Sim City Societies to hit shelves this holiday season

[cityboi]

Well folks, Sim City 5 or as it will be called Sim City Societies will hit shelves around Christmas. Its far beyond the other Sim City Games. You can build any kind of city you want and its no longer restricted to building modern urban cities. One big change is that Maxis is not producing the game. Electronic Arts have taken over the reigns.

renderings!!! Looks like things are ALOT more 3D!!

Also a video that kinda walks you through the game!

http://media.pc.ign.com/media/925/925931/vids_1.html

[peaceloveunderstanding]

Interesting. I worry about EA making the game, hopefully it will be a worthy member of the series.

[Justadude]

I'm excited about this, as I've played SC4 to death already. My one continuing complaint, which looks like it will go unresolved based on these renderings: there is still no easy way to build realistically on diagonal streets or curves. But maybe if they're orienting it toward a less strictly-urban feel, there will be a way to build on something other than a grid.

[cityboi]

I love the fact that they have gone more 3D with this game. You can toggle the screen from any perspective. I have been waiting for this for a very long time, also there is no zoning where buildings appear automatically. You build the buildings yourself which is what Ive been wanting to do....now will most people be able to play it on their machines without upgrading their computers with all kinds of expansion/video cards?

[Spatula]

I like what I'm seeing. SC4 made the game a lot bigger than it used to be. Actual metro regions was a great feature to have. The most useful improvements I can see would be controlling all the cities in a region in tabs, and letting them grow organically around each other instead of separated into distinct squares.

If they could improve the realism of the water features, that would be good too.

[cityboi]

I like what I'm seeing. SC4 made the game a lot bigger than it used to be. Actual metro regions was a great feature to have. The most useful improvements I can see would be controlling all the cities in a region in tabs, and letting them grow organically around each other instead of separated into distinct squares.

If they could improve the realism of the water features, that would be good too.

[cityboi]

More renderings!

[UptownNewOrleans]

I've played all the Sim City games to extinction. I'm ready to get Sim City Societies so I can build my own metropolis

[cityboi]

im digging the building detail and the lighting. This is just a breath of fresh air. This is a major transition unlike other Sim City games where there were some graphic improvments and a few more options. I love the total control, epecially concerning individual buildings. I dont have to zone property and have the computer do all the fun work for me. You can build your city one building at a time!

[cityboi]

Other Sim City Society videos

http://www.1up.com/do/gameOverview?cId=316...&sec=VIDEOS

[suburban george3]

Looks Exciting! I can't wait as I too have played SC4 to death!

[nowensone]

I like what I'm seeing. SC4 made the game a lot bigger than it used to be. Actual metro regions was a great feature to have. The most useful improvements I can see would be controlling all the cities in a region in tabs, and letting them grow organically around each other instead of separated into distinct squares.

If they could improve the realism of the water features, that would be good too.

[torgo]

I bought SC 4 right away but didnt play it much because I didn't have to patience, and it took up a TON of system resources. I had a fairly new machine and it still ran slow.

This one certainly looks impressive though

[cityboi]

I bought SC 4 right away but didnt play it much because I didn't have to patience, and it took up a TON of system resources. I had a fairly new machine and it still ran slow.

This one certainly looks impressive though

[Allison Slater]

Ahead of previous Sim City Games? I think not. The requirements may be a little more, but that's about it. True, the graphics are now full 3D, but the realism and detail of buildings has been reduced heavily to be able to accomplish this. Previous builds of Sim City were isometric for a reason: more detail and visual activity without having requirements too high for the current technology.

Also, the game mechanics themselves are a step backward. True, there's the added feature of the whole societies thing. This is a step forward. Everything else has been a step backward. As you can see from the screenshots, the road network is exactly the same in every picture. Different textures? Yes. Different roads? No. They are ALL 4-lane roads. Sim City 4 offered 2-lane roads, 4-lane avenues, 1-way roads, ground and elevated highways, 2-way quaint city streets, and the user-made NAM Addon extended that to elevated roads, traffic circles, turning lanes for roads and avenues, as well as a plethora of other options.

The road textures also look frighteningly fake. Look at the 90

[MadVlad]

Rural & Suburban

[Allison Slater]

Hartford was part of an early project of mine that used the Maxis default London region map, and I drew inspiration from British-sounding names, although the cities themselves drew little inspiration from any real place.

[Justadude]

*sigh* As I suspected, still no curving roads. That is, IMO, the biggest missing link for Sim City. Nobody lives in a place where all lots are flush against a straight road, even out in the suburbs.

[JerseyBoy]

tSlater, how were you able to get national chains, roads with turn lanes, and canals in your city?

[Noneck_08]

tSlater, how were you able to get national chains, roads with turn lanes, and canals in your city?

[Allison Slater]

NAM offers diagonal streets in addition to the already diagonal roads, and due to the discovery of overhanging lots (It is possible to make a building for Sim City that is bigger than the lot itself) there are several downloadable diagonal and triangular buildings, so it is in fact very possible to create wall-to-wall diagonal streets. Due to their nature, however, they are not growable (otherwise you'd get some weird effects) so all diagonal buildings are ploppable landmarks (which CAN still offer residents or jobs to your city). I haven't worked much with these yet, because the variety of them is a little low on the STEX (Simtropolis.com Exchange) yet. It's good enough for a few diagonal streets/roads within a city, just not enough variety yet for a full city of diagonal roads.

Everything you see in my cities are from the STEX (in addition to the default Maxis stuff) and a few were grabbed off of Japanese sites which I no longer remember.

Cell tower, dirt roads, national chains, functional transit-enabled parking lots, malls, mediterranean buildings, dutch buildings, seasonal trees, street-side parking, brick streets, road-top bus and subway stations, deconstructivist buildings, EL train cars, wall-to-wall rowhouses, canals, ground light rail (NAM), and the majority of my 1920s buildings are all from the STEX.

Some interesting projects underway at the STEX include custom "Big-Dig" highways, sunken highways, sea walls, additional bridges, street bridges (both NAM), double-deck bridges and transit, EL-over-road, high-speed trains, incinerators, garbage barges, bus-only roads, no-truck roads, and a whole bunch more.

The snow thing is actually within the game itself, but only appears in high elevations on Christmas Day during in-game winter. There's a plugin somewhere on the STEX which enables cheat codes that are otherwise disabled, and one of those cheat codes enables the snow effect to occur year-round during in-game winter.

[Justadude]

Maybe the future of Sim City is to continue to improve the platform, and let fans drive the development of lots and features. Kinda like a WikiSimCity.

[cityboi]

It looks like this new Sim City game is a hybrid of Sim City and the Sims.

[Allison Slater]

Well like I said, Sim City Societies is a 'simpler' version of Sim City, from the word of Maxis itself.. a lot of the micro-management has been completely removed. I think I also remember hearing that there is no zoning, you just plop buildings.

[torgo]

Well like I said, Sim City Societies is a 'simpler' version of Sim City, from the word of Maxis itself.. a lot of the micro-management has been completely removed. I think I also remember hearing that there is no zoning, you just plop buildings.