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SimCity: Limited Edition
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About this item
- Constructible Worlds - Creative and customizable world that offers unique gameplay benefits, all with a fun tactile interface
- Sims Matter - The Sims in your city speak to you directly and it's up to you to respond to their needs. Will you listen and be the toast of the town? Or abuse your power for fame and fortune?
- Specialize in What You Love - Mold your city as a casino resort, manufacturing hub, educational enclave, and more, and then watch as a unique look and feel spread throughout your city
- Multiplayer - Build a region with friends for the first time! Collaborate or compete in regional and global challenges and make decisions that impact the greater SimCity World
- GlassBox Engine - SimCity introduces GlassBox, the revolutionary simulation technology that gives you the power to impact individual Sims lives, manage city level simulation, and balance multiple city simulations at once
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Product information
ASIN | B007FTE2VW |
---|---|
Release date | March 5, 2013 |
Customer Reviews |
3.4 out of 5 stars |
Best Sellers Rank | #19,022 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games) #430 in PC-compatible Games |
Product Dimensions | 7.5 x 5.31 x 4.56 inches; 4 ounces |
Type of item | Video Game |
Rated | Everyone 10+ |
Item model number | 19714 |
Is Discontinued By Manufacturer | No |
Item Weight | 4 ounces |
Manufacturer | Electronic Arts |
Country of Origin | USA |
Date First Available | March 6, 2012 |
Warranty & Support
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Product Description
Product Description
The defining city simulation is back! Create the city you desire and make the choices that shape your city and power the Sims within it. Every decision, big or small, has real consequences. Invest in heavy industry and your economy will soar - but at the expense of your Sims' health as pollution spreads. Implement green technology and improve your Sims’ lives while risking higher taxes and unemployment. Team up with your friends to solve global challenges: launch a space shuttle, reduce carbon emissions, or build magnificent wonders. Compete on global and regional leaderboards to be the richest, the dirtiest, the happiest or the best place to visit!
Amazon.com
SimCity is a city-building and management simulation game for the PC gaming platform that serves as a 2013 reboot of the iconic video game series. As with all games in the franchise, SimCity provides total control of how cities develop, but also adds new features such as: crisp 3D graphics, direct contact with citizens, dynamic real-time in-game units that replace animations representing player actions and levels of citizen happiness, franchise first multiplayer support, and in-game weather and pollution representation.
SimCity returns, with relevant city planning choices such as whether to go green.View larger Or to invest in heavy industry and deal with the environmental costs.
View larger
Power to Change a World Together
The defining city simulation is back. Create the city you desire and make the choices that shape your city and power the citizens within it. Every decision, big or small, has real consequences. Invest in heavy industry and your economy will soar - but at the expense of your Sims' health as pollution spreads. Implement green technology and improve your Sims' lives while risking higher taxes and unemployment. Team up with your friends to solve global challenges: launch a space shuttle, reduce carbon emissions, or build magnificent wonders. Compete on global and regional leaderboards to be the richest, the dirtiest, the happiest or the best place to visit.
Key Game Features
- Constructible Worlds - Creative and customizable world that offers unique gameplay benefits, all with a fun tactile interface.
- Sims Matter - The Sims in your city speak to you directly and it's up to you to respond to their needs. Will you listen and be the toast of the town? Or abuse your power for fame and fortune?
- Specialize in What You Love - Mold your city as a casino resort, manufacturing hub, educational enclave, and more, and then watch as a unique look and feel spread throughout your city.
- Multiplayer - Build a region with friends for the first time. Collaborate or compete in regional and global challenges and make decisions that impact the greater SimCity World. 2-16 player support online.
- GlassBox Engine - SimCity introduces GlassBox, the revolutionary simulation technology that gives you the power to impact individual Sims lives, manage city level simulation, and balance multiple city simulations at once.
System Requirements
- OS - Windows XP / Vista / Windows 7
- Processor - AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual-core 4000+ or better / Intel Core 2 Duo Processor 2.0 GHz or better
- RAM - 1.5 GB (XP) / 2 GB (Vista / Windows 7) / 2 GB (built-in graphical chipset)
- Graphics Card - ATI X1800 or better, nVidia 7800 or better, Intel 4100 Integrated Graphics or better (*minimum of 256 MB of onboard RAM and shader 3.0 or better support)
- DVD-ROM - 8x or better
- Internet connection
Additional Screenshots
Franchise first multiplayer.View larger Impact individual Sims lives.
View larger Create specialized cities.
View larger New hero & villain characters.
View larger
Videos
Videos for this product
26:38
Click to play video
BAD TERRAIN!! - SIMCITY with the Simmers #2
Rachybop
Videos for this product
2:47
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SimCity Ocean's Overview Producer Diary
Merchant Video
Videos for this product
1:24
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SimCity: Limited Edition - Trailer
Publisher Video
Videos for this product
6:05
Click to play video
SimCity - Strategy Video with Stone Librande
Merchant Video
Videos for this product
1:22
Click to play video
SimCity: Limited Edition - Announce
Publisher Video
Videos for this product
1:06
Click to play video
SimCity - World Trailer
Merchant Video
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Most all of the 1 star comments are referring to either 1) the server problems in the first two days after the release, or 2) the fact that it is online only.
1) They have done a great job expanding the servers, and there are no server problems anymore. They now have 24 servers, after only starting with 6 and everything is running smoothly.
2) As for the online only component, it is clearly stated as such before you buy it, so anyone that knows that it would be a big problem shouldn't get the game. It is actually a net positive for me, since you don't have to worry about saving (how many countless times have you lost hours of work because you forgot to save and your computer froze?), and the multiplayer aspect works well and has allowed me to play with my siblings, which is very cool.
As for the DRM aspect of it being online only- for those saying it doesn't make a difference, and it would have been so easy to have an offline option: I literally can't remember the last time I paid for a stand-alone game. I know that this aspect must have forced countless others just like me to pay for the game, and to that end, the DRM did it's job.
Now for the actual review
Gameplay:
If you need to get to sleep at reasonable hours, don't play this game! Seriously though, it is totally addicting, and once you start getting into a city, you really can't stop. I screwed myself over a few nights ago because I stayed up playing this till 9 AM. I'm going to have to learn how to ration myself.
The gameplay is what makes this game so great. Everything is streamlined and operates in a logical progression, starting you off with easy problems, then expanding once you get farther in the game. There's a big emphasis on roads, as they contain the electric, water, and sewage, and the zones are placed via the roads. The amazing GlassBox engine that runs the game creates an unparalleled amount of realism (every sim, utility, and unit of industrial production is physically represented as an agent in the game; so when it says the population is 131,572, there are actually that many sims walking, driving, living and working in the city). This is exactly what I've wanted post SimCity 4, and I really can't imagine anything less now- it would seem totally fake and unsatisfying. So far I've really only scratched the surface of the game's depth. One of my favorite aspects so far is the ability to make money through the city specializations, so that your budget can be balanced even if the hourly budget (the +'s and -'s) is in the red. In my first city I started making tons of money by making and selling processors.
As for region play, it is heavily integrated into the gameplay, as the cities surrounding yours have a direct affect. And with the online component you can cooperate with random people, or invite your friends to play with. I've also just began to explore the possibilities of inter city relationships, but so far it is perfect.
The cons of the gameplay are small city sizes and region layouts/inability to edit them. Both of those seem to be connected to the fact that the makers of the game placed an emphasis on the Leaderboards, which require everything to be standardized. Really, I don't think the majority of people are going to care about the Leaderboards since it will probably just consist of a handful of people who totally dominate. All the city tiles are the same size, probably just a bit bigger than the smallest city size in SC4. It's big enough to do a lot, but you're pretty much guaranteed to fill up the whole tile, making space a premium once you get farther in the city. This means that you can't do everything in one city (what I tried to do with my first city), and you're forced to use multiple cities to fulfill different roles. As for the region layouts, although the biggest regions contain 16 cities, they are still only connected by road 4 cities at a time. Those 4-city groups are then connected to each other through rail or water. You can't edit anything outside of the city, so you can't expand or change any of those road networks. This limits the potential level of integration, and again, it's mainly a consequence of the Leaderboard/standardization emphasis. Of course, these cons are not major, and I'm definitely willing to play within those parameters at this point.
Graphics:
Overall, I love the visuals of the game. Having said that the graphics are sort of cartoonish, as opposed to being realistic. As an analogy I'd say they are more like the neighborhood view of the Sims 3, as opposed to the graphics in Cities XL. I personally prefer a more realistic style, but I can still appreciate the look of the game. They said they wanted it to be more like a 'model' type of look, and they definitely succeeded for what they were going for- everything is very streamlined and crisp. Occasionally there will be a glitch with the scenery overlapping the roads or something, but I'm assuming they fix that in a later patch. The scrolling and rotating works great, and I like the focus blurring feature. The performance of the game is very efficient and I have never lagged (I have a decent computer, a couple years old, on full settings, and I've never lagged).
My main disappointment with the graphics so far is that the size of the buildings compared to the size of the landmarks (Empire States Building, Willis Tower) is not even close to being to scale. Those landmarks are about 1/2 or 1/3 as big as they should be just by counting the floors with the windows (those buildings only have maybe 50 floors). That also means that the amount and height of the tall buildings that will pop up is very limited. Also, when you zoom in all the way, the cars are still sort of blurry. It looks fine when they're moving but if they're stopped or you're following them when zoomed in it still looks fuzzy. They probably didn't want to have to redraw them, which makes since for performance.
Audio:
I love the audio in this game. The music is not quite as energetic as SC4, but it has the same kind of minimalist sentiment. The music also automatically morphs when you do certain things, which is a very cool feature. The sound effects are also pretty spectacular, with sound effects for every action, and ambient sounds depending on where you are. Clicking on different buildings brings a different background sound, which is very effective at establishing a setting. The audio is one of the game's best aspects, and I think it appropriately immerses you into your city's setting that much more.
1) You must have a constant internet connection to play. You cannot play without an internet connection- that means no playing on long plane rides or anywhere else you aren't plugged in- usually the best times TO play SimCities of the past.
2) The maps are TINY compared to SimCities of the past, especially SimCity 4. There just isn't room to put all the cool stuff.
3) Although there are grids, roads don't stick to them by default. While some may feel the grid was limiting it had the benefit of keeping straight lines straight, and streets parallel. The SC4 version was far superior to this free form roads in the new version. You can easily put down an expensive mistake that ruins the layout of the city.
4) No "Undo" option. With the chance of city crippling mistakes a bad mouse-click away a basic "Undo last change" or "Go back 1 day" feature was a no brainer. Unfortunately it doesn't exist in this game. You double click instead of single click and you could be dropping a power-plant in the middle of a residential neighborhood. No way to revert to an earlier saved version (because you can't save the city yourself) and now you either have to destroy an expensive power-plant or re-design the city around it to make it work. This doesn't happen in "real" cities so simulation fail.
5) Buildings become "married" to roads. I tried to delete a road to give more room for my Casino to expand and I was warned (thankfully) that bull-dozing that road would also bull-doze the casino itself.
6) Requires far more graphic processing for more basic graphics than SimCity 4. On my current laptop (HP Envy Windows 7, Core i5) I can run SimCity 4 in high/top graphic mode. In the new SimCity almost all graphics were set to "Low" and shadows off completely. The buildings look terrible with these settings. I manually upped the quality and while it did have an affect on framerate it would have been unplayable with the default graphics. The one effect I wanted to get rid of (fog) is not an option to shut off, but it is an option in SimCity 4. Why waste graphics processing power on fog to purposely obstruct the city view is beyond me. SimCity of prior versions worked well with their angle-view, making everything in this SimCity a fully 3D rendered object was a mistake from the start IMO.
7) No more real "zones" like you are used to. In SimCity 4 their zoning was good, you could see how much space a zone takes up, the way it would be pointed, and it would auto-create basic streets within the zone if you wanted. This version does away with all that in favor of just drawing lines along roads to designate R, C, or I. No idea how far back the development will go, very annoying.
8) Abandoned buildings don't ever get fixed up. For some dumb reason you need to be on a constant look-out for abandoned property and bull-doze them or nothing will ever come back again. In real cities private development does buy and demolish abandoned building to put up new ones if demand is high.
9) You try to play and there is no space available- they put you IN LINE to wait to play. They tell you the game will start in "30 minutes." REALLY? I have to wait 30 minutes to play the game I just paid $60 for? I might not want to play in 30 minutes- I want to play the game when I turn it on, that is the point of buying a game!
OK, there are some positives but they are drowned out by the fact you can't play when their servers are down which means sometime in the next few years when they abandon this flop you're out your $60 with an unworkable product.
Pros-
1) Nice not to have to worry about water pipes- That was annoying in SC4. In this SimCity Water and Electric is automatically a part of the roads you put down- so if a zone connects to a road, it has water (assuming you pump some)
2) Free to "Zone" areas. In a real city it doesn't really cost money to just declare some land Residential or Industrial so glad to see this. (Although you now only start with $50,000, down from $500,000 (on easy) in SC4.
3) It seems easier to get a basic city going. A small city compared to earlier versions but if you get the basics (power, water, and keep pollution away from the residents) you will have a profitable city. As long as the city is profitable you can build just about anything given enough time. The real challenge is in correctly planning such a small city.
So overall I say avoid this title like the plague. No doubt it was Maxis/EA management that destroyed this game- they are the ones who required this "always on" internet connection, in hind site this was just a money grab to pull some money out of the SimCity name, they knew there would be thousands of people like me willing to jump into anything with the SimCity name we would throw away $60 no matter what they delivered- and they took full advantage of that.
If you're reading this don't make my mistake. Go back to SimCity 4, I re-installed my old copy- it works just fine on Windows 7 64 bit you just have to install it in the c:\program files\ directory NOT the c:\program files(x86)\ that is the default.