Forum:Is SimCity (2013) a good game?

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Hey everyone. ^^ I'm interested in purchasing SimCity (2013) as I've never played a SimCity game before and I have a growing interest in the subject of city planning. However, I remember that when it was released it didn't get the best reception. I'm wondering whether anyone here's played it and what they think of it. Thanks. :) --Bleeh^{(talk!) (edits)} 01:45, January 16, 2014 (UTC)

LostLab has been playing it recently, in fact he had written a review once in here. --Frostwalker ^{Talk - Read} 09:19, January 16, 2014 (UTC)

I really need to amend that review...

Having spent a considerable amount of time with it, I wouldn't say it's not fun to play at all but compared to SimCity 4, it's rather simplified and gets boring quickly. Plus the small map sizes force you to make compromises later on when you unlock all the cool stuff that's going to make money for your economy. You don't have to go through the "forced" multiplayer - just start a private game on a server and if you want to play with others, invite them.

Specifically for you Bleeh, I've heard the Mac version performs extremely poorly and is laughably buggy. The Windows version alone doesn't exactly perform great anyway.

I'd honestly wait for a price drop, because the game is definitely not worth the £45 asking price (I got it for £20 \o/). Whether the forthcoming addition of an offline mode and mod capability improves things or not, I don't know. I'm hoping for somebody to add larger maps but I'm not holding my breath. If you're willing to pay full price because you want the game then feel free...though if you look in the right places, you can probably get it for between £20 and £30 - it's all about knowing how to shop.

Though if you want something complex, SimCity 4 is larger, cheaper (£10 on Steam, but it's Windows only) and I think there's a Mac version of that too. Though SC4 doesn't scale well with my PC so I'm not entirely sure how it'll perform on the Mac.

Sorry if this seems like a long read, as SC 2013 isn't the kind of game I could just recommend in one sentence. :P Lost Labyrinth • (c) • (b) 13:37, January 16, 2014 (UTC)

I would personally recommend SimCity 4, for a few reasons. It's much less expensive than SimCity 2013, since it's an 11-year-old game. There's tons of mods out there which make the game infinitely more playable and all-around better. Though EA has abandoned the game (as they usually do), there's still plenty of player support and downloadables on sites like Simtropolis and others; these folks have been learning the ins-and-outs of the game for over a decade, and they know how to fix a lot of the bugs that come with it and make it generally more playable and stable. I've never had a problem getting it to run on machines I've installed it on - I'm not sure whether I'm really lucky in this regard, or if Lab isn't following a step that he should be, or what, but I've never had any problems with it. Based on my limited experience playing SimCity '13 and on comments I've read from other players, it seems that SimCity 2013 dulls pretty quickly, whereas I've been playing SimCity 4 for over a decade and still find myself going back to play more.

I will say, based again on past experience and the words of others, it seems that SC4 is a bit more complex than SC 2013; or at least, SC 2013 is a lot more learning-oriented versus SC4 which more-or-less throws you into a city with all the tools but with very little explanation of how they work and how you use them. Even SC4's in-game tutorials don't really get into the heart of the simulation, which is something you need to understand in order to be truly successful in the long run. SC4 definitely has a steeper learning curve, as a result. But, as I mentioned before, there's plenty of player support out there, even a decade after its release.

So, all in all, I can't really give much of an opinion on SimCity 2013, but I would highly recommend SimCity 4 if you're looking for a challenging and fun game that has withstood the test of time. -- LostInRiverview ^{talk ~ blog} 15:52, January 16, 2014 (UTC)

FWIW, SC4 likes to either crash frequently (even if I do force the game on a single core) or show up numerous rendering glitches (unless I render in software mode). TS2 is rather similar in this regard. These issues seem to vary across different PC builds. I'd say if you can run TS2 without issues then you should be fine with SC4.

Idk, it depends what you want out of this. Something serious and open and you're willing to be patient with it? Go for SC4. Otherwise if you want something that's easy enough to get into and not overwhelming, SC 2013. Lost Labyrinth • (c) • (b) 01:52, January 18, 2014 (UTC)

Thanks! Your responses were really informative. :) I think I'll get SimCity 2013 since I'm a beginner, but I'll probably wait awhile for the price to drop. If only Origin's 75% off sale of SimCity 2013 had included the Mac version haha. --Bleeh^{(talk!) (edits)} 23:49, January 18, 2014 (UTC)