After all that back and forth about the DRM, let’s see what this new SimCity really is. There’s no number because it’s not a sequel as such, or so the word goes. I can’t help but see it as a statement of intent – the series first turned fallow and then was perverted, but now it’s back, back, back on track. Pure and faithful. In the same way Dexys Midnight Runners are, in their new incarnation, simply ‘Dexys’ there’s a consciousness that a long history can be as much an albatross as a boon.

And so what might have been Sim City 6 is simply ‘SimCity’, and it is indeed a city management game. A proper one, with zoning and utilities and emergencies and traffic jams and crime and all that metropolitan jazz. My sense was that it’s more accessible than Sim City 4 was, but not in the way that Sim City Societies or – heaven forfend – a Cityville-type is. Yes, the ‘a’ word. Wait, calm down. While I can only speak from a quick, eyes-on impression of a very early build, but the trick seemed be in the presentation of information, rather than sacrifices of the information itself. A surprisingly lavish and high-detail 3D world was backed up by a slick-looking interface, heavily customisable to show what you do and don’t personally want to see at any one time.(more…)