New Screenshot

[aquiss 1]

I came across this today on twitter https://twitter.com/simcity/status/272031740795695104/photo/1

It looks to be an official picture?

[Frode789 70]

Yes, posted on facebook recently as well.

[Mizari 23]

All the architecture in this game is very... The Sims 3-ish... and I don't quite like it.

[The_City_Builder 299]

Yeah I agree. The game just looks like a more advanced-scale version of The Sims, where you build the city, and instead of focusing on individual sims, you focus on individual city functions and stuff.

And by the looks of it, the game badly needs water refraction. It just makes the water look stale and fake.

Also, that mountain is also stale. I mean, it's literally just one color of brown that doesn't even look like dirt...

[snick25 384]

IMO Cities XL looks ten times better.

[aquiss 1]

To be fair, there is still 4-5 months of development left. I think it would be wrong to compare and be too critical until it's launched.

[Wiimeiser 444]

It confirms ferries, and that dark patch in the water might just be there to represent the footprint.

[Trioxis 32]

I thought ferries were already confirmed to be in the game? I think it was in that pop-up video they did.

Based on the screenshots I've seen so far the architecture doesn't seem to be all that bad, although I'm not a fan of the modern, all-white houses. It definitely looks like some designs were inspired by the Sims games.

I have to agree that the textures on the mountains seem somewhat lackluster, but it's not something I really feel bothered by. I'm more concerned by the relatively limited tile size and not so much about whether or not the mountain looks lifelike. Besides that, there's still a few months left before it's released so they might still have time to work on it, although I don't really expect any major changes at this point.

[penguin1634 43]

Just remember guys that the default mountain texture for SC4 is that same uniform, ugly brown dirt color. I think I've said this before, but i'm not liking the architecture. It just is too childish looking. I'm assuming there will be better looking graphics by the time the game is released, though.

[Starcade 22]

EA is notorious for recycling game engines; I play FIFA religiously and unfortunately, EA just recycles the game engine, just tweaking it. Since SimCity is in the hands of EA, they will recycle using the most closely resembled game to it - The Sims. Yes, true, there is still sometime to go before the release of the game, but usually what EA posts, that's what we'll get. They're just working on bugs and stuff now, no longer visuals.

[Cob92 360]

EA is notorious for recycling game engines; I play FIFA religiously and unfortunately, EA just recycles the game engine, just tweaking it. Since SimCity is in the hands of EA, they will recycle using the most closely resembled game to it - The Sims. Yes, true, there is still sometime to go before the release of the game, but usually what EA posts, that's what we'll get. They're just working on bugs and stuff now, no longer visuals.

The recycling strategy works well unless the engine is ridiculously outdated (C&C and SAGE). They've done well porting DICE's Frostbite 2 engine over to multiple game genres; it looks and plays as well in Need for Speed as it does in Battlefield 3. SimCity, however, is not recycled, but is instead on an entirely new engine. If anything is borrowed from the Sims it is the graphical style, which I don't mind because SC3K was just as cartoony, if not more so.

[Wiimeiser 444]

They appear to have borrowed TS3's Lot Placement code, but I don't really see anything else...

[Evillions 552]

Hhmmm.... The mountain is just a big lump of dirt, no details or anything. I hope this isn't final.

[CXLMachine 17]

I dont know about the rest of you but in such a small region I really dont want mountains in them. A valley can easiy consume a few 4km^ tiles

[cyruskafaiwu 29]

IT is a nice screenshot but again, it looks like a mountain of dirt is in it.