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SimCity 5 closed beta 2 this weekend!

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There is also a beta tonight from 8 Eastern to midnight. Apparently it is more of a stress test for the download server which is why they aren't letting anyone pre-download the game. Either way, if it takes 2 hours to download and install you get 2 hours of playtime so not bad.

Can't wait to play my deluxe version on next Tuesday.
 
Yeah, they are saying on the EA simcity forums that if you did not get an email last night you will not get a key to the beta. Just a FYI. Lets see what happens!
 
woot - just got the key in email. installing now

installed very quickly. cant play yet though it is locked until 17:00. I only see one server online right now- "Europe West 3"
 
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After a short stall in the beginning I was able to login into the game menus with only the West Europe 3 server available. I setup a region (only can choose one region type) which has 3 city plots to choose from, all three are the same size and look about as small as the one in the previous betas. When setting up the region you can choose to make it public or private, so I assume public ones can have other people come claiming the other city plots. One city plot has all resources available in it, the other two only water and wind. I am trying to claim one plot to start playing but I keep getting an error about being unable to create my city please try again. This is kind of retarded it should be a queue or something that automatically keeps trying until it is able to get me in instead of this constant retrying nonsense.
 
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I got into the beta too. OMG I love this game. It's SIMCITY! It is completely in the vein of SC2000, SC3, and SC4. I love it. A lot of features that were add-ins in SC4 are now built in (Hello curved roads!).
 
I like what Will Wright had to say about the game. It seems as though it'll be a great, great addition to the series.

I'm still debating if I should get the $80 version or the $60 one!
 
Man I had a blast. Played right to the end. Game is so fun but the biggest problem is the map size - it really sucks!

I built a city in the industrial plot so that I can play with mining ore and oil. These buildings take up quite a bit of space, plus the map has this giant cliff in it which renders 25% of the land unusable. I got up to 60k population and had some really awesome high tech labs and industry plus some very sweet looking high rise residential and commercial structures.

I started a new region which I made public and two other people joined me which made it even more fun - we helped each other out and chatted and good a grand 'ol time. One time I had a meteor strike and they both sent mt fire trucks to help with the raging infernos throughout my city. I also would send them cash every once in a while as I was swimming in it.

One of my neighbors had an incredible 180k population. They really made great use of their land and they were on cheetah mode most of the time 😛 I had my blocks spaced out too far so even with my minimal land I made it worse. The guy with 180k spaced things really compact and had a nice clear flat plot of land

It was also really cool how alot of things get unlocked regionally like city hall modules and university research which unlocks things for everyone else in your region

It took me a little while to realize how to build the resource extraction buildings, I had to click a specialize button on the bottom left near the city mode button. Then I had categories each for metal, coal, oil, electronics, tourism and gambling. I went with an oil drill and I saw that I could advance by unlocking a petroleum HQ if I produced enough oil but it seemed bugged - the drill said I was drilling over 4500 barrels a day and the HQ requirement said I was only drilling 2500. So I didnt bother trying to each the required 9,600 as I would have needed to build a few more drills and they take alot of space.

Also the map has specific areas where you can find the coal/oil/etc.. to extract - its not just anywhere. You go into a special map mode to see where the concentrations are and then plop on top.

You also need to build trade depots to export your resources to the global market and they take up quite a bit of space with their holding tanks and such.

So really the space issue is a big one I really hope they will be able to offer us larger city plots....
 
polypterus said:
Are all the city plots the same size? Is there anything bigger than what was in the first beta?
Click to expand...

No there was no city plot larger than beta.

When I created a new game you go through a few screens like a wizard, first screen you choose a region and from the list they only let us pick one region. Next screen you can name your region and make it public or private. Then next screen you can claim one of the city plots and play. When you are picking city plot you see what resources are available and the lay of the land but each of these plots were same size as previous beta. On the beta forum the talk from other players was there won't be anything bigger at release.
 
For all the people debating $60 or $80, I just went with 80 because this game has the best replayability and I got $20 off for origin, given I don't like a lot of EA games because they ruin them, I'll def be playing Battlefield 4 so that is now only $40.

The map size is an issue right now because they said anything larger would render a lot of computer set-ups unusual, but they did say in the future they will look into region expansion or giving you a way to create custom maps. We'll have to see though. Can' wait for next Tuesday, I haven't been in any betas.
 
redrider4life4 said:
For all the people debating $60 or $80, I just went with 80 because this game has the best replayability and I got $20 off for origin, given I don't like a lot of EA games because they ruin them, I'll def be playing Battlefield 4 so that is now only $40.

The map size is an issue right now because they said anything larger would render a lot of computer set-ups unusual, but they did say in the future they will look into region expansion or giving you a way to create custom maps. We'll have to see though. Can' wait for next Tuesday, I haven't been in any betas.
Click to expand...

Really? I guess expanding the map would technically be an expansion, then they can charge $20 for it.
 
Kelvrick said:
Really? I guess expanding the map would technically be an expansion, then they can charge $20 for it.
Click to expand...

I don't believe it will cost money, they also didn't want the regions to be as big because they wanted you to specialize each city not have one city with everything. The game was meant to function through regions, idk, could all be a bunch of bs.

On another note, how are they determining who can pre-load? i couldn't as of this morning.
 
redrider4life4 said:
I don't believe it will cost money, they also didn't want the regions to be as big because they wanted you to specialize each city not have one city with everything. The game was meant to function through regions, idk, could all be a bunch of bs.

On another note, how are they determining who can pre-load? i couldn't as of this morning.
Click to expand...

me neither.

mine is greyed out and says Not Yet Released
 
redrider4life4 said:
For all the people debating $60 or $80, I just went with 80 because this game has the best replayability and I got $20 off for origin, given I don't like a lot of EA games because they ruin them, I'll def be playing Battlefield 4 so that is now only $40.

The map size is an issue right now because they said anything larger would render a lot of computer set-ups unusual, but they did say in the future they will look into region expansion or giving you a way to create custom maps. We'll have to see though. Can' wait for next Tuesday, I haven't been in any betas.
Click to expand...

If you buy on Amazon you get a $20 Amazon GC, if I am reading this correctly:

Order "SimCity" and receive a $20 promotional credit toward the purchase of items shipped and sold by Amazon.com (certain exclusions apply, including but not limited to Kindle books, Gift Cards, and Amazon Appstore for Android apps). We will send you a promotional code via email within two days after your order ships. Offer valid when shipped and sold by Amazon.com. This offer will be extended to all existing pre-orders. Limit one per household. Amazon reserves the right to change or terminate this promotion at any time. Here's how (restrictions apply)
Click to expand...
 
iamwiz82 said:
If you buy on Amazon you get a $20 Amazon GC, if I am reading this correctly:
Click to expand...

Physical box only, I think the digital download is only a $5 credit. If you have prime and don't mind waiting until your normal UPS/FedEx delivery on March 5, then it's a good deal.
 
iamwiz82 said:
If you buy on Amazon you get a $20 Amazon GC, if I am reading this correctly:
Click to expand...

This appears to be only for the boxed copy, not the download version. At least that verbiage disappears when selecting the PC Download option for purchase.
 
It doesn't even show the $5 anymore. Sadly, I'm quite impatient. 🙁

I missed the coupon code that worked yesterday for $15 off. Ugh.

I don't know where to buy it from!
 
HarvardAce said:
Physical box only, I think the digital download is only a $5 credit. If you have prime and don't mind waiting until your normal UPS/FedEx delivery on March 5, then it's a good deal.
Click to expand...

That's my plan even though I work from home on Tuesdays 🙁
 
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