Cities XL - any good?

Le_Petit_Lapin · 23 Nov 2009 at 15:03

After having played Sim City for 9 hours straight yesterday I was looking about to see if there was any new releases in this genre, then I remembered seeing this Cities XL thing on Steam.

Has anyone here played it? What's it like? Is it similar to Sim City or wildly different?

Is there any decent reviews on it that i should look at?

West · 23 Nov 2009 at 15:10

I've got it.. to be honest I played it for about 2 days and havn't played it again since

biggest waste of £25 ever.

Eddie182 · 23 Nov 2009 at 15:19

West said:
I've got it.. to be honest I played it for about 2 days and havn't played it again since biggest waste of £25 ever.

What he said.

It's entertaining for a while, but as you have to use the online mode (which you have to pay for) to get the most of it, once the 7 day free trial ran out I stopped playing and haven't even ran the game since.

HummuH1 · 23 Nov 2009 at 15:24

As above, no it's rubbish. Whilst there are some similarties with SimCity, it's a totally different game. If you love SC4, I'd be quite confident you will not like it, or the monthly subscriptions.

Le_Petit_Lapin · 23 Nov 2009 at 16:14

Damn

What do you have to go online for?

Edit:Nvm, just read a few reviews:

Add to this the fact that the standalone retail game doesn’t even include the city sim staple of mass public transport systems like buses and trains (planned for a future update for, you guessed it, Planet Mode users only) and Cities XL begins to border on the exploitative. Subscription, micro-transactions and a high retail price too – in this regard Cities XL really does have it all.

No mass transit, curved roads, but no buildings to fit them, some retarded trade manager "thing" that shafts you 4:1 if you don't want to pay a monthly fee?

**** that!

Le_Petit_Lapin · 24 Nov 2009 at 13:26

Hmm, thought I'd try out Tropico 3 instead last night (bloody Steam makes it to easy to buy games).

Man, I suck at this game, it gets a few years into the game and then everyone rebels and shoots at me.

anyone have any tips for this?

Bumhug · 24 Nov 2009 at 14:24

Oh I love tropico 3.

Check to see what you can export and build that first, mines or farms doing sugar or tobacco are good, failing that fruit. Once you start exporting and have money coming in build a couple of tenements, followed by a high school. Once school is built you havent got to worry about running out of soldiers as ones that die will be replaced. Can also build a church to keep people happy, then its a case of building industry such as cigar factory if you are farming tobacco and then the money really starts to roll in and can start building nicer houses and an army

Glaucus · 14 Dec 2009 at 20:27

Has anyone played it online? What's it like?

what's sim city society like? it didn't get great reviews at the time.

CaptainRAVE · 14 Dec 2009 at 21:51

AcidHell2 said:
Has anyone played it online? What's it like?

what's sim city society like? it didn't get great reviews at the time.

Was tempted by Cities XL until I realised I couldnt find a single positive comment. Tropico 3 is also on my radar for when it comes down in price.

Sim City societies is a love it or hate is game. With the expansion it is a lot better. Nowhere close to Sim City though!

twoodster · 14 Dec 2009 at 21:57

I lost interest when I found out they didn't have disasters. I only ever used to build citys on Sim City so I could burn them down afterwards!

TipTop · 14 Dec 2009 at 22:20

twoodster said:
I lost interest when I found out they didn't have disasters.

I lost interest after reading this thread.

BombayMix · 14 Dec 2009 at 23:45

I played the beta. Was painful building one city. Then it got wiped and I couldn't be bothered to make another. I didnt play the retail but there was no miracle patch to solve all the beta problems.

Eddie182 · 27 Jan 2010 at 19:04

Seems most people agree that it's not worth buying/paying to play.

Just has the following e-mail.

Dear Mayors,
First of all we want to thank you for your support since Cities XL was released in October of last year, and as far back as October 2007 for some of you.
In early 2007 we decided to be those who would make a new offer to City Builder games fans. Right from the start Cities XL has always been an innovative project regarding its online dimension. Of course, trying something new always comes with a risk.
Three months after the launch we have to admit that the subscription rate is lower than what we expected and therefore the Planet Offer is not sustainable. Not enough players decided to subscribe.
Therefore, it is with deep regret that we decided to put an end to the Planet Offer as of March 8th 2010. It will no longer be possible to subscribe to the game starting Monday February 1st 2010.
Nevertheless the Cities XL adventure goes on! Cities XL will evolve into a fully single player game. As soon as march the Bus will be added for free in the solo game. At the same time we also keep on working on new content and new features to keep on improving Cities XL.
We do realize that some of you were real fans of the Planet Offer, and loved to be able to visit other player’s cities and trade tokens between players. There are simply not enough of us.
Thank you again for your understanding and support.
For more detailed information, read the FAQ here.
________________________________________- The Monte Cristo team

BombayMix · 28 Jan 2010 at 13:26

Eddie182 said:
We do realize that some of you were real fans of the Planet Offer, and loved to be able to visit other player’s cities and trade tokens between players. There are simply not enough of us.

And it wasn't enough to justify a monthly sub! Plus the large nerf's they made to the single player game to force people into online really ticked people off.

Yamahahahahaha · 28 Jan 2010 at 15:51

Plus the fact that the game was never as good as Sim City 4.
Even with the online bits.