SimCity Review 1: The endless wait
Since I have the boxed version I could install the game very quickly, and I could fire the game up right away. I was able to play the tutorial and then about an hour of normal game-play. Then the problems began: I got kicked out of my game because the server (EU West 2) went offline without any warning. I could do nothing but quit the game. When I rebooted the game I got stuck on the "checking for updates" screen. You probably all know the drill... Then I could get back in the game, but I couldn't load anything because the server was unavailable. So I gave up for an hour.
Later I tried to play again and got stranded with a timer telling me the game would try and reconnect in 20 minutes. I got that screen about 4 times in a row, and then finally I got in only to see that I couldn't load my game because the server was unavailable.
So far for the problems. In the time that I could play I was astounded by the game: great level of depth, great attention to detail, and my oh my did the game run smoothly!
At first hand Simcity isn't hard to play, but as you'd like to see your city evolve it gets harder. You need to think of a lot of stuff to make your city run like it should: traffic, pollution, garbage, education, security, health-care and most importantly money.
I know this is a brief review where I talk a lot about the technical problems and not a lot about the game itself. But I think it is unfair to judge a sand-box game with just one hour of playing time, so I will write another review as soon as I get enough time in the game.
I hope I've helped here, and see you next time