Remember all those days you spent in elementary or middle school meticulously building up bustling metropolises only to destroy them via a series of earthquakes, tornadoes and giant robot attacks? Well it’s time to warm up your city planning muscles once more, as EA has officially announced that a new SimCity game is coming to PC and Mac in 2013.
Remember all those days you spent in elementary or middle school meticulously building up bustling metropolises only to destroy them via a series of earthquakes, tornadoes and giant robot attacks? Well it’s time to warm up your city planning muscles once more, as EA has officially announced that a new SimCity game is coming to PC and Mac in 2013.
The new title will be utilizing the GlassBox Engine, which means that players will get the first true 3D SimCity title ever. Not only will players be able to zoom in on individual buildings and chat with each Sim, you can also finally build curved roads. That may not seem like a big deal to those who aren’t familiar with the franchise, but that little tidbit of news alone likely has longtime fans jumping for joy. Don’t worry that the game is getting too serious though, the folks at Maxis have already given warning that at any moment a giant lizard can show up and completely wreck your day.
The game’s other primary selling point is the fact that it’s set to be the first truly social SimCity game. “We’re building a simulation that really captures the world we live in today, where your decisions go beyond the boundaries of the city,” said Maxis Senior VP Lucy Bradshaw. The game’s new “Social Flow” system will see players’ cities affecting one another for the first time, both for good and ill.
For instance, if a section of your buddy’s city catches on fire you can dispatch trucks from your own town to help put out the blaze. Conversely, if you create a city filled with heavy industry the pollution overflow could seep into neighboring communities and cause Sims to become sick. There’s opportunity for collaboration, as shared scientific research will lead to faster upgrades, but also competition, because resources are finite and shared amongst all cities. While we’d like to believe these social bits will create a worldwide utopia of virtual cities, we get the feeling the more likely outcome will be trolling on an international scale.
This announcement provides a lot to be excited about, as not only are we getting the first true SimCity game in a decade, it’s also being lovingly crafted by Maxis, who understands the series better than anyone else. We’re bummed we have to wait until next year to play it, but in the meantime I see a city that’s running far too smoothly, I think I’ll call down an alien invasion…
