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SimCity - Standard Edition [Download]

Platform : Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 7 |
| DRM: Origin
3.8 out of 5 stars 3,184 ratings
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Platform For Display: PC Download - Standard Edition
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Product information

ASIN B007VTVRFA
Release date March 4, 2013
Customer Reviews
3.8 out of 5 stars 3,184 ratings

3.8 out of 5 stars
Countries
Return Policy
This product is non-returnable and non-refundable.
Terms of Use
By placing your order, you're purchasing digital currency or a license to a digital product, and you agree to our Games and Software Terms of Use and any Developer or Publisher Terms of Use that apply.
Type of item Software Download
Rated Rating Pending
Item model number 71481
Manufacturer Electronic Arts
Date First Available November 7, 2012

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SimCity - Standard Edition [Download]

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Product Description

From the Manufacturer


The defining city simulation is back! Create the city you desire and make the choices that shape your city and power the Sims within it. Every decision, big or small, has real consequences. Invest in heavy industry and your economy will soar - but at the expense of your Sims' health as pollution spreads. Implement green technology and improve your Sims’ lives while risking higher taxes and unemployment. Team up with your friends to solve global challenges: launch a space shuttle, reduce carbon emissions, or build magnificent wonders.

  • Constructible Worlds - Creative and customizable world that offers unique gameplay benefits, all with a fun tactile interface.
  • Sims Matter - The Sims in your city speak to you directly and it's up to you to respond to their needs. Will you listen and be the toast of the town? Or abuse your power for fame and fortune?
  • Specialize in What You Love - Mold your city as a casino resort, manufacturing hub, educational enclave, and more, and then watch as a unique look and feel spread throughout your city.
  • Multiplayer - Build a region with friends for the first time! Collaborate or compete in regional and global challenges and make decisions that impact the greater SimCity World.
  • GlassBox Engine - SimCity introduces GlassBox, the revolutionary simulation technology that gives you the power to impact individual Sims lives, manage city level simulation, and balance multiple city simulations at once



Requires Origin Client to activate.



System Requirements

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 4000+ or better or Intel Core 2 Duo Processor 2.0GHz or better
Operating System: Windows XP/Vista/7
RAM: 2GB RAM
Hard Drive: 10GB HD Space
Graphics Card: ATI Radeon HD 2x00 or better*, nVidia 7800 or better*, Intel Series 4 integrated graphics or better*
Broadband Internet: Minimum 256 kbps download, 64 kbps upload

*Minimum of 256MB of on-board RAM and Shader 3.0 or better support.

Customer reviews

3.8 out of 5 stars
3,184 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the game visually great and enjoy building cities, though they note the city sizes are quite small with limited expansion room. The game receives mixed feedback about its fun level and value for money, with some finding it enjoyable while others consider it unplayable and not worth the cost. Moreover, customers report significant server and connectivity issues, with servers failing frequently and the game requiring a persistent internet connection.

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160 customers mention "Graphics quality"117 positive43 negative

Customers praise the graphics quality of the game, noting that it is visually great, with one customer specifically mentioning the detailed simulation of city layouts.

"...The game looks very clean and polished. I want to live in this city. Lens effects and filters help you create a perfect look for your city...." Read more

"...So the conclusion is that the game had a lot of potential. The graphics look nice, I like the way it runs, the system to expand and upgrade..." Read more

"...a simple city-planning style game, I really love the flow and look of the graphics...." Read more

"...Basically, this game is a joke. It is so poorly designed and broken that you are going not going to spend much time on it...." Read more

692 customers mention "Fun game"399 positive293 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the game's entertainment value, with some finding it quite enjoyable and a fun casual experience, while others report it being unplayable with major issues.

"...This has been the most fun Sim City yet and I have been forced to really learn BECAUSE IT IS ALWAYS ONLINE...." Read more

"...it becomes an exercise in futility and you're stuck in your single, helpless, miserable, and rapidly failing little city...." Read more

"...I really enjoy the game play thus far and I disagree with those who believe the cities are way too small...." Read more

"...Now the game runs fairly smoothly, I haven't noticed too many bugs, the servers are generally available for multi-player use though I get knocked..." Read more

304 customers mention "Value for money"103 positive201 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the value for money of the game, with some finding it worth the purchase and not needing to worry about money, while others consider it a total waste of money and the worst computer game.

"...an exercise in futility and you're stuck in your single, helpless, miserable, and rapidly failing little city...." Read more

"...So that means more money in the creators pocket allowing for better servers, updates, and support...." Read more

"...try to do everything in one city and end up fighting traffic, budget deficit issues, and the never ending demand of RCI...." Read more

"...Collaboration is key in this game, its too expensive (but totally doable) to run everything in once city...." Read more

120 customers mention "City planning"81 positive39 negative

Customers have mixed experiences with city planning in the game, with some finding it a blast and appreciating the city specialization feature, while others report that it feels wonky at best.

"...As with most SC releases, the music is gorgeous and creates an atmosphere that sucks you in. It is not at all annoying, harsh, or blaring...." Read more

"...In Simcity 4 (and even in single player on this one) you can just form another city, build up a big dump and then go back to your first city and do..." Read more

"...bad disaster, and it's all over--no saves, no do-overs, your city is just a wasteland and your game is over--time to start over with another..." Read more

"...With this you have the ability to task out your cities...." Read more

323 customers mention "Server issues"66 positive257 negative

Customers report significant server issues with the game, including servers failing frequently and emergency vehicles not working correctly, making the game unplayable.

"...However if the servers are flaking out, you can not play as a region...." Read more

"...Basically, this game is a joke. It is so poorly designed and broken that you are going not going to spend much time on it...." Read more

"...slowly creeps back into City A from City B. But of course my industry has been crippled, all my government services have been shut off, sims have..." Read more

"...As of now the servers are amazing, there are no wait times. And for those that hate the fact that you have to always be online to play. Get over it...." Read more

212 customers mention "City size"7 positive205 negative

Customers express dissatisfaction with the city size in the game, noting that the maps and build space are quite small, limiting expansion potential.

"...game play thus far and I disagree with those who believe the cities are way too small...." Read more

"...Resources are finite, and solely devoting a city to the exploitation of any resource will go bad for you when it's all dried up...." Read more

"...So no giant metropolis or tiny hamlet for you...." Read more

"...The land area you are allowed to develop is very small. I mean tiny small. Any resources there are quickly depleted, especially clean water...." Read more

173 customers mention "Connection issues"16 positive157 negative

Customers report significant connectivity issues with the game, noting persistent internet connection requirements and frequent server disconnections.

"...Your regions are not synced between servers. All your hard work would come to a dead stop if the server upon which it is built is unavailable...." Read more

"...connecting road only to find that the game says you will be unable to connect the roads due to "angles" or "curves" or "too..." Read more

"...Yes, this game has DRM. Yes, you have to play with a constant internet connection, which is a massive difference from what has traditionally been an..." Read more

"...the money was stolen by bandits or anything...it just disappeared on the road somewhere and that $10M was erased...." Read more

Excluding the launch - Is it a good game? Not really.
2 out of 5 stars
Excluding the launch - Is it a good game? Not really.
Forget about the always on issue or DRM for a minute? Is it a good game forgetting about those factors? No. Unfortunately it is not. This game looks good but doesn't play well. It isn't a simulation; it's more like a Farmville clone for cities. The visuals are the best feature of the game. It looks pretty good at times. But looks can only take you so far. Compared to SimCity 4 - This is a massively dumbed down game. It may look better but the game play isn't nearly as good. Some of specific gripes: I don't like that you can't really do much with roads. Curved roads are a nice addition but what about overpasses and one ways? This brings me to the single most important factor concerning this game (Forgetting the Online/DRM) Bugs - Pulls this game down 2 stars by itself. There are bugs everywhere. Things don't work. Features are broken. The way that Sims move around the city is severely flawed. It ruins the game. I feel like it's taken me a full three days to get to this point but I feel like for the $59.99 I paid on launch, I was severely ripped off. If you are a SimCity fan- You might just want to wait or go back to SC4. This game isn't complete. It feels like it's a beta version.
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Luminous
    5.0 out of 5 stars most of these bad reviews aren't reviews at all...
    Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2013
    Platform For Display: PC Download - Standard EditionVerified Purchase
    I had been very slow to decide to try this game because of all the backlash and poor feedback I was reading. I finally went for it and boy am I glad that I did. I think this is the best Sim City they've done yet, and I'll tell you why.

    First of all, I think most people gave it a bad review because they simply didn't like some of the new features.

    The bad reviews about 'always online' are pretty dumb and seem more political than real reviews, because who, if their internet is down, is playing any games at all rather than trying to fix the internet? When the internet goes down, fixing it is the first thing I do.

    I think that there were people who enjoyed different aspects of the original games, and some of those aspects have been enhanced and some ignored, so that's why I think it's split.

    The single best feature IS the online play, finally being able to work together with other people to build thriving regions that have to properly manage their resources. It's really great, it's exactly what I always imagined should be when I used to play the old Sim Cities.

    The next best thing is the sense of 'object oriented data'. What I mean is, it appears as though each sim, has a house and a car, and a job (hopefully for you!), etc. The data visualization overlays are AMAZING. It looks like I always hoped it would, where each individual detail is a real piece of data rather than just some numbers pumped out of an algorithm.

    Any ways, I can't want for the updates. I am sure they will be releasing new feature packs for purchase. And more power to them! I think that costs of employment are rising all the time so I don't blame a company for finding creative ways to keep revenue as well as release new features. I can easily drop $50 taking my girl out to the movies and such, so I don't see $60 for a game and then $20 for the occasional content update to be anything at all, it's petty cash.

    I am totally hooked on this game, can't wait for future content packs, and the hope that they will (as computers get more powerful) release regions with bigger individual city maps.

    This has been the most fun Sim City yet and I have been forced to really learn BECAUSE IT IS ALWAYS ONLINE. This means no saves, once you make a choice you have to live with that choice, it makes it WAY MORE FUN!

    Great job to the Sim City team.
    7 people found this helpful
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  • Brandon Densmore
    4.0 out of 5 stars Brutal setup with Origin and game launch, but finally got to play
    Reviewed in the United States on March 5, 2013
    Platform For Display: PC Download - Standard EditionVerified Purchase
    Despite the numerous complaints I had read about Origin, I decided the game itself looked too fantastic to pass up. In fact, I'm sitting here with a snow day and an usual slice of time that I could spend playing this much anticipated game. However, I am still contending with getting the game installed via Origin. Here has been my experience thus far:

    1. Purchased the game on Amazon
    2. Followed the detailed instructions on how to install/setup origin
    3. I am unable to get beyond Step #10 - which is to "View in Library" within Origin.

    Essentially I provided my game key to Origin, where they acknowledge and accepted my key, but the game fails to show up in my game library. Consequently I can't get to the game to download it - let alone play it. It's apparently a known issue to them. I their Help screens I found the following statement:

    "We're aware that for some users SimCity is not showing up in their My Games Library, Origin is working on the issue. In some cases refreshing Origin resolves the issue."

    So I noticed that Origin has a Live Chat feature to get assistance. I click the link and find there is a 35-40 minute wait time to chat with the next available Advisor. After waiting for a good 15 minutes I decided I'd try to Refresh the games library which led me to restart Origin - which failed to let me log out. Not only did it fail to work, but it killed my Chat window where I had been waiting patiently. I then rebooted Origin, clicked on "Live Chat" again and now the wait was now 45-50 minutes. Ughh!!!!

    At this point I'm sitting with 25-30 minutes of wait time. Assuming they resolve my issue, I'll still have to download the actual game itself before I can play it. So far my experience with Origin has been irritating to say the least. This experience is making me appreciate Steam (which says a lot).

    This whole experience makes me wonder if they rushed too quickly to market. Clearly this is a serious distribution problem - Origin issues and it sounds like others are struggling with servers in-game.

    I'll revise my rating once I get to play the game - whenever that might be. If Origin is interested in doing the right thing they should grant the deluxe edition for free to people who have to sit through this nonsense. For crying out loud - it's a $60 game, right???

    **UPDATE: It's now 3 hours later. When I was down to 5-10 minutes of wait time, the game finally appeared on its own in the My Games Library. I then quickly downloaded the game, launched and it then spent quite some time patching itself. When that finally completed, I launched the game again (per instruction) and got an error message, "Our service is currently down. We are fixing the problem. Please check back soon." I would echo what other reviewers have said - this wouldn't be an issue if you could play the game offline. Not a deal-breaker for me, but obviously they're having Day-1 release problems. I'd certainly call this a major failure on their part since they have known just how much buzz there is around this release. Yikes, EA...

    **UPDATE: After roughly 6 hours of waiting, I finally managed to get into the game. However, I have reason to believe most of the cause was related to the Origin setup. After many attempts, I did some searching around Origin and found out that I should have received a confirmation email from Origin to "activate" my account. I never got an email from them, so I triggered the email from their site. This allowed me to activate the account. That still didn't do the trick, however, until I completely logged out of Origin and then logged back in. At that point I was prompted to create a screen name and a password recovery question. Viola! This finally seemed to do the trick as I was finally able to play the game. So my advice to those using origin for the first time is to make sure you're getting an email to activate your account. If not, that will keep you from playing. Second, be sure you've been prompted to create a screen name in Origin. If those two things happen my hope is you'll get into the game as I did. Unfortunately I stumbled upon the resolution myself as the previous error message led me to believe the servers were the cause (and they may have been also - not sure).

    That said, I got to play the game for a good 3 hours or so. I really enjoy the game play thus far and I disagree with those who believe the cities are way too small. As it stands there are 8 or so selectable regions and each region has a certain number of city plots. If I recall, the regions have anywhere from 3 city plots up to 16 - depends on how large an area you want to deal with. Now you can't fill an entire region with "all city" as you could in Sim City 4, but I was never able (or committed enough) to fill an entire region in SC4 anyway. It also doesn't look like you can create your own regions, but I'm also ok with this as I never used the feature in previous iterations of the game.

    What I enjoy most is that you don't have to micro-manage nearly as much of the game as you did in SC4. For instance, I never cared for managing a network of pipes or running power lines all over the map. In real life it's safe to say that pipes and power tend to align with road networks - and they were able to simplify things by aligning those networks to roads automatically. I like the flexibility to create roads and route them however you'd like - including circular roads, curves, rectangular, etc. I especially like the graphs/overlays in this version. You have great indicators at your disposal and I have found the menus to be very intuitive.

    I am changing my rating to 4 stars. I give 5 stars to the game itself - the other star is taken off due to the install headaches.
    30 people found this helpful
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