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Love it, Want it, but I have questions first for the devs...
There are few things that I could never get answered that I really want to know. I do see devs post here once and awhile, so hopfully they can respond to my questions below. Others are welcome to respond if they found answers to these questions as well.
I am a huge sim city fan, needless to say after finding out about this game from word of mouth I tried the demo. Yes, there were bugs and some issues, nothing that I wouldn't expect in a beta/demo. When installing the demo and reading all the info that was actually little, the one thing it said was "this is only 10% of what is actually in the game" so to this end I would like to know if the following details are actually in the upcoming release...
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1. Details- Do we actually see the lights on the cars at night, how about the stop lights changing color with traffic? Details are what made sim city that much more fun to play. I also noticed the ferris wheel wasn't animated , is this stuff planned? How are the devs going to handle these updates etc if I buy a monthly sub.
2. Sounds- One big erk was the sound, there was sound such as clicking on a building and getting a relative sound to a business or factory and other click noises. However, while the cities looks fantastic there was no ambiant sounds or details in sounds you would hear in a city, is there such a thing in the full game? What more can you add to this?
3. MP World Play- I am very excited about the idea I can build a few cities up and start trading basicly with myself in these resources, as the game progresses and I have my maximum I will obviously need to trade with my fellow neighbors (Other players) I read about special server rules. One I was curious on was the ability for your neighbor to effect your city, IE we compete for resources, trade, population etc working off the same resource data maybe? Is there plans for compition like this?
4. Re-visit Details- While the base mechanics is needed in a city sim (no doubt about it ) I like what is there, so I really have no issues with the mechanics of the game, I find it enjoyable , easy to get into and can imagine after maxing my one city in the demo, hard to master. I would thou again like to refer back to the details of the game, for me there is nothing more pleasing , then to get my city to a status I am happy with at one point ,then walk around and see, hear, feel all the action around me. Will details constantly be added to give us more emmerision?
5. Real world mechanics- I did mention in #4 I love the mechanics as is, which I do, this question is more related to real world events (Probably should have said that in the start) and if they are planned or in the game. For instance I build my police department and will see the action of my police pull over speeders, take care of issues at businesses or homes? Same with the f ire department. While it would be great to directly interact with this, my thougth is just the animation or "scene" that appear occasionally based on stats of a building or area? Helping you deterim factors along with your actual numbers while adding flair of again emerssion to the game. Is this planned ? Or do you at least like the idea? 
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Thats about it, I did again find some bugs (IE click on a car and go for a ride but sometimes you can't get away from the camera lock ) and I would like to assume many of these have been crushed in the full version.
While I like the design of the Cities XL site, it really is lacking in details of things mentioned here in this post. Well thats it, and hope to read a dev response soon! Others are welcome to answer ofcourse 
"The monster created isn't by the company that makes the game, it's by the fans that make it something it never was"
Comments
The demo is, for all intents and purposes, the game. The 10% basically refers to the buildings available, and not really any "mechanics". There aren't any "special" mechanics, like special trading, ordinances, etc in the full version.
The details are about it as well. The cities are pretty static in the game. You plop a building, it grows, and then that's it. No changes as the economy adjusts....areas of your city don't get "depressed" or "gentrified". Over and over again, testers called the game "dead", "lifeless", and static.
The sound you got is pretty much it.
And, most disappointing to the folks here....the mmo portion is pretty non-existant. There's no motivation for competition, or cooperation. Having a neighbor means nothing. A single lane road built to any edge of the map allows you to trade internationally, and interplanetarily. Seriously. You can trade with someone on another planet. Being next to someone means nothing. As of my last reading, trade with your own cities was going to be stopped, due to some pretty significant cheating that was discovered in the beta.
There was a 25 page thread on the beta forums about how to improve the mmo aspect of the game. It was, basically, ignored. That should tell you a lot. The blueprints are non-competative.
They said for over a year that they woulddo speciality servers with capped populations(as opposed to at release). As of a few weeks before release, they reiterated that, but gave no indication where in the VERY LONG post release development cycle they will fall. (As of right now, ONLY the mmo players can expect "buses" sometime around Christmas)
Oh, and you asked about police stations:
Police stations, fire stations, and hospitals act the same as basketball courts, bowling alleys, and parks.
That is, they only make citizens "happy", which prevents them from moving out. They have no connection to any type of "crime" mechanic. They don't decrease crime, or prevent crime, or have any type of protection radius. (same for firestations vs. fire) It doesn't connect to your cities growth, so much as prevents its decrease in population.
Basically, at different points, your citizens become randomly "unhappy", and start to move out of neighborhoods (which just keep the empty houses mind you). You simply have to identify what would make them "happy" (leisure/service), and then build it on a road that goes by the neighborhood. As long as you've picked the right one, they'll move back in. That's the only way the game recognizes police/fire/hospitals. It does nothing special for them.
Other than those buildings, you'll spend most of the time individually plopping employment buildings to get the right balance with your residents.
Terrible game, boring and lifeless.
If you want a good city builder, you should still stick with Sim City 4.
This game shouldn't be on MMORPG.COM, it has no multiplayer, just a chat room.
This game is horrible and not worht the time to even install it.
stay far away from the game and the companies money milking practices.
People keep mentioning SimCity 4, but how does this compare to Monte Cristo's previous game, City Life? Reason I ask, is because I can't recall if that game had the sort of details being discussed here, but I thought it was a great game. Much better than SimCity Societies, which despite having those sorts of details, I found to be much less interesting and immersive.
Not to say those sorts of details aren't important, but maybe Monte Cristo has a different sort of focus than Maxis, and makes city building games that are good in a different sort of way. For SimCity fans, those differences might take some getting used to, but seems like people are being overly critical of this game - unless its not even a step up from City Life..?
When I want a single-player story, I'll play a single-player game. When I play an MMO, I want a massively multiplayer world.
Sim City Societies was also garbage, and should never have had the Sim City name on it.
CitiesXL is pretty much City Life 2, which compared to Sim City 4, is not even close to a good city builder.
CitiesXL lacks a changing city, zones that grow or change based on how you develop the area. You can't improve areas in CitiesXL, you have already pre-determined the "class" of people who will be living in that area. And as someone pointed out already, there is no crime, education level, or fire. You simply put these buildings in to make people happy, so they'll move in, no dynamic to it at all.
On top of all that, for some reason the city and its mayor (you), have to manage leasure buildings for you people. City funded bowling alleys? what??
Seems like they have different goals, though. Sim City 4 may be the deeper game, but I really like how in City Life, you build a city you can practically walk around in. Just seemed to me that allowing the player to get that up-close and personal with their city came with certain trade offs. Might also mean they're aiming for a somewhat different audience.
I think that's why SimCity Societies was made. For that audience, to compete more directly with City Life. Problem is, they didn't really get it right. They seemed to think of it as a dumbed down SimCity, but even if there is some truth to that, there's also more to it than that.
When I want a single-player story, I'll play a single-player game. When I play an MMO, I want a massively multiplayer world.