Several
months have passed since the launch of Cities XL, Monte Cristo’s new
city-builder; passions have arisen, passions have subsided, game hours
have been spent, and now it’s time for some community updates. What’s
the state of affairs in Cities XL? Join us as our friend Soltangris explains the current situation of Cities XL.
The Barry Sanders Project has existed for almost five years now, and in that time we have released 24 Michigan themed BATs to the STEX! We have more in the works! The Google Map below shows the location of all the major BSP releases, who created them, and a link to their STEX download.
Welcome to the BSP Blog Extravaganza! This is part one of the event, which features an interview with its members and an overview of the Barry Sanders Project’s history. This will be followed by part two by nofunk in a few days. But it wouldn’t be an extravaganza without STEX uploads. Keep your eye on the STEX over the next week for a bunch of BSP uploads.
As you may know, each year the Simtropolis Community reflects back and considers all the great contributors and contributions that have been made to the community by all the dedicated and talented people who have added hours of enrichment and entertainment to our city building passion.
Welcome to the first article in a series that will take a look back at the last 10 years of City Simulation games. (Maxis did a pretty good job covering the previous 10 here). It's been an interesting decade, and the genre has taken huge leaps forwards, and arguably backwards, in this span.
As we reach the end of this decade, and with a major new release in the genre having just been released, I thought it would be an appropriate time to take a look back at how the genre got where it is today.With each article I'll be featuring a different game, and hopefully a few words from someone in the City Simulation community sharing their thoughts on the game.
This time we're featuring Simcity 3000 Unlimited, and Wren Weburg, of SC3000.com and Maxis fame, has shared some of his memories on how Simcity 3000 has had an effect on his life.
I hope this series brings back good memories for all of you, and I encourage you to share your memories in the comments section.
"Cities of the World" is an independent project started by a small group of spanish city-building fans. The idea behind it is to create the kind of city-building game that city-building fans want to play. Such grassroots efforts is not unheard of in the gaming world, but it's rare to see players actually trying to develop their own game entirely from the ground up.
The Cities of the World project draws from familiar ideas long established by SimCity, and it makes no attempt to conceal its main source of inspiration. In fact, the team wants to take everything they liked about SimCity and add in everything they've always wanted to see.
The small team is lead by Dario Alonso who is very excited to share the Cities of the World project concept with us. Of course the project is very early in development, but Dario hopes to inspire the city-building community to become involved. Dario's native language is not English, but here he explains the ideas behind the project; how it started, what its current state is, and where it hopes to go.
Today I had a chance to sit down with Bixel and Paulvmontfort, the "Founding Fathers" of the HKABT (Hong Kong/Asian BAT Team). The HKABT is a team that makes custom BAT (Building Architect Tool) Buildings for SimCity 4. HKABT has released hundreds of BATs across multiple websites. You can see their downloads on the STEX, and on the Sc4d LEX.
Cities XL is a good city-building game that manages to introduce some much needed new ideas to the genre without straying too far from established conventions. Whether you're a core fan or new to the genre, there is a lot to like about Cities XL. As a city-builder, the game largely succeeds. What it gets right is enjoyable, where it innovates is refreshing and its few missteps are not disastrous.
It is arguably the best city-building game released in the last 6 years, and remains closest in spirit to the venerable SimCity. Core fans will be on very familiar ground as the game sticks to the tried and true city-building formula. New players may also find that is more accessible than SimCity 4.
As a true city-builder, Cities XL contains two distinct albeit inseparable concepts of management and construction. And now with the online component, Monte Cristo hopes to add a new dynamic to move the genre forward.
But "SimCity Online" this is not, so while it's tempting to make direct comparisons to Maxis' game, it would be more productive to examine Cities XL on its own merits with an understanding of where it draws its inspiration.
Without going into all the specifics of gameplay mechanics, we'll look at what Cities XL does right, where it is lacking, what it can improve upon, and examine some missed opportunities that might have kept it from being truly "great".
Cities XL is a day away from official release. In the last two weeks Monte Cristo released a couple of detailed videos to showcase both the single player and online gameplay. Do these videos help make the case for Cities XL?
As a community comprised of city-building fans, we've been closely following the development of Cities XL for the last two years. Having been so close to the debates and debacles, it's hard not to look at the game without a jaundiced eye. But once we can accept that us core fans are not the centre of the universe (gasp!), that we're just a fringe nebula in an otherwise vast array of players, you can appreciate how these videos have made a pretty good case for Cities XL as a compelling game worth trying.
A quick rundown of the 4 minute single player video shows that Monte Cristo has taken great care to hit all the right notes. So for the purpose of discussion, I encourage you to watch these videos as if you were seeing the game for the first time.
What makes a game a classic? Is it graphics? Is it brand name? Is it
replay value? Or, is it much deeper than that? Why has SimCity4 lasted
for over 6 years and why does it continue to reign supreme as the
world's foremost City Building Simulator?
Six Years is not an insignificant amout of time in the world of
software; it is downright ancient. The longevity of SC4 is seen not
only in the community support on the web but also on the retail store
shelves. SC4 and its expansion pack, Rush Hour, are still being sold
in many venues all over the world, it was even included in the latest
boxed set for the more recent Sim City Societies possibly as a way to
increase the value of the much loathed sequel. You would be hard
pressed to walk into a video game store and find a new copy of a 6 year
old game. SC4 is one of the few titles that has stood the test of time
in spite of more recent 'next gen' simulators that have tried (and
failed) to topple the city building monopoly that is SC4. Sim City 4
has out dated graphics, a limited grid design structure and is no
longer maintained by the manufacturer (last official patch was April
2003), so, why has it remained so popular over the last 6 years?
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