New Screenshots

[Cobraroll 138]

For all those complaining about the empty dead grass space space between cities being unrealistic. Remember Simcity 4 cities floated in the middle of space. Pollution and crime did not spread each city even though they were contiguous.

True, but when playing a city in SimCity, it was like a part of the world was taken out and given to you for development. Things happening outside that part of the world was not important. Whatever existed beyond the edge of the map was for you to imagine.

Here, they explicitly show you that outside the part of land you're given, nothing happens. It's just grass. Unmodifiable. I have to say, I prefer to have nothing there. At least then I can pretend my city is connected to a bigger world, instead of being shown that a large flat plain goes on for a while before bumping into the next city. And whatever I do with my cities, it will still be a large flat plain. In SC4 you could go out and create some mountains, rivers, forests or oceans for tiles next to the ones you were playing on, if the look of the region bothered you.

[Ocram's Razr 964]

I hope there will be texture overlays to make your city look gritty and dirty when you have a lot of pollution.

--Ocram

[Hamish 1,369]

Not a big fan of the grass around the skyscrapers basses, but if you look at the three buildings in the right corner of the first image, these all seem to have some lot textures, and they don't look too bad. The third image shows a bit more of what the lot textures could look like. I hope these are indicative of what all skyscraper lots will have by release, because then the city centres will look a lot more like a city centre.

[Ion_Cannon 677]

Why is it that a game released 10 years ago looks better than one released today? Does that qualify as progress now?

[fatbuster 44]

I just noticed another new screenshot posted at simcity.com:

[pcwhiz24 1,185]

Got this off Simcity Reddit:

IMO, this actually looks really good, much more realistic. I love the soccer fields, baseball fields, and the way the houses are arranged actually looks like a real suburb (with the 4 lane avenue, which seems to be upgradable to 6 lane boulevard). Could be the rural area outside a main town.

All we need is bigger maps, not those 1.25 mile maps. (That's what I call them)

[mrbisonm 1,620]

hm....not sure if these are dirtroads. They look more like old asphalt sidestreets.

[flyer2359 92]

That screenshot looks great and fairly realistic, unfortunately that's probably about 3/4 or more of the map taken up.

[MaxisGuillaume 289]

Those are really dirt roads, and the picture only shows a small portion of the city. I added a picture from later in the play session here:

https://twitter.com/MaxisGuillaume/status/279032121589379073/photo/1

[cirugo 1,889]

I'll say it again and I'll keep saying it until you stop deleting my posts or you just kick me off the site. The game is going to need a LOT more than just bigger maps.

[cirugo 1,889]

Those are really dirt roads, and the picture only shows a small portion of the city. I added a picture from later in the play session here:

https://twitter.com/...9379073/photo/1

shows the same portion from a different angle.

[mrbisonm 1,620]

Hm, dirtroads you say.....ever been on a dirtroad irl? These don't really look as good as the ones we have in SC4. They are too defined opn the sides, more like asphalt sidestreets that are worn out or "sunburnt". Dirtroads should not be in a straight line on the side since they are gravel, dirt or sand, and that doesn't stay in place in a straight line with wind, rain and the weight of the traffic.

Here are some real dirtroads (sand or gravel roads)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/Dirt_Roads_in_Lefors.jpg

http://www.davestravelcorner.com/photos/cambodia/Siem-Reap-Dirt-Road.jpg

http://vanishingsouthgeorgia.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/wayne-county-ga-dirt-road-flue-cured-tobacco-barn-rural-southern-americana-agriculture-heritage-pictures-photo-copyright-brian-brown-vanishing-south-georgia-usa-2010.jpg

http://vanishingsouthgeorgia.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/wayne-county-ga-dirt-road-flue-cured-tobacco-barn-rural-southern-americana-agriculture-heritage-pictures-photo-copyright-brian-brown-vanishing-south-georgia-usa-2010.jpg

http://vanishingsouthgeorgia.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/wayne-county-ga-dirt-road-flue-cured-tobacco-barn-rural-southern-americana-agriculture-heritage-pictures-photo-copyright-brian-brown-vanishing-south-georgia-usa-2010.jpg

Of course the colour is another thing, because they come in many colours. I have seen black ones in Hawaii, red ones in Australia and white ones in Ghana....and so on, there's even some with amethyst coloured ones near Thunderbay, Ontario/Canada.

My opinion.

mrb

[~Dee~ 215]

Those are really dirt roads, and the picture only shows a small portion of the city. I added a picture from later in the play session here:

https://twitter.com/...9379073/photo/1

shows the same portion from a different angle.

Correct and I don't see any dirt roads at all.

[Cob92 360]

I'll say it again and I'll keep saying it until you stop deleting my posts or you just kick me off the site. The game is going to need a LOT more than just bigger maps.

IMO bigger maps really aren't necessary as long as they allow us to build cities adjacent to each other. From the strategy videos, it looks as though the cities owned by a player essentially function as a single city, automatically sharing resources. Add in the fact that you can quickly jump between cities, and the SC4 idea of a city spanning a whole region can be properly realized. The problem is that the cities are separated from one another, so it's impossible for them to come together to form a single metropolis.

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Correct and I don't see any dirt roads at all.

No, but I saw seasonal flora.

[Hamish 1,369]

I like the look of that city. The dirt roads really make it look good, but I especially like the look of the curvy dirt roads. Pretty snazzy

[mrboo001 12]

These roads are not so much "dirt" as gravel roads. The screenshot's roads look pretty close to the ones in my home town of Melfort, SK Canada (Pop. ~5000). Some gravel roads from Google Maps shown below:

https://maps.google....=12,270,,0,2.46

https://maps.google....11,1.05,,0,1.75

Considering this is the base game, I think the roads in the screen shot look good.

[cirugo 1,889]

I'll say it again and I'll keep saying it until you stop deleting my posts or you just kick me off the site. The game is going to need a LOT more than just bigger maps.

IMO bigger maps really aren't necessary as long as they allow us to build cities adjacent to each other. From the strategy videos, it looks as though the cities owned by a player essentially function as a single city, automatically sharing resources. Add in the fact that you can quickly jump between cities, and the SC4 idea of a city spanning a whole region can be properly realized. The problem is that the cities are separated from one another, so it's impossible for them to come together to form a single metropolis.

Precisely. That's one of the things I'm talking about when I say that the problem is more than just small maps.

[CXLMachine 17]

Thats a really nice looking little town. Im probably going to have a problem developing a city further than that as itll lead to a skyscraper oasis. Still looking forward.

[zimmie 521]

Those look more like paved streets with dirt along the sides than actual dirt roads. But if MaxisGuillaume says they are then they must be, he would know. It actually looks like dirt around the edges of just about everything in that pic.

Oddly that pic reminds me of SC4 for some reason more than a game being designed ten years later.

[Ocram's Razr 964]

It might look like SimCity 4 because they reused all the best assets. Those dirt roads look like the wide dirt roads in Cities XL, which means they look like gravel roads.

--Ocram

[Frode789 70]

I REALLY dislike all the big roads. Looks so unnatural. Is it required to have large 4 lane roads on tiny cities like that? I just hope the commute time/congestion is realistic on 2 lane roads, and we wont have to build tons of 4 lane + roads everywhere is small cities with 10 000 people..

[DmainEvent 195]

I REALLY dislike all the big roads. Looks so unnatural. Is it required to have large 4 lane roads on tiny cities like that? I just hope the commute time/congestion is realistic on 2 lane roads, and we wont have to build tons of 4 lane + roads everywhere is small cities with 10 000 people..

With these small maps 10,000 people will be just about the max. So I wouldn't worry.

[Zulnex 1]

Very nice image. Looking forward to the release very much.

[Indiana Joe 1,750]

Close-ups would be nice. And they still need to turn down the color saturation a lot.

[Skyrunner27 23]

There does seem to be seasons

[jrm541992 17]

Close-ups would be nice. And they still need to turn down the color saturation a lot.

But (as Zero Punctuation would call it) the grey-brown-loads-of-glow look is boring. I want lots of colors!

OT, I Like the gravel roads, though this town looks too incorporated for such old roads.

[Indiana Joe 1,750]

But (as Zero Punctuation would call it) the grey-brown-loads-of-glow look is boring. I want lots of colors!

But then it looks like some 99 cent Facebook game. I don't want to pay 60 bucks for a Facebook game. I want it to look realistic.

[snick25 384]

Nice town. And I'm not being sarcastic this time, it does look nice. But, since this is supposed to be SimCity, I'd really like to see some cities.

Of course, that's assuming that anybody could even make one.

[Essex 322]

I'll say it again and I'll keep saying it until you stop deleting my posts or you just kick me off the site. The game is going to need a LOT more than just bigger maps.

That's true, but bigger maps is the most important thing that needs to be addressed (outside of the Origin issue). The game looks good, but the maps are unacceptable. ( I combine this with the non sprawling regions ofcourse)