Poetic

It doesn't look like it's anything compared to SimCity 4, but it's a new game and I was curious if it was any good or if anyone has heard about it? http://www.gamespot.com/pc/sim/virtualcity/index.html

I like the first two screen shots with the 3d globes and the third screen shot with the towers - it looks very realistic and has good graphics. I'm not too thrilled with the fourth or last screen shot, however. I agree with spa when it comes to the lots vs. roads - the buildings are definitely blocky and look awkward compared to the free moving roads - lots of grass space left surrounding buildings on curvy roads. Also the sidewalks seem to be extra large and color coordinated depending on neighboring buildings just like in City Life - which is very bad. In the fourth screen you can see a different colored red sidewalk - reminiscent of the Fringe from CL, with the usual white/grayish sidewalks, which looks like suits from CL. It doesn't help that the red buildings on the corner of the red sidewalk looks just like a Fringe building. For me, transportation is pretty important in this upcoming game. I definitely hope CXL doesn't mimic CLs sidewalks or its culture groups. The last thing I want is large multicolored sidewalks and color coordinated ethnic buildings like in CL.

This is a good project idea Deep Thought, good luck with it! The best thing about SCS is how expansive it can be with all of the different types of societies that could be added. I recommend you go to Tilted Mills forum and pitch all of your ideas to the actual developers of the game. Doing it here will just get you criticized (as you've seen), because this forum has some polarized SC4 supporters. Here's Tilted Mills board: http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/ The developers monitor it pretty often, they'll probably be happy to hear about some of the new ideas.

I have the same problem, I think it's due to the graphics card. Here's a few other posts that mention the issue: http://tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14235&highlight=trees http://tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14748&highlight=trees http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14500

There aren't really any other "modern" city-building games other than the ones you've mentioned - besides MetropolisMana and New York Tycoon. There are a lot of other historical city-building games though... Caesar series, Tropico, CivCity: Rome, Children of the Nile, etc... Here's a list of CB games: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_building_games I wish there were more games in this genre.

This kind of shocked me, although I guess it shouldn't in today's world, but two teens lure a guy into their garage and kill him (decapitate him and burn his body)- simply because they wanted the thrill of killing someone. I mean, wow, if this isn't a good reason to not trust anyone you meet, then I don't know what is. The world is becoming so scary http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071112/UPDATE/711120428/1361 This happened in Northville, a place with very little crime (and virtually no homocides). I guess the guy did owe one of the teens money, and he was listed on the sex offender registry - but the two teens say neither played a role in their killing him. They said they did it because they wanted the thrill of killing someone.

According to this: http://www.cdv-forum.com/cdvboard/english/showthread.php?t=56586 (American distributor of City Life) City Life: World Edition is the North American retail product, officially supported by CDV USA; it will ship in late January. It will retail for $29.99 and will offer an additional rebate for owners with a proof-of-purchase of the original. It is a stand-alone product that does not require you to own the original and it will ship without Star Force copy protection. You can currently pre-oder this product from Amazon.com and from EB Games/GameStop and it will ship on or about January 29, 2007 in the USA and Canada. City Life: Deluxe is an online distribution product only, released and supported directly by Monte Cristo. From what I understand, the content in City Life: Deluxe is identical to our title; the main difference is that you must download CLD, you will need your original game launch disk (does contain Star Force), and for any support issues (including the types of questions already posted on this forum) you will need to contact MonteCristo at support@montecristogames.com.quote> Hope that helps!

There is no u-drive-it, as others said. But you can follow your sims as they walk around the city by clicking on them and pressing a tracking button, and it'll show where they're going, if their happy, etc... not very exciting, though.

I tried making a productive city with lots of homes, some workplaces, and virtually no venues. Pretty quickly I had unemployed, homeless, very angry vandals running through the city randomly shutting down businesses, increasing crime, etc... It was amazing to watch - like rioters running everywhere. I was pretty hard to calm things down - I began building venues, but it just made people drunk and act out even more. Finally I had to start bringing in more authoritarian buildings to start trying to calm things down. I constantly had to bring out the riot police every hour. Of course, this all happened in normal mode - so I had to worry about money, which constantly went down each time a business was closed by a vandal. After a fairly long-time I was able to rebuild (lots of fires and things), increase happiness and lower the amount of angry citizens (who became vandals) by locking them up. It was definitely the most fun I've had with the game thus far

Good question. I'm 23, so I don't plan on my parents getting me lots of stuff (although I wish they still did... god kids have it made). I will maybe be getting my mother a Tivo, she tapes soap operas and lots of tv shows (ugly betty, that show with all the doctors, etc...), and goes through 100s of tapes, constantly worrying about which one is what, where she left off of, fast forwarding through commercials, etc... so I figure a Tivo would be a decent present. I haven't decided what to get my father or friends yet. I had a pet lovebird that died about 5 months ago that I miss very much and I'm thinking my parents may get me a new one (I hope so anyway!). If they don't then I'll treat myself and get one by the end of January probably (their only like 80-100 or so). I've always been a fan of lovebirds since I got my first from an uncle at 16. I usually clip their wings, which allows them to run around the house and be a real pet, not a display like most birds tend to be The biggest thing I plan on treating myself to over the next year or so (assuming it comes out) is Spore!

I really don't think this game was meant to be difficult (which, to me, isn't completely a bad thing). I like the difficulty of SC4, but I think this game is really more of a fantasy society builder than a strategy game (at least that's what I'm hearing by fans defending the game). Basically if you want a game where you can make a romantic village or a evil dictator society with no problems then try SCS, but if you want a complex game that is realistic then SC4 is better. SCS is good for imagination (with little-to-no strategy), SC4 is good for realism & strategy. Although, thanks to mods, SC4 is also good at imagination too (just look at the CJs). I'm hoping in the future I'll be able to make really fantasy-like cities that I can really let my imagination run away... I don't know if it will be with SCS, SC4, CU or SC5 (?), but SCS looks the one that is most likely to make it happen (assuming there are mods, expansion packs, etc...) Some people say SCS is for kids... I think it is definitely for the kid in us. It's an easy, casual gamer, type of game. I think it's more superficial than anything - making an eyecandy fantasy town (like something out of a book or movie) than an actual in-depth game.

Originally posted by: beebs I can see there being a whole truckload of expansions coming from this game. It was probably designed to be like that.. see: The Sims for a comparison. quote> Yup, each expansion will probably have 1 or 2 new societies - this game seems geared toward that. I've been wondering what it would be like to have a medieval society, pre-WWII german society, french society, harry potter society, scientific (or ultra-futuristic) society, holiday specific (Halloween, Christmas, etc...) societies, etc... the possibilities are pretty much endless. Lots of $$$ making possibilities!

Originally posted by: N_O_Body What kind of parents (if any) did they have? Were they members of any family?quote> According to Fox News: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,310578,00.html One of the teens (Letkemann) family was shocked by the news, but is standing by his side.

Originally posted by: GreekManwas this in Detriot metro area?quote> Yup, right by Livonia & Farmington Hills.

I usually buy my games at CompUSA, but now every CompUSA by me is going out of business - guess I'll start using BestBuy or Microcenter. So, I was wondering: Which stores you do usually use to buy your games at? If you usually buy at CompUSA, and the one by you is also going out of business, where are you going now? Also, where did you buy Rush Hour? I bought it at BestBuy. Anyway, just thought I'd ask.

Of course they need to have wealth levels - SC4, to me, wouldn't be the same without it. Having a single wealth level (i.e. middle class) isn't only unrealistic - it's simply boring. I like having ghettos vs. 90210-style neighborhoods. I think City Life was right about class alienation, the upper class usually won't mingle with the lower class. In SC4 there were so many times I had huge mansions pop up in run-down neighborhoods that I wouldn't personally walk in! It was very discouraging. So yes, wealth levels are a must and I think upper class needs to not want to live by lower class, but I certainly don't think there needs to be riots or any of that extreme stuff that's found in City Life over classes, that was pretty ridiculous.

I especially find this part on the site exciting: Build and customize an entire town - Your town is your own unique creation, from the design of the flower shop to the layout of a Mad Scientist's laboratory, and beyond.quote> I was kind of hoping SC5 was going to be like this - customize everything from the ground up, make it completely your own (pick home colors, plant flora & props, etc...).

Originally posted by: haljackey By the way, what does AFD mean?quote> Articles For Deletion Here's the policy page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion

Originally posted by: Godzillaman other site admins(question mark) who could they be(question mark) *my question mark is out.quote> If you go to start -> all programs -> accessories -> system tools -> character map (Windows XP instructions) You will see a large amount of various characters to pick from. From there you can pick the "?" and copy and paste it where ever you want.

Just stumbled across this... I have the original City Life, I played it for a little while, but grew tired of it and stopped playing after a few weeks. Sometimes I still get cravings to play it again, though, which is a good thing! Unfortunately I lost one of the two discs and can't play, though. I've been looking forward to trying out World Edition, but haven't gotten a chance, so I look forward to this and seeing how it turns out! I've always been amazed by City Life's looks, camera angles, and roads... unfortunately, though, this, to me, didn't keep me coming due to the game play. Anyway, keep up the good work - the screen shots look great I see some new buildings which look pretty nice, CL original was much more limited. And, yes, the landmarks are only in World Edition, not CL original. One of the things I didn't like about City Life was that it seemed to take a very long time to get the white collars and radical chics to move into the city. (I also hated the name radical chic... sounds odd) Also, it would take even longer to get the elites to move in and it didn't seem very rewarding - the elite homes were very limited and they seemed smaller than the white collar & radical chich homes, even though the elites were supposed to be much richer. Overall it seemed, to me, that the main goal of the game was to try to get the upper classes to move into the city. It seemed to take a long time due to the amount of money that required, and even when you got them it seemed like an anti-climax moment - they were very limited and not much to talk of. Others have said otherwise - stating CL is much easier than SC & that getting money was simple. I guess I either did something wrong, or didn't allow myself to become a veteran enough to play it well. Either way, I still like City Life and consider it a great first 3d modern city building game.

Looks interesting , I haven't tried this one yet (I've been meaning to get around to the demo, but I currently am taking three rushed summer courses) - so I definitely look forward to seeing this one and seeing how it compares to C4 &, maybe, SC4. Looks good so far. I'm a little worried about there not being any diagonal streets though, especially since SCS may not have them.

This game definitely looks very interesting and I hope it takes off. However, we shouldn't count SimCity Societies out yet. Before we get into the city itself, the biggest news today is that the game will ship fully customizable. While Tilted Mill wasn't talking about some of the features they would be including to make this easier for some players, they did say that players would be able to customize anything in the game. That includes buildings, decorations, citizens, and rules.quote> http://pc.ign.com/articles/804/804046p1.html A representative from Tilted Mill told me that the game will be incredibly modable. Those proficient in C# and XML will have easy access to every asset in the game, and basic tools will be provided to the community for building creation. An official website is planned for the exchange of buildings, much like the way unofficial content is supported by publisher Electronic Arts' The Sims site.quote> There's still a lot of mod potential in SimCity Societies. Although it may not be open source, it definitely sounds like it won't be too far from it. Keep our fingers crossed... also this should be in the gaming section, not SCS section.

I agree with ADG - the "harder and harder to play" just isn't true. If it is true then I feel bad for the gaming community (I certainly know it isn't true for most of us on Simtropolis). But the games are indeed getting boring and, like both EA CEO and Will Wright have said, the endless sequels get annoying real quick. I still disagree with not making a realistic SimCity sequel though.

Originally posted by: seanivs Frankly, Maxis had a part in inventing sequelitis with endless mediocre games all throughout the 90's based on the canned "Sim" formula, not to mention endless Sims dreck for the last 7 years. quote> The "Sim" formula (SimFarm, SimTown, SimIsle, etc...) in the 90's weren't sequels. The title "Sim" implied to fans of Maxis that the game allowed for customizability. Actually, I think that is what Wright is talking about now. All of the "Sim" games in the 90's were all unique different games - I think he wants to go back to that. As for "the Sims," there are only two of them... I know it seems like more because of all the expansions, but I think the expansions were EA's idea. If Wright had his way I bet there would have only been a few expansions (like 2) and one of them would have given more customization for players to make their own stuff instead of relying on expansions.