Sim City 5

[Wreckem]

That seems to be pretty crappy for beta testing, you'll never get a large city or any of the advanced structures...

They are more stress testing than beta testing.

 

[rstove02]

earlier, someone mentioned you could only play your city for an hour. then, you can make another city and play that for an hour.

So they adopting the Blizzard approach to beta testing? Hope this does not turn out the same where all the focus is placed at the start of the game while the end game (larger cities) is never tested.

 

[JTsyo]

How about being able to raise an army and simply take your neighbors town?

It's called CIV.

 

[lozina]

Da Fuq?!

I got an email from IGN just now related to my prime membership and it has a link to get Sim city beta key. Cool, I thought, but I click it and it says no more available. I clicked this within seconds of getting the email. What a useless pos this prime membership is...

 

[ViviTheMage]

Come be the new Mayor in SimCity! The SimCity Beta has begun and will continue until 12:01am PST on Monday, January 28th. The SimCity beta offers fans the chance to play a one hour slice of the game and to deliver feedback that will help shape the final product. Beta players can play the one-hour slice of the game multiple times during the beta period.

Follow these simple steps to get ready to play:

1. Install the latest version of Origin.

2. Launch and login to Origin. If you do not have an Origin account, click the "Create an Account" link on the login screen.

3. Once you've logged in, select the "Origin" tab, click "Redeem Product Code" and then enter your unique product code.

4. Go to "My Games" to download and install the SimCity Beta.

5. When the installation is complete, press "Play" to launch SimCity.

The Maxis team is eager to get your feedback to make this SimCity the best yet!

 

[lozina]

Ha. Got another email from IGN. They admit they goofed and sent another link... This one works.

So I guess I will try my sacred one hour "slice" afterall...

 

[Dominato3r]

Shit. I pre-order and signed up for the beta the day they were available and haven't gotten a key yet. This sucks

 

[tdawg]

Was hoping to get a key, but didn't luck out. Turns out I wouldn't be able to play/test for the 3 days it's available to play, so no loss, apparently. Oh well.

 

[waggy]

yeah i didn't get one either. sniff im going to go cry now.

 

[techie81]

They are sending them out throughout the day today.

 

[Dahak]

I got one about 30 min ago, but wont get a chance to try until tomorrow

 

[maevinj]

Just got mine a few minutes ago.

 

[Phobic9]

I got a key and I didn't even remember signing up.

 

[power_hour]

I want a Detroit pack. Build up your city as a manufacturing powerhouse, then watch as it becomes an urban wasteland.

Add some Zombies and you got an epic game.

Guys, not sure if it was mentioned but they are offering $50 off you next Origin game if you preorder by Jan 31, 2013.

And those graphics look pretty sweet.

 

[KaOTiK]

Add some Zombies and you got an epic game.

Guys, not sure if it was mentioned but they are offering $50 off you next Origin game if you preorder by Jan 31, 2013.

And those graphics look pretty sweet.

It isn't $50 off your next Origin order. It is a code you can use 5 times to get $10 off an Origin order. The order also has to be $19.99 or more and can't be virtual currency, and a lot of other titles iirc.

 

[power_hour]

It isn't $50 off your next Origin order. It is a code you can use 5 times to get $10 off an Origin order. The order also has to be $19.99 or more and can't be virtual currency, and a lot of other titles iirc.

Thanks for the clarification. And its a pretty crappy incentive at that too. Pass.

 

[KaOTiK]

Thanks for the clarification. And its a pretty crappy incentive at that too. Pass.

Very crappy incentive. It is the same freebie code they give you on your birthday so if you want it bad enough you can make another account and make the birthday for like 3 days later than the day you are making it and they will send you one lol

 

[lozina]

Not too bad. I like the gameplay. Its much more immersive than previous titles in that factories are working and people are moving about doing their business in a very visible fashion as opposed to the other sim city's where stuff just seems to be lifeless and random.

I managed to get one city up to 12,400 pop and it got a dozen or so low income apartment buildings.

One thing off the bat the map size is terribly small. I hope thats just for the demo and we can choose much bigger sizes in retail.

Not too sure how I feel about how the zoning system works. I am a control freak and a perfectionist and it feels like I cant control the zoning as well as I used to and that I am not able to perfectly utilize every square inch of land to accommodate max density with the way the curbside zoning works without any depth to measure...

 

[KaOTiK]

I played a fair bit tonight. I did enjoy it and did like how it felt more alive. I really really really hated the size of the area. I mean, it is freaking tiny. I got my highest population up to 14k before the hour expired. I'm not really digging the regions, I like having everything in my city quite honestly.

It is just the maps are so freaking small. It is cool how you can get a real feel for everything when you zoom in and you see people walking around and can click on them to stuff, but the damn size is killing me.

 

[SheHateMe]

Waiting on this junk to finish updating. Can't wait to play.

What is this business about only being allowed to play for one hour?

 

[endlessmike]

Thanks for the clarification. And its a pretty crappy incentive at that too. Pass.

If anyone is interested, Amazon is running a promotion that gives $20 in Amazon credit for preordering the physical copy of the game.

 

[Phobic9]

There's nothing like firing up a game of SimCity only to find the servers are down. For SimCity. Servers. I'm currently in a 20 minute queue to give the game a try.

I understand there's a lot of whining going on and yes, I know the purpose of this test is to stress the servers but I guess this is the age we live in. Should be nice to try this game in 5 years when EA has already taken the servers down permanently.

/end rant #86332 on SimCity 5

(Sorry)

 

[lozina]

Just thought about this now but playing this Simcity feels sort of like playing a Tropico, with the scale of buildings and the curvy roads and general appearance. Which is a good thing.

Also another positive is that they appear to have gone away with the radius principle in general for stuff like schools police station etc don't show a radius of effect. Instead you need to make sure you have enough police cars and jail cells and such to keep up with crime in toxicity for example. But the station itself could be pretty much anywhere. With the school it does have a small initial radius where nearby residents can walk to it but you can place bus stops for the school buses anywhere you want which have their own radius to get kids from remote areas.

 

[endlessmike]

I was on a repeating queue for about 45 minutes this morning before I gave up. Hopefully this issue isn't present beyond the beta.

I did get to play a few sessions last night. I like the new road layout system and how all plops and zones orient to any direction, works prett well. I'm not totally sold on not being able to set, or at least see, the depth of your zones. Also not big on only being able to control density by road type.

Otherwise from the limited taste I got, I like it. It feels vibrant and living. The maps are sort of small, but so far not overly limiting IMO. The simulation seems a lot more "active" and in time I think the size will be improved.

There have been a lot of negative discussions on SC forums about the map size and lack of realism. IMO these games have never been overly realistic aside from 4, which I also thought was the least fun - not bad, just not as fun. It seemed to have a big draw with people who wanted to create sprawling cities with gigs and gigs of mods. SC2013 feels more like it'll be more like the old ones. Hopefully I get some more chances to play he beta, but I am so far on board.

 

[hdeck]

waiting for the update to finish...