{"id":1204478,"date":"2023-11-19T07:00:05","date_gmt":"2023-11-19T12:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=1204478"},"modified":"2023-11-19T07:00:05","modified_gmt":"2023-11-19T12:00:05","slug":"cities-skylines-2s-troubled-launch-and-why-simulation-games-are-freaking-hard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=1204478","title":{"rendered":"Cities: Skylines 2\u2019s troubled launch, and why simulation games are freaking hard"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n \"Cities:<\/p>\n

Enlarge<\/a> (credit: Paradox Interactive)<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

<\/div>\n

The worst thing about Cities: Skylines 2<\/em><\/a>\u00a0is that it was recently released.<\/p>\n

If this hugely ambitious city builder simulation would have been released some time ago, patched over and over again, and updated with some gap-filling DLC, it would be far better off. It could be on its slow-burn second act, like No Man\u2019s Sky<\/a><\/em>, Cyberpunk 2077<\/a><\/em>, or Final Fantasy XIV<\/a><\/em>. It could have settled into a disgruntled-but-still-invested player base, like Destiny 2<\/em><\/a> or Overwatch 2<\/em>. Or its technical debts could have been slowly paid off to let its underlying strengths come through, as with Disco Elysium<\/em> or The Witcher 3.<\/em><\/p>\n

But Cities: Skylines 2<\/em> (C:S2)<\/em> is regrettably available now in its current state. It has serious performance problems, both acknowledged by its 30-odd-employee developer Colossal Order and studied in-depth by others (which we\u2019ll get into). It has a rough-draft look when compared to its predecessor, which has accumulated eight years of fixes, DLC, and mods to cover a dizzying array of ideas. Worst of all, it was highly anticipated by fans, some of whom have high-end systems that still can’t properly run the sluggish game.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read 37 remaining paragraphs<\/a> | Comments<\/a><\/p>\n


\n
\nSource: Ars Technica – Cities: Skylines 2\u2019s troubled launch, and why simulation games are freaking hard<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Enlarge (credit: Paradox Interactive) The worst thing about Cities: Skylines 2\u00a0is that it was recently released. If this hugely ambitious city builder simulation would have been released some time ago, patched over and over again, and updated with some gap-filling … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1204479,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,110],"tags":[73],"class_list":["post-1204478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ars-technica","category-unfiltered-rss","tag-ars-technica"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1204478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1204478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1204478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1204479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1204478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1204478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1204478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}