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[Zeffy]

As the title asks, has anyone played Cities: Skylines yet? I have, and it's definitely one of my favorite games already. It is at least 500x better than what you could call the last SimCity (not SC4 - that's the last GOOD one!), and even better than the new CitiesXXL game that literally was a repackaging of their last game with a few UI change. Skylines feels like what a city simulator should be. It's not overly challenging and if you're coming from SimCity, you should be able to get going with relative ease. Of course, there isn't any tutorial in the game, minus a few helpful messages, so if you're struggling, it might help if you watched a getting starting guide.

Other than that though, the game is really amazing, and it's a good deal - $30! That's for a full game, with great modding and customization. Also, my laptop plays this game great, but I still have decent specs. Older computers will most likely choke on this game.

I was playing around last night with unlimited money and everything unlocked, and eventually, my game crashed. Before that happened though, I took a screenshot showing what happens when the water decides to become sentient and take over your town:

[OCGuy81]

That looks like a great game! I haven't heard of it.

Last time I played a game like that was Sim City 4, which I really enjoyed, and still fire up every so often.  I may have to invest in this one, though.

My roadgeek part of me must ask, do you get to determine the type of interchanges you place?  How's the road design?  My favorite part of Sim City was always building my highway network.

[Zeffy]

My roadgeek part of me must ask, do you get to determine the type of interchanges you place?  How's the road design?  My favorite part of Sim City was always building my highway network.

You have a road tool in the game that allows you to just point and click where you want segments to be. You can make straight roads, curved roads, or roads that have odd shapes all extremely easily. In the highway department, each highway carriageway is a separate entity from one-another; you have to place two highway pieces traveling opposite directions to have an actual highway. You can easily build elevated roadways by pressing page up, and you can build up to 5 levels. The only thing I don't like too much is how awkward the angles for merging and off-ramps are - they are more like exits that suddenly appear, with no acceleration/deacceleration lanes. Of course, with modding support, there's a chance a mod comes out that enhances the highways. For the most part, the massive map size allows you to really get creative with your transportation.

You can build your interchanges from scratch, or you can download pre-built ones in the Steam Workshop. Unlike the NAM/RHW mod in SC4, it's not a bitch to use - and it doesn't spaz out 90% of the time. The only problem is that technically speaking, highways are at the same grade as other streets, unless you preplan the highway network in the map editor - except you can only place highways there, not other things, but you also can terraform the terrain.

[ET21]

My cousin told me about this game yesterday, may have to look in it. Is it available in stores or on Steam?

[vdeane]

The problem RHW always had was the large amount of puzzle pieces needed, having to conform to the SC4 grid, and an obsession on the part of the developers of conforming to the stated 16x16 meter tile scale even though Maxis NEVER followed it for road, tree, or building design (or anything, really).  I would expect the Cities: Skylines highways to be much less annoying even though they're essentially the same thing because the game is actually designed for them (rather than hitching a ride on a dirt road system that was never used) and Skylines doesn't have a tile grid.  SC4's RHW is very much hurt by the workarounds it had to employ to even exist at all.

As for specs... they seemed really high when I looked at them.  Even the desktop I bought last year doesn't meet them, and probably still wouldn't even with a video card upgrade.  There's no chance that my laptop would be able to play it (especially since I only have a 32-bit copy of Windows 7; I can't even get a 64-bit version because my copy of 7 was a free upgrade from Vista; the video card and CPU are also both too old even though it was a high end laptop when I got it five years ago).  You definitely need a gaming system for this game.

[Thing 342]

The problem RHW always had was the large amount of puzzle pieces needed, having to conform to the SC4 grid, and an obsession on the part of the developers of conforming to the stated 16x16 meter tile scale even though Maxis NEVER followed it for road, tree, or building design (or anything, really).  I would expect the Cities: Skylines highways to be much less annoying even though they're essentially the same thing because the game is actually designed for them (rather than hitching a ride on a dirt road system that was never used) and Skylines doesn't have a tile grid.  SC4's RHW is very much hurt by the workarounds it had to employ to even exist at all.

As for specs... they seemed really high when I looked at them.  Even the desktop I bought last year doesn't meet them, and probably still wouldn't even with a video card upgrade.  There's no chance that my laptop would be able to play it (especially since I only have a 32-bit copy of Windows 7; I can't even get a 64-bit version because my copy of 7 was a free upgrade from Vista; the video card and CPU are also both too old even though it was a high end laptop when I got it five years ago).  You definitely need a gaming system for this game.

How much did you pay for the desktop? My laptop could run it pretty well, despite being nearly four years old and priced under $1000.

[Zeffy]

My cousin told me about this game yesterday, may have to look in it. Is it available in stores or on Steam?

Steam, but I would also assume there would be physical copies available as well.

As for specs... they seemed really high when I looked at them.  Even the desktop I bought last year doesn't meet them, and probably still wouldn't even with a video card upgrade.  There's no chance that my laptop would be able to play it (especially since I only have a 32-bit copy of Windows 7; I can't even get a 64-bit version because my copy of 7 was a free upgrade from Vista; the video card and CPU are also both too old even though it was a high end laptop when I got it five years ago).  You definitely need a gaming system for this game.

The specs are a bit high, yes, but it's a modern game. My 2012 laptop, which I admit, is built for gaming, can run it on medium settings with shadows and anti-aliasing turned off. Here's my specifications:

8 GB Memory
Intei i5 Quad-Core @2.25GHZ
Nvidia Geforce GTX 525M

[vtk]

My 2008 desktop was built to run Flight Simulator X, and indeed it runs that well.  (However, not so pretty since the nVidia card died.)

Cities: Skylines specs are significantly higher than my computer in all areas.  This will be the reason I get a new computer, though I have no idea when that will be possible.

[vdeane]

How much did you pay for the desktop? My laptop could run it pretty well, despite being nearly four years old and priced under $1000.

The desktop was a NewEgg combo bundle that cost just under $200 (not including shipping).  At the time I thought combo bundles were hardware pre-selected by NewEgg to create a system, for those of us who don't want to buy a crapware-laiden system but don't know anything about hardware selection.  I learned that combo bundles are actually a special kind of clearance sale where NewEgg dupes people like me into buying old stuff that they're trying to get rid of.  Now, the fact that the integrated video can't handle Cities: Skylines isn't too surprising, but the fact that even the CPU wasn't up to snuff was.

My laptop is a Lenovo Thinkpad W500.

[Duke87]

I haven't played a simulation game in nearly a decade. I feel like as I became an adult and gained the autonomy to explore real cities, my desire to build fantasy ones just kind of dropped off.

Meanwhile I look at screenshots of this game and where everyone is raving about the graphics I... am not a huge fan. I feel like there's an uncanny valley problem here. It's realistic enough that it's clearly no longer a cartoon like earlier games were, yet at the same time it is imperfect. Look, the ramps on that trumpet interchange have no acceleration lanes and the merge geometry is weird and angular. Bleh.

[rickmastfan67]

Zeffy, can you do something like the Big Dig in it? (And does it work 'offline'?)

Anyways, looks like I'll have to hold off for awhile before I can even consider getting it.  My video card is below the specs (ATI 4850).

[riiga]

Very fun game!

I have no problem running it in 1920x1200 on my 3 year old computer, though I've upgraded the graphics card once.
Intel Core i5 2500k (quad-core) @ 3.16 GHz
16 GB RAM
AMD Radeon HD 7950 (3 GB)

Here's a screenshot from my current city:

[Zeffy]

Zeffy, can you do something like the Big Dig in it? (And does it work 'offline'?)

Sadly, I haven't found a way to put tunnels in at all, which is shocking, because Cities in Motion 2 (the game the developers made before this one) had that feature. I'm sure it's planned to be added, or maybe even a mod can add that functionality. This game has extreme mod support, and I might try to make some accurate gantry models or other road sign objects as props (that is if I could actually learn to use 3ds Studio...highly unlikely...).

@Riiga: Nice city! Glad to see you haven't suffered Poseidon's Wrath yet. 

[on_wisconsin]

I would totally get this game if my laptop could handle it.

Wonder how long it will take for a North American texture mod to pop up, especially for the roads.

[Dr Frankenstein]

Looks like I know what to look for when I build my new computer next month.

I've only ever played SimCity Classic though, so I'll probably have to relearn my city-building skills from scratch.

[riiga]

@Riiga: Nice city! Glad to see you haven't suffered Poseidon's Wrath yet. 

Thanks! Some more progress:

[DeaconG]

Zeffy, can you do something like the Big Dig in it? (And does it work 'offline'?)

Sadly, I haven't found a way to put tunnels in at all, which is shocking, because Cities in Motion 2 (the game the developers made before this one) had that feature. I'm sure it's planned to be added, or maybe even a mod can add that functionality. This game has extreme mod support, and I might try to make some accurate gantry models or other road sign objects as props (that is if I could actually learn to use 3ds Studio...highly unlikely...).

@Riiga: Nice city! Glad to see you haven't suffered Poseidon's Wrath yet. 

They are going to add tunnels with the first patch.

[vtk]

I've only ever played SimCity Classic

That's not something you hear too often in 2015

[rickmastfan67]

Wonder how long it will take for a North American texture mod to pop up, especially for the roads.

Maybe I could 'revive' this.

[Stratuscaster]

If you are wondering if the system you are on right now can run it:
http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri?gameName=cities-skylines&itemId=12489&p=r

My own system, which is pretty beastly, fails the "Recommended" test because it only has 1GB of video RAM and 2GB is recommended. That said, the game runs fine on "high" graphics settings.

The biggest killer for most folks is that the game says there is no support for Intel Integrated Graphics of ANY kind - not even the latest and greatest available today. That said, it WILL run, but you will likely have to run it at LOW settings.

A couple of samples, but I think the titles are reversed. Judge for yourself - nVidia GTX770 and Intel HD4000:

[vtk]

Is there any chance it will run on a 32 bit machine / OS?

[Zeffy]

The biggest killer for most folks is that the game says there is no support for Intel Integrated Graphics of ANY kind - not even the latest and greatest available today. That said, it WILL run, but you will likely have to run it at LOW settings.

When I first played it, it was using my Intel Graphics Pro HD 3000 card, which caused framerates that hovered around 15-20 FPS on the lowest settings - if I tried to bump it up any higher, it would not even load a map without crashing. Switching it to my Nvidia alleviated those issues, and the game runs anywhere from 45-60 FPS on medium settings with no shadows (which I turn off regardless, because IMO they are just a framerate killer).

Is there any chance it will run on a 32 bit OS?

No clue, but is a 64-bit machine actually required?

[Thing 342]

Is there any chance it will run on a 32 bit OS?

No clue, but is a 64-bit machine actually required?

Yes it is, as 4 GB is the minimum amount of RAM needed to run. 32-bit processors can only handle up to 3.2 GB.

[Zeffy]

Is there any chance it will run on a 32 bit OS?

No clue, but is a 64-bit machine actually required?

Yes it is, as 4 GB is the minimum amount of RAM needed to run. 32-bit processors can only handle up to 3.2 GB.

Oops, brain didn't parse that part. (That and I thought it was 3 GB ram minimum, but after looking again turns out I was wrong)

[vtk]

I still think it's fallacy to assume a 32 bit machine can't address more than 4GB of RAM.  System architects just aren't being sufficiently creative.  After all, 16 bit machines weren't limited to 64KB of RAM.  But then, I suppose EMS and XMS maybe weren't elegant solutions…