Hello all,

This is my first City Journal and my second city developed in CitiesXL.  I have enjoyed Sim City for many years but I'm really impressed with CitiesXL and I feel that the improved graphics and in-depth dynamics make this game really enjoyable.  Of course, it's too bad that it is incomplete and lacks many features and contains many bugs.  So with all that being said...on with the show.

Also, please click through for high-res versions of the images.

The village of New Valley was founded in 1833 and saw little growth nor activity for many years.  However, following the discovery of large reserves of off-shore oil the village has recently enjoyed rapid growth as well as the construction of a nearby highway system.

Here is an overhead view of the town as it stood for many years.

As can be seen, near the top left hand corner of the image, the town sits close to the intersection of two major highways.  The horizontal highway (Hwy 499) was first constructed in the 1950's but once the discovery of oil was made a new highway (Hwy 478) was built to shuttle people and goods into and out of New Valley.

Here is a much larger view of the town and surrounding area.

The town begins to expand as shown below.

Here is a closer view of the growth.

At this point the town of New Valley has grown into a city with a population of around 16,000 inhabitants.

Now, here are some screenshots of the city from various aspects.

City Hall:

From the waterfront:

Cruisin' around the neighbourhoods:

And here are some images at night:

There is also a burgeoning industrial and manufacturing centre located north of the city following Hwy 478 N:

And finally, a traffic map:

That's all for now...see you next time.