How NOT to Release a Game - Cities Skylines II

The release of Cities Skylines II was NOT pretty. The games getting better, but it's still very broken. And based on roadmap, I don't think they are going to fix some of it's worst problems. If you're thinking of releasing a game, this is a great example of how NOT to do it.
Sources:
forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/...
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www.gamesradar.com/cities-sky...
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[@thehuskyden]

I'm tired of hearing people say "You can't expect them to add 8 years of DLC content into a new game." No, but I do expect them to take what was LEARNED over those 8 years and DLC and make a BETTER base game.

[@tmg7476]

Yes. They built the game that they intended to for CS, not the game that the community clearly indicated that they wanted.

[@Kafei01]

Steam workshop was mandatory and the managed to miss that point

[@Blade_0f_Miquella]

@@tmg7476yeah, they either didn’t even try to make what we wanted or they never understood what made us enjoy CS1.

[@eduardotoporoski8015]

I already think they would be able to add as much content as there was in the first game. there were 8 years of dlcs, but there were also several years of development of the second game as well. Not to mention that just because it took 8 years to develop all the content for the first game, it would take that long to develop the same things for the second. they already have the knowledge, the technique and most importantly: they have the money.

[@EvePlaya4Ever]

Can't win with guys like this yapping how it's 100% fine. @mellotofer

[@bobglover3119]

Dude you nailed it!, I bought a new PC and everything to be able to play CS2 and huge disappointment. Good news is I can now play CS1 with no issues and all the mods i want.

[@MoveTheMouse]

And it's the most stable it will ever be. Definitely not all bad.

[@mellotofer]

I don’t get it. My pc is 5 years old and mid build of that time but plays this game fine?

[@EvePlaya4Ever]

@@mellotofer That's because you're a NUB and not a pro like us who are at around near 1 MIL population with a thriving city Metropolis level with all the bells and whistle we come to expect from ver 2. You can enjoy your 5k population town and that's fine buddy. It's no problem but don't go spamming how great your performance because it's stupid. Wait until you grow balls and hit 1 mil. Ok? When you vehicles become slugs. No offense. Just being real here. Learn to play, don't let a new town at 5k population be " I don’t get it. My pc is 5 years old and mid build of that time but plays this game fine?". We are all on a mission to get them to FIX and deliver what we PAID for to PLAY. None of us want to build towns. That's not what we paid for. We want to build something that exceeds CS1. It's not even close to what CS1 can do.

[@mellotofer]

@@EvePlaya4Everwow what a dick of a response. I was at 325k population when I said that. I didn’t feel any sluggishness until about 600k. Which still takes WEEKS to get there.

[@cherriberri8373]

​@@mellotofer they were 100% a dick but your experience is just not the norm. Are you on the lowest settings possible or smth?

[@chrisbeveridge6891]

What gets me with all of this is that CS2 has completely killed my interest in general for a lot of CS KZbinrs. As you said, most have gone all-in on creating content about it but the game has a hell of a time justifying it with how little there really is to it. I find myself sticking with CS1 creators but even then it's a sliver of it. Colossal Order actively managed to kill my interest in both games by how this was handled. I went from watching/listening in the background on average 3 hours a day of creators while I worked to now watching maybe 3 hours a week. The CS2 content is just so damn uninteresting and so much time spent messing with things that should not be that hard. Hell, I gave up trying the game again myself this week that I got on launch because I'm a glutton for punishment. That after six years of playing CS1 I find myself struggling to make water/power connections in the game actually work because of... I dunno, reasons? It's just baffling at how absolutely off-putting the game is to me.

[@Lucas_Antar]

Sounds like you really don't like adjusting to and changes regardless of missing features

[@cherriberri8373]

​@@Lucas_Antar sounds like you're assuming

[@DimaRakesah]

I can't bring myself to play either game at this point. I am just way too disappointed to have the same enjoyment I used to with CS1.

[@evilotis01]

several creators-Biffa, City Planner Plays, Overcharged Egg-are either already publishing CS1 stuff again or planning on going back to doing so very soon. Biffa also released a really good video about his frustration w the whole thing.

[@SillyNameFoundHere]

I feel the same way.

[@donbrearley3148]

I'm a console player, so when it got delayed, I immediately put skylines 2 out of my mind... but watching this makes my blood boil, what an outage. How could they blow this?? This is some SimCity shit

[@mihirgohel2820]

Exactly and the thing is they missed the perfect window to launch on console as likely by the time pre orders come out GTA VI pre orders will be out as well

[@mathewjackson5044]

The fact they mentioned console release a "year" later after PC was a huge red flag to me

[@MickJagger-el6of]

“Cities Skyline 2 is a shameless reset switch of a platform designed to sell you DLC.” -MTM This conclusion was not the one I sought, but as the grand sum of info surrounding the state of this game, with its mad scramble emergency patch releases, accompanied alongside PR crisis initiatives settles in, I don’t think the hard banging truth of that statement can be reasonably denied. It is now most obviously clear the game wasn’t released because it had more to offer than its predecessor. Those final words you uttered tie this whole mess into an easily explained simple bow.

[@blackineese]

Thank you for your honesty. Because watched all the creators video before release and they were all hype and said nothing on performance. All the "big name" city builders. SMH

[@theunderarmorgamer5945]

thats a fucking lie

[@theunderarmorgamer5945]

do any research

[@SimplyAdia]

One year of rain Wtf Weather definitely needs to have a toggle. I've never been so happy to be a console player and left behind

[@seichhornchen]

Reminds me of...Gosh, Black and White 1, I think? They tied the weather ingame to your location in the real world's weather. Horrible idea because you ended up with entire playsessions of drought or rain instead of just letting the game handle it with a little random number generator or running the weather against a normalizing curve to force it to change every so often.

[@shilohslim1893]

I think their redemption arc starts by offering partial or full refunds for those of us misled by the stellar marketing campaign. If Creative Assembly can do it, why not Colossal Order/Paradox? PS I hadn't actually realised they'd edited Mariina's now famous "Hey everyone I'm channelling Patrick Söderlund over here!!!" Word of the Week, that's a somewhat shitty and deceptive practice.

[@MoveTheMouse]

LOL at the Söderlund line

[@Awesomes007]

Thank you. CO cannot design, build, develop, test and put into operation a game that lives up to the marketing or our expectations. Enough data is in to show they do not have the vision, passion, organization and or leadership and or devops to do it. I’ve seldom seen so much disappointment in such a great community. It’s time we push to find a passionate person to drive the real best city sim ever. We could probably open source it and early access it and do much better.

[@rexremedy1733]

Love your comment! You are correct!

[@sirjarko8762]

this is pretty spot on tbh. A lot of the issues with the game are not just tech either which they kept mentioning in the most recent video, Are they seriously expecting me to believe quay walls, fences, vegetation, tree line tool and seeing the current path of npc vehicles is because of "tech"? They had YEARS to work on this game, It wasn't exactly rushed. I think they just had bad priorities or mismanagement at some point idk. I've started thinking about cs1 again recently. I do enjoy cs2 but CS1 overall I think is a much better game and its pretty stable tbh.

[@DiegoCordovez]

All these creators putting out content and not saying a word about this 😐

[@hamakaze1364]

I've seen a couple but as a whole I agree

[@hamakaze1364]

To add, I'm fully feel this is FOMO, yes there's some cool innovations, but how much there is missing this game still has much to improve before its viable

[@jeffreylyons1531]

Just remember how much of a pile of hot garbage the first game was at release. We wouldn’t see this game for many years if we waited for “perfection” I’m glad we got it.

[@MickJagger-el6of]

⁠@@jeffreylyons1531No personal offense intended, but honestly it’s growing quite tiresome hearing people suggest that the status at launch for their game 8 years ago is a reasonable standard for expectation for their sequel. It is an entirely irrational premise. They’ve had 8 initial post launch years learning and perfecting their methods, and we’re supposed to negate that reality? We’re to pretend as if this is their first go-around? You can do that if you like, but reasonableness compels me otherwise. Personally, I’ll be happy to invest in CS2 if and when it climbs out of its unfinished state. Until then, I continue to have fun with CS1.

[@philbear2185]

160 hrs in for me, tried to test all those game mechanics teased before launch, still an interesting dream, I think cs2 could work one day. Today, it feels like all code placeholders.

[@duckpond7856]

Great video. I would never have shelled out $ for this game if I had known it was barely even early access. I'm hoping that the workshop will add much needed changes in the game, lots more assets, props, and great maps. My hopes are that it will be ready to play by June.

[@wayneleblancsr8126]

You are spot on and that is why I will not buy this anytime soon. I'm playing CS1 with all my 7000+ mods and assets with no problems on mid level pc.

[@Kangamoos]

A bunch of people told me the day one patch was going to fix it all.. I was like.. welp.

[@MoveTheMouse]

"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." -PKD

[@peperoni3140]

Games rise, and then they fall, its the circle of life... i knew there was going to be some sort of screw up by colossal order somehow. loved cities 1 and now, cities 2 is sitting on the shelf until its actually finished. they had almost a decade of information from the first game, they knew what we liked and disliked, they knew what mods were essential, but they went in different directions. I guess this will become another lesson about how to screw up a once successful game franchise

[@wolfen210959]

I'm perfecly happy, just playing the first one, so I don't see the need to ever purchase the "new and improved" version, especially since it's barely playable just yet, with no mods or editor. Maybe, in a few years, I'll pick it up in a Steam sale, or maybe not, time will tell. Thanks for the honest and informative review. :)

[@rickyspanish4792]

I'm very disappointed with the whole thing. I expected something more "next-gen"; a fresh coat of paint, a bit of a deeper simulation, and to have some usability stuff built in that you previously needed mods for. And then they come up with this? It's basically just Cities Skylines 1 with new assets, bugs, and worse performance! What did they do all these years?! I heard a lot of people agreeing how bad it was, but that "eventually it will get there". I don't really believe that myself. Like you, I don't see a solid base here, I don't see how they can go from this, to a next-gen city builder that will become the new standard. I think people will eventually just go back to Cities 1 for a while, and then hopefully some new city builder comes along, from some other company, that can take over the crown of best city builder (one that Cities 1 stole from SimCity just a decade ago..)

[@infinitehexington]

it's not the developers fault, do some research please

[@rickyspanish4792]

@@infinitehexington disagree.

[@Mike-ks6qu]

This game was the biggest letdown in a decade of game releases for me. All they had to do was remake a heavily modded cs1 and make it run better and not make it so ram intensive. They didn't even put moveit, findit, or traffic manager. That should have been minimum considering how many of us use those mods.

[@LordofSyn]

Thank you for this video. While ive had to toggle off some things (per the first Word of the Week) and some odd looking LOD issues during live streams, i guess i am one of the few that likes the game. I am still trying to learn all of the changes. I understand the frustration that many players are having. I wasnt even aware that some of the services were broken, like Mail. I appreciate your honesty and hope that one day the game is improved and you return, because you were one of the inspirations that got me to really embrace CS1. You were one of the only Creators covering consoles. Thank you for your time and for your vid, Mouse. O7

[@zeroibis]

For me the performance improvement has been pretty good. I am running a 1070 and went from a slideshow to an actual framerate with the latest patch. Still pretty bad that the game even launched like that but there has been substantial improvement. I just wish they would focus more on some of the gameplay bugs. I can play a slideshow but I can not play the game when then gameplay is broken.

[@Zyo117]

Spitting some truth, there Mouse. Glad someone is saying it instead of ignoring it.

[@CitiesByDiana]

CS2 is much better with mods now but it still feels barebones without custom assets....but its been hard to want to play because of the slow pace you talked about. Trying to stay positive and hopeful for the future but I've definitely gone back to CS1 a few times now and even started playing other games on my TikTok account because it doesn't hold my attention in the same way the first game did.

[@PayMeInCaps88]

Finally someone said it!!

[@tyleranderson4852]

Thanks for that honesty here! I was an avid sim city player for years and years and when the creators of that game decided to go the mobile route it ruined the experience completely for me. I was so excited to see cs2 and see how much better it was. At first it looked really good from what i saw , but then the issues started becoming more apparent and then they overtook the game . Honestly I really don’t understand why games like this cant understand why people like playing them in the first place. There should be several game modes available to play in and not just sandbox type things but things like growing a city realistically with different public buildings styles and sizes and different connections to the region. Hopefully they will figure this out , but im not sure they ever will.

[@Geno5]

I purchased my first PC Game for an Atari 800 personal computer in 1984. To play the game I had floppy disk that needed to be switched during the game. The game would pause and the on screen message would be something like… Insert disk 4 and press enter to continue. The point, I knew what I had to do to play the game. I pre-ordered CS II. About a week before the release I started hearing that there might be some performance issues. Did not really pay attention… launch day came and I loaded the game. What a sh*t Show! About two weeks after the launch I starting hearing things like.. “Well we are not going to release any DLC’s until the game is fixed!! And we mean it!!! We are doing the right thing!!!! Ahhhhh… I paid for DLC’s and now you are being self righteous??? I paid $90 for the game with a DLC in the 4th qtr and a DLC in the 1st qtr. Now I am not getting DLC’s for months, something I paid for. The CEO comes out and says the game is what it is, be happy. I run into issues every time I play it. Just this morning Dec, 21st 2023 the game crashed before I saved the game…. Two hours in… my fault. If I worked for this company I would be embarrassed to have my name associated with it. City Planner plays, he is probably the most positive person I have ever watched play a video game. He will say things like “CSII is being CSII”. He is talking about, sooooo what other games would you like to see me play???? He knows that if he ties his income to CSII in 2024, he will not meet his goals. That is my opinion, but he seems to be hedging his bet.

[@LearnToRace]

I'm so glad you made this video thank you, this is literally a giant step backwards compared to the original, they missed the mark big time so much so I don't think it'll ever get to the standards of cs1

[@jonleibow3604]

Thank you for your honesty. I've unsubscribed from a number of CS KZbinrs who've been acting like nothing's wrong ("tea guy," "guy who does the same thing as his day job", "word jumble") which is a shame because I used to admire them, but now it's like they'd rather keep in CO/Paradox's good graces than show integrity. I just subscribed to you.

[@SuperMickyChow]

That's been the most disappointing thing - pet KZbinrs who willingly and deliberately misled their huge subscriber & viewer base in exchange for .... what? I'd honestly love to see what their NDA looked like and to know whether there was any financial incentive from Paradox/CO to keep acting like everything was fine with the game when it very clearly and obviously (literally right from the very start of any playthrough) was just a broken mess. All those guys you mentioned lost me as a sub because of their actions. The Tea Man even blocked me on here and Twitch because I asked just what the deal was between him and Paradox/CO. He's very, very sensitive about it, and his behaviour towards me was completely over the top. I asked very politely and seriously, but I must have touched a nerve.

[@MoveTheMouse]

​@@SuperMickyChowas far as I know, there's no monetary compensation outside of videos produced for the official channel. But there certainly is a monetary impact if your channel is based off of a single game. I hoped that CSII was going to be great and that I might ride that wave to 100K subscribers, but traffic for the game is already dying. Hope they pull a miracle out of their pocket but I'm not holding my breath. And I'm not going to create content to promote something I would not spend my own money on. And I 100% Do NOT recommend preordering any CO or PDX game in the future, if they were willing to push out this mess.

[@SuperMickyChow]

@MoveTheMouse I remember from launch, you were one of the few honest reviewers on KZbin unafraid to say exactly how bad the game was. It was very refreshing to see someone say "No, this game isn't good. It's broken and needs work" so I've kept an eye on your channel for more on CS2. Your principled and honest videos on the game show you have lots more integrity than certain other channels on this platform & that counts for a lot nowadays. I appreciate you. Plus, yes, pre-ordering is the bane of modern PC gaming - this is the third time I've been burned. No Man's Sky, Cyberpunk and now CS2. Tbf to those other games, NMS is now an amazing experience which is still getting fantastic updates and Cyberpunk is one of my favourite games of all time. The disappointing thing is I don't feel CS2 is going to follow suit. I don't have any faith in CO as a studio or their leadership to deliver a top quality gaming experience (bear in mind that CS2 was originally slated for release in 2021, so they were already two years late). I think the game will continue to be a buggy mess, modders will do their best to rescue it and mitigate the worse of it, but it will not be what most people expected for 12-18 months which just shows how unfinished, buggy, rushed and poorly implemented it is. As for Paradox, they are among my least favourite publishers and I usually only buy their games a couple of years after launch from key selling sites, but I was so hyped for CS2 I broke my golden rule and pre ordered. Never again. Keep up the good work, you're one of the good guys in all this!

[@mattpyson6181]

Don’t know what you’re talking about. I follow Biffa, and he just posted a video saying that he was going back to CS1 because CS2 just wasn’t fun to play. The KZbinrs gave the new version the benefit of the doubt for as long as they could but they are acknowledging that reality is what it is.

[@jonleibow3604]

Yeah we had all the big name KZbinrs who were toeing the Paradox/CO line even when the CS2 problems were glaringly obvious, then when it was "safe" to do so they finally spoke out about it far too late.

[@UOYTmobile]

I’m so glad the console version is delayed. Hopefully by the release of that all of this will be fixed. You are my favorite content creator about this. You help so much mouse thank you 😊

[@MoveTheMouse]

I really hope they pull out a miracle. I'm just not holding my breath.

[@mihirgohel2820]

Console versions gonna be a hard sell majority of us we know about these issues and will wait for reviews and this is not to mention that GTAVI pre orders will likely open up around the same time as CS2 pre orders and probably majority of us are getting GTAVI

[@user-wq9mw2xz3j]

While graphics optimisations are bad, I think its getting way too much focus. Game looks okay on lower settings- the things that dont (like trees) also look bad on highest settings. But cant build a big city. While at the same time, a big city is not simulated fully neither. So it's a lose-lose. Like almost everything else about the game. Neither great for painting, nor great for simulating

[@plazasta]

If after the official release, you still don't have a timeframe for when basic features like modding support and the editor will be finished (I say finished and not released because we've seen what their standard is for "ready to release"), then that makes me seriously wonder how developed they were upon game release. Like are we even sure they'd _begun_ developing the asset editor and PDXmods when the game came out?

[@jacksonbarkerthebluehairedfox]

Cities: Skylines 1 was released at a time where games weren't released until they were absolutely ready and were the best they can be. Cities: Skylines 2 was released at a time where publishers push the developers to cut as many corners as they can for maximum profits.

[@kjellduteweert9262]

Where are all the futures of city 1? I don't see stuff like that form the Industries DLCs. I expect those to be in the game.

[@ford6]

A year of rain? What city were they simulating, Seattle?

[@WeAreThePeople1690]

Probably Glasgow, it's always raining here. It's just warm rain in the summer 😂😂

[@quantitativediseasing9988]

@@WeAreThePeople1690 Scotland: The only time it doesn't rain is when it snows. 🙄

[@evilotis01]

it's just insane to me that a game that allows you to zoom out to view your entire city and zoom in to view individual buildings/residents could launch with no LODs. i can't imagine that CO's devs are so completely incompetent as to not know this--i mean, it's basic, basic stuff-so it's hard to conclude anything other than that the game was launched in a state that was so unfinished that basic features weren't finished and implemented. idk if it's CO's fault, or Paradox's, or someone else's, or all of the above, but whatever the case, it's inexcusable to charge full price for a game that's simply not finished. i'm a writer, and it'd be like an editor saying, "look, i know your feature's not finished, but we're just going to publish 3/4 of the rough draft and put the rest out later." no! no you're not!

[@MoveTheMouse]

New roads tools though! Yay! /s

[@section7173]

I downloaded a malicious mod. It deleted the game. Best mod so far.

[@BenchongDy]

It was awful at launch, bu the devs are really doing a pretty good job fixing it. If only they delayed this game for a couple of months or so, it would be an ok launch. Latest patch increased my fps and simulation time dramatically. So...

[@jetdoc731]

I agree with everything you said. Finally, someone who is willing to call a spade a spade! I pre-ordered the Ultimate Edition and I haven't even put an hour into the game. After about 10 minutes I gave up. That's with a beast of a gaming rig. I should've asked for a refund, but I'm giving Colossal Order time to fix their mess.

[@DougTheDriller]

It's now feb/march 2024, would you say there have been significant changes made yet? I pre-ordered it but haven't touched it after so many bad reviews at launch.

[@MoveTheMouse]

They've made performance improvements for sure; but the game is still not fun, and some things are still very broken, land value for example.

[@cappasgtgaming]

They won't get a penny from me till the game has been out on consoles for at least a year or so after. It's such a disappointment to see the sequel where it is.

[@vulvarinevulva4524]

Is CS1 upgrade from ps4 to ps5 much better visually?

[@DimaRakesah]

I feel like gaming has come to a point where it is becoming normal to put out games that are at early release status but call it a full release. I am honestly question if I should bother buying games anymore, because I feel like there is no way to trust gaming companies will not put out broken games for full price. No one holds them accountable. They make bank, fire a bunch of employees, push out a few updates and then move on. They made their money.

[@MoveTheMouse]

Welcome to the future of gaming.

[@DimaRakesah]

@@MoveTheMouse Kinda feels like that future is already here. It's really sad. I guess I will just have to get by on the games I already own.

[@lfcps7945]

Totally agree Mouse. I'm a console player and was looking forward to playing CS2 and while I understand them delaying the release on console, the management of the release has left me disillusioned with the game, franchise and I've not played CS1 since. It's been really disappointing the way its been handled.

[@briansterling5912]

“A shameless reset switch on a beloved platform designed to sell you DLCs”. Bravo! Also, that quote from the CEO sealed the deal that I won’t ever buy products from them again.

[@MichaelGreen831]

I'm cautiously optimistic about the game's future. I upgraded my rig just to play CSII and for now, I've parked the game and I'm waiting for the good news. I also play early access Satisfactory. This game from day 1 was a better "beta" than CSII was on launch day. Huge miss for Colossal. CSII has my $50/$60 bucks - I'll just have to wait.

[@simonp1204]

fair video. I'm on PS5 s playing remastered, yes it has it's issues but think I will just be sticking with that. From everything I have seen I think I just prefer the CS1 game style If i do get CS2 it certainly wont be on launch as I am not expecting that to go well

[@Snake082389]

apperciate the video. ♥

[@JC_Cali]

I'm severely concerned that the fundamentals (simulation, economy, taxation, zoning, etc.) will never be fixed and idk if I'll ever buy the game ... ESPECIALLY with the CEO's comments (if you don't like the simulation...) will go down in gaming history as an equivalent SimCity 2013 blunder

[@Laharal55]

Ironic this comes out the same day C.O. releases a video about the release of the game..... So much self-congratulation and tone-deafness in their vid. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy Skylines II but like many said, this should had been an EA release.

[@stormfire962imastarcitizen5]

Sir, I agree with everything you say here and more then 95% of the problem in CS2 is due to the publisher rushing this game out before it was even close to being ready. Many of the assets in game need tons more work and a major reduction in their polygon count. Heck I even understand that many of the buildings in the game have some 40,000 polygons per building which is totally crazy and just plain stupid since it puts a huge strain on any GPU. Plus, I feel many of us were mislead by the developer and some content creators where they lead us to believe some mods were going to be integrated into the game.

[@rgk99]

Before the game even released, I knew that I was not going to even attempt to dive into the game for a few months and maybe a year. I don’t want to play a vanilla game and knowing the way other games are released these days I assumed that this game would be boring. I was excited about the announcement of a second game, but in reality, I kept my expectations low knowing that it would be a year or longer before the game would allow you to be immersed into it. It’s probably a good idea that dive in and check things out with the new mechanics but from the reviews it seems like that might be pointless because a lot of the things aren’t working the way they should. I have other games to keep me busy over the next few months. I said this before at least this game was not developed by EA sports or take two. It’s I guarantee it would be in a worse state than it is now.

[@blacknwhite69]

You’ve convinced me. I’ll just keep enjoying CS Remastered 😊

[@showyourteeth2180]

I play CS since its launch in 2015/2016. I fell in love immediately but only experienced real love for the game with all the mods and assets. My love for the game was so profound that I endured +60 minutes loading times, hours of recalibrating when new updates were launched and played over 80.000 hours. Obviously, I anticipated CS2. I got suspicious however during the pre-launch marketing campaign (maybe because I am working in marketing). No word about modding, seeing so little diversity in assets, only zoning (and no MoveIt mod??), forced weather and growing trees (funny, but no way to bypass?). All this, combined with a strangely silent and "avoid-talking-about-the-elephant-in-the-room" content creator community, I suspected NDA's and paid content marketing (on this I am actually split: these content creators - city designers, modders and assets creators - were so damn important for the success of CS1, I think they deserved some financial backing. But today many of them got silent, which tells all and is so sad) Already during pre-launch, I decided not to buy CS2 and wait until mods and assets are available, and keep CS1 as long as possible. But as stated in the beginning: I love this game so much that I still have hope for a turnaround, but which I don't expect to happen in the next 10 months.

[@ldaragao6811]

It's not the peformance and bugs, it's the vision for the game itself. The lack of detailing options, like placing props and buildings and most of all the total miss in textures are beyond comprehension. It's a totally repetitive game that totally forgets creativity. The snow? So much hipe for the seasons and that's just some plain white coloring? Just look at what has been done in manner Lords. That's snow implemented in a game. CS without visuals and creativity is just a boring game advancing through milestones with similar looking cities and lots of repetitive buildings. Having said this, i still believe this game might reach some high standards, probably in two or three years.

[@JimNichols]

I have watched you from the beginning and enjoy your content a great deal. Courage to stand up to CO and just say 'this game should never been released in the state it is in' is applaudable. I see other content creators go on and on about the game and think.....explicatives..... The take I had from all the misinformation, pauses, then release, then lies about the game itself is that CO is basically the US government and we all know how that is going at the moment. I personally could care less if CO offered the game to me for free as I would not play because I am not the development team, a designer nor a beta tester. I am an end user and as an end user if CO thinks that the "game is just not for me" then I have wasted 2200 hours sampling CS1 for nothing as the creators of that game care exactly zero for me. Thanks MTM for the well scripted, edited and spot on vids you have graced us with.... Best of luck and I hope you can avoid the Assassination teams that CO has got to have out gunning for you.

[@dougbeard7624]

CO simply doesn't have the leadership required to resurrect this abomination of a sequel. They've got a Paradox lap dog with no emotional quotient what so ever. I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I don't care about mod support until the fundamental engine is fixed. These many months later, they haven't even delivered a single patch. And per CO's latest statements, they've fragmented (unlike original promised of that 'small team' of 30 devs ) to work on the editors, mod support and console... and DLC. Yes, they've stopped patching, until the DLC release. If her statement about not being the game from you was a groin punch, the fact that they're not patching and working on DLC is a drop kick to the nads. It's time to clean out the executive team. If they don't, CO will never get another dime from me, because the one they have is garbage.

[@steffenbryde7957]

>Be me >Buy new computer >Install CSII >Realize no flat maps exists >Realize no map editor exists >Start terraforming existing maps to make them flat >Realize that water is even more buggy than it was in CS1 >Uninstall the game >Haven't looked back since

[@steffenbryde7957]

Other things I really did not like: Road-tool is wonky Housing-zoning-gaps along roads is horrendous Road markings being low-resolution The "driving"-areas of the roads have been highlighted by some "white-ish", - I'm not sure what it was supposed to look like, - residue? Don't know but it looks horrible. Buildings being way too big.

[@rihardssv2647]

so tell me how many games on a release was perfect? I never buy games on a release, first of all expensive, secand bugged.

[@CocoaBeachLiving]

That's pretty much it. For crashing, I can sometimes play for 20 minutes, other times, it crashes in less than a minute. Ugh.. And what's up with the lane path shading on the roads?! Looks wrong and fake... I'll be in cs 1 for quite a while I think...

[@jordanking7711]

In my opinion, I blame Paradox for this one and not so much Mariina and CO if at all. At the end of the day, developers don't have the final word for the release of games. Publishers and shareholders do. Look at Cyberpunk 2077. When that game was released, CDPR said that the game would be ready when it's ready, and then soon after did a complete 180 and pushed the game out in a broken mess. And NOT because CDPR wanted to. It's because management and shareholders backed them into a corner and told them to rush the game out, regardless of the state it was in. That's what's happening here. People can debate it however they like. I get the state the CS2 is in at present, but at least Marrina and her team at CO are actually working to 'fix' the game. Which is more than I can say for certain devs and publishers who shall remain nameless, who just push games out the door and say 'oh well, take it or leave it'.

[@MoveTheMouse]

I don't think CO is free of fault here. They are happy with where the game is and moving on to DLC. I think that's premature. If they are already done addressing issues with design and moving on to selling us more stuff, it speaks volumes. Console release will be terrible and they are just banking on making what money they can with the people that are left.

[@Chris-fq3nr]

this came out 5hrs after the detailed colossal order doco

[@MoveTheMouse]

I watched their video today and thought about modifying this. With the exception of two quotes I might have included, I don't think it changed the overall tone. Bottom line, the game wasn't ready and they knew it and were willing to ship it regardless.

[@TheRick443]

I’ve been deflated for sure. I’ve been a fan of city simulation games since the SNES version of SimCity. Loved CS1. Can’t play CS2. Am watching the community closely. I’m basically not going to even try CS2 until they actually finish it. I think the game still has loads of potential- but I agree completely that it’s not finished and needed to bake longer.

[@computernerdtechman]

Move The Mouse, I agree with you 100%. I was so disappointed in this Colossal Clusterf*ck. (No pun intended). This has been a premature release nightmare. I have decided to put off this game and come back in about a year or so to see if they have actually got the sh*t together yet. Hopefully by then they will have worked out all the performance and bug issues and released the Editor and modding is in full throttle mode.

[@BudaAtum]

It was pretty clear, and it shows they stuck their fingers in their ears, sadly.

[@codyc7036]

Thinking of it as being in beta makes it make sense that it isnt released on console

[@scheballs7]

I Love The Game! I can't put it down and I have a very old GTX 1070. Twelve fps and sometimes 7 fps. I don't care it's a city builder in its infancy. For me it's about perspective. I'm patient.

[@Izaak99]

Thanks for this. Was looking for a more recent review of this game and it just sounds like another Evil Genius 2. Broken and bugged on release, filled with disappointment, slow development, and nowhere near the fun of the original. Hopefully one day it will surpass C:S1...

[@amaresch66]

I like this game more than first one because of the performance. CS1 will not run hardly at all on any of my computers. I tried a few mods on it, sure and that is the reason it won't run- TMPE, Anarchy, a couple of others to make the game more realistic and enjoyable. Even removing the mods the performance isn't really that good, so I played it less and less. CS2 mostly does what i want without any of the available unofficial mods out now, there are a few things- like line tool i would like in the game but i'll wait for CO to introduce them. But the point is, CS2 runs. I've turned down graphical settings- but I'm not bothered by that because total graphical realism doesn't increase the enjoyment. I've got everything set to a med-high level and I can play; even on a older laptop. I'll probably surpass my hours played CS2 vs CS1 in another 2-3 months. I am not married enough to gaming to go out and buy a brand new high end PC just for a game, but happily I can play Cities: Skylines now, and have been doing so since release.

[@EvePlaya4Ever]

yeah you're happy you can build a 20k population town city Congratulations! ENjoy.

[@gougef]

Honestly, I played it for a for a few hours, and went back to first one.

[@benjaminjonathanjamessisko7095]

Simple things like "Prop Line Tool", "Move It!" and the Steam workshop were not included. It's as if they don't have a clue about the users of CS I. I was going to move over to CS II, but will not touch it for a least a year. How can they be so out of touch?

[@lordzizo375]

I have to wait 5-10 years when you listend to the Community. When you changed the Game intirely Implementing a Workshop allow us our Mods that we need. I dont know how long it is that I would follow a Sim for what? Building is what I want.

[@user-wq9mw2xz3j]

Some timing :P Thought it would be about their newly released video. Well, its sort of about the same things anyways

[@MoveTheMouse]

I thought about delaying posting this and adding some on to the end with content from today's video, but it didn't change the overall tone.

[@starwave8228]

I remember CS:2 also getting announced just after Remaster.. Console drew the short straw especially if you paid for remaster. I had to switch off when they delayed console version, I'm not buying console and pc version again & i prefer relaxing and playing on console & I'm quicker on control pad, I suck at KB&M.

[@thegreatestofalltime23]

I thank you for being honest on city skyline 2 I played city skyline 1 i loved the 1 game of city skyline i haven't played 2 city skyline there not on xbox sx

[@seanC3i]

It really shouldn't have been released. CS1 worked great on my old PC from 2016, but CS2 pushes my new PC (mostly GPU bound) to its limit. It's a fun game, but having to turn graphics down to Low (on a 1080p 60hz monitor with an RX 7600) to avoiding pushing my GPU to its limit to show the main menu or run a village ... really is a buzz kill. Plus I was having some really weird issue with the game staying in the night phase all the time so I was building villages in the dark. Plus I can't yet make my own highway junctions and maps the way I could with CS1. I'm not going to leave a negative review on Steam because they might fix it, but no way in Hell would I recommend the game in its current state.

[@SuperMickyChow]

It's perfevtly valid to leave a negative review now, being as that accurately reflects the state of the game on release. When/if the game does become acceptable to you, the review can be edited to state that. That's the most honest thing a person can do, tbh

[@JBCreatieve]

second maybe no videocard made its technical posible to handle the LOD problem right know,

[@redmajic8202]

Avid console player. The delay for us is fortuitous. Maybe CS III will fix all of the problems.

[@ckdroid]

This is what consumers need. Do not stop, do Diablo 4 next.

[@wck]

At this point, I wish someone could take the project away from Colossal Order and give it to competent developers.

[@johnlawrence7386]

I had not played for a month so came on a week ago and started a new city, bad idea. It's so easy to make money and build, but, build what? Most people do grids and fill up the grids with the same buildings and then wait around to get the progression points for more buildings, in my case that means letting the game run while I do other things let the money roll in. I spent over an hour putting in the International airport, my own highway interchange and odds and sods around the airport, I had 100 mil in the bank and was earning a fortune so saved the game and turned it off. Come the next day I loaded the game, I was losing 2 mil per hour and the airport and other things I had done were gone, I turned it off and will not play it for another month maybe even longer, like two years.

[@zyxxxroad1532]

After the last simcity fiasco I had hopes for CS, but to me the game was just too boring. When CS2 was announced, I had hopes that they would make the game more fun. I wanted to buy it so bad. Still, I thought maybe the game was just a bigger DLC. Im glad I waited, because the game as is doesnt appeal to CS fans nor SC fans like myself.

[@justdude7222]

Im just waiting for my new hardware.

[@lordzizo375]

As long as I dont have a real Citie experience like Failing on a Citie its not worth playing. When a Citie still is thriving even if you put every Mass Transit like Busses Metro and Train out of your Citie something is wrong with this game. If you dont loose a Ton of Money by doing that Something is wrong with this Engine. You have to fail in this game. Disigning a Citie and Building on are two different things. If Citie Skylines 2 will not change like Citie Skylines 1 this game sorry is not good enough for me. We needs Mods - we need our Workshop, Assets free to place how we desire it to place them not the game. In Citie Skyline 1 we hat over 535 different Maps over 10.000+ Assets. We could take the Assets out of the Modules how we desired it. and here we have to take what is given. That is not an experience. Its to Easy to play.

[@S1mL1fe]

I’ve voiced my concerns from the beginning with harsh backlash no less. I still stand by the statement this could be the biggest flop for a sequel in a long time. The bar was set so high from CS1, they should have taken what they had originally and built upon it rather then do new inventive projects within the game like following individual cims lives. It was way overkill imo. I don’t understand the hundreds of tiny tiles, I don’t understand the point of the “point system” (no pun intended) to unlock assets instead of just leveling up traditionally. Then to top all that off, I don’t understand the massive resources needed to run a game like this one. Look at the new GTA trailer, like seriously, we aren’t getting cims even 10% of what they look like on many titles.

[@jengoh3826]

I think the core problem here is that the dev is trying to turn this game into a simulation game when most of us really just want to build beautiful cities. Simulation is needed for realism purpose, but that shouldn't be the focus, especially if it means making players spend thousands of dollars to upgrade computers.

[@MoveTheMouse]

The first game was marketed as a traffic simulator. It was one of the main bullet points on the original trailers. But that's not how people were playing it, and certainly not years later when mods became ubiquitous and a part of the core experience. Rather than lean into that, they decided to make a traffic simulator 2 and it didn't work. They say they're listening now but I'm pressing X for doubt. [insert ColePhelps.png]

[@Ricksdetrix]

Your video critizing the game and it's performance stopped me buying the game just after launch. I so desperately want CS2 because, well, there's a sequel, why would I ever play CS1 again? Even with the update. I'm just.. so disappointed with this. Just like KSP2, and so many other sloppy, half baked cash grab sequels. My trust in the franchise is destroyed completely (though paradox never ranked very highly to begin with). "Cities skylines" no longer gives me a sense of joy, where it used to evoke a positive reaction. Why the fuck should I give this company another £200 over the next few years after they used the last £100 I gave them, more than any other game company, and spat in my face?

[@MoveTheMouse]

Investing in this platform for the next 10 years seems like a terrible deal at this point.

[@Ricksdetrix]

@@MoveTheMouse The sad part is that I inevitably will when it becomes passable. Feels like we're trapped into this system now that gaming is super mainstream

[@jwconglomerate332]

Man, what a shame. I'm a console player and this was one of the releases I was looking forward to the most this year. Now I'm glad the console ports were delayed; I'll save my money until it's ready.

[@NerdyNanaSimulations]

I have uninstalled the game, back with CS1. I will revisit when it is fixed because right now it's like playing a zombie version of CS1, there is no life in the game. I hope they do fix it, but right now even with mods it's no fun. It should have been called cities skylines reboot, not CS2

[@Rozay2122]

just downloaded the game yesterday (Game Pass) It doesn't seem that bad, I'm enjoying my time.. Jan 12 2024

[@Mamorufumio]

i hate to say it but i've moved on from cities skylines, these days i'm playing stuff like workers and resources with like over a hundred mods and it's still more stable (brand new gaming computer by the by)

[@WeAreThePeople1690]

I hope CO don't throw the toys out of the pram, and take you off their list of creators, after this video. Surely, they aren't as bad as activision 😂 Is there any time frame for console yet?

[@MoveTheMouse]

No timeframe for the console that I know of. But when it's ready, is when it should be released. And not a day before that.

[@WeAreThePeople1690]

Bet they give us a few days' notice, I can't wait to get to play it, but as you said, it's going to be terrible for a while until they iron out the bugs. Just release it already 😂

[@D.Rob86]

There's too many game not ready at launch now... Making me waiting a year before buying these game now. They should all learn from Cyberpunk

[@user-ft9ul5ul5v]

I completely get the general complains, but I have some of my own, purely gameplay complaints. WHY on earth does Water require a Road access? And sewage - no! While in CS1 no one of them required! WHY on earth there are several height levels for water piping? WHY on earth I need to manually route planes, ships and other external-traffic vessels? I don't care from what Kyrzbekistan they come to my city! WHY on earth the building process for simulated buildings takes forever, while signature and services are built almost instantly!? I thought the speed button wasn't working, but no, it's just the speed is incredibly slow at itself! I come to play, not to watch paint dry! I play most simulators at speeds x3 (cs1), x5 (hoi4) you name it! The word 'performance' is confusing, I think we need to stop talking about it and concentrate on the game itself, it's not playable.

[@redsoxmateo22]

This entire thing has me in night sweats with horrid flashbacks to that disaster SimCity launch. Truly a huge disappointment.

[@douka3993]

I deleted it day one, I just can't play at 1080p with my 4090, bro, I'm playing rdr2 for the first time and omfg,😂😂 you can clearly see cs2 is dogshit with optimization, maybe I try it in a year or so.

[@Jonas-tc8qt]

We need competition....

[@WokioWolfy]

Imma say one thing about the character models, just, stop trying to go with realistic in building sim games, go for stylistic as a way to reduce polygon count, its what a lot of other games of this genre does.

[@Darknova591]

lets be real here they should've let the steam workshop open and let consoles just have costom assists and delay the game what's the issue with people getting them ready half finish is there issues behind the scenes to know about.

[@chazman4461]

The cities skylines boss needs to be fired. There has been improvement but all they had to do was incoporate all the mods in the first one and it would have been fantastic.

[@SuperMickyChow]

Not only is she incompetent in not ensuring her studio was adequately resourced to cope with the demands of the project, but when the end results are alpha-release standard & people complained, she had the nerve to tell those complaining not to play the game because it's not for them - but only weeks after release so it was too late to refund. She's unprofessional, arrogant and pretty close to committing fraud. She absolutely disgusts me with her attitude to this whole farce.

[@baconomelette9437]

Both CS2 CounterStrike 2 and Cities Skylines 2 came out unfinished buggy mess. Just became norm at this point.

[@MoveTheMouse]

"Modern Gaming"

[@baconomelette9437]

​@@MoveTheMouseEvery modern game releases are either early access disguised as full releases or it's just filled with day1 DLCs.

[@seb_yt6695]

19:00 ohhh, you are going to eat your words about DLCs, I am willing to bet about that.