SimCity Message Board older than one year ago

#review To many fans of the original city building simulation series, the idea of an online multiplayer game that required even solo players to be connected to the internet at all times seemed like a recipe for disaster. Maxis' latest creation is easily the most compelling SimCity I've played since the 1989 original. More »

#simcity With SimCity's launch debacle entering its third day and the game remaining inoperable for many people, EA is shifting its tone and promising a resolution, but with no time or date for the fix. More »

#beforeyoustart The latest iteration of the world's oldest and most-beloved city building game has arrived, incorporating strong social elements and cutting-edge technology to drag the franchise kicking-and-screaming into the modern age. I hear some people can actually play it. More »

#simcity SimCity launched overnight, if by "launched," one means "was as inaccessible as it was the day before." For some, anyway. Here to give voice to their rage is Francis, who's upset that billions of simoleons in vital public infrastructure is needlessly delayed by EA's inability to offer preloading. Sit back, take a pull on a Dew two-liter, and enjoy. (And oh yeah, audio is NSFW.) More »

Jeff's got some problems with his city, and I'm not talking about the nuclear waste next to city hall.

#simcity Following a struggle with the tech folks following a fault in the SimCity press servers, the lost city of Fahey's Folly — aka the SimCity on the Edge of Forever — was found once again. In celebration, I unleashed red-hot dino fury. More »

#simcity This is the story of how the new SimCity hooked me in three days. This is also the story of a bustling city on the banks of the Chickville river. A place filled with hard-working folk not afraid to get their hands dirty, plucking riches from the depths of the Earth and sharing them with the world. It's called Fahey's Folly, my finest creation. More »

#poll Keyboards plugged in? Mouses at the ready? Cool. We're about to hit the launch of another big-deal PC game: Maxis' SimCity, back from a long hiatus and looking pretty good. More »

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#simcity In this guest editorial, John Reinhardt, a member of IBM's City Forward team, compares the actual job of urban planning with that found in the Super Nintendo version of SimCity. More »

If you missed out on the first SimCity beta, you'll be pleased to know EA has laid the foundations for a second closed beta, starting February 16. The publisher tells us the second edition features an "enhanced" version of the one hour's worth of city planning featured in the first one.

The beta begins at 9AM ET (6AM PT, 2PM British) on February 16, and runs through 24 hours until February 17. The deadline for sign-ups is 9AM ET on Monday February 11. The game proper launches in North America on March 5, which is when you can get your hands on its Limited Edition, as zanily promoted in the new trailer above.

#simcity IBM published this video last year, for a networking tool, not a video game. But I can't stop watching it, as statistics and icons pop up all over real-world cities, and thinking, boy, as good as the next SimCity looks, I really hope in ten years I can play a game that looks like this. More »

#simcity Normally, the delixe edition of a game withholds a few things, but EA seem to be going all-out with SimCity, throwing so much extra junk at the more expensive version (it's $20 more than the regular) that they're basically saying "you are scum for buying the normal version and your friends will view you accordingly". More »

#simcity If you have it, color blindness is extremely frustrating to a video gamer. I've written about this before. No, it's not a debilitating condition, nor does designing games for a perfectly color-sighted majority constitute a moral injustice or the worst insensitivity video gaming shows to its diverse constituency. But man, in minimaps, friendly/hostile apparel, puzzles, the lack of contrast can be hard and needlessly frustrating. More »

#preview Last week, I headed over to Maxis headquarters in Emeryville to spend a big chunk of time playing SimCity. I decided that rather than attempt to list all of the features of a game this dense, I'd just keep a journal of my day. So that's what I did. More »

#simcity One cool feature in Maxis' upcoming SimCity is the "filter" setting, which lets you view your city through all manner of lens. You can choose any of over a dozen filters, from soft-focus "warm" to a Sin City-like black and red, to "vintage," which will look familiar to most anyone who has endured used social media photo servies over the last several years. More »

#simcity The SimCity beta will be from Jan. 25 to Jan. 28, and registration is underway now on the game's official page, the SimCity Twitter feed said this morning. More »

#simcity Photographer Sergey Semonov is responsible for the above image that makes the heart of New York City look like a spline that's just been reticulated. More »

If you like flyovers of modeled cityscapes, you are in for a treat with this SimCity intro trailer. Urban and industrial vistas are on display as the camera flies by buildings and uses convenient skyscrapers as edits. Enjoy!

How had it escaped my attention that best-named-developer Ocean Quigley is working on SimCity alongside challenging-for-the-title Stone Librande? You can hear the latter in the latest SimCity video, as he demonstrates multi-city play. I don’t think the feature was designed for the likes of me, who would rather operate a sort of mayoral dictatorship in a Dark City isolated from the rest of the world, but will you be convinced of the possibilities offered by this online mode?

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The city burned. The smoke choked the skies while the people screamed for help that would never come, all because this stupid jerk of a mayor forgot to build a fire department.

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#livestream Starting at 1pm ET, 10am PT folks from the Maxis studio behind The Sims 3 and next year's very promising SimCity revival are going going to be showing off the newest stuff in their games. More »

Learn all about how to turn your Sims into degenerate gamblers and unwitting poop polluters.

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#simcity Things get complicated when the real world seeps into games. Some players don't like it, because it ruins the whole ‘escapism' thing. And developers can come under fire for inserting agendas or politics that players don't agree with. Here's the thing though: there's no such thing as an apolitical game and thinking otherwise can be dangerous. More »

#simcity Shown off at Gamescom today during EA's press conference, this new trailer shows off how global connections in SimCity will work. More »

Alex learns about how all graffiti artists are criminals in this interview with Jason Haber, producer on SimCity.

Maxis Lead Producer, Kip Katerilis, talks about the tilt shifted Sim City reboot with multiplayer capabilities.

Build multiple cities, connect them, and build your own world in the latest Sim City.