New Screenshots

[Motina 77]

That's probably my favorite screenshot that they've released so far.

Unfortunately, that's the entire city.

[croxis 150]

Looks like we have Arcos! Its the blurring thing in the background

[Cyclone Boom 16,876]

The night screenshots do look quite promising, with detail seemingly emphasised, especially at street level. Also, because of the reduced toning, the textures of the buildings don't appear to be as clean / monotone.

In the day shots however, it's a whole new world IMO. I'm not a big fan of the colour toning, as it does make the buildings seem way too saturated. It almost gives them the appearance similar to Lego, which isn't helped by the tilt-shift effect.

Overall, the cities do seem to be more 'alive' at night. But hopefully there will be an option in the display settings to adjust the brightness / saturation levels.

[croxis 150]

Random thought I haven't seen mentioned. With the green space it makes it possible to expand every city's size at a later date.

[Dewm 177]

Random thought I haven't seen mentioned. With the green space it makes it possible to expand every city's size at a later date.

That would be cool if it was the case.

[Guibanez_ 177]

[Ocram's Razr 963]

I like the French city, even if half of the foreground buildings look like the best/most lucrative SCS residential buildings (I forget what they were called but they had 4 workers, 160 population, and spawned child sims). I also really love that last night shot with the arco, high wealth shop, bank, and headquarter buildings.

--Ocram

[Cyclone Boom 16,876]

That road-cut through the cliff is very scenic – a perfect demonstration of how roads can be used to effectively manipulate the land.

In reality, it would require substantial time and resources to build. Although the simulation aspects are more important, it would be great if its construction was visually show to the player. For example, the blasting of the rocks and the gradient being profiled by levelers.

Yes, it is unnecessary, but small details like this would greatly add to the realism. It could also affect the gameplay, where sufficient construction workers (and funding) would be required for the build to go ahead.

[uhcougar31 7]

Looks like they improved the connections from the regional highways:

[semo 14]

https://twitter.com/MaxisGuillaume

https://twitter.com/oceanquigley

These are my favorite screenshots so far. Love the curvy roads and color palette. Every time I chose a favorite picture, something else new comes along. Can't wait to design my own cities.

[BLANKBLANK 4,414]

Looking better! And to think there were those people who were moaning about the size of SC 2013's city tiles, they seem to forget that in SC4 you could fill up a 2 by 2 map rather quickly though the city still looked decent. Well that second and third from last picture definitely gives you an idea of the size you're working with.

However 4 by 4 or larger... (slobbers...)

[Guibanez_ 177]

[pyanodon 218]

im anxious now because i didnt saw any screenshot with over/under passes inside a city.... all the traffic stuff (cars or even trains) are all flat in the ground. Can´t i make my trains elevated? or make them pass under a road?

[barnacleboy 13]

im anxious now because i didnt saw any screenshot with over/under passes inside a city.... all the traffic stuff (cars or even trains) are all flat in the ground. Can´t i make my trains elevated? or make them pass under a road?

I wasn't really excited about the game until Dirk mentioned this feature in the Simtropolis review. But as everyone from the devs is ignoring questions about overpasses lately you can bet that they've cancelled them silently...

[grugor 60]

They haven't canceled them, but the have said that there was a lot of bugs with them and they might not make it in for ship. this was a major feature for me as well. My feeling is that they are holding them back as a must buy DLC.

[pyanodon 218]

(...) DLC.

DLC

DLC

DLC

Now i understood why they axed some stuff from the game. Well...at least, with that screenshot about the roads modifying the terrain, we can dream with sunken highw...er avenues.

[Guibanez_ 177]

https://twitter.com/MaxisGuillaume

[StoNe220022 159]

https://twitter.com/MaxisGuillaume

I honestly do love some of the screens that has come out as of late, I love the colourisation in this picture.

My only concern is (broken record incoming...) why so much road!!!! Why have roads to accommodate traffic that simply isn't there or never will be; as the building density simply doesn't match the road infrastructure in a majority of these pictures. Every Maxis city screenshot thus far has the sparce Houston, TX feel to it.

To compensate, it would be nice if the road would aesthetically change depending on the environment, just like in SC4 where avenues would be green in low residential, cemented in dense commercial, wires and utility boxes in industrial etc...

Wish they would do something about all of these roads!

[Guibanez_ 177]

https://twitter.com/moskow23

[grugor 60]

The problem lies with the grass margin imo. Roads have to have footpaths but even the two lane roads have a grass margin in between the road and footpath making it unnecessarily wide. The four land road has a grass divider in between as well

[guitarmatt99 27]

By looking at the top photo does this mean that there is different building type options before you start the city (American, Asian, European)? It would be a neat feature if you could toggle the different building types during game, that woud be awesome! 1 minute it was Asian and then 1 minute European. Road cutting looks an awesome feature. so much better than say cities xl. That was one of the most annoying things.. the roads were so difficult sometimes.

Edit: Is it just me or are the cars the right size for the road?

[grugor 60]

The problem lies with the grass margin imo. Roads have to have footpaths but even the two lane roads have a grass margin in between the road and footpath making it unnecessarily wide. The four land road has a grass divider in between as well

[Guibanez_ 177]

Edit: Another tree in the middle of the road.

[Zarpia 12]

https://twitter.com/MaxisGuillaume

What I find interesting are those fenced areas around the pizza restaurant.

Finally we will have the "empty grass spaces" filled?

[fatbuster 44]

Edit: Another tree in the middle of the road.

hmm...anyone notice that the grass between the side streets and the avenue looks very different compared to the rest of the wild grass?

I wonder why that is? (please tell me those are some kind of filler lots!)

[The_City_Builder 299]

Sim City 2013 Color Filter Options! (Yeah I'm definitely buying this now)

[mapboy 106]

The problem lies with the grass margin imo. Roads have to have footpaths but even the two lane roads have a grass margin in between the road and footpath making it unnecessarily wide. The four land road has a grass divider in between as well

This is so there are only two widths of roads, allowing for easy upgrading, that's all. I'd rather have wide grass berms on lower-capacity avenues and be able to upgrade to higher capacities, than have to demolish all the buildings when upgrading a road (as I have previously feared, but was corrected so nicely by MaxisGuillaume )

[guitarmatt99 27]

Sim City 2013 Color Filter Options! (Yeah I'm definitely buying this now)

was just about to post these, darn! haha... i have to say im so happy they have done this blog. It explains so much about these recent screen shots! I love how you can custom how the game looks by altering the tilt-shift and adding filters, this game keeps getting better!

[Guibanez_ 177]

[snwboardn 18]

I really like the fact that you can adjust the tilt shift, I actually prefer it off.