, it was still in the display box, even after containing a code, supposedly for the heroes and villains set, and made a disclaimer saying must be thirteen to access origin server's, which are requierd, while the esrb rating only states ten and up. Whatever.

@Haljackey, reminds me of RHW and Nmave for some reason.

[kassarc16]

Maxis/EA/Origin/Whatever stated that you will get banned if you mod the game, but I'm not sure of the debugging tool counts.

Imagine if you got banned for modding SC4... 

Ah, and another of Maxis' lies has been laid bare. They promised that the game would be modable, but they only meant for them to add DLC with it.

[metarvo]

I was at Best Buy today, no one picked up any copies of the new game

You know, this reminds me of something.  Not long ago, when stores in my area were still selling SC4, I would see people buying it.  SC4 was already an old game at this point, so a possible explanation was that these prospective SC4 players had discovered custom content and bought the game to use it.  If so, this would mean that custom content actually generated game sales.

[WC_EEND]

You know, this reminds me of something.  Not long ago, when stores in my area were still selling SC4, I would see people buying it.  SC4 was already an old game at this point, so a possible explanation was that these prospective SC4 players had discovered custom content and bought the game to use it.  If so, this would mean that custom content actually generated game sales.

If I may come up with an alternate (if somewhat similar) theory, I'd say there are people who have pirated SC4, discovered the wealth of custom content available and decided to buy the game in a store/steam/Origin/<other means of digital distribution here>. I know this sounds odd, but since demos are becoming rarer and rarer, people have to rely on press coverage alone to see how good a game is and this is how piracy can actually generate sales (which is also what the game publishers/film studios/record labels don't get). I realise I'm playing devil's advocate here a bit and maybe somewhat violating the TOS as well, but trust me when I say this occurs more often than you think.

Also, as for sales, over here in Belgium it appears to sell quite well (then again, maybe the stock was quite limited). On launch day, it was sold out in most shops.

And as for the debug mode, the biggest problem so far is that it doesn't sync to the server. So if you draw highways through other city tiles and then someone else plays that city tile, they don't see the highways you drew in debug mode.

Xander

[westamastaflash]

Goona shell out 100 bucks on games this month... hope at least one of them works the way it's supposed to. 

I got both too. Put down Simcity after about 4 hours and my tiny square was full already. Going back to SC4 and Dwarf Fortress. Loved the SC2 Heart of the Swarm campaign though - finished hard and considering trying Brutal.

[metarvo]

I know this sounds odd, but since demos are becoming rarer and rarer, people have to rely on press coverage alone to see how good a game is and this is how piracy can actually generate sales

This seems counter-intuitive, but I guess this is possible.  I guess some might say, "All is fair in love, war, and SC4."  In that case, maybe they bought the game to get nightlights on custom BATs. 



On the subject of highways outside city limits, I suppose this is one way of bursting the "city bubbles" that I've heard about.  Just imagine if you could zone outside city limits as well.  Maybe not necessarily into another city itself, but just into the neutral space between cities.  If more than one person could build in the "disputed territory," then there would actually be a semblance of cooperation.  Isn't that the intent of the new game in the first place?  Just a thought.

[vortext]

Made some highways with the debugging tool.

Notice the UI though, looks a little too polished to be just for debugging imho. Does it derp around a lot atm? Yes, probably botched because of aforementioned reasons.

Imagine if you got banned for modding SC4... 

I'd rather not. 

I know this sounds odd, but since demos are becoming rarer and rarer, people have to rely on press coverage alone to see how good a game is and this is how piracy can actually generate sales

This seems counter-intuitive, but I guess this is possible.

There was a study about a year ago which showed people using torrents and the like actually spend more money on concerts, buying merchandise, going to movies, buying dvd sets than people which didn't. The conclusion the authors drew was that torrents often are a gateway, so to speak, for people to judge if a particular artist/product is worth spending money on.

[MandelSoft]

I know this sounds odd, but since demos are becoming rarer and rarer, people have to rely on press coverage alone to see how good a game is and this is how piracy can actually generate sales

This seems counter-intuitive, but I guess this is possible.

There was a study about a year ago which showed people using torrents and the like actually spend more money on concerts, buying merchandise, going to movies, buying dvd sets than people which didn't. The conclusion the authors drew was that torrents often are a gateway, so to speak, for people to judge if a particular artist/product is worth spending money on.

I second that. I download my tracks from the internet, one or two or so, and if I like what I hear, I often buy the whole album. Also, I can find songs on the internet they no longer sell anymore or are too hard to find...

So yes, "piracy" (aka getting songs from YouTube) makes me buy music legally if I like it...

[metarvo]

The conclusion the authors drew was that torrents often are a gateway, so to speak, for people to judge if a particular artist/product is worth spending money on.

This is much like radio in effect.  Of course, radio's not what it used to be, but it still introduces people to new artists (and older ones, too).  If I buy a CD, it will be because I have heard and liked the music or the artist before.

[NCGAIO]

For those who thought that curved roads were the biggest news  look for a new big surprise!



http://www.youtube.com/v/yySa34R0D_4


Think of the work that was going to be writing this path!!

[M4346]

Upon release, SimCity (2013) was met with a mixed reception, with aggregate review websites GameRankings and Metacritic assigning scores of 65.22%and 65/100, respectively.

Shortly after its release, the PC version of SimCity 4 garnered mainly positive reviews, gaining 84/100 from Metacritic, and an 85.09% overall score from GameRankings.

[j-dub]

Clearly, those are three buildings on top of each other, which has me more confused. 

It's a shame though, the one thing this new one has going for it, still is the roads hands down.

[WC_EEND]

I'd say that video was probably either a massive bug, or made with the debugging mode unlocker that was made available by reddit.

[Coogan]

I was at Best Buy today, no one picked up any copies of the new game

You know, this reminds me of something.  Not long ago, when stores in my area were still selling SC4, I would see people buying it.  SC4 was already an old game at this point, so a possible explanation was that these prospective SC4 players had discovered custom content and bought the game to use it.  If so, this would mean that custom content actually generated game sales.

I'm not a regular here, but I'll add my 2 cents.  I've bought 4 different copies of SC4+RH due solely to the extended life that mods have given it.  Three sets of losts discs and/or CD keys before finally just being the Deluxe Edition via Steam.  So yeah, just based on solely my experience, custom content has definitely generated additional game sales.

[Reginasunrae]

You know, this reminds me of something.  Not long ago, when stores in my area were still selling SC4, I would see people buying it.  SC4 was already an old game at this point, so a possible explanation was that these prospective SC4 players had discovered custom content and bought the game to use it.  If so, this would mean that custom content actually generated game sales.

Of course it does and not just for SC4! Player-made content has kept Sims games alive for ages. In fact, with TS3 without mods the game becomes completely unplayable after just a few Sim days because of a bug left in by developers. It was the same with TS2. There was a bug in the base game that EA didn't bother to fix until Bon Voyage (something like the fifth expansion pack). We used a third-party mod to fix it.

I know one reason I still play SC4 now is because of all the mods. I got so tired of looking at the default buildings, so many of them just downright hideous, that I started downloading mods about seven years ago. Now I don't use any of the Maxis buildings in my game. I've had to replace my game discs once and mods definitely help keep it an interesting and fun game.