E3: SimCity 4 Preview Goodness

Anonymous Coward writes "Wowie! The folks at Electronic Arts look to be working hard on the next installment of SimCity! Although there's no official, dedicated release date, they plan on demoing it at the Electronic Entertainment Expo. Gamers.com has an article, as does GameSpot, and both seem to have a number of screenshots. Interesting: there now seems to be a nighttime mode, and perhaps there's some weather effects? The note from MaxisJoseph claims there will be a personal angle to every high-level action taken; will there be a chance for dynamic screenshots of our cities during, say, lightning storms, blizzards or sandstorms? And will they ask Koch or Guiliani for endorsements?" I know I'm not the only one who wants to play the Sims in the SimTower in the SimCity on SimEarth with the pesky SimAnts in the balcony garden.

Comments

Oh memories..

[dalassa]

I hope they will bring back the SimCity 2000 ability to have riots burn down your entire metropolis. I used to have endless fun watching the rampaging proletariot storm the abodes of the fat capitalist running dog lackey bourgeoisie while screaming 'Viva la Revolution!' Until my parents yelled at me to go to sleep.

"Burn! All of you burn!"

Re:Oh memories..

[detritus.]

Better yet, Rockstar Games should get together with Maxis and combine Grand Theft Auto with Sim City. That would be interesting!

thank god

[AnimeFreak]

Not to troll or anything, but SimCity 3000 was a bit of a disappointment and a waste of my money as it was really just a graphics-enhanced version of SimCity 2000. From what I can see from the prelininary screenshots, SimCity 4 will not be like it's older brothers and will breathe fresh air into a game that has always rocked.

One feature I really want is the ability to work with other Sim players. Net support in the game would rock because you could work with other players on water, garbage, and electricity deals and also work on transportation plans together. Hell, even have sports teams competing against eachother. :)

Another is to have what SimCity 2000 with Streets of SimCity and have the ability to drive through town. Have it simulate actual traffic at certain sections and make it so you can determine, for real, what areas have problems.

Better gameplay, please

[Jeffrey Baker]

Weather effects are cute, and I love details in games, but Simcity's gameplay is quite primitive, and I hope they really improve it. The game is unfortunately wedged in a very twentieth-century-american mode. You cannot build a city without building roads everywhere. Even if your reliable and convenient subway spans the city, nobody will move in until you build roads. This isn't exactly allowing you much flexibility. Now it seems that the designers have changed the game engine to automatically build roads, bridge and tunnels. In Simcity, cars are a given.

I'd like to play a Simcity game where I could build a car-free city. I want a button for bicycle paths. I want to mix residential, commercial, and industrial without zoning. I think the fire department should operate without trucks. I want a city with 95% green open space, and a community-supported agricultural belt. Where's the button for farm? In Simcity, it is assumed that farms are "over there", far from the glorious car temple you are constructing.

In short, I want the Simcity people to exercise some imagination.

Re:Better gameplay, please

[guttentag]

I'd like to play a Simcity game where I could build a car-free city. I want a button for bicycle paths.

That's in the indefinitely-delayed "SimCity Beijing." Do you have any idea how many megs of RAM your video card would need to render millions of people bicycling all over the place? Motorized transportation is environmentally friendly to your system because it's cheaper to render 5 people in a carpool or 50 people on an underground (unseen) subway car.

Where's the button for farm?

SimCity 3000 had farms. If you zoned residential near a rural road with little/no pollution, the land would develop into farms instead of apartments.

Re:Better gameplay, please

[ryanvm]

I don't want to be a jackass, but the game is called SimCity for a reason - it's a simulation of a city. The idea is to realistically recreate the experience of managing a town or city.

You want 95% green space, no cars, communal agriculture, etc.? I'm not sure what you're looking for, but it sounds more like FantasyCity than SimCity.

Airplane Disaster

[daidojiuji]

I wonder if they'll include the Airplane Crash disaster from previous versions. Just think of all of the people who would demand to see the game banned from stores!

The key to doing a Sim-Everything: MMORPG!

[wstrong]

Combining all the various Sim* into one game would be tricky, but we came up with a better idea.

A Sim* MMORPG. Some people could play Sims, others could be mayors, others would build life-forms, others could control ants, and the building managers, and so on.

It could be a really cool MMORPG...

The thing that made the original great.

[Nathdot]

I think we all know what made the original SimCity so great:

*The ability to get more money by holding down SHIFT and typing F-U-N-D-S.

If Maxis simply returns to its roots by including this in SimCity 4 they'll have a sure-fire hit on their hands!

:)

PS. You have to remember not to do it to many times in a row though... otherwise you cause a 'Natural Disaster'... Ooooh WATCH OUT!!! It's a GIANT LIZARD!!!

SimMaxis

[guttentag]

Try our new game, SimMaxis!

Start with a computer, a cool idea for a game that simulates a city and a meager budget to develop and market your game to the masses.

If you're successful, your little software company will be bought by a gaming conglomerate headquartered on a Silicon Valley landfill. Can you keep the corporate types happily rolling in dough while still producing games that please your fans? Can you balance the budget in a recession, survive earthquakes and avert costly developer food riots?

Re:Maxis was cool.

[Loligo]

>Yeah.. the Sims is the best selling PC game of all time because it totally sucks

Another person already mentioned Myst. How about other top-sellers like Deer Hunter?

Windows (of various flavors) is the best selling operating system of all time. Does this mean it doesn't suck?

Should we mention the music examples of NSync and Britney Spears? They sell an assload of records. Do they suck?

I'll even push a few folks' buttons: The Phantom Menace made a TON of money. It's #20 on the top 100 grossing American films list, adjusted for inflation. (Full list here: http://www.filmsite.org/boxoffice.html ). Was it a great movie?

Being popular doesn't mean it doesn't suck.

-l

Citys and Cars don't necessarily mix.

[Big Sean O]

We've had successful cities for well over 2000 years and we've only had cars for about 100. The tendency to think cities = cars is what's wrong with a lot of modern city planning today.

For instance, a thriving business district in a city neighborhood is a precarious thing. There area ton of things you can do to screw it up:

Let's say you tear down a low-end commercial building and build a city parking lot. Your goal is to increase the number of people who can visit the area:

• You reduce the number of possible destinations in that neighborhood.
  
• Low-end buildings provide much of the unique character of a neighborhood (they never tear down the GAP store).
  
• Low-end, smaller businesses usually represent local owners and economic strength. Removing them might cause others to move.
  
• You create a traffic nexus that can screw up driving on all the streets near the parking lot.
  

Let's say you decide to ban parking along the business distruct people complain that it takes too long to drive through it.

• You decrease the number of people who can visit the area (by reducing parking).
  
• You channel people into the parking nexuses described above.
  
• You make an implicit assumption about the mobility of your visitors (people with children and the elderly might not want to 'Park and Walk'.
• You remove a perceived safety buffer (parked cars) which make pedestrians feel safer from street traffic.
  
• You are decreasing actual safety by improving 'flow' (read increase speed) of the traffic. Pedestrains are more at risk from vehicle accidents.
  

The Fire service claims that they need to widen the street to get the new longer fire trucks through. It's only a couple feet per side so you take it off the sidewalk.

• Well, Fire deaths are down (thanks to Smoke Alarms) and by widening the street you may increase the number of traffic fatalities. Is the benefit worth the risk?
  
• Is the new giant truck really an improvement over a smaller vehicle or just the 'bragging rights' of your Fire Chief?
  
• Narrowing sidewalks reduces the neighborhood's appeal. If you can't walk arm in arm with a child or a spouse, you're not going to hang out there.
  

The original poster made a good point, there's a lot of cities in the world and throughout history that do not follow the 'American Suburban Model' of Bubble Zoning that has brought sprawl.

SimCity was the original popular "simulator game". If they want to continue to surprise and delight us, they should better explore the relationship a neighborhoods success and transportation. In cities especially, people LIKE not using a car for every little thing. The continued suburbanification of cities won't make them more successful and SimCity should explore that.