Gaming Cities XL Review

http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/pc/2009/10/29/cities-xl-review/1

With the city sim genre quieter than a library on a friday night Monte Cristo games looks to rebuild with Cities XL. Taking the ever popular city sim formula and adding in a gorgeous 3D engine and consistent online aspect, does Cities XL represent a fresh start? We find out.

 

That's a bit disappointing. It's definitely a looker, that's for sure.

Time for Sim City 5, methinks!

 

I knew the MMO feature was going to cripple the singleplayer game. Ah well i'm sticking with SC4 then.

Personally i'd prefer EA to stay well away from the Sim City franchise. I mean, just take a look at SC Societies.

 

Nice to see some new features, but too bad you have to pay for them.
Sticking with Sim City 4 then.

 

At first I was like

"£6.95 monthly subscription"

Then I

 

sounds like a console buisness plan to me

 

tbh Tropico 3 is the game you should get forget this one, its far much more fun to play.
Would like to see bit-tech review it

 

The game wasn't released on consoles

In any case, I don't know of any console game with a subscription model, it just sounds like they're trying to get their hands on some of that WoW cash to me.

 

Internet Money

 

my bad, should have made myself clearer, was reffering to the initial release and then the constant chargable DLC making it a "complete experiance"

 

Was a bit sus when I dled the demo, installed, then was told the demo period had ended....eerrrrr

 

I have pre-ordered the game (on steam) and have been playing since the day it was released. Eventually I got bored and unintalled the game. I am a big fan of this kind of games and still play sim city 4 but that is the big problem with this game. It is not that better than sim city 4 at all. Actually, it is really similar in so many levels. You get sc4, remove the pipes, remove the public transportation, put a chat were people are constantly calling each other "noobs" or writing "I can't find my city" and you have Cities XL.

I am not paying for the online part of it and I don't care if the graphic is better than sc4, off course it is.

 

I was going to get this game despite the high price until I just read this review. If it wasn't for its exploitive nature making everything exclusive to the monthly fee package and extra DLC then it would be a great replacement for Sim City 4. Guess I'll have to skip out on this one then.
I also enjoyed the water pipe and electricity line part of SC4 and wish that Monte Cristo could have at least put the mass transport feature into the single player.

 

It's really hard to make a good city builder. I am currently playing Tropico 3 and it really is all I need.

 

Well I got it and paid for the PlanetMode, it's not too bad, though it does leave you feeling a bit shafted.. they definitely could have made more of an effort on the game.

Good review though.

 

I was a beta tester for the C:XL and I was kind of impressed at how everything was done but then with time i slowly grew back to SC4. Really could use an SC5 by MAXIS and not EA

 

Fail

 

So the moral of this story is, avoid Milton Keynes then.
Oh, and this game isn't all that and a bag of chips.

 

how disapointing. I also throw in another vote for tropico 3, it's an excellent game (any chance we could get a review though?)

 

When I started reading this review it looked fantastic and I was fully expecting to drop and order for it... definitely not though based on this review and considering the business model that the developer is clearly aiming for.

It's bad enough having a monthly subscription for the extra content - I'd have ignored that in any case as I don't do subscription based gaming - but having that AND in-game advertising is not something I'll be paying for.

What concerns me most is how the in-game advertising is operated - I take it that the game will use an Internet connection to grab ads, which raises so many privacy concerns that unless it's removed I won't be considering this game.