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Well, I know there already is a Rush Hour thread around here, but I wanted to start a new one to sort of develop more around this idea: Maxis is making another the Sims out of SimCity. Agree, disagree? Post here. 
Here are some of my ideas and clarifications on what I mean by another the Sims:
There are two aspects to this. First, is the marketing aspect and second is the gameplay aspect.
As far as the former is concerned, we would be asking: is SC going to have expansions stamped like crazy like the Sims did? Well, that isn't exactly the question I wanted to concentrate on here, because it is clear that they will want to do that (as the speedy delivery of Rush Hour shows), but it will all depend on the popularity of SC, which so far hasn't been nearly as great as that of the sims.
What I wanted to point out then, is the growing similarity between the gameplays of the two. I just read the new Rush Hour review on IGN (available here: http://pc.ign.com/articles/451/451058p1.html), and the reviewer, like a few of us here, finds the inclusion of the U-Drive-It feature into SimCity rather odd. The statement I found really curious (and the one that essentially triggered this thread) is: "By incorporating loads and loads of vehicle-based gameplay, Rush Hour shifts the series more towards personality and character." If you think about it, it is just a logical progression of the introduction of the My Sims feature. The game is, indeed, shifting from you being an abstract personality that makes fairly general decisions (well, other than placing the service buildings) to you being an actual entity on the map. It seems the next step would be to make the mayor one of the Sims and stick him into the Mayor house...
On the one hand this seems to be just an attempt to raise the popularity of an otherwise fairly niche game by attracting the proven support of the Sims fans. I can just see this idea: from the creators of the sims comes simcity. Let your sims move into a big city. Drive around it in a car. Etc., etc.. Looks indeed like the gameplays of the two games are starting to merge, slowly but surely.
On the other hand, you could argue: well, since this doesn't detract from the actual management side of the game that the fans of SimCity (and not the Sims) have come to love and expect from the series, why even bother grumbling about the new "personal" touches. But of course, that argument also has two sides: the time that was spent implementing those personal touches could have been spent improving on the existing systems in the game, some of which have a bit to be desired.
And also along the same line, from the IGN review, it seems that the expansion was kind of rushed along and some of the definite bugs the reviewer saw sound comical at first but then it really isn't all that funny, because you'd hope for some quality from the expansion, and what you get is even more bugs:
Heh, yeah, that's funny in a GTA-ish kind of way, but this is SimCity, and you would expect a different kind of humor... Not a very cool bug if you think about it.
That one had me laughing for a while. 
But then I thought about it... 
Well, if they spent a bit of time implementing this feature that, according to the opinions in the other thread, isn't the most welcome one, and didn't get it right, what happened to everything else? Did they fix all the possible bugs in the part that the citybuilders will play most? Well, that's where we stumble upon the next exerpt from the review:
So, they didn't improve the performance much... Well, that's where some of that time developing the new and apparently still buggy (or poorly designed?) UDI could have gone. Would have been a much more welcome improvement, if you ask me.
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Yeah... That's a long ramble. Well, I think I will be buying the expansion one-the-less, since it is just $10 over here, but I don't know. I have mixed feelings about it from what I've read in reviews. Just as a final note, the closing comments from the IGN review include this:
Well, now to add the same level of complexity to all the other aspects of the game, and we will be satisfied, no? (Well, we will have to pay for upgrade, apparently, but...)
Here are some of my ideas and clarifications on what I mean by another the Sims:
There are two aspects to this. First, is the marketing aspect and second is the gameplay aspect.
As far as the former is concerned, we would be asking: is SC going to have expansions stamped like crazy like the Sims did? Well, that isn't exactly the question I wanted to concentrate on here, because it is clear that they will want to do that (as the speedy delivery of Rush Hour shows), but it will all depend on the popularity of SC, which so far hasn't been nearly as great as that of the sims.
What I wanted to point out then, is the growing similarity between the gameplays of the two. I just read the new Rush Hour review on IGN (available here: http://pc.ign.com/articles/451/451058p1.html), and the reviewer, like a few of us here, finds the inclusion of the U-Drive-It feature into SimCity rather odd. The statement I found really curious (and the one that essentially triggered this thread) is: "By incorporating loads and loads of vehicle-based gameplay, Rush Hour shifts the series more towards personality and character." If you think about it, it is just a logical progression of the introduction of the My Sims feature. The game is, indeed, shifting from you being an abstract personality that makes fairly general decisions (well, other than placing the service buildings) to you being an actual entity on the map. It seems the next step would be to make the mayor one of the Sims and stick him into the Mayor house...
On the one hand this seems to be just an attempt to raise the popularity of an otherwise fairly niche game by attracting the proven support of the Sims fans. I can just see this idea: from the creators of the sims comes simcity. Let your sims move into a big city. Drive around it in a car. Etc., etc.. Looks indeed like the gameplays of the two games are starting to merge, slowly but surely.
On the other hand, you could argue: well, since this doesn't detract from the actual management side of the game that the fans of SimCity (and not the Sims) have come to love and expect from the series, why even bother grumbling about the new "personal" touches. But of course, that argument also has two sides: the time that was spent implementing those personal touches could have been spent improving on the existing systems in the game, some of which have a bit to be desired.
And also along the same line, from the IGN review, it seems that the expansion was kind of rushed along and some of the definite bugs the reviewer saw sound comical at first but then it really isn't all that funny, because you'd hope for some quality from the expansion, and what you get is even more bugs:
while it's nice that cars pull off the road to make way for emergency vehicles, the fact that they sometimes pull off to the wrong side of the road can lead to some unfortunate collisions.
The tendency of road vehicles to pop in and out of the game is also a cause of frustration. Racing down the street behind vehicles that conveniently disappear moments before you crash in to them is fine, I suppose, but when you begin a mission and have a cement truck spawn right on top of your vehicle destroying it <...>
But then I thought about it... Well, if they spent a bit of time implementing this feature that, according to the opinions in the other thread, isn't the most welcome one, and didn't get it right, what happened to everything else? Did they fix all the possible bugs in the part that the citybuilders will play most? Well, that's where we stumble upon the next exerpt from the review:
Though overall performance seems to have been smoothed over a bit with the expansion, there are still some moments where the game seems to chug a bit, even on high-end systems. <...> It was easier to put up with erratic performance before the team added this reflex-oriented vehicle gameplay. The drops in framerate are more irritating now, particularly when you consider the quality of the high-detail graphics. Since you'll be focused on the cars and streets, the pixilated buildings aren't too much of a problem, but it still seems as if the game should run better given the level of detail.
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Yeah... That's a long ramble.
Well, I think I will be buying the expansion one-the-less, since it is just $10 over here, but I don't know. I have mixed feelings about it from what I've read in reviews. Just as a final note, the closing comments from the IGN review include this:
It adds plenty of new features on the management end of the game, letting those more studious players delve deep in to the heart of the traffic patterns in the city. Serious players of SimCity will definitely find a wonderful range of options here, both in terms of new pieces and new reports. The details here are almost overwhelming and it's a real tribute to Maxis that they've been able to take such detailed, complicated information and present it in as useful and intuitive a format as possible.
Very interesting. Although what you say kind of reinfores y doubts. I may very well be the party-pooper here, but I would rather have them spend time on weeding out the old bugs than introducing new features that have the potential of putting new bugs in. 
) I would like to know opinions though.
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