I think theres probably more to the city size than we're giving them credit. There's probably a few reasons why they've gone for smaller (SC5 size) rather than bigger (SC4 size) such as system minimum specs to ensure people with 5yr old systems can still experience the game fully even with inferior visuals without a huge city grinding the system to a halt.
That seems a fairly obvious one, but one that probably gets overlooked is that i'd imagine they want to you to focus on city specialisations, so cities built to focus on education & technology, dirty industry, tourism, and stuff like that. If you've got a city twice the size then theres the feeling of just sticking it all in the 1 map, its big enough, why buy my electricity from a neighbour, why sell them our oil, just do everything in 1 map.
Its forcing you (against some peoples wishes i guess) to create cities which have a plan, a part to play within the community of small cities, and even if you're mayor of all of them, each one has a roll and they need to work together.
Sure, you can do all that in 1 map, but then its less about establishing what your city can excel in, and just becomes a matter of filling it with everything.
So maybe its a gameplay choice, not everyones favourite decision, but something which helps coordinate better cities. I cant believe they felt smaller cities would be better, there must be logic behind their decision because im sure they could make maps 10x bigger with their engine, but then things like hardware limitations get in the way.
Im sure even if they feel a decent size, we'll always want more, its just how it is, but im sure theres a legit reason for smaller maps even if its not how we'd like it.
So, im assuming nobody here has received a key yet
oh, and Maxis saying they're sending emails out in batches today and over the weekend... the weekend?? Its a 3 day test for heavens sake, why couldnt they be sent out on Monday-Thursday for this weekend, why still be sending them half-way through a 3 day test.
Sauce:
