OK, I felt like a jerk for posting this, but here is a list of things I find lacking after reading/watching some reviews/videos on the game:

(My terminology may not be correct, but "Region" refers to a map that hosts multiple "Cities", hope there is no confusion. )

• Region grid: can we build city right next to each other, by that I mean border-to-border like Simcity 4.
• Starting position: due to a lack of grids on region level, can we freely choose where to start a city in a region, or is it pre-defined locations?
• Map size: I don't buy the reasoning on "having to run simulation for every person in a city, so city have to be small", if it's a cpu/gpu thing, let user reduce simulation complexity/graphical details, not capping map size artificially.
• Teraforming or Terrain generator or Map import: does it have any?
• Fallback strategy on Always-online DRM: if the reddit IAMA post from last year stays true, then once the connection goes away, player can only continue the game for a couple of minutes, then he/she will be log-out of the game, without saving current state - is it still the case? Is waiting for available servers a thing for Simcity (2013)? Does EA state what would happen when they shutdown servers?
• The extent of micro-transaction/DLC, possibility of Modding: given the lack of many many features in Simcity (2013) at its current state, it's impossible to know if EA will lockdown Simcity (2013) to prevent future modding, specially if they are selling region maps. If player wants to have Teraforming tool in Simcity (2013), would it be a forced DLC experience?

----

To be fair, Simcity (2013) does look rather good and have probably the best data-visualization tool a city simulation game ever have, but if the cost of co-op gameplay and data-visualization is the lack of above features, I will unfortunately have to wait for a proper "fix"/"resolution" to dive into the Simcity franchise once again.

----

Comments/Rants/Attacks are welcomed.

Also why you probably want to take early reviews with a grain of salt: http://penny-arcade.com/report/editorial-article/why-you-shouldnt-trust-our-simcity-review

None of that is possible/in the game. Yes you have to always be online. Disconnects boot you from the game. Everything is saved server side.

Though instead of attributing these things to technical limitation, I just think they're trying to make a different game. You might not like it, but they want you to make several small cities rather than big ones.

After reading the wiki a bit, I find myself confused about the concept of "City Set" DLC, are they "Region" as I described above?

The argument on smaller city is that you have better focus for each city, but can we really build smaller cities close to each other, or are they more like scattered towns?

@df:

• Region grid: no, at least not that I am aware of. You pick a region and the locations for the cities within that region are all pre-set. I have yet to see one that bumps cites right against each other, especially when you start talking about more than one side.
• Starting position: predefined locations that vary from map to map, but no option to place a city anywhere but those predetermined spots.
• Size: the possiblity exists for Maxis to change the maximum city size. It is currently unknown if that is an option to mod (I doubt it), a future patch (more likely), or some sort of expansion/DLC (most likely).
• Terraforming: None. No plans for it, either.
• DRM: As far as I can tell, there may be a grace period to reconnect and not lose any progress, but if you get booted without saving, expect to lose at least some time.
• Modding: Support is supposed to be "strong," whatever that means. They haven't said when the tools would be available, either.

I think the pros outweigh the cons, so I'm in, but very little of what you have listed is slated to change.

@mirado:

Love to know what that means: Starting position: fixed.

I fear it probably mean fixed as in location not fixed as in patch. :)

@df: Your fear is correct. My apologies, will edit that to clarify for others.

I've been playing for a while, and you should officially wait on this one. It's got a lot of issues. Fortunately, it also has a lot of potential. The game needed another year in development. They could have fixed the strange road and auto-terraforming, and expanded city size. It's also a really easy game.

@bog: Thanks for the report, would love to know what you meant by "easy", control-wise or difficulty-wise?

A few review on this game suggest it's difficult to recover cities from a disaster - given it's cloud-saved, I wonder if disaster is an option to turn off - from Quick Look there appear to be quite a few options.

@df: The City sets are just a bunch of pre-order bonuses in the form of collections of real life landmarks to build. France gets you the Eiffel Tower etc. I think it sets a comfortable precendant for future DLC which is really just like The Sims or any other game that offers DLC gear. I can't see microtransactions being a part of it like some people are fearing.

Regions are pre-designed and all plots are connected by both rail and road, meaning that they are always connected to every other region. There is always a junction or rail prebuilt leading in to your plot. Their location within the region can be quite far apart from what I have seen and not right next to each other.

It sounds like you want a more traditional experience than what this is offering. I'm not put off by any of this stuff but I should also note that it isn't out in the UK until Friday so I haven't played it yet.

@alistercat: I love the look (maybe not the zoom-in view), but the way it decides how large/close cities should be suck (on an aesthetical level).

Also I think people are going to be quite angry if the teraform tool were to come out after DLC regions... hopefully that's not the case.

@df: Difficulty wise. Control wise applies as well, though. In Sim City 4, it was possible to fail. I failed a lot. In my first go at this new title, I didn't take things to seriously, I just expected to fail right off the bat. I have a very successful city!

@bog: maybe that's the advantage of having small region, less chance to mess thing up. Though I did see a few press mention it's difficult to recover from a disaster, maybe it's just luck.

(Simcity 4 isn't that hard, if you don't over-spend initially)

@df@BoG: A thought occurred to me as to why Maxis would make such small city limits. If they have a potential console port of the game in the works, they will want to keep the city size reasonable. This could be a Diablo 3-like situation where a PS4/next Xbox version is in the works and they need to keep the regions small to make sure it would run on consoles correctly. All the criticisms people have been complaining about (lack of randomly generated terrain, predefined boundaries within the region, small city limits) all make sense when you design a PC game ready for a console port. This could be just crazy conspiracy but would explain the radical reworking to sprawling metropolis players could previously build.

@djou: you know what, that would be great for Simcity franchise, but from the looks of interface, I highly doubt they are optimized yet (just look at the number of buttons there), and making the city smaller just so it can sell on console, is going to make a whole new group of people angry :)

@df: I'm not sure how I feel about a console SC since going for a wider audience amounts to a cash grabs that just pisses off two groups, the dedicated PC players and the console players that don't want a simplified experience. The thing I noticed from playing it is that many of the features are buried deep within menus. I can see how this is the beginnings of a simplified interface for a console since it would easy just to remove features. There are also a lot less numbers and graphs, most of the information is now infographics and other dynamic visualizations. I've been playing on a HTPC and find is manageable to view the menus. Frankly, I feel more than a bit of resent at this idea since it plays like a watered down version of water I hoped for.