Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Set-Squares And The City: Cities XL Beta Reg

By Kieron Gillen on April 16th, 2009 at 8:08 pm.


We don’t actually often link to news of Closed Beta registration. Frankly, we wait for the open one, as it’s a lot less effort. Who are you to select me, Mr Developer? WHO ARE YOU? In this case, I’m making an exception. Firstly, because it’s great to see someone trying to do a very different sort of MMO, in this case a City Builder with a mass of promising twists. Secondly, because I interviewed the developers in January, haven’t got around to transcribing it yet and feel terrible about it. That interview and possibly some Beta impressions coming shortlyish. Until then, consider signing up if building stuff is you “thing” and watch the two quite-old walkthrough trailers beneath the cut to give you a taste…

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19 Comments »

  1. BooleanBob says:

    I don’t know how comfortable you and I are, respectively, with what I’m about to do, but Eurogamer are offering a promotional code which apparently betters any applicant’s chances of getting a key.

    The competition thus pimped, I’d better make myself scarce. Sharpish.

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  2. fulis says:

    WHAT THE FUCK
    It’s trestkon!!

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  3. cHeal says:

    That looks f*cking awesome. Pity I don’t do MMO :(

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  4. DeliriumWartner says:

    Signed up, with the EG code (sorry guys). Maybe next time RPS will use some of their muscly writering-type pull to get us an RPS code? I’m always up for anything NDA’d.

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  5. ad_hominem says:

    @DeliriumWartner

    RPS did actually get a code, it’s being given to the people who pay the voluntary subscription fee thing.

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  6. Larington says:

    Suddenly, I find myself wondering if the creators of forumplanet were being far more prescient than they realised.

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  7. Frankie The Patrician[PF] says:

    @ad_hominem:
    am I the only one who actually feels guilty for paying ONLY 2 dollars?

    LOVE YOU, GUYS!!!!!!!!

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  8. Rei Onryou says:

    If Kieron somehow linked his MyBrute to RPS subscriptions, they might actually make some money!

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  9. Cian says:

    Please transcribe the interview! I’m really quite excited about this, signed up for the beta from EG and looking forward to a spot of social city developing.

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  10. Rich_P says:

    Remember when EA made city building games that weren’t crap?

    Looking forward to this, since we probably won’t ever get a real SimCity 5.

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  11. Kommissar Nicko says:

    I TOO AM FLEXING MY MIGHTY $2 MUSCLES!

    When I found out it was an MMO, I made naughty here in my chair. I will admit that I did not follow this game, despairing the fact that City Life was at best mediocre. However, the ambition of this project, coupled with the fact that rigorous bug testing in a closed beta might yield a finer finished product, makes me highly optimistic.

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  12. Ginger Yellow says:

    Grrr. I gave $20 instead of subscribing. Curse you RPS and your love of recurring income!

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  13. ChampionHyena says:

    I am so confused.

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  14. PC Monster says:

    cHeal: “That looks f*cking awesome. Pity I don’t do MMO :(”

    Agreed. Based on the happy happy times I enjoyed with SimCity 2000 I’d have seriously considered picking this up but I’m just not an MMO gamer.

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  15. CitiesXL isn’t strictly an MMO. There’s still a single player city builder there, it’s just that you can also take it online to embed cities in online “planets” along with other players.

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  16. PC Monster says:

    O rly? Then colour me interested. From the website (now that I’ve bothered to look):

    The game’s optional online features and services will let gamers create interconnected cities on virtual and persistent planets. By combining a fantastic single-player game with the social and multiplayer aspects of an MMO, CITIES XL™ will shape the future of the genre by offering more variety, bigger cities and multiple gameplay layers.

    Hurrah for the word “optional”! I guess the purchasing decision now rests on how much of the game you can play in single-player, and how much will need the web. If it’s a next-gen SimCity, I’m sold.

    Down with this social bollocks! Solo-gaming forever!

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  17. Pedro says:

    Interesting that every preview I read describes this as an MMO, when the developers clearly have said that the online part is secondary to the singleplayer game.

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  18. Mike says:

    Now sure I’m getting the MMO element here, other than the downloadable module stuff?

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  19. A Delicate Balance says:

    I cry nightly for the farce that was Sim City Societies. I still don’t know nearly enough about Cities XL to say whether it will be worth getting a copy when it’s released, but it definitely looks very impressive. I’m totally not interested in a subscription to link my cities to other people’s. I just want Sim City 5. So does my wife. She spent hours and hours playing Sim City 4 and we were both gutted at how crapiola Societies was. I just want to know more about Cities XL though… so far I haven’t even been able to work out if you can zone and have your city organically grow.

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