[Simcity] Where discussion of water pollution and power grids is normal.

Jimpy

SIMCITY 5

www.simcity.com

http://youtu.be/kztNWdhRdnw

CGI trailer but a trailer none the less. Looks pretty good so far!

Thread Music

http://youtu.be/sX4HqntdXtE

Press release on Forbes.com
http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidthier/2012/03/06/simcity-5-confirmed-maxis-taking-social-and-environmental-bent-to-classic-franchise/

A few excerpts from the Forbes article:

The game will be worlds different from the Simcity 4. Maxis Senior VP Lucy Bradshaw wants to make one thing absolutely clear. “We are adding curvy roads,” she says. “That’s really important.”

There are other changes coming as well. For the first time in the Simcity franchise, the world will no longer be confined to the borders of your own individual city.

Online and social elements where if you put a lot of polluting power plants near your borders, your friends might start to get some smoke rolling into their suburbs. You might even start to contribute to global CO2 levels.

Curvy roads and social elements... finally. And global warming. Al Gore will be proud. But where the hell are the llamas?

Concept Art

Videos

Gameplay Discussion
http://youtu.be/ZQ79RvO3Fkk

GDC Videos
http://www.hardwareclips.com/video/7183/Sim-City-5-Inside-the-GlassBoxEngine-gfx-not-final-1of4
http://www.hardwareclips.com/video/7186/Sim-City-5-Inside-the-GlassBoxEngine-gfx-not-final-2of4
http://www.hardwareclips.com/video/7187/Sim-City-Inside-the-GlassBoxEngine-gfx-not-final-3of4
http://www.hardwareclips.com/video/7188/Sim-City-Inside-the-GlassBoxEngine-gfx-not-final-4of4

Videos Showing Off Glass Box
http://youtu.be/vS0qURl_JJY
http://youtu.be/MxTcm1YFKcU

News Articles and Stuff

Info on multilayer found by Lucky Cinic on SimCity.com

Multiplayer
Work together with friends to build a region for the first time! The cities in your friends’ region will directly interact with each other.

Want to be a good neighbor? Send fire trucks to help your friend in an emergency.

Want to be a bad neighbor? Produce mass pollution and watch your friends’ Sims become sick.

Team up to share resources and accomplish great feats like launching shuttles into space.

Participate in global challenges like lowering the total pollution output in the SimCity world to unlock a trophy to place in your city.

Check regional and global leaderboards to compare your city with your friends.

Every decision in your city and those in your friends’ cities will impact the greater SimCity world.

Potential DLC Stuff/Deluxe Edition vs Limited Edition

Simcity Designed to Support Mods ~ Shack News
http://www.shacknews.com/article/72768/simcity-designed-to-support-mods?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter#

Back From Simulation City: Inside Maxis' Glass Box ~ Rock, Paper, Shotgun
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/03/08/back-from-simulation-city-inside-maxis-glass-box/

Zxerol

Well, huh, look at that. And here I thought EA had completely forgotten about the parts of the Sim- franchise that weren't The Sims. Put me in the "tepidly intrigued" camp.

Any bets on when they'll announce that they'll sell individual buildings or disasters as day-1 DLC?

Malkor

I'm in.

Also I MUST KNOW MOOOOOOORE!!!

Will there be Lamas? And Arcologies? WIll Sim Copter be reporting heavy traffic?

WHAT OF THE MONSTER?!!?

Jimpy

Zxerol wrote: »

Well, huh, look at that. And here I thought EA had completely forgotten about the parts of the Sim- franchise that weren't The Sims. Put me in the "tepidly intrigued" camp.

Any bets on when they'll announce that they'll sell individual buildings or disasters as day-1 DLC?

Thought about that already. I can't imagine they won't after what has become of The Sims but who knows.

Lucky Cynic

Holy shit this looks exciting. I've been with Sim City since Sim City 3000 and it was a blast back then and still is a blast with SC4. We don't talk about Societies though. That never happened.

Still, I hope we get some actual in engine shots soon. An HD Sim City game would be most excellent.

Oh, and there is a brand new SimCity.com with plenty more info, including this little gem:

Multiplayer
Work together with friends to build a region for the first time! The cities in your friends’ region will directly interact with each other.

Want to be a good neighbor? Send fire trucks to help your friend in an emergency.

Want to be a bad neighbor? Produce mass pollution and watch your friends’ Sims become sick.

Team up to share resources and accomplish great feats like launching shuttles into space.

Participate in global challenges like lowering the total pollution output in the SimCity world to unlock a trophy to place in your city.

Check regional and global leaderboards to compare your city with your friends.

Every decision in your city and those in your friends’ cities will impact the greater SimCity world.

Broncbuster

Sounds like a lean on CitiesXL. The original was supposed to be all multiplayer and stuff, I understand that part didn't do well.

I'm definetly intrigued. I love a good builder game. Anno 2070 is filling that gap currently (thanks to a gifting friend).

Dox the PI

it's lives!!!

Jimpy

That sounds pretty awesome Lucky. I wonder if the part where the two cities meet on the bridge means your citizens will go to war with the other?

TychoCelchuuu

My favorite part of the trailer is how many of the people in the hi-tech future town ride Segways.

maximumzero

Here's what the PC specs are on Origin's website,

System Requirements
Processor:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 4000+ or better or Intel Core 2 Duo Processor 2.0GHz or better

Operating System:
Windows XP/Vista/7

RAM:
Windows XP: 1.5GB
Windows Vista and Windows 7: 2GB
PCs using a built-in graphical chipset are recommended to have 2GB RAM

Graphics Card:
ATI X1800 or better*
nVidia 7800 or better*
Intel 4100 Integrated Graphics or better*

DVD-ROM:
8x or better

*Minimum of 256MB of on-board RAM and Shader 3.0 or better support.

How does my ATi Radeon HD 5670 512MB stack up to the X1800? I'm not really up on my Graphics Card lingo.

As I said in the Video Game Industry thread, I will definitely be buying a copy of Windows 7 and be Boot Camping that shit JUST for this one game.

TychoCelchuuu

You can run it.

maximumzero

But will I be able to run it well at 2560x1440 is what is yet to be seen.

Henroid

I hope you guys know that we're going to start our own region together, right?

Darmak

OH ARE WE, HENROID? ARE WE???

amnesiasoft

Malkor wrote: »

I'm in.

Also I MUST KNOW MOOOOOOORE!!!

Will there be Lamas? And Arcologies? WIll Sim Copter be reporting heavy traffic?

WHAT OF THE MONSTER?!!?

Will we regret cutting back on transit funding?

Henroid

Darmak wrote: »

OH ARE WE, HENROID? ARE WE???

Yes we are, Darmak. We can be neighbors. I'll keep my pollutants away from our border even! Except the nuclear power plant.

Darmak

*hisses*

Henroid

Just don't get mad at me when that shared power goes out in a meltdown!

Lucky Cynic

I think we should make two regions. One a fucked coal powered, crime ridden world and the other, a genuine attempt at making as pleasing and peaceful world as possible.

Dox the PI

Lucky Cynic wrote: »

I think we should make two regions. One a fucked coal powered, crime ridden world and the other, a genuine attempt at making as pleasing and peaceful world as possible.

They would probably both be the the opposite of what we tried

Lucky Cynic

Exactly.

Henroid

Dox the PI wrote: »

Lucky Cynic wrote: »

I think we should make two regions. One a fucked coal powered, crime ridden world and the other, a genuine attempt at making as pleasing and peaceful world as possible.

They would probably both be the the opposite of what we tried

Mostly because I would be the comic foil.

Synthesis

Hopefully they'll take a few notes from the rather many things CitiesXL unfortunately seemed to do wrong. But yes, this is very much long overdue.

I could have sworn that SC4 modeled pollution spreading to neighboring cities, but glad to see that sort of thing'll be taken further.

In addition, I hope they include more buildings for government ministries to simulate the capital of a "SimNation"--Foreign Ministry, Defense Ministry, Interior Ministry, Education Ministry--both for jobs and for local effects.

Cokomon

Had to steal from the Vox games comments.

Synthesis

I heard about this a week ago at Simtroplis--given some of the goddamn amazing building mods that came up at that website, I hope the community is still strong enough to jump into this when it comes out.

Lucky Cynic

SC4 did have region play and chemistry going on. If you had a bustling industrial city, other cities nearby would get a silent bonus to residential and commercial growth. Pollution did carry over though, so you couldn't just put a powerplant in the very corner of the map because the next city over may be doing much better and well, wouldn't like that very much.

Henroid

Lucky Cynic wrote: »

SC4 did have region play and chemistry going on. If you had a bustling industrial city, other cities nearby would get a silent bonus to residential and commercial growth. Pollution did carry over though, so you couldn't just put a powerplant in the very corner of the map because the next city over may be doing much better and well, wouldn't like that very much.

No, in SC4 pollution didn't carry over.

Synthesis

Yeah, you could also implement the whole "bedroom community" concept finally--though it was tough to get working on the large scale (like everything else, I guess) because of transit issues.

Nova_C

Man, I hope they simplify some things. Mainly, traffic.

Also, I am so in. EA, you can have my monies. This time.

I wonder if I can replicate my 1,000,000 people that I did once in SC2K. You can count me in for a PA region.

Darmak

I actually haven't played a Sim City game since Sim City on the SNES. Is 4 a good game or should I pick up one of the older ones?

TychoCelchuuu

Darmak wrote: »

I actually haven't played a Sim City game since Sim City on the SNES. Is 4 a good game or should I pick up one of the older ones?

4 is the best since Sim City 2000 and possibly the best ever.

Jimpy

Darmak wrote: »

I actually haven't played a Sim City game since Sim City on the SNES. Is 4 a good game or should I pick up one of the older ones?

4 is most certainly an awesome game and you should make sure to pick it up with the expansion, Rush Hour. It really isn't complete unless you get Rush Hour.

Henroid

Something about part 3 was really annoying. But yeah, 4 measures up to 2000 very damn well.

Nova_C

Steam has SC4 Deluxe, which includes Rush Hour. There's also some great mods out there, and lots of regions based on real world locales that people have done up. Some are huge, though, so can take a while to import. :P

Henroid

There's a San Francisco Bay Area region that's, uh yeah. Huge to import.

Dox the PI

re installing SC4 at this moment
There goes my free time

edit: holy shit I've owned this game for 9 years

Suriko

My body is ready.

Nova_C

Here's a handy link for the people jumping back in to SC4: SC4 Widescreen Wiki

amnesiasoft

I'll be really mad if this game is not on Steam, but this would be about the only game I'd buy on Origin.

Suriko

amnesiasoft wrote: »

I'll be really mad if this game is not on Steam, but this would be about the only game I'd buy on Origin.

I will eat a cock if it's on Steam, or if it doesn't require Origin installed.

...:(

eobet

This just looks so bad. It's as if they didn't learn anything from Sim City Societies...

...and I was about to say Spore, but I guess Spore sold well?

I guess there's much more money in appealing to the masses who buy The Sims instead of the old fans of the series.

I'm basing my bashing of the game on the graphical style which is not at all realistic like previous games tried to be (with exceptions like the hyperstructures and monsters from Sim City 2000, etc), but rather very worryingly stylized in a way which makes the entire world feel like a cartoon. That makes is quite difficult for me to think that there will be any strategic depth and challenge to this game, but rather a shallow "build pretty things" game, which I think Cities XL already does better. And if it does have depth and micro management, the graphics feel out of place... but perhaps it will have a Theme Hospital like charm, so who knows?

Either way, it's EA and Origin and after Spore, I'm not inclined to buy anything else from them...