That would certainly explain some things. If nothing else what it feels like to me is that larger cities should "unlock" given the game's achievement system.

It's not a matter of what they believe, it's a matter of the game being released nowhere near finished, so all the kinks with the agents system are unaddressed. The agents all behave badly - water and power in large cities often misses corners despite plentiful production, cos it's just sloshing around at random hoping for even coverage but not always getting it. Best case scenario is we've paid shitloads to beta test for a year, and a game worthy of the franchise emerges. Worst case scenario is they'll get the game to the point where a large enough number of not particularly discerning players *just love it* despite how poorly made it is, and then EA leverages off that "success" to sell these "Farmville" gamers more and more and more and more poorly made DLC while diehard SimCity fans face never, ever, ever seeing another true SimCity ever again.

Sadly. I think the latter might be the case. I suspect SimCity 2013 marks the very definite end of what SimCity once stood for: A deep and meaningful single-player simulation game that affords players a great deal more creative control than SimCity 2013 dares to allow us (terraforming, ability to recreate real world regions, relatively uncomplicated modding, etc).

edit: Oh god. http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/04/02/s...lc-nissan-leaf/

I have always been interested in simcity but not sure if it was worth it or not but I am open to trying it out

It would be worth it to get SC4 - it's pretty cheaply available by now and still the best version so far.

Some people do think Simcity 4 went a little too far with the simulation. It became a bit to heavy for most folks with too much micromanagement. Tastes differ of course.

I don't like cartoonish. Some things did go to far though - like the water and being almost impossible to make money unless it was a ghetto-city. Of course that's why there are mods and cheats. The resource crap in this new version sounds like it goes even further in that direction though - maybe because SCS was overly simplified?

I believe that one of the problems with SimCity 4 was the broken pathfinding algorithm. As I understand it, EA had a better algorithm, but decided at the last minute to use the "shortest path" algorithm (sounds like SimCity 2013, doesn't it?). SimCity 4 is really difficult with the shipped pathfinding, but works far better with an alternate pathfinding strategy.

At the end of SimCity4 for me, I used a major mod who possibly remade the entire transportation system. I don't remember the name of it. I liked that one very much, but it just became too much to handle for my pc. The speed was very high I remember.

The biggest problem for me now is the speed of the highest speed, it's too slow. The fact that there is no subway system as I can see is also a major problem. It may just be I'm too carefull on my city planning.

I believe you're talking about the NAM - Network Addon Mod, which is awesome :D

Yeah I have that one. Haven't played SC4 in a while, but most of the mods/CC for it I got at Simtropolis and the BSC exchange.

NAM is essential. You know what Simcity 4 has over 2013... ...more than one type of forest. I bet they're going to try to sell us other varieties. -_-

I am optimistic that patch 2.0 will fix all the issues that prevent me from wanting to purchase the game.

--Ocram

Unless EA fixes the problems pronto... SimCity should stop being a 60 dollar priced game.

Until people stop paying $60, EA will keep charging it.

I'd frankly at this point NEVER buy a new release from EA. I need to hear enough about it to decide - of course the always online/Origin is an automatic deal-breaker but even if they released a game with no DRM/spyware/trojans/malware/etc I'd still wait just to make sure it wasn't an epic fail in terms of programming.
protip EA: Beta testing is supposed to be done before release.

When EA offered a free game as restitution for the terrible launch, SimCity 4 was one of them.

List:
SimCity 4
Bejeweled 3
Dead Space
MOHW
NFS Most Wanted
Plants vs. Zombies
Battlefield
Mass Effect

That's pretty much admitting they know they ripped you. They're up against Ticketmaster in the finals for Worst Company in America by the annual Consumerist Poll.
http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/n...gamemaker-again

You won't change the price, people like me won't buy it. Cities XL Platinum is 29.99, Tropico 4 SimCity 4 and Cities in Motion is 19.99, and Peter Moore has no problem smirking in pictures and looking like a rat with a goatee while continuing to ask 60 for a currently castrated game.

I hope someone with a better attitude towards consumers buys the hole company.

Or at least buys the Maxis part after EA goes out of business...

Careful. Folks have mentioned they will take public transit. Nothing like thinking you ahve it contained just to find they took the cross town bus.

Seriously? They included that as something you can't opt out of? Wow. EA really is stupid.

You can opt out of random disasters by playing Sandbox.

Eh, a lot of the "disasters" are like that sometimes. The alien abduction event has fired multiple times in my cities and done virtually nothing because of the level of population, while an errant meteor strike can sometimes just cripple you entirely if it slams into some sort of expensive infrastructure. I imagine the zombie/alien events get worse if they hit places like stadiums when you've got a timer event going but I've rarely had those sorts of buildings up anyways so...