A new version of Simcity ...

[PZ]

...will be available in February 2012.  I know it's not for everyone, but the graphics are rather stunning for a simulation as complex as this.

Ready for pre-order

[Art Blade]

I used to play SimCity and SimCity2000 and SimCopter..  hehe :) Good find, PZ :)

And actually ETA is Feb 2013  :-D

SimCity E3 Gameplay Trailer
SimCity Announce Trailer Insider's Look
SimCity Gameplay Demo - E3 2012 - IGN Live

[fragger]

That all looks pretty cool :-X I'm not one of the every who the game isn't for so I'm definitely interested in it

I missed the boat on the earlier SimCity games and only got into SimCity 3000 when it came out. As the name of this series suggests, they're not really games so much as simulations, i.e. you don't ever actually win anything, you just see how big and profitable a city you can grow. As such I used to get sick of it after a while. It would hook me in for a few weeks, then all of a sudden I'd lose interest and move on to something else - then about a year or so later I'd rediscover it and get hooked again for another few weeks, then get sick of it again. I went through that cycle three times. I've still got that game somewhere actually but I doubt it would run under Win 7 - not that I'm terribly interested in finding out.

This new version looks pretty slick though. I could probably be talked into it :-()

[Art Blade]

ah, 3000 -- I wrote 2k because I was thinking of the year as it is about 10 years now we haven't heard anything from Maxis and like you I have stashed it away somewhere without actually checking it for a long time. :)

Man, the first version got me hooked pretty good, I spent months with it until I got sick of it. When SimCopter came out I was very interested in flying over and through my old cities but that game never really convinced me so it went into the garbage bin not long thereafter.

Next thing was SimTower. Oh gosh, that one sucked me in pretty badly  :-D I used to mark several people who lived in that tower and assign them names and I would spend days observing what they were doing and where they were going. Really cool :)

Of course TheSims was the next thing I just had to play and it was fun for quite a while but I never got any of the sequels and all the crap they released around that game.

And there was SimCity3000, it was more complicated than the first one, with underground railways and water pipes and whatnot it was a bigger challenge and for some reason I never reached the same addiction level as with the predecessor.

Now SimCity "2013" looks interesting as you can see a lot of people and tiny individual cars and so forth, loads of detail. I might be getting it eventually  :-()

[PZ]

Your history with the Maxis games sounds similar to mine, Art, only I went on to Simcity 4 plus Rush hour.  Much like all of you, I would become immersed and then tire of it after a few weeks.  While in it, the fun was in creating the new cities, using imagine much like I did when I was a kid playing with trucks in the dirt creating roads, gravel pits, etc.

As goofy as it was, I actually liked Simcopter, mostly because of the traffic sounds and music.  I wish they had continued with it in the later games because the graphics in the original were truly ugly.

I'm sure I'll get the game even if it only occupies me for a month at a time; the developers have made great improvements over time.

I thought this series had ended with the last iteration, and am pleased that it did not.

[PZ]

Delayed until March 2013, the game looks great!

Simcity 5 game play demonstration

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqUCmlbkkS0#ws

[PZ]

Simcity comes out March 5th.  I was actually chosen to be a beta tester and was sent the unlock code, but neglected to do so on time!  Oh well, my bad.  :-()

The Limited Edition comes with a heroes and villains set which allows you to place organized crime and super heroes into your creations.

There is also a multi-player component that looks interesting.  There are regions with different city locations.  Your online collaborators each take a city region and develop it.  The sims will even commute between the cities for jobs and homes.  The cities can interact with each other.  For instance, one city can be focused on gambling Las Vegas style while another city can be the industrial branch that supplies the gambling city.  Of course, the games can be asynchronous - the members need not be online at the same time.

Here's a video of multi-player - looks like my kind of collaboration

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uactovanJvQ#ws
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3_ZMb5uODE#ws

[Art Blade]

 :)

Any idea of the required system specs?

[PZ]

Doesn't seem like it is too demanding - here is a link: https://help.ea.com/article/simcity-system-requirements

Watching more videos last night has me really excited about the game - you can drill all the way down to street level and even click to follow individual sims to w@&k.  The street level is highly detailed.

The new Glass box simulation engine allows for almost complete graphic visualization of the behind the scenes simulation rather than the spreadsheet method of data presentation in prior iterations of the game.

[Art Blade]

nice and thanks for the link.

I liked to follow individuals (was able to tag them) when playing SimTower. You could even assign them names  :)

[PZ]

That's cool  :-X  I kind of remember playing SimTower, but that was a long time ago.

I think I'll start a region with the thought in mind of creating several cities each with a singular purpose.  For instance, one that is heavily industrialized with coal and nuclear power aplenty - enough to send to another city.  Then another city that is "green" with no factories, but tourism instead - casinos of course.

One of the interesting actions is that you can create a factory then go into street level detail and watch the goods being manufactured, then put onto delivery trucks.  You can then watch as the boxes of goods are delivered to one of your retail establishments.

Another interesting detail is that if you have lots of crime in one city, the criminals will travel to another city and rob banks, etc.

The bottom line is that there will be much in the way experimentation - a game just the way I like it.  ^-^

[Art Blade]

I know that I used to suck when it came to make a beautiful-looking city become self-sufficient. It tended to take forever until a city worked and looked the way I wanted and I wanted it quickly.. so I used to cheat money in order to completely remodel a city over and over again.. it is so time-consuming building large cities.. in other words: bloody addictive  :-D

[PZ]

... in other words: bloody addictive  :-D

It sure is;  I too have used money cheats so I could immediately construct all I wanted without having to wait until the city had earned enough money.  One of the other things I like about this version is that you do not need to lay underground water pipes nor power wires.  As long as your building and utilities like power, water, and sewer abuts a road, the utilities are automatically installed.

It is also kind of fun seeing garbage trucks driving the neighborhoods and then returning to the dump.

I'm getting the Limited Edition so I can have the mafia plugin and see what they do with my casinos.  Although I have never used (nor have I liked) the idea of natural disasters, I might just throw a meteor shower or two at the gangsters if they get out of hand.  >:D

[Art Blade]

I hated that then new feature regarding underground infrastructure. Good they removed it  :-X

[PZ]

Did you ever play SimAnt?  That was kind of fun as well.

[PZ]

Bad news about the new Simcity - it requires using the front end, Origin (like Steam and Uplay) and it also requires a persistent internet connection.

[Art Blade]

Never played SimAnt.

And great, now they start to do what other companies meanwhile learned was a bad idea and ceased it, like Ubi.

[fragger]

Bad news about the new Simcity - it requires using the front end, Origin (like Steam and Uplay) and it also requires a persistent internet connection.

Aw, crumbs... That rules out that one for me then. Bugger ::)

[PZ]

Yeah, I was thinking about you when I read that one fragger.  Although it is not necessary to have a blazingly fast connection, it needs to be better than dialup.

To experience SimCity, players will need an Internet connection of at least 256 kbps download and 64kbps upload or faster.

However I noticed in one of the videos that you have an option of starting a region as public or as private only.  I'm hoping that when I do a private region I will not need to consume much of my bandwidth.  I'll experiment and see how it goes because I just checked availability at my local Gamestop and it is in stock.  Will pick it up later today.

[PZ]

I think Maxis has circumvented the computer performance potential issue by decreasing the maximum city size.  In prior games you could create massive cities whereas in this version you are limited to 4 square miles of city.  This size limit is likely what allows even marginal PCs to experience reasonable play performance.

[PZ]

well, I just picked up the game, but it will be a while before I can even begin to install it.  I'm a bit worried that the Simcity servers will be overloaded.  EA is really stupid for requiring a persistent online connection.

[Art Blade]

EA and UBI are going to w@&k together.. says it all.

Ubisoft recently expanded their Uplay Store catalogue to include third-party publishers like EA

[PZ]

OMG the install went flawlessly!  After making sure I was logged in as an administrator I popped in the disc and away it went.  The firs thing it did was install Origin which is the EA version of Uplay or Steam.  After doing it's update which was quite fast, the game install started.  Of course, after the main file install came the requisite update, but all in all not too bad - less than 30 minutes later and I'm ready to play.

Interestingly, the American servers are all really busy so it is logging me into a European server.  Unfortunately, it requires that I be online.

[PZ]

Well, I have to say after a couple of hours of game play that this game is amazing.  For anyone that has enjoyed any of the Simcity versions before this one, you would love the newest iteration.  The graphics are stunning, and even on my old rig with a GTX 295 I can run it on the highest settings with absolutely no stutter - evidently the developers method of restricting the city size has made quite a difference.

[fragger]

Cool, hope you continue to enjoy it :-X

I may look into it as I really enjoyed SimCity 3000 and this one does look terrific. I'll have to psyche myself up for potentially wasting my dough though :-() 256 kbps is something I experience very rarely outside of my dreams. If I can get it over 100 kbps I consider it a pretty good day :-D