I don't judge a game by its pre-launch PR. I think it's better to judge a game for what it is, not for what it claims to be. If there is a mismatch between the PR representation of a game and the game itself then you have a problem with the PR, not with the game.
You may be right there's just no way to salvage the current SimCity 5 problems (if that's what you're implying), but I don't think the current issues ruin the game at all. For me the illusion mostly holds up and the pathfinding issues are mostly corner cases. So I don't think it's a fundamental problem with the game design and I think a few AI patches can make a world of difference.
(although, arguably, a macro-level simulation could have resulted in a much better SimCity because that would allow for more depth and larger city areas. And arguably a sim-level simulation is a bit of a gimmick that doesn't add enough to the game to justify the complexity and PR buzz, but that's a different issue)
You may be right there's just no way to salvage the current SimCity 5 problems (if that's what you're implying), but I don't think the current issues ruin the game at all. For me the illusion mostly holds up and the pathfinding issues are mostly corner cases. So I don't think it's a fundamental problem with the game design and I think a few AI patches can make a world of difference.
(although, arguably, a macro-level simulation could have resulted in a much better SimCity because that would allow for more depth and larger city areas. And arguably a sim-level simulation is a bit of a gimmick that doesn't add enough to the game to justify the complexity and PR buzz, but that's a different issue)