Hey guys, Sim City just entered closed beta. I got my beta key and am downloading now.
I figured I should open up a thread to discuss our impressions.
Anyone else get in? If yes, tell us what you think!
I thought an hour wasn’t enough time to really beta-test. It was really more of a very limited preview. Beyond that, I’m cautiously optimistic. I like some of the changes (resources to worry about, density limited by street capacity, sewage) but not others (no subways, or even highways?!). I’ll get it when it comes out, but won’t be springing for the special edition.
How are the computer requirements?
At the bottom of this page. Looks like the minimum requirements should be met by any reasonably modern computer, and, like the previous SimCity games, you’re not missing anything but chrome with the settings all the way down.
I was able to play as was my son. I wasn’t that impressed the first couple of times through the hour limit, but after a bit it had me enticed. It shows a lot of promise. I don’t like the always-on DRM, but if they can prevent server problems, I think it will be a hit… Certainly looks good. I hear they just added a sandbox mode where you can have unlimited simoleons and play with all the various items. Looks good. Can’t wait for the full release…
I was invited because I preordered but I have DSL so the download time didn’t seem worth the window it was available. Hope it’s fun though.
Is there any word on a pure single-player mode?
The FAQ in the SimCity forum says that single-player is available, apparently in the form of a private region, but it doesn’t negate the need for an internet connection.
I’m quite excited over it, but I wish they were clear about preordering the Mac version. Origin still isn’t available for Mac.
I didn’t feel like going to my Windows side, so I just let my husband download it.
I personally like the new version. They’ve eliminated some of the things I didn’t care for in SimCity 4, like laying pipe. You didn’t really need to lay it in a logical way, so why have it?
I personally don’t understand why people freak out over the online requirement. I’ve noticed the people who scream the most seem to constantly be online anyway. I’ll bet quite a few of them play MMOs or participate in fora.
This one really feels about meeting the needs of the citizens, which I always thought was the point of the game. To hear some people, it was to sculpt the land for weeks on end.
Funny you should say that, playing a bit of SimCity 4 recently, I found myself never touching the terrain sculpting tools… at least not until about the the mid point of my city, where I had sprawled across the entire map, and before it was time to start building up density. And even then, only to adjust a few areas in order to maximize space.
I do like most of the changes they’ve made. It’s a more streamlined game, but it’s not dumbed down. Only superfluous, or irrelevant busy work has been eliminated (like the laying of pipe), and in fact it looks like more layers of strategy have been added in terms of regional play and different concerns in the layout of the city. The addition of little goals/missions/challenges through out the game also seem like a bit of fun.
Not only do I not care about the always online thing, I am all for it. Screw pirates, let them bitch and moan like they did with Diablo 3 all they want. Moreover, I was impressed with the behind the scenes - cloud computing - that was being done when it came to the sims themselves. There were hundreds of them in my city, easily, and I could track and select every single sim, even the children, as they went abotu their business. I was even told where they had recently been, where they were going, and what they were thinking, all on an individual basis.
Pretty awesome.
I’m looking forward to setting up a multi-player region with some Dopers. I call industrial specialization! MY town is going to be the dump where all your sims go to work 
Since they are tracking every single Sim, do they handle a lot of the processing in “the cloud” or something?
While I don’t think it’s that big a deal since every computer I use is permenantly connected to high speed internet, it seems unneccessary. SimCity has always been a solitary sandbox game. Why would I want to play with random jerkoffs in some “global economy”? Plus I might want to play it on an airplane with no wifi.
They tried something similar with CitiesXL and it was so disasterous, they basically shut down the servers and issued a patch making it single player.
I’m more disappointed with the premade regional highways and rail and the lack of a terrain editor.
And one of the things I really liked about SC4 was the ability to add user generated content. I hope that comes back somehow.
Still looks pretty awesome though.
Single player private servers will be in.
Modding will be added after release.
this is what they are saying, yes. I was able to click on every one of my sims, even the kids and I could tell where they lived, where they had just been, what they were thinking, their needs, and where they were headed. And you can actually track them as they travel around from point A all the way to point B. This might be possible on modern PC’s (I’m not sure), but by doing this on the cloud, you allow PC’s with weaker CPU’s to get in on the game.
Well, they don’t have to be random jerkoffs. You can invite me, for example, to your region to play. I promise I won’t put all my polluting plants upwind of your city 
to be fair, that small indie dev, probably didn’t have the infrastructure to handle all the players, which were probably a tiny, tiny fraction of the amount of people that are going to get the new Sim City.
Heck, I haven’t spoken to my uncle on my father’s side for years, and yet he called me the other day to ask me about the game!
Yeah me too. But I’m hoping the strategy layer of regional play will offset this loss somehow. I doubt we’ll see user created content though 
Plenty of DLC though, I’m sure of that. I believe there is already day 1 DLC to the tune of $20. I think it’s a bunch of city types.
It prevents legal purchasers of the game from playing on laptops while traveling, or anywhere/anytime that internet service is unavailable or spotty.
It builds in an (unknown) ‘expiration date’ to the game, when EA cuts off the servers.
This one is my major concern. I’m not interested in purchasing a “service” here. I want a product that will continue to work as long as I am prepared to make it work (i.e. by giving it hardware/OS that support it) and is not dependent on anyone else maintaining something that I may not/do not even care about.
Some games are services, because they offer services that people care about. Like, say, MMOs. Games that are functionally single player plus maybe an auction house (looking at you, D3) are…not, and I am not interested there.
Of course, I say all this like I’m taking some sort of hard line stance and not buying games because of it, but honestly, the only game I even considered buying and then didn’t because of always on internet nonsense was StarCraft 2, and then I decided I didn’t really care, so my ethics on this issue have yet to be seriously challenged.