SimCity Cities of Tomorrow

SimCity Cities of Tomorrow Developer Gameplay Walkthrough

SimCity - Cities of Tomorrow Expansion Coming November 14th

Sydney, Australia – September 20, 2013 – Bring the cities of today into the world of tomorrow. Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA) today announced that the SimCity™ Cities of Tomorrow* expansion pack is currently in development for Mac and PC and will be arriving November 14. Built upon the foundation of the ultimate city building simulation that has more than 2 million players worldwide, SimCity Cities of Tomorrow gives players the ability to transform their cities as they take them on a journey 50 years into the future. Using new technologies and experimental urban planning techniques, mayors will shape the destinies of their cities, thriving in a utopia of clean technologies, or a dystopia of hyper-commercialism.
 
“Will the world of tomorrow be a utopia powered by clean energy or an industrial society consumed by mass commercialism?” said Patrick Buechner, General Manager, Maxis Emeryville. “With SimCity Cities of Tomorrow, players can build the future as they imagine it. Transport your Sims on MagLev, power your cities with fusion reactors or tidal wave generators, manufacture a legion of drones to serve your Sims and build massive MegaTowers that dwarf modern skyscrapers. We’re giving you plausible technologies to take your cities onto a journey 50 years into the future. What will you create?”

                                                     

 



SimCity Cities of Tomorrow gives players an entirely new way to dream about their city of the future. New regions, new future technology, new city specializations and new transportation methods will transform the way that cities take shape and evolve. Will they create a utopian society underpinned by clean technology under the auspices of the Academy, or encourage giant corporation OmegaCo to strip-mine natural resources and pollute in the name of feeding consumerism? For the first time in the history of the franchise, cities can be built vertically with enormous multi-zone MegaTowers that extend high into the sky and dwarf the rest of the city. Education and research will help players discover new technologies that make their cities less polluted, less reliant on natural resources, managed day-to-day by service drones and fueled by green energy. As the population increases, Sims will live, work, and play closer together. When players have finished deciding whether they want their Sims to live together in harmony, or as members of an exploited workforce, they can rain chaos upon them by unleashing an all-new disaster exclusive to this expansion pack.

The SimCity base game is available now on Mac and PC and developed by Maxis. SimCity is cross-platform compatible, so all players play together across the same servers. Players can play both versions with the same Origin account, allowing them to seamlessly continue their cities, achievements and leaderboard progress across the Mac and PC. Since its launch in March, SimCity has had seven major game updates that have made upgrades to the core simulation and provided game content and features at no additional charge.

SimCity Cities of Tomorrow will be available for Mac and PC and is not yet rated for the OFLC. Pre-orders will begin soon at www.simcity.com/en_AU/tomorrow

SimCity lets you build a bridge, so you can get over it

Well its about time. This feature is something that should have been in the game from day 1, but for whatever reason it was not. SimCity now features the ability to raise and lower roads. Creating bridges is easy enough, or if you want create your own tunnels. Check out the video for how its done.

SIMCITY FOR MAC IS AVAILABLE ON AUGUST 30‏

While a little behind the times, EA have now confirmed that SimCity will be out for Mac on August 30th

SimCity^TM will be available for Mac exclusively as a digital release on August 30, 2013. SimCity is cross-platform compatible, so all players, whether on Mac or PC, will be able to play SimCity together in the online connected world and will be able to jump back and forth into their cities regardless of the platform.

Those players who have previously purchased digital and boxed copies of SimCity for PC will receive an automatic entitlement for SimCity for Mac via Origin^TM.

SimCity for Mac and PC allows players to create and destroy the cities of their imaginations, and has been rated G by the OFLC for both PC and Mac. For more information regarding SimCity, please visit www.SimCity.com/au.

SimCity expands - Amusement Park add on, now out.

Thrills, chills and more await your Sims.  Available today, the Amusement Park content enables players to customize and build out their own theme parks. With nine rides, three entry gates and five concessions stands, players will have to master the art of fun as they find the right way to bring in tourists Sims, make them happy and keep them in their cities longer.

Players can create a park that elicits memories from yore with classic-themed rides, or set their Sims on an adventure with thrill-seeking rides. Content includes Ferris Wheels, roller coasters, go-kart tracks and more. Released in last week’s Update 4.0, the free new map, Edgewater Bay, offers players a stunning backdrop to plan out their theme parks. Along with the new content there are five new missions to play through and will offer new gameplay for those players who want to master the Tourism city specialization.

Players will need to learn the tricks of the trade for getting the most tourists into their park and spending money. Place that Roller Coaster and watch the Sims line up!

The Amusement Park content is a digital download and as an early mayoral special will retail for $9.99. For more information or to purchase the content, click here.

SimCity coming to Mac June 12th

SYDNEY, Australia. – April 11, 2013 – For more than 23 years, SimCity™ has entertained over 30 million fans worldwide and it returns to the platform that started it all on June 12. Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA) today announced that SimCity will be coming to the Mac on June 12 exclusively as a digital release via Origin™ and other online retailers. Fans who purchase SimCity will be able to play the game on Mac and PC, regardless of which version they buy, as well as access their cities from across both platforms. Players who have previously purchased SimCity for PC, either as a physical or a digital copy will receive the Mac version as a free digital download on Origin* on June 12.

“SimCity is coming to Mac on June 12 and one purchase will give you both the Mac and PC versions. You only need to buy SimCity once to play together across the same servers, regardless of which version you’re playing,” said Lucy Bradshaw, Senior Vice President and General Manager of EA’s Maxis Label. “We didn’t want to make any compromises when it came to the Mac so we created a native version that is optimized for the hardware and OSX.”

With more than 1.3 million units sold on PC since launch, the beloved city-building simulator is back with the series creators at Maxis™ and it delivers the most immersive and personalSimCity experience ever, where players can create and destroy the cities of their imaginations. SimCity runs natively on Mac and its entire software renderer was rewritten for OpenGL, ensuring the best performance for the platform. Via Origin, SimCity is cross-platform compatible, so all players will be able to play together across the same servers. Players will be able to play both versions with the same Origin account, allowing them to seamlessly continue their cities, achievements and leaderboard progress across the PC and Mac.

SimCity has been rated G by the OFLC and is currently available for PC and will be available for Mac on June 12. For more information regarding SimCity, please visit www.SimCity.com

SimCity Review - Maxi-Geek

Ok, let’s get the bad news out of the way first, yes SimCity has been plagued with issues since day 1. Yes, they even affected me. And yes, that pissed me off. But outside of that, does this new game have what it takes to make it into today’s gaming world.

Gameplay

So what’s new about this game? Well, where to start. First off, gone are the days of customizing your map. You are given a nice selection of regions to choose from, and when within those regions you can choose where to place your city. However, if you don’t like the amount of water in any given region, you cannot change it. You can’t raise or lower the terrain, nor can you populate the map with heaps of trees first. So right now you might think, this is a bad thing.

Well you are right, and yet also wrong. Having set lands makes you think about the type of city you will build before you even plant you first piece of road down. If you build next to a large body of water, you have some options that are not present in a mountainous region. Trade Ports and Ferry Terminals can only be placed next to water, so right away you need to choose if you’re going to build a big industrial town or a tourist town. Such a hard choice right? But this is where the city limits come into play.

Whilst you’re building your dream city, another player can be building the city that is the polar opposite of yours. And it’s in this way that SimCity takes flight. Sharing resources, emergency services or even workers is needed to ensure that your city and the ones around you prosper. You can’t just plop down a massive stadium and expect to draw tourists. You need workers, without them your city wont grow.

Adding houses in the new SimCity has nothing to do with zoning some lower, middle and high land areas. It is all road based now. You need to start out small, just with some light roads, and when you place down some residential zones, the people build to the street level. So after a while, when you’re doing well, you can upgrade that street to a medium and people will then upgrade their house. You are no longer required to go in and demolish everything in order to build newer homes for your Sim’s.

Graphics

Right off the bat you will notice that SimCity looks very different from the previous games, and that’s a blessing. After the last game, Societies, changing your look would never hurt. But thankfully the team at Maxis have gone and smashed all the preconceptions for what the sim genre could look like.

SimCity has a level of detail that will amaze you, should you take the time to lower yourself down to street level and watch the goings on of your city. And even looking from up high, you can see some amazing detail.

Now this is not without issues, there are some problems when it comes to zooming out, or in, or anywhere in-between. The issue comes in the form of roads not appearing to be done correctly. There is nothing worse than spending heaps of your hard earned simoleans on a great new road, only to see bits missing. Of course if you move in closer you would see that it’s all there, but that initial look of seeing something missing, well it makes for a sigh moment at least.

Sound

How does the game compare, it was always fun to have a disaster occur just to hear the roar of the invading monster, whilst your large buildings collapse and burn. But outside of that, the general sound effects are not really that impressive. They work just about as well as you would expect them too. The music however is another story. The further you zoom out, the louder the background music becomes, and I find myself zooming out a lot, just so I can listen to that soundtrack.

When you zoom in, you get the full city soundscape thrown at you, and whilst its fine when you have a small town, once you get into the larger cities, having so much noise can be distracting. That’s not to say it detracts from the game, its all a part of the charm of the city.

Final Thoughts

SimCity is a game that gets a great many things right. And that’s a testament to the design of the core gameplay. Each time you load up a new city, your choice of what type of city you plan to build can easily determine if you will succeed or fail, straight out of the gate. For a great experience, especially with some mates, you can’t pass up SimCity.

SimCity - Review

IGN Plays SimCity

the game does look good, way to many games this month though. Shout out if your going to get it.

Intro Video for SimCity

SimCity Progress Report Video

*As a side note, the man in the video has the best name this year,

SimCity Disaster Trailer

Disaster prevention begins with safety. We offer several tips to ensure the least amount of damage to your city. First, fire stations are your friend. Make sure you have enough fire trucks to protect your city in case of earthquakes, meteor strikes or something more ominous. Second, be sure to tip your hat to your police chief. When disaster strikes, make sure your citizens are adequately protected from the dangerous things that go bump in the night. Lastly, a healthy Sim is a happy Sim even if their home has been swept away by a tornado. Don’t forget to fund your hospitals and be sure you have enough waiting rooms to handle the injured Sims who will come rushing through the door. These basic city service facilities will also help you rebuild after an earthquake, meteor strike, tornado, UFO invasion or another one of the yet-to-be announced disasters touch your city.

You never know when disasters will strike, but you can begin protecting your cities from the start. Heed our advice. Disaster protection begins with safety. Best of luck to our future mayors.