SimCity 2013 Revisited - Is It Any Better Now?

After a year of patches and the Cities of Tomorrow expansion pack, is SimCity 2013 awesome or is it too little too late? Covers the offline patch, expansion, DLC, updates, etc.
● My previous review of SimCity • LGR - SimCity 2013 Review
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[@GGBeyond]

The thing that rubs me the wrong way is that they outright lied that an offline mode was not possible. They say they offload a significant amount of the calculations to the servers to simulate the individual sims, yet it's playable for 20 minutes after you lose your connection. Turns out the servers never actually did any calculations for the game; they're just regular servers passing along messages in a typical client-server model so that you can have the chat and the leaderboards. Now this not-so-possible offline mode is coming soon, and I get the feeling they're just dragging their feet in releasing it because, well, the game technically runs offline.

[@RivalBro]

I pirated the game and played it without a connection at all. Cities Skylines is much better and after pirating that, actually bought it, worth the money.

[@HissinSpit]

Skylines is infinitely better. I love that game! Speaking of which, EA apparently learned a lesson with Sim City because, as lacking as it is, The Sims 4 was originally supposed to be always online too, but since Sim City did terribly, they changed the idea last minute. This is supposedly why TS4 is bare bones because it had to be reworked. Don't quote me on that info, though, because it's only something I remember reading a few years back on the Sims forums. But if it is indeed true, it'd be great to get competition for their other games like The Sims.

[@LordProteus]

It's common practice for companies to "justify" anything they do with lies. They refuse to look like they are wrong. For example, for the World of Warcraft expansion Cataclysm, they said they scrapped one of the dungeons "The Abyssal Maw" because they said that underwater combat wasn't fun, but the actual reason was because of time and resource constraints.

[@edcellwarrior]

Game developers do that a lot, and it's a shame people fall for it so much. 99.9% of the time "it's impossible" means "it's totally possible but we're lazy and/or think we'll make more money if you don't have that feature".

[@nichsa8984]

@@RivalBro no ways simcity cities of tomorrow will get sick of depression futuristic

[@Draxis32]

You revisit games. It's an automatic subscription. You've proved that you focus on being trustworthy to your audience, more than reviewing popular themes and abandoning in search of another new subject to speak of. How did I missed your channel all these years.

[@LGR]

Don't know, but I'm glad you found it now! Thanks :D

[@scottmitting1671]

+Draxis32 Don't feel too bad, I didn't discover LGR until about 2 weeks ago. My wife even started watching over my shoulder when she got curious why I watched 2 hours straight of some dude at goodwill. I'm almost inspired to start making my own youtube videos, where I review reviewers (that tables have turned!) but haven't committed myself to the idea. LGR and Ross's Game Dungeon have made me a huge fan of this sort of thing.

[@SianaGearz]

+Scott MItting I think reviewing reviewers is a pretty cool idea.

[@Ropetupa]

+Scott MItting Do it!

[@vallstareater4170]

Draxis32 same here

[@Lomaxxx53]

For being unscripted, you have a lot of vocabulary and a lot to talk about. And I like that. Great video.

[@LGR]

Thank you very much!

[@getamber2671]

Reckless39 Lol, he said that at the very beginning of the video. Like, the first sentence I think.

[@clutteredpictures7421]

Lazy Game Reviews welcome

[@daisymae3717]

I second that, if KZbin ever dies I think LGR has a really good radio voice.

[@ZM7241994]

Only an EA game would add the ability to save locally a full year after release. Is their CEO that disconnected from average gamers?

[@james64468]

+Zach Myers The old Ceo was very disconnected. HE was trying to do mobile only. EA almost went under because of that.

[@ZM7241994]

I doubt the new CEO is any different. He/she will just be more secretive about their greediness.

[@james64468]

+Zach Myers His motto is Players first. I still feel sad that they closed Maxis. If that old Ceo would have allowed communication. Maybe Simcity wouldn't have died.

[@DracXBelmont]

+Zach Myers Wow, cynicism is strong with you.

[@ZM7241994]

DracXBelmont True, but with EA I'd call it common sense. Everything EA touches dies.

[@johnoogler3615]

Dumb question: How about now?

[@LGR]

The game has been all but abandoned, last I checked.

[@m.dcreativestudios8430]

so sad...

[@aerohydra3849]

At least now Project Orion works quite well to improve city sizes without too much of a hassle now.

[@bigmoneyboss7898]

Hey, I was gonna buy cities skylines is it still good/better?

[@aerohydra3849]

It's still a good game. It has its flaws but in the end it's a good city-builder (and it's supported unlike SC2013)

[@gguerrero11]

My dad who worked for Maxis (before it was dissolved) said that they really tried to make cities bigger. But when they did, their computers couldn't handle it and it would crash.

[@SianaGearz]

+gguerrero11 Which means that the software was ill designed to handle large simulations in the first place. Well, Maxis' failure is someone else's success.

[@gguerrero11]

+kelerews hahah yep you betcha. At least what i got from him was from him working there was a tour of EA and being able to play the Alpha version... if you thought the release was buggy, oh man. I wonder if i still have recordings of it.

[@stephenweger9680]

+gguerrero11 Didn't maxis dissolve in like the 90's ;-0

[@heinrichpreussen]

That's sad! I wish they would make Maxis create games again.

[@ragzaugustus]

That was OldMaxis, NuMaxis was dissolved slightly after this failure as released. The Sims have had their own studio for years.

[@420alphaomega]

-"Offline mode will never be possible"- "Offline mode next patch!" oh EA, will you never learn?

[@MrJoeyWheeler]

I'd say SimCity dragged EA's reputation through the mud but that would imply they had a good reputation beyond the Sims and sports games before.

[@daviddragoon82]

EA has been behind the death of alot of franchises that mattered to me. So I guess its no surprise that they still pull stuff like this... Kain Lives!

[@LordofFullmetal]

I know this is a really old comment - but apparently not! They did the exact same thing with the Sims 4. "We can't have toddlers/pools because the game won't run". Customers: But they've been in the series since the second and first games, respectively. If you could do it then, why can't you now? EA: .......... "Toddlers and pools for FREE"

[@jeromealday614]

@@LordofFullmetal I know this is an old comment. But idc if took long. Because Toddlers are amazing. 😫👌

[@daisymae3717]

I'm just glad they learned from this and didn't use such aggressive DRM and online only for the sims 4. I also didn't play the sims 4 untill 2018 when it went on sale for $5.

[@Feshman117]

So it took them over a year to fix some of the issues that people were complaining about since day 1? Pathetic.

[@buckwheat219970]

Same with Diablo 3. The game was essentially in beta until the upcoming release of the first expansion. It's now much better than launch, but there are still no ladders, still no offline mode, still missing features that were present and popular in the previous series installments.

[@Shiralkian]

Considering The sims 3 still has awful bugs from more than 3 years ago and they aren't going to patch anymore, Simcity players can count themselves lucky.

[@KratostheThird]

ShiRa Malk They're just a shit company. Period.

[@RobloxianUploader]

You're an idiot. It took like 5 years to make a game like GTA V. Games of today can take more than 3 years if they are this beautiful. This isn't the 80s, with only isometric views. Now we can see some of our skyscrapers defy logic, and besides; if there are over 200 buildings in a city, and over 500 individual names, plus working with glass box, plus coding and stuff, that'll take more than just 3 months. They've been working on it since the release, so you cannot get angry at them. This is a huge game, and although city sizes disagree, it's true. There's a lot to load up, because there was a lot to put in the game...so really it takes time to take everything that you worked over a year on and redo it and put it into another mode and not just a few months. Things take time.

[@Feshman117]

DoubleBrick Gaming Productions The problem is they released a game that wasn't finished

[@MizterMoonshine]

The small size of the cities is the only thing stopping me from downloading the game.

[@shanedeleon5376]

I hope you never bought it.

[@MrJDification]

they should have implemented what Prison Architect put in with one of the recent patches: you can buy additional slots of land around the outside, getting more expensive the larger they are

[@LGR]

Yup, even RollerCoaster Tycoon had this. Freaking A-Train had this.

[@TC-st9nt]

Cities Skylines has this. :)

[@nichsa8984]

@@LGR renamed simpile because ea has many made too much pile

[@user-sl5zk3vc5p]

After the offline patch and Single player Mode This game has become a great time killer for me i still play it to this day, all alone, managing all cities in the region, making great works and people happy this game is not bad, infact it's awesome if you ignore small maps

[@wibuwabu]

-remove the tiny city limits -fix the water and electricity distribution, or just change it to the old simcity style Those are the two things i need to feel like this game was worth it.

[@TomasGomila]

You can fix water problems by putting a water pumping station near the sewage treatment plant, the water pumping station drains water from the ground, and the sewage treatment plant brings back water to the floor. That creates a vicious circle, a loop of water (like infinite water). The tiny city limits is a problem, but on the other hand you can play cities of tomorrow and try to make the bigger city (with mega towers) without traffic problems, or make a touristic place with casinos and monuments without traffic jams :).

[@troll4life662]

Cities Skylines: Write that down, write that down!

[@larrote6467]

@@troll4life662 CS doesn't work anymore

[@troll4life662]

@@larrote6467 That's what happens when you cram the entire thing with mods and expect everything to work perfectly.

[@doriphor]

LGR, another nice video :) I love the frequency, quality and informativity of all the stuff you do, and the subtle and effective humor just make it better. You're definitely one of my favorite KZbinrs :D You deserve more subscribers! Cheers!

[@LGR]

Thank you very much!

[@IbanBoi99]

Cities skylines is the new simcity!

[@weareorigin]

+GeneraL_LOL Cities Skylines is very nice. I paid the full price of $30 and was worth it. Switching laptops and traveling and working....I had trouble getting a stable internet connect but Cities Skylines doesn't require online bullcrap!

[@gameenthusiast12]

N-no.

[@mikestoughestrally326]

GeneraL_LOL yet again it’s a lot harder to run on older computers

[@majamystic256]

Cities Skylines too laggy to play

[@gellertgulyas1874]

Atleast with have land to use and normal traffic bots

[@tomboi1978]

I'm so glad i didn't waste my money. Simcity 4 for another decade I guess.

[@LGR]

Checked out Cities Skylines? kzbin.info/www/bejne/kHvFaHZohKpsrq8

[@JoRosieQueen68]

+Lazy Game Reviews I got it cracked and I can easly say this is a great game but the small cities are crap,but the rest is very great,I have every dlc,and I love it more than Cities Skylines which lacks all of those futuristic things.

[@tomboi1978]

+Lazy Game Reviews I haven't. But I'm going to now. Last time I played cities was cities xl. Still in my steam library.

[@davidko7100]

+tomboi1978 Then you are in for quite a surprise!

[@imapie4688]

+tomboi1978 So how was Cities Skylines?

[@antonydandrea]

How did they fuck this franchise up so badly? It had so much potential. I actually like the online play as a feature, but they still should have had the offline play with bigger cities. That is my biggest annoyance, the size of the cities. I also think they would have done well if they continued making expansions for it. Add new items etc etc.

[@shioyoutube9041]

The size is a strange issue but it seems to just be a tech problem that all of the Agent-based city builders have to solve differently, SC2013 had tiny cities because the engine couldn’t handle anything above a town, Tropico has a maximum population of 2000 by default and has islands as it’s excuse for a smaller map size, and CS has it built in but as a result the traffic engine is simplified and in some ways worse, and it still has limits for roads, nodes, and citizens which you’ll probably hit before you can fill out the map.

[@blesyl67]

Cities: Skyline , full stop .

[@TheBossIsHerePL]

Theoretically, after writing full stop there shouldn't be a full stop behind the word full stop. Ha, you've made an error.

[@kirkadurka7152]

P.A.T. you must be fun at parties

[@stefanboomkamp43]

James Kirka you must be parties at fun

[@kirkadurka7152]

MC Phteven must you be fun at parties?

[@stefanboomkamp43]

James Kirka parties you must, fun you shall

[@stalinov91]

Still no agriculture. Cities get their food out of factories or across country drivers I assume.

[@thecensoriouscritic9358]

Everybody knows that milk is made in oil wells and that bread comes from casinos... lol

[@Draxis32]

Shit, I thought about buying this game but nah. It's a disgrace to the uniform pal! Sim City 3000 had literally everything! And I thought that the 150 year time progression was spot on!

[@ocass66]

I feel like agriculture would be a city specialization or great work.

[@Plankensen]

Foodtrucks and ramen packs

[@tifforo1]

Getting food from cross country drivers is kind of normal for a city. Still, they had farms in SC4 (they weren't very useful), so I don't know why it would be so hard to put in here. Maybe they were worried that players would use up the very limited space in the cities with something land intensive.

[@imemyself2820]

Ah found you again. I like you style, watched your stockpile of videos on the Sims but forgot to subscribe. Done.

[@LGR]

Much appreciated :)

[@jugostran]

Lazy Game Reviews I also subbed.Plus,simcity has been fixed,but,for me,cities skylines is,as time goes by,breaking,i watched a youtuber that played 3 cities,witch all have gotten currupted.

[@Magmaster13]

One year ago EA didn't release a finished game they released a fucking beta, they didn't expect us to enjoy it they just wanted your money as soon as possible.

[@ifesbobthekillerpolarbear2013]

I used to play a lot of simcity and because it's the only simcity game I've ever played I wasn't that bothered by missing features from the other games at the time, though I do remember the limited size being frustrating. I don't know if I ever actually had enough patience to get to a great work, but I remember loving the towers in Cities of Tomorrow. Really great review.

[@mocthezuma]

"What decade am I in? I don't even know." Seems like the appropriate conclusion to a review of this game.

[@GothMia_]

Strange that we would have to wait one year to get a implementation of "offline mode" and "local saves". Something that should have been in the game since day one. This is basic stuff and for me it's too little too late.

[@SaintCyrX]

They ruined the series. Sim City 4 + Rush Hour was so close to perfect, just go out and buy that. Seriously. A ten year old game is far far better then a brand new version of it.

[@weareorigin]

+MrSmapdi I played Sim City 4 Rush Hour every year since it came out. Only switched to Cities Skylines, which is thankfully how a city building game should be.

[@nilsdendekker1300]

MrSmapdi thats the same With EMERGENCY 4 and 5. 4 is like 10 years old but beter that 5

[@raymondgabriel5724]

I never got Sim City 4 to run properly. Very jerky and quite unusable.

[@wta1518]

I’ve never played SimCity, I just started with Skylines and I can barely believe how garbage this game is.

[@nova423]

So many fond memories of Sim City 4 and Rush Hour expansion in college in 2003 and 2004. This 2013 Sim City game was garbage.

[@EyeoftheU]

The city sizes remain small basically because the Glassbox engine is a fundamentally broken piece of garbage.

[@JapanForSale]

That mega tower tho. I really liked SC2013's modular design. Being able to design and control the function and form of individual buildings is something I never knew I needed. The design aesthetics was also very pleasing. Honestly, SC is like a really pretty girl with some really deep seated' disturbing issues. At first glance you're awed by how perfect it looks, but as soon as you get closer and things start coming out of her mouth, your flight instinct kicks off. CS, on the other hand, is the relatively competent one who is inexplicably just hard to look at directly. The whole color scheme is disjointed, the UI is eye stabbingly ugly, it brings really nothing new or exciting to the table, but damn if it's not "the best" in these scarce and bleak times.

[@Locomamonk]

the end with the old websites cracked me up, man. What decade are we indeed

[@ptwob]

I like your voice, and your taste in games mister, you got yourself a subscriber.

[@LGR]

Thank you, I hope you continue to enjoy!

[@DavidStudiosproduct]

Music sounds like Blade Runner, or synth done right.

[@snetmotnosrorb3946]

Well, that's nice... Anyone remember how the developers talked deep and grand about how you should manage resources and make the city sustainable? And how they after release talked about how it couldn't be run offline because of calculations made in the cloud? So much BS. Let's just accept that SimCity is dead. I have, and life is wonderful. The spirit lives on in Cities: Skylines.

[@wta1518]

Yeah, Cities: Skylines seems more SimCity than SimCity 2013.

[@HoboTango]

One word : Cities Skyline.

[@spencerpruitt8385]

Well said

[@Aaronlcyrus]

But that's 2 words....

[@spencerpruitt8385]

whoops o__o

[@HoboTango]

Thats alright ;)

[@jugostran]

HoboTango s

[@darkmage07070777]

Regarding city sizes: seriously, Maxis, look at Sim City 2K Network! In there, you had to purchase each section of land you wanted to develop on in a first-come-first-serve deal. It allowed the entire land mass to be developed and for your city to grow large, while also still forcing you to cooperate and negotiate with your neighbors for resources and services so you can all grow to maximum potential. Why can't you implement something similar here?

[@alaeriia01]

In short: NO In long: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[@Erakius323]

Alex Snitzer You watch Yahtzee to?

[@alaeriia01]

Master Erakius Who doesn't watch Yahtzee?

[@getamber2671]

Alex Snitzer I don't.

[@voxelbugged]

In medium: NOOOOO

[@casualretrocollector]

It’s kind of sad because Clint was so passionately in love with the sim city series through his life. And ea completely killed it, and that’s has since been the last ever simcity 2013 video from lgr. I feel for you man

[@LGR]

True, but thankfully Cities Skylines did a nice job filling the void and I’ve made a ton of videos about that :)

[@casualretrocollector]

@@LGR yes indeed sir, cities skylines is amazing!

[@MineMiguel40]

A futuristic expansion for cities skylines is something I'd love

[@tantraman93]

If the current incarnation of 'Simcity' were a car it would be an Edsel.

[@TeamRocket98]

LGR the one thing I agree with you the most among everything you said is the FUCKIN SOUNDTRACK. Cities of tomorrow truly is the best soundtrack from a video game I ever heard. Some is relaxing, some is very electronica, and some is very party dancing....so entertaining on my ears!

[@letsplayXBOXgames9]

They need to make SIM CITY : Cities of the past. As an Expansion Pack

[@KathyClousegems]

I have gone through all your Sims3 reviews and you are so honest, fun to listen to, knowledgeable, thanks for doing this. I am addicted to Sims, glad it is here! Glad you are too...

[@RizzyKhaos]

I miss the LGR sims 3 Lets Play

[@Mani-aX]

I don't play this version of the game, but bought the cd soundtrack to cities of tomorrow and have absolutely loved it!

[@tugrulserhat]

size restriction is actually because of the performance problem. if you get more than 350-400k agents in a city it starts to tank so much like 10-12 fps. I made a tourism city with other cities around on online mode and when I got 200k residents and 150-170k tourists the game became unplayable so I had to stop playing that city altogether. either I was gonna remove all tourism or play at 12 fps

[@NulixFTW]

Man I really hope modders managed to make the map larger. If they can I think I'd really enjoy going back to this game

[@HeroicPunk]

Geocities? Angelfire? Lycos? Alta-vista? Dude, OLD SCHOOL! I kinda love it, and the review, too! I'm so glad that when I needed my SimCity fix, I simply got SimCity 4 off Steam for $5 at Xmas, cuz I'm not gonna bother with this game unless it gets DIRT cheap in a few years. Until then...

[@LockeRobsta]

So many comments have already mentioned this but it really is all about Cities: Skylines now. This is a classic case of a company (EA or possibly Maxis themselves) that sat on its laurels while the upstart newbie listened to what the people want and then gave it to them. Thank you Paradox! Now if you could only tone down your overpricing of expansion packs you will be perfect!

[@Shady00018]

Good Video bro! Cheers!

[@daniellegruber9156]

All of your reviews are so fun and interesting to watch; not to mention educational. Thank you so much for providing such in-depth looks into so many games, systems, etc.!

[@xSTATOKEx]

Unrelated but have you ever though of voice acting? I'm sure it be a fun way to make some extra money and exposure.

[@plemgrubern]

he played duke nukem in a racing game that I forgot the name. it was pretty awesome

[@LGR]

Yup! Here's one game I was in not long ago: store.steampowered.com/app/243800/

[@ditchen011]

Lazy Game Reviews You should do more of that, love your voice, it's so captivating!

[@Frebibble]

Even though he has an enjoyable voice to listen to, it doesn't mean he has the talent to act. Not many do. It's easy to think that because somebody has a good voice. That they naturally know how to act.

[@khugansixtyeight]

Amaranthus616 For the longest, I assumed he was!

[@AryzenI]

I've been watching you for so long... AND I CAN'T BELIEVE I HAVEN'T SUBSCRIBED YET!

[@KittyKatForeverAndEv]

tbh u deserve way more subscribers

[@VibescapeTVmusic]

You deserve more subs. I'm glad I found you last year, you've become my favorite channel!

[@osiris2908]

KZbin started to buffer after you said ‘server issues’

[@ingots4353]

Bf4 needs to be revisited too. It is almost at the release point it should of been when initially reached. I've kinda lost faith in most EA titles, knowing not to buy it tell the games are officially fixed a year later.

[@LGR]

I never visited/reviewed BF4 in the first place, so I can't exactly do that!

[@ingots4353]

Oh sorry, I wasn't suggesting it to you! Just in general with ea titles they usually need two reviews now a days. Good games, good engines, bad ethics.

[@mediaunarmed]

"City sizes have been a constant point of conversation among our players since we released the game. The game’s original design focused on the density of an intimate urban environment. It was about intercity connectivity and the challenge of managing a region of cities instead of one metropolis in isolation. However, we recognize that many players have expressed the desire to build up one big city rather than manage the interrelationship of multiple smaller cities. We’ve put months of investigation into making larger city sizes, reworking the terrain maps, changing the routing algorithms of our agent-based system and altering the way that GlassBox processes the data in a larger space. After months of testing, I confirm that we will not be providing bigger city sizes. The system performance challenges we encountered would mean that the vast majority of our players wouldn’t be able to load, much less play with bigger cities. We've tried a number of different approaches to bring performance into an acceptable range, but we just couldn’t achieve it within the confines of the engine. We've chosen to cease work on bigger city sizes and put that effort into continuing to evolve the core game and explore an offline mode. Some of the experiments we conducted to improve performance on bigger cities will be rolled into future updates to improve overall game performance." - some EA guy. Not me.

[@XxHessxX7]

if EA was smart they would make the city limits bigger!! I don't understand why they just don't do it... if the city limits was at least double it would be a enjoyable game.

[@roseleicher9100]

They will make that a expansion pack do they get more Money

[@nichsa8984]

@@roseleicher9100 three word:valve is superiority

[@Nazrat84]

"Modding" You mean "buy more DLC and Expansions to be able to use player created content that's mostly recolor or assets changing or risk getting banned" right? Still bugs me about Sims 3.

[@simonro9168]

"buy more DLC and Expansions to be able to use player created content that's mostly recolor or assets changing or risk getting banned" right?" Are we talking aboyt the same Sims 3 here?

[@Spootnik]

Reason #2,342 of why I'll never touch a game with the EA branding on it. This game has been completely abandoned shortly after this video, as EA does.

[@nekokyun]

My Sim City review: purchase Cities Skylines.

[@CaptCow]

This video just makes me realise how much I would LOVE to see you make a Top 12 City Builder games list

[@PurushNahiMahaPurush]

The only good thing about this game is the background music. Good god..its so awesome!

[@pqfamilyadventures]

Good reviews, good presentation, subscribed

[@thatgamereviews]

Hey, just curious, what happened to your Sims Medieval: Pirates and Nobles review from long ago? Did you decide not to do it?

[@LGR]

Hmm, I don't recall ever saying I was going to do one. In fact, I said several times in the comments that I had no interest in covering it since it was such a crappy little expansion!

[@thatgamereviews]

Oh, sorry, for some reason I thought you had said you would do a review of it before. It did seem to be the most unambitious out of all the Sims franchise expansion packs, and that really says something.

[@TezzerethPrime]

That crazy tower building reminds me of the Tower of Sol from the game The Legend of Legaia.

[@tiberiusbrain]

Watching this video made me decide to play simcity music whilenplayong cities skylines. Love that soundscape!

[@HissinSpit]

You know what I've learned from this whole fiasco? Never to trust EA when they first launch a game (at least for the PC).

[@nova423]

This comment has aged quite well.

[@ReviveHF]

The reason why they only you to build small city is because the technological issues of that time will cause the computers to crash. To fix this, they introduced MEGATOWERS from "Cities of tomorrow" . And there's spiritual successor to this game called "Cities: Skylines". Cities Skylines uses newer game engine that allows you to build really large cities without crashing.

[@GlitchG00D5]

I want a Cities Of Yesterday.

[@toadkat9]

+Stanley54 XD but more like Towns of Yesterday

[@GlitchG00D5]

true toadkat9

[@stephenweger9680]

+Stanley54 Simcity2000 :)

[@ShiggitayMediaProductions]

Dookienut Ridge... lol. Good job on this video. I'm a somewhat new subscriber, but I've seen several of your videos in passing even before subbing. Keep up the good work! :)

[@chris-hayes]

Kind of disappointed to have enjoyed simcity 4 and then finally after ten years, you get an ok game with better graphics as expected, but ultimately overall worse play than a game made in 2003.

[@lawdpleasehelpmeno]

This game broke my heart and I never got over it

[@MrKrzys01]

Aww man... Alta Vista... those were they days. Much love!

[@AlexandraRoedder]

Just a note, years later: you still need internet to get onto Origin in the first place. So if your internet is out or off, no SimCity.

[@DirectorBird]

For the small cities, it’s not even like the regions are small. The Delta region is HUGE. 16 cities, 4 great works, and yet, only 30% of the map is usable for a city.

[@gator36]

EA has figured out how to deter pirates: make their games suck ass.

[@stryk187]

"Dookienut Ridge" Pure genius. Liked, subscribed, +7

[@DDKNV]

EA has become a publisher I just can't trust to give money to anymore.

[@sandragruber4596]

"...you have stuff like pulled from blade runner, judge dredd and ghost in the shell..." you can make it short and say just blade runner, because taht is the source for all those SF movies an still is. yes, I'm obsessed with this movie XD

[@velius2014]

Great review LGR, i think i am ready to get this now, i was waiting for them to crack and pull the always online single player. I feel upcoming mods will address the city size so i am not worried about that.

[@thecensoriouscritic9358]

Just buy Tropico 4 or wait for Tropico 5, about 50 times better than simcity.

[@Momo-po5tn]

agreed

[@LosEagle]

I'd rather recommend Tropico 3 since 4 is pretty much 3 with couple of new things and 5 doesn't really do was intended for. Even the eras don't last long enough.

[@thecensoriouscritic9358]

LosEagle If 4 is just 3 with just a few more things wouldn't it make more sense to buy 4? I mean it has more things(even if only a few) and they are both about the same price. I wouldn't know though, I only own 4. I bought it when it was on sale on steam for 4 euros and it included all the DLC plus the expansion pack. Pretty good deal if you ask me.

[@LosEagle]

kurasa otaku Yeah that's good point.

[@thecensoriouscritic9358]

LosEagle Thanks.

[@m2y8v]

Simcity (2013) is actually deeper than Cities Skylines. For instance, Cities Skylines have no economy management, you can't buy, you can't sell, you can't import or export, is all made by the AI in the background. There is only 4 resources in the game, i mean FOUR, just like Age Of Empires 1... The base game of Cities Skylines have no natural disasters, unless you pay 20 dollars for DLC.

[@neamhdhlisteanach6720]

Cities skylines is better.

[@m2y8v]

The only problem of Simcity2013 is the small size of the cities

[@m2y8v]

Would be great if simcity2013 had a game mode that is only one city and you have unlimited space to build

[@ScoobyBaseball]

If this really was "unscripted" (wouldn't doubt it) than that was impressive. It just goes to show how easily and flawlessly you're able to review games/things now. I remember when you first started out (plugging an Xbox into a tree comes to mind) and see this, how you're doing now, and what you've turned LGR into is respectful and totally 'phreakin' awesome. Keep it up, Clint!

[@LGR]

Thank you very much! I actually started off doing all my reviews as unscripted, and it really showed then. Now when I do an unscripted video, it's a nice change to see several are impressed :)

[@lukethis2924]

One main reason I watch your videos is because of your voice! :D

[@ainsleyfrastructurekpopmashups]

In 2023, New City Building Games Will Be: Cities Skylines 2 Planet City (Frontier) Simcity 2023

[@FornicateWithRaptors]

SimCity 4 is on steam for 10 euroshillings.

[@ideemi3657]

Thank you for revisiting games...you have my subscription!

[@cd2220]

Now this is something I was really curious about. This is going to be a bit of a rant but... Always online, in my experience, does nothing but put in very difficult to fix bugs, huge day one (often much longer) issues, and a lot less freedom for the player. The worst part is, this only really affects the people who actually pay for the games. I understand these guys need to make money, but it's ridiculous how people paying good money for a game, most likely big fans, suffer because the publishers want to make more. Then they destroy the trust between fans and the people who make the game by flat out lying and pretending the game has some sort of cloud computing (I personally think cloud computing in itself is an impossible concept, at least with today's tech) process that the game needs to run properly. Piracy in itself is way overblown most of the time. A lot of times they yell piracy when the game was just not good or popular enough to make money or the publishers were expecting too much in the first place and had an overblown budget. At the end of the day, I can deal with always online for the first week or so, because that is reasonable as that's when a game gets the most sales. But otherwise, it's just too intrusive. Even then I still don't really like it. There's got to be a better alternative. I love the concept of digital distribution but people like EA make me afraid to really invest in it. They're always trying to take more and more rights away from the buyer that I would still have had I bought a hard copy. Also, good video :D

[@HissinSpit]

Yes! Plus, the people who have a poor internet connection are screwed. If they really want the game, they can't play it unless they're willing to take a risk. And that hurts consumer trust even more, in my opinion.

[@cd2220]

Yea, my internet drops ALL the time. If the game doesn't explicitly require internet connection, like say, Titanfall or other multiplayer games, it's nothing but a problem. Even then, what if someone wants to have a LAN party but doesn't have internet at the location. They're such a huge trust gap (or whatever the term is lol) between publishers and the people who play their games. Even between devs and publishers. Too many shady, hastily made decisions chosen by unknowledgeble share holders only interested in making a couple more bucks. Or a pub or dev guy trying to make them believe the games worth funding because it supposedly can't be pirated.

[@Icebears4ever]

Awesome video as always. I'll play Sim City now

[@blazeultimo]

now revisit it AGAIN!

[@kiarariex]

why?

[@kiarariex]

why?

[@blazeultimo]

Next X WHY NOT

[@kiarariex]

no,i mean,is there new feature or something

[@blazeultimo]

Next X i dont know

[@xmaxfactorx]

I hope simcity as a franchise doesn't die out, in a industry so limited as it is city building we need to have competition, after all that's why we have cities skylines, if there was no competition we would probably still be playing simcity 5 and paying for expensive dlcs and all the shady things ea likes to do. So to prevent stuff like this happening to paradox we need simcity to stick around, not saying paradox interactive is a bad company, i mean they have shown their appreciation for the community formed around their game, but we know money can corrupt even the most honest and humble.

[@gilgameshofsumer7375]

Thank you for the review, most people don't do good reviews but this one was actually interesting and helpful

[@jgripen969]

Sim City 4 is still far superior to 5 IMO.

[@Alex_1729]

With the NAM addon it sure is!

[@andersonklein3587]

Your review really spoke for me. I really tought the same. Should they have hired some true fan of the series to manage the team it would have been worth even a 100 dolar from my pocket. But the small city sizes aways drive me away from continuing any region I've played for more than a few hours. Also, the completely lack of buildable Highways and One-Way roads. Man one way roads would fix my day and my cities.

[@GrumpyMonk86]

Never got into sim city, tried tho. my adhd just didn't let me :)

[@awesomenokes]

I like that they tilt-shifted things to make them look tiny

[@plan7a]

:D - got the game for a ridiculously cheap price ages back, but haven't installed or played it yet. Waiting for the offline mode to finally become available. Loving the soundtrack featured Clint, might have to get the add-on pack before I can actually play the game just so as I can get to enjoy more of that later on... Thank you for making this updated review/thoughts/revisited video, as I was still wondering if it was worth hanging on to. The online mode just didn't entice me to play it before now.

[@kaseymaria400]

i paid $10 and it was still too much

[@simonro9168]

Hey, I paid $10 too! Even though I was just gonna compare it to C:S, you're right. Too much.

[@dforaker]

I'm still playing this way too much 8 years later. Lol

[@Ironman1o1]

Having what looks like city core RIGHT next to hinterland is so jarring visually. These places look fake as fuck. Even Simcity 2000 had more real looking places.

[@stephenweger9680]

+Ironman1o1 I agree! I still play Simcity2000 :) 6 bucks on amazon AND NO DRM

[@Alex_1729]

Nice review. Let's hope they respond to our wishes and improve it even further

[@LGR]

***** You do realize I am a reviewer, yes? The reason I get games more often than not is specifically to let others know whether or not they're worth a purchase. This is my job. The only reason I got the expansion or DLC for this was to let others know if it was worthwhile. Same goes with The Sims 3 series and other stuff. And yes, companies care about the money. That's why they're a company. EA is particularly greedy at times, but no game creator is "just about the games" unless they're making games for free.

[@KratostheThird]

Even sadder to know that their CEO probably doesn't know a damn thing about the history of video games. He's just there purely for business.

[@jacksonoyl3566]

***** blaming a reviewer for getting games to review and let others know not to buy..nice one jackass

[@KratostheThird]

James makes a point. EA is no small-time company, they're amongst the most successful in the gaming business. And I've played games from EA long enough to know how they manipulate them. After The Sims, EA just went their way of putting on flavor at the expense of innovation and creativity. They're a prime example of what has happened. Most gaming companies that actually do put forth a little care for the customers are mostly small and independent. That's why I oppose companies that go for the popular 'merger' tactic because it means employee layoffs, complete change of management and change of business ethics. So as long as people buy their games, EA will continue to squeeze money out to become more prominent. That's basically how capitalism works.

[@LGR]

***** Then I'd say you really do not understand the point of reviewing or how it affects people's buying decisions. I received hundreds of messages and comments saying that they decided against buying SimCity, and other games I've railed against, strictly because of my review. There is a notable difference between a critique and a promotion. Sorry, but my job is to review games, even if they're from a company some people find "evil". If a game is great I say so, and if it sucks I say so, and both are worth being said. Especially when I have a voice people listen to, I think it's only wise for me to make use of it to let people know not to waste their money.

[@sceerane8662]

Anyone else think that Simcity 2013 wasn't THAT bad?

[@TheBossIsHerePL]

Nope. The city sizes ruined everything. The game should also have one way roads. Apart from that the game would have been amazing.

[@arjen6379]

Ciaran Brickles I've had loads of fun on it! I completely get what you mean.

[@danielburniston4847]

Yeah the sizes were crap but now it's pretty good

[@DonMikimax]

Ciaran Brickles Noup.

[@TheMrIreland]

Ciaran Brickles I think it sucks and the older sim city games were way more fun. So disapointing