Almost a quarter century after SimCity Will Wright, Maxis is developing a new simulator cities.



Genre: Construction of cities.

Publisher: Electronic Arts.

Developer: Maxis (Darkspore, GS06/11: 60 points).

Date: 2013.

State: 30% of development.



PROS

New graphics engine and road round.

Multiplayer mode.

Buildings updatable.

The various cities.

Send infographics.

The positioning of the camera …



CONS

Do … can cost scenarios.

The Sims are sometimes shown without a head.



Mayor ¿? How boring! All day at the office, holding the complaints of citizens and controlling the deficit: Who can see this as funny? For a lot of people thanks to SimCity, and for over two decades. Surprisingly, the urban series consists of five parts, from classic SimCity (1989) to the most recent SimCity Societies (2007). In addition, all games except Societies were developed by Maxis and designer Will Wright, co-founder of the study, we also have The Sims and Spore. Will Wright, is now designing TV shows and toys, but Maxis still there are plenty of experienced people for the next installment, simply called SimCity. Kip Katsarelis Producer leader, says there are enough teachers in Maxis for all stages of development. We went with him and his team.



Pride leads us up to the news Katsarelis SimCity. Most surprising: the new graphics engine Glassbox. Unlike before, we write without viewing angle, but allows any idea of ​​our creation – either float on the city or read the signs of each store. But not enough: “We, the players, no tables saddest cut around the ears,” says Katsarelis. “Instead, have been inspired by modern computer graphics representing complex relationships attractive.”



SimCity always looks attractive and bustling city and is full of life anywhere. If you look at a shopping center, police station or a factory, the Sims leave home and go to work, meet for lunch or protest against the council if there are too few jobs. There are a few buildings that change their appearance and therefore its functions: “As you go through the game, you can customize your town and individual buildings,” promises Katsarelis. About every ten criminals caught, the police station, or a new fire station will help firefighters to reach fires faster.



Some 20 years after the first SimCity, now winding roads are a reality. Gone are the days when all cities were like any U.S. city with orthogonal road networks. What remains is the classification for residential, commercial and industrial, which has added the graphic detail with much love. As soon as you place a new residential area, the construction workers built the homes of bottom-up, followed by the arrival of the cars of the new owners moving so diligently to begin to save their belongings in their new home. All this is accompanied by live, work, and car noises. -Smooth interface, and a new soft melody, If you decrease the zoom of the camera and build a coal power plant on the outskirts of the city. After the workers complete their work, you’ll see that the delivered coal on a conveyor belt travels in the building. So we can see at a glance whether a power plant and all other buildings are fine.



Too good to be true: In these pages you will find images, but are concepts of art. Why Maxis prevents Glassbox show the new engine? The reason: The current video quality does not meet the requirements of internal – and there is open play as full a level of development. The graphics are polished only towards the end of a high quality development.



Reveals another click of the red color compensation, the current flowing through the generators. At dusk, the lights of the houses, and flashing neon lights of the shops. With the house, electricity and water, for now our Sims are satisfied, while we take care of creating jobs for the next morning. But not all Sims are equal, a trucker from listening to loud heavy metal music. “Because it has not yet been called the police, the city also prevents arsonists,” said Katsarelis. A little later a house on fire and Sims escape over the rooftops, some with their clothes on fire. These events we have reported the local newspaper “SimCity Wire” in the single player and multiplayer.



By the way, including SimCity 2000 Network Edition in 1996 offered a multiplayer mode to connect to the network and share materials with other mayors and cooperate in the development of cities or compete against each other. The new SimCity is based on this idea. We manage a region along with our friends, visit and share resources on land, sea or air. As in the solo mode, you can create a specialized city according to our wishes. We dream of an elegant residential, leisure and you need to find jobs and electricity? No problem, our friend might like to be the largest coal producer in the world.



The addition of “the world” is to be understood literally: “There’s global leaderboards, where everything relates to economic production or raw material players can compete with other players,” says Katsarelis. Anyone can climb in the rankings, unlock achievements. For example, visit the lobby of City Hall to the building campaign of mine. If we agree, the new industry provides more jobs. But decisions are always a downside: increased pollution produces coal mines, casinos attract crime. Interestingly, even in solo mode, the prices of commodities are determined online gaming – good idea?



Speaking of raw materials: When creating games in the Middle Ages or in the distant future, cares not always the reality of raw materials and technology trees. But SimCity is set at present, there are serious discrepancies in weight. Here is the Lead Designer Stone Librande. The development of complex issues more accessible and at the same time makes anyone before, but he has invented for his children in the last 15 years 15 table games. His philosophy, explains: “I have no idea what will SimCiy player, but I can give you pieces that get a lot of fun.”



Librande Stone is based on SimCity game systems that fit in spite of its complexity and statistical tables. Thus we see graphs that describe the relationship between population density and land value, other tables show the flows of population, industry and commerce, and other graphic illustrating two final scenarios: a city ecologically exemplary, but one step away from bankruptcy and a metropolis corroded by factories, as the population becomes extinct due to disease. Librande Stone talks about the importance of decisions: “What should be without a mayor? In his private helicopter, or some schools? Ignore the welfare of the people, to rich tourists go on holiday the night “?



Too, you should not ignore the needs of voters. “The Sims unemployed may become beggars in public parks, while new empty homes attract criminals, which increases the risk of fire and reduces the value of land in the district.” Only with Librandes designs, we could fill 10 full pages, which is why at this point say, SimCity has nothing to hide in terms of depth of play. Instead of deep theoretical lessons in the next visit we would like to grab the mouse and keyboard, because in the end what counts at the end of the day is practice. Even in urban planning.



Interview with Lucy Bradshaw



GameStar: It’s been a while since the fourth installment of SimCity …



Lucy Bradshaw: Because we were busy with The Sims and Spore, and SimCity wanted to make sure count on an excellent artificial intelligence, a decent multiplayer mode, and finally get road curves and 3D graphics with ease. So you can change the camera angle and the houses disappear automatically by reducing the zoom view.

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GameStar: Import your own houses in The Sims, would be a stroke of genius for players of SimCity.



Lucy Bradshaw: At present we have not expected, because the game is technically very different. However, customization is: you design a house in The Sims very detailed, and SimCity are improved buildings with new modules, has its own intelligence and gameplay.

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GameStar: With all the meetings, do you have time to play Lucy Bradshaw?



Play our own songs and sending feedback to the team. In travel, play with the iPhone and the iPad, and I usually spend my Christmas vacation in strategy games in real time.



Closing Comments by GameStar editor Roland Austinat



According to Maxis, still take approximately one year to SimCity is ready. But I like what I’ve seen so far: the online modes, new graphics, smarter Sims, upgradable buildings, with individual strengths and compelling cities, world rankings, send info-graphs and dynamic music. You can feel how much heart and blood have designers to develop the first delivery in the modern era. The fact that the creator of SimCity Will Wright does not work in this part, I do not worry: The fourth installment has already been created without their help. Just a shame that our practice was very short: I like to have seen ships and aircraft, or the disasters that have announced, explosions, snow storms, meteor impacts and other disasters do simulated physically correct to turn a city into a lot of Casino debris.