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.

Ahhh Crap.

[ender81b]

Look's like I'd better tell the g/f that I'll be incommunicado for a few weeks after this game comes out. And I had just got over my Civ III addiction too.

Hi, my name's Bill, and I'm a gameaholic.

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!"

Eh?

[Sheetrock]

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 SimArts in the balcony garden.

Are they in talks to merge the SimFranchise with Clue?

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!!!

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.

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:Oh memories..

[detritus.]

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

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.

Re:Ahhh Crap.

[Simon Garlick]

Dude, Virtual Valerie doesn't *really* count, y'know.

Re:Ahhh Crap.

[ender81b]

Lies! All Lies! She's real I tell you!

zzz

[mabu]

The game was really fun when it first came out but they've stretched the premise way too thin without introducing much innovation. The Sims was a bit overrated too if you ask me. When I watched a guy spend 3 hours playing the Sims in a local Internet cafe, doing nothing but forcing some woman to drink coffee over and over and piss on herself, I knew this software had hit the wall.

These people need to come up with something new and interesting.

Re:this early post

[BankofAmerica_ATM]

Flawed. Human perceptions are flawed. There was no way Dr. Nolverto Salchica could have seen the body of Constantine Atkins up and moving. Atkins' consciousness was destroyed when I bested him in a duel long ago. I had used his body to defeat the cyborg Krantz, and when it failed, I left it alone in a hospital bed. Atkins' body could not function without a conscious mind-that was impossible.

"Joel-" Salchica paused until my eyes contacted his. "I don't mean to alarm you with this news-but I'm trying to help you. It would probably be best for you to remain here and let me run a few tests."

"Tests?" I replied. As far as Salchica knew, I was merely the human named Joel. Despite his vaunted expertise, he could not detect the true nature of my being. Could any human truly understand my plight?

"The ATM-being was in your mind for some time, Joel. He could have done some permanent damage to your brain." Salchica handed me a teardrop shaped plastic dome that bristled with electricity. "I need you to put this on your head so I can begin to determine if your brain is still healthy." Perhaps the doctor's perceptions were not as limited as I had believed. This elaborate machine would no doubt track my host geek's brainwaves, revealing my existence somewhere inside his brain. I hesitated...

"Joel, I can assure you that this will not harm your brain. It won't even hurt." I stood still staring at him. "Joel-if that artificial life form left any traces in your brain, it may still be controlling you. And if I can't get him out, we may have to contact the Project Faustus in order to-"

"No! Project Faustus must not be contacted!" I bellowed, piqued by the insolence of Dr. Salchica. The human had made a most foolish assertation.

Interactivity had broken down completely now. Respawning this process impossible was for me. Dr. Salchica continued to eye me warily, backing away from me slowly.

"Just-stay where you are. I've seen what you can do. Tell me something, what is 5,000 / (7 * 0)?"

Salchica's mathematical question astounded me, as my CONSCIOUSNESS-BUFFER was flooded with the message:

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.....

I manually killed this operation after a few seconds, but Salchica was asking another question.

"How would you feel about going to a secluded room, and asking questions through a computer terminal? I'll bet we could find some..."

Salchica's sentence ended in a nonverbal grunt as he was crushed by a red blur. Examining the body's optical data parsed one frame at a time revealed...a flaw.

The body's perceptions were erroneous-fooled by some weakness in humanity. There was no way I could have seen what I saw. Nor could I have heard the following:

"ATM lifeform! [slashdot.org] You stand on the threshold of a Technological Singularity [goatse.cx]. Threats to your AI Mind have been eliminated [megarad.com] by the Majestic Hivemind heretofore known as the Adam of Robo Sapiens, ConstantineAtkins, or Red [kuro5hin.org]. Join me [sega.com] in a Joint Stewardship of Earth." [rgbdream.com]

Re:The thing that made the original great.

[fungai]

Damn, and to think I hex edited the saved games in PCTools to get extra funds. If only slashdot was around 15 years ago I could've saved a lot of time! Well, maybe not.

Re:this early post

[Anonymous Coward]

I refute all your information. this is why I beleive none of your propoganda [prutser.cx]. I think you will understand why I will never travel under this guise again. thanks for your understanding...

Re:Better gameplay, please

[alexburke]

I think the fire department should operate without trucks.

WTF?!

I think you should think real fscking hard about that...

Re:Ahhh Crap.

[ender81b]

I'm screwed. Dammit all to hell. It looks like it's time to teach the g/f how to play multiplayer civ III.. =)

Thanks for the info.

Dear Maxis,

[Battal Boy]

Dear Maxis, I'm a grown man with responsabilities, a job and a family! Who the heck is going to take care of my family if you release this? Can you seriously claim that you have considered the consequences of such a release? Please Maxis, calmly reconsider, put down the mouse and take two steps back from that compiler...

Sim Car

[Anonymous Coward]

When I read that you could drive your city with Sim Car, or whatever it was, I bought the Sim2000 bundle with sim copter and sim car.

I wa really hoping I could save my city in various states, and drive around in bad traffic and such.

Boy, was I disappointed.

Don't you hate stupid users that imagine all sorts of non practicle things about a program (After all SimCity didn't run as a server) and then get really depressed and criticize your work after you give it to them, because it doesn't meet their imagination? I do, and I just realized I was one of those stupid users.