Metareview: SimCity Societies (PC)
by Alexander Sliwinski 
{ Nov 16th 2007 at 3:45PM }
Not only did SimCity Societies get thrown into the deep end of the pool to fight for attention this holiday season -- the critics are enjoying watching it drown. The big outlets have yet to give it above a 70 and there are apparently a lot of technical issues holding the title back. SimCity Societies could have been a reimagining of the series that started a different franchise from "SimCity core." But it looks like developer Tilted Mill, best known for the Caesar games, could have really taken more time with it. It's sad that a casual approach to SimCity didn't yield the best results. Perhaps it's because you need a Crysis-level computer to play it, as one review pointed out.
- 1UP (70/100): "And speaking of smooth, Societies isn't. When you reach the 10,000-population mark, you can expect the game to crawl (I routinely witnessed sub-30 frames per second on a machine I built to rock Crysis). In a game where constant zooming, map rotation, and precise building placement are key, laggy performance is more than a mere annoyance. 'Course, when you reinvent the omelet, you're gonna break a few wheels...or something. And, despite its few slipups, the core of Societies is strong enough -- and the gameplay addictive enough -- that even the stodgiest traditionalist will find something to shout about."
- GameSpy (60/100): " In short, Sim City Societies is a novel game with a unique new mechanic for building towns and cities with personality. Casual players will find a lot to tinker with as they sculpt towns out of their dreams or nightmares. More serious gamers will be able to plumb the depth of the title over the course of the weekend, so your enjoyment of the game depends a great deal on what you're looking for when you pick up the box."
- EuroGamer (50/100): "Those Maxis-faithful naysayers who crowed that Tilted Mill would sully their beloved series have sadly been proven right as the game suffers from many of the same complaints levelled at the studio's previous game, Caesar IV. But let me make my final point quite clear - Societies doesn't stumble just because "it isn't SimCity". Fresh takes on old concepts should always be welcome. It stumbles because it's a generally unsatisfying patchwork of a game, dragged down by inconsistent gameplay, outdated design and weirdly implemented ideas."
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Poisoned Al @ Nov 16th 2007 3:49PM
Who didn't see this one coming? It's a Sim City game not made by Maxis. It was doomed from the start.
jaybird1905 @ Nov 16th 2007 4:19PM
Me agreez.
SimCity 4 was great but they were already on a decline. There was ALWAYS a problem with the traffic when your cities got large enough. Even with the addition of a "Rush Hour" expansion pack the game still became unplayable after your city got but so big.
LaughingTarget @ Nov 16th 2007 3:50PM
I think 1up's keyboard only has a 7 key on it.
Rollins @ Nov 16th 2007 4:10PM
I would hope that 1up's keyboard also has a 1 key.
kastonie @ Nov 16th 2007 5:32PM
It also has a 0.....to give it a score of 70....
Sockninja @ Nov 16th 2007 5:58PM
Zing!
LaughingTarget @ Nov 16th 2007 6:47PM
1Up uses a 10 point scale, so it was 7/10. Metacritic automatically adjusts all scores to the 100 point scale. The 10 is there automatically, which they entered before all the numbers but 7 fell off.
Crono (NDF - Knight of the Old School) @ Nov 16th 2007 3:53PM
Caesar 4 was a disaster compared to Caesar 3. I'll steer clear of the developer on this one, too.
pasht @ Nov 16th 2007 3:53PM
It's also way, way too easy. In my first 4 hours, I'd gotten every medal and all but one of the trophy buildings. (I didn't get Sheriff 'cause early in the game I was determined to have no spirituality) With one city. The usual game of balancing one set of goals with others is nonexistent here; people are easy to keep happy, and budget is a non-issue after 30 minutes. Give me SimCity 5, please, Maxis.
pasht @ Nov 16th 2007 3:57PM
I suppose I should say give *us* SimCity 5. Sorry for being selfish. ;)
rallion @ Nov 17th 2007 3:08AM
I would say give us SimCity 5, but DO keep the ability to have a larger impact on the style of the city. That would be pretty cool -- to be able to make something that looks like, say, Tokyo, as opposed to always making something that ends up vaguely resembling New York.
I know that in the late-game, you can, for example, manipulate your way into having a city which has virtually no 'dirty industry' in the mainline games, which is a step in the direction I'm talking about, but only a small one.
Just saying that made me want to install SC4 again. And deal with crappy traffic. Ugh.
quickshade @ Nov 16th 2007 4:07PM
It's weird. Simcity seems to be headed downwards because they lost the magic touch. Simcity 2 and 3 were by far some of the best sim cities ever created. But sim city 4 suffered from to much and to little. It lost it's base concept. This seems to have the same effect. Hopefully Will wright will finish Spore and come back to sim city for one last game.
Crono (NDF - Knight of the Old School) @ Nov 16th 2007 4:13PM
I thought wright was still in charge for SimCity 4.
And in my personal opinion, there really wasn't anything wrong with simcity 4 other than it was hard to start and to "get".
WiNG @ Nov 16th 2007 5:01PM
I dunno IMO SimCity 4 was the best SimCity, since you could finally make farms in a way that made sense, and you finally could make a city that is 90% residential, then have a separate city that's industrial nearby. I don't know about you but my hometown doesn't have a nuclear power plant, an airport, and 3 farms in the middle of an ocean island.
rTwelve @ Nov 16th 2007 7:59PM
THe modding scene has really been able to improve it, and it's still going strong. One of the greatest improvements to the game was a mod that allows you to overhaul the transit networks, as well as make them look visually more realistic. This past summer they even made a new major mod that raises the population and density caps even higher, significant because they had to account for how that would affect the gameplay in all other areas.
Also, some mods made the water pretty.
Poisoned Al @ Nov 17th 2007 4:27AM
I agree with Wing, but SC4 had one huge flaw. It wanted you to micromanage EVERYTHING. While it was a nice option to adjust the budget on every public building in theory, in practice it was a huge pain in the arse. Continually adjusting sliders was a huge fun killer, and should have had AI to help you. The AI could have been a bit sloppy and spend happy and you could turn it off, but at least you could leave the doctor's sugary alone for five minutes without them going on strike or destroying your income.
jaybird1905 @ Nov 16th 2007 4:17PM
Douche!
It's not even free you dumbass. Unless you consider the price of a new Xbox360 console "free"
Donald @ Nov 16th 2007 4:22PM
I think my brain exploded. Whatever happened to "buy teh haloz"?
xXFenixKnightXx @ Nov 16th 2007 4:24PM
"Douche!"
Uhh yeah, people that use that word are usually one themselves. -1 heart thingy for you maam!
This is actually a good deal if anybody out there was planning on buying a 360 just for this game. Especially for the Holidays.
playwhutyalike (take my shoes off) @ Nov 16th 2007 4:27PM
Sea Poeple + semen = Seacieties
playwhutyalike (take my shoes off) @ Nov 16th 2007 4:28PM
spelled people wrong. joke ruined.
xXFenixKnightXx @ Nov 16th 2007 4:44PM
"joke ruined"
lolz!!
HeyTone @ Nov 16th 2007 4:28PM
Not free, true. However, you cannot deny this is going to move a ton of consoles. A non-360 owner was peeking over my shoulder as I was reading up on that Halo website and made up their mind on the spot that its time to go out and get a 360.
jaybird1905 @ Nov 16th 2007 4:32PM
Ok?
Why post this in a thread about SimCity Societies?
Makeing a completely un-related post in the middle of comment page = douche move.
Anyway, what if you already have a 360? Is it still free? No. Then it's not free. Douche.
Dormammu @ Nov 16th 2007 4:33PM
Tilted Mill isn't "best known for the Caesar games"... Impressions did the good ones (I-III). Tilted Mill only did the bad one, so I guess they are 0/2?
LaughingTarget @ Nov 16th 2007 4:57PM
Pharoah wasn't too bad.
Dormammu @ Nov 16th 2007 5:12PM
Caesar III, Pharoah and Zeus were all by Impressions. I like their games. Tilted Mill's Caesar IV I didn't try, based on the crummy reviews.
xXFenixKnightXx @ Nov 16th 2007 4:42PM
@Heytone
Cool, goodtimez for your buddy =)
@Jaybird
Stop proving me right.
ColossalHat @ Nov 16th 2007 4:50PM
TYPING IN ALL CAPS IS A GOOD WAY TO GET PEOPLE TO NOT READ YOUR POST!
Next time, try not to do that, and to put your comment in a post related, other than both being games, to the thing you're advertising.
Dan Parmelee @ Nov 16th 2007 5:07PM
SimCity 2000 was arguably the best. They fixed a lot of the annoying quirks of the original but still kept it fun and playable. 3000 and 4 both got really complex, making it hard for a noob to jump in and enjoy it.
Silent Xenocide @ Nov 16th 2007 5:13PM
Yea, sim city 2000 was probably the best one. Its the only one I've really enjoyed. And we used to play it in school. Sim Tower or whatever was pretty fun as well.
Justin @ Nov 16th 2007 6:03PM
Maybe if it was Sim City 5 instead of a crappy wannabe Sim City. I'm a diehard Sim City fan and I'll be avoiding this POS.
Bring back zoning and Will Wright and make a real Sim City game!
Justin @ Nov 16th 2007 6:11PM
Sim City 4 was my favorite of all the Sim City games. I never found it "hard to get" or had probably where large cities were unplayable.
Websites like http://www.simtropolis.com/ have 100s of mods to make the gave stay fresh and new, even 4 years after it came out.
LaughingTarget @ Nov 16th 2007 6:50PM
1999's Pharoah was Impressions. The Pharoah from 2006 was Tilted Mill. Both were decent.
LaughingTarget @ Nov 16th 2007 6:51PM
Darn reply system, this was meant for Dormammu.
Shockgamer @ Nov 16th 2007 7:44PM
1up with a 70? Heh, I bet EA's glad they gave Ziff Davis' GFW arm that exclusive now.
As much as I would've been pleasantly surprised had this game been rated high and worth buying, I can't help but feel some bitter satisfaction in seeing the game's panning. Sim City 4 wasn't a grandma's game, so what? You don't try to turn Gran Turismo into Burnout. You don't try to turn Virtua Fighter in Smash Brothers.
This game alienates its fans and will be hard pressed to find its targeted new audience.
Werbal @ Nov 17th 2007 2:00AM
They should just haul out SimCity 2K again, keep roughly the same city dynamics (but add in the rural options from SimCity 4) and give it a graphical update. 2000 had the best balance between complexity and fun. A novice could create a large bustling city with relative ease but there was enough depth that more skilled city planners could challenge themselves.
I like SimCity 4, but its so damned complex I can only play it for like an hour or so before I get fed up with micromanaging every little facility. Is there a reason why I have to set the funding for every single school in my city?
Scaling back the difficulty is not a bad idea, but Societies apparently took it too far and made it stupid easy.
WickedArtist462 @ Nov 21st 2007 2:46PM
STARTING A MOD GROUP TO SAVE SIM CITY!!!
Hey all. I've been doing some mad tinkering to try and find a way to optimize SSC, and I'm making alot of headway, but I need some help from some serious modders.
One thing that I found as possibly being the primary reason for all the slow down is the sims themselves. Every last sim has a "normal map", (which they call a "bump", but it's not exactly the same thing), anyway... I've started changing my XML files to not reference the normal maps for the sims, and it has increased performance by a ton!
This is a small change that takes a long time as there are a crap load of sim files, but my aim is to optimize the game in every area where it is creating a problem.
Also, most of the file sizes for the textures are bigger than they need to be. Even with the graphics all the way up, the anistropic filtering will "fuzz" the textures to optimize texture space, so... why such large art files??? I'm optimizing those as well. I've dropped texture file sizes up to 30k each with no major effect on the graphics.
Basically, I want to save this game because with a little help from the mod comunity we can make the game better!
The scripts that control the behavior of both sims and the buildings are well constructed but not used to their full potential. With a little effort we could easily start replacing the dull mechanics they've given us with more challenging buildings.
I'm working on this as you are reading this, so don't give up hope. When I'm done optimizing the game I will realease a self-extracting patch so that more people can enjoy this game even if they don't have a beast of a computer. After that, I will start working on a full mod that will hopefully make the game more like how we remember, while still keeping the new concept in tact.
If you want to help, Email me at Em-Ritz@hotmail.com, or find me on MySpace by searching Mike Emeritz. I will be posting progress stills of these mods on my MySpace page, so that will be a good place to check in from time to time. When I have a better grasp on the time it will take to do this, I'll post a release date, but for now my aim is before x-mass.
Wish me luck,
Mike
WickedArtist462 @ Nov 21st 2007 2:59PM
"Bring back zoning and Will Wright and make a real Sim City game!"
-Justin-Nov 16th 2007
Good point! To recapture the dynamic of zones, we could mod the buildings to be affected in negative ways when placed "out of zone" ie: when not placed around buildings of the same type; (Agricultural, Industry, Comercial, Residential, etc...) It would work just like the plasma billboard, where it only effects certain building types, but it would be attatched to all the buildings, and each building would then need to be placed near buildings of the same classification, or suffer negative effects.
That's my solution to zones. What do you all think?