Simcity Creator announcement review

[mightygoose 92]

new data

My breakdown and analysis of the info provided.

NO PC version. my big first beef, but i will let it slide for the time being.

“On the Wii, for the first time in the SimCity franchise, you will have the ability to build curved roads and differently shaped zones allowing you to make more authentic places all utilizing the motions of the Wii remote."

The big point of interest. I see this a kinda a double edged sword. while on the one hand it allow for total freeform layout of roads and zones which is something that has been a dream for simcity players for a long time, on the other it means you will be sitting for hours potentially trying to get that curve just right. i can imagine a very long process of getting the finesse required to achieve exactly what you want.

"Start by zoning your city, constructing homes, businesses, factories, skyscrapers, freeways, railroads, and much more."

Zones are back, good news, as are variety of transport options, more good news. this looks very promising.

"Some of these iconic buildings are based on the current day, some on history and some on fantasy. The more city styles you explore, the more Hero building options you have."

landmarks and rewards. all good things however the implications of the second sentence is that you need to build a multicultural city to unlock everything, this is in effect railroading the game slightly, still EA it seems are holding onto trying to make simcity more linear. however i don't know how much of a problem this will be in making a universally styled city.

"Guide your city from ancient times into the future with SimCity Creator for Nintendo DS. Evolve your city through time, starting with ancient times, the middle ages, modern times, present day and the future. Four play modes are available, Challenge, Free Play, Chance Encounter and Gallery, giving options to make the game as challenging or as creative as you want. Earn epic landmarks along the way to enhance your city and mark your progress into the next era. Choose your path through history and make a city for the ages."

It seems that the DS version is somewhat more a strategy game akin to rise of nations/civilisation which is understandable considering the limitations graphically and processary. so this is not the game we want to look at for the time being.

"Choose from city themes such as America, Europe and Asia. There will be 13 themes in total. Place your own landmark buildings, with over 30 to select from. Check out your cityscape from a helicopter or jet. Finally, use the Wii Remote to bring your city down with earthquakes, tornados and more."

great choice it seems, for building styles and it also seems they are geographical rather than genre based. more good news.

so at this point, the features are all their bar no mention of region play. i somewhat doubt that region play will be implemented even in the Wii format. i say this as the Wii's whole marketing strategy is based on causal pick up and play fun. In simcity terms this translates to ease of creation, artistically stimulating play with im guessing less emphasis on city management. i cannot imagine the guys at EA expecting you to trace out water mains with the remote. i am also still dubious as to the remote road tool.

On to the pictures.

It seems they have gone for pseudorealism again and taken a slightly cel shaded approach the befits the console and the current simcity direction.

they have gone back to 2.5D, a good move in my opinion although the implementation has resulted in very much simcity 3000 with a facelift appearance to the game.

while some of the models shown in renders look extremely promising there is a golden temple and a futuristic office tower that clearly show a distinct lack of detail in the models and very scrappy/minimal texture work in places. the real world landmarks (ifel tower as example) are highly stylised.

there are some good city overviews and some bad city overviews. they havent definately gone for a zoom dependent LOD scheme although i think they havent quite got the parameters right, some of the more zoomed out shots look very simcity 2000, we have come to expect alot more.

alot of focus in the screenshots is directed to the disasters which im sure they have put alot of effort into making. they consist of the standard tornado, earthquake, meteor, godzilla, robot, etc. however they have made them playable characters it seems with control options being displayed in the UI during the disasters. this i can see being novel for an unprecidently short amount of time before the futility of make then bake becomes apparent. i mean why bother spending hours "tracing out" the roads with the remote if your gonna have to redo them after godzilla has stomped around and ruined your budget.

the screenshots however lack decent lot-terrain interaction, the sidewalk textures seem to be virtually unanimous to the architectural style of the building, bar minor overlay variations, while ok for multicultural cities, this may become monotonous in themed environments. this will no doubt be excentuated by the apparent total lack of props, either on lots or roadside beyond the odd tree or crate. and automata seems non existent with no more than a handful of cars visible in even the most dense environments in the city. there are no sims visible whatsoever. probably to keep the age rating down when you unleash that category five twister on your burgeoning metropolis.

note: i assume that as micromanagement will clearly not be the focus your budget will not take that big a hit when the monster party comes to town.

note: i think while implying the roads will be drawn, there will be a vector curve based node system that you will use the remote to alternate the possible location of the next node of the transit network.

"Employing the new city advisor system, you will be able to make the game as complex or simple as you want."

im not sure how to interpret this quote. does this hint at some common sense from EA, i know it sounds crazy but, anyway, how would it work. My guess would be you can choose a helper AI (much like those utilised in age of empires) to cover the micromanaging to a user defined extent. just how intrusive this system will be remains to be seen.

"The most accessible and light-hearted game from the SimCity franchise"

translation:

"The biggest cash cow and easiest to make game from the simcity franchise."

it is effectively simcity 3000 with a facelift. the developement engine as far as i can tell is largely the same and probably borrows heavily code wise from its predecessor, graphically the models although now full 3d (there is perspective in the screen shots) have been severly downgraded. the props and automata missing to. they have done this to ensure smooth performance when you fly arround your city in a aeroplane with what im guessing will be a full chase camera. A helper AI is a smart move and im sure will draw the crowds however i have major beef with what i have seen.

i didnt think that they could do much worse than societies but at least that game was to an extent original. this is a remake of simcity 3000 that weeded out all that was challenging and turned it into a freeroaming destroyer game.

it will sell, and it will get good reviews as it is being sold as the answer to all our prayers. however the implementation is substandard if not taken from previous iterations and the target audience is 10-14.

I for one am glad this knock off attempt at covering their own backsides after the societies fiasco (this wasnt exactly slow to follow its prequel) remake is NOT coming to the PC as it means i don't have to worry as to whether i should feed the EVE scale gold farmers at EA with my hard earned cash in the doubts that i may be wrong about this "game".

Sorry folks yet another false alarm.....

article here.... [linkie]

pictures here... [linkie]

[Bumdark 3]

Well, at least it doesn't sound anywhere near as crappy as Societies... Glad to see they learned a few good lessons, such as keeping (at least part of) the formula that makes SimCity, well, SimCity. Graphics look all right (considering this is definately far from finished as of yet), and glad so see the 3D camera isn't absolutely 3-point perspective, with some Fish-Eye going on.

We'll have to see how this goes along as it gets built, shall we?

[GMT 389]

well...

I'm positively amazed by what the preview says and looking at the screenshots really gives the feeling of a rather serious next sim city installment

looking forward to more good news about creator (like a pc version or other consoles than nintendo's)

[ianpaschal 77]

I'm not interested. I've lost all faith in future SC releases. I think if i ever move away from SC4, its going to be an incredibly complex simulator that I built.

[Simfan34 11]

Seems to be more in line with SC3U.