By Alec Meer on February 29th, 2012 at 5:00 pm.
One of the many problems with games publishers continuing to give exclusive early game reveals to magazines is that the vast majority of the world’s gaming populace ends up basing its initial opinions of the game on hurried summaries and blurry scanned screenshots on forums. The lure of the free advertising in newsagents that a game magazine cover constitutes, even in this day of catastrophically low print sales, is too hard to resist, I guess.
So here we are hearing, via forumy types sharing info from the latest edition of German mag Gamestar, that Sim City 5 is happening at long last, and is presumably the Maxis game set to be revealed at GDC next week.
We’ll be barraged with trailers and pictures and details and all that jazz around about then, no doubt. In the meantime and if you absolutely must look at scans and translated summaries, you probably already know the kinds of places to go look. Us, we’re content to avoid re-summarising third-hand information and instead to simply acknowledge that a new Sim City is on its way. Also, to hope that our own John Walker will see it when he’s at GDC, and that he will find it to be a far stronger offering than Sim City Societies was.
29/02/2012 at 17:05 pilouuuu says:
This and Doom 4 leaked screenshots are the best sequel related news!
29/02/2012 at 17:07 CaspianRoach says:
Oh my, these look great, too bad console hardware hasn’t aged too well.
29/02/2012 at 17:09 int says:
Have they made Sim Mars yet? If they did they could have a shoot em up mode which was like Doom.
You zoom down to street level like Simcopter and Streets of Sim City.
29/02/2012 at 17:15 pilouuuu says:
@CaspianRoach: it’s out in 2013, so maybe it can use DX11 features extensively. SimCity games never been that much about graphics anyway IMHO.
@int: I think there was going to be a Sim Mars, but it was cancelled. I’m still annoyed by how Maxis screwed Spore up though…
29/02/2012 at 17:33 InnerPartisan says:
@pilouuuu:
Haven’t they? As far as I remember, Sim City 4 was a Juggernaut in terms of hardware requirements when it came out. And both 2000 and 3000 looked terribly nice for their time.
29/02/2012 at 17:49 pilouuuu says:
@InnerPartisan: Yes, they looked great indeed. But I mean is that I can’t see a strategy game being such a hardware hog these days in which we have the likes of Battlefield 3 and The Witcher 2. If you can run those, undoubtly you should be able to run SimCity 5 in all its glory and details. But it also means that it’ll be somewhat limited in its awesomeness by the current generation of consoles. Also I must stress the fact that I think that SimCity games looked amazing, but it was not the most important thing. What matters the most is the gameplay and no game so far could match SimCity 4, even (especially) SimCity Societies.
29/02/2012 at 17:54 Khemm says:
Those Doom 4 leaked screenshots suck. Doom 4:Modern Warfare, Doom was never set in the present.
29/02/2012 at 18:19 MisterT says:
2012: year of great sequels
(also, Gabe has a something we want for E3 this year)
29/02/2012 at 18:23 Joshua Northey says:
“Yes, they looked great indeed. But I mean is that I can’t see a strategy game being such a hardware hog these days in which we have the likes of Battlefield 3 and The Witcher 2. If you can run those, undoubtly you should be able to run SimCity 5 in all its glory and details. But it also means that it’ll be somewhat limited in its awesomeness by the current generation of consoles. Also I must stress the fact that I think that SimCity games looked amazing, but it was not the most important thing. What matters the most is the gameplay and no game so far could match SimCity 4, even (especially) SimCity Societies. ”
A) Most of the biggest resource hogs out there are strategy games.
B) The Simcity games have always been huge resource hogs.
C) It is a lot easier to upgrade your graphics card (which is what FPS’s tax) than it is to upgrade everything else (which is what strategy games tax).
D) Simcity was awesome, but also a tiny bit disappointing as they botched the commuting model very badly and the regions never interacted properly. I hope they can take the ideas from CitiesXL and then put the quality and polish into them that Simcity4 had.
29/02/2012 at 18:31 noom says:
Are those Doom 4 screens actually verified? Because I’m tempted to call BS on those. And if they are real, then I’m upset. I still want Doom 4 to go back to the nonsensical slaughtershouses of 1 and 2, with secret doors, keycards and huge hordes of enemies appearing out of nowhere. In other words the complete opposite of those screenshots.
If they are real I think I may cry myself to sleep tonight.
01/03/2012 at 01:29 moashdfg says:
Time to boot up Sim City 4 to get in the mood early; which by the way still runs like crap on my modern pc. Here’s hoping they have a more optimized game this time around.
http://kisalt.be/wuxrb2
29/02/2012 at 17:12 MiniMatt says:
Oh god damn it, according to steam I’ve 662 hours put into Civ5. A new Sim City is just going to destroy me.
29/02/2012 at 17:14 Cryptoshrimp says:
Oh please let this be good.
29/02/2012 at 17:55 Khemm says:
Job openings imply it’ll be for PS3, 360 and Wii. It WILL suck if the PC version isn’t drastically different.
29/02/2012 at 18:20 Cryptoshrimp says:
Agreeing with you there.
29/02/2012 at 18:25 Joshua Northey says:
I don’t agree with Khemm often, but if the PC version is the same as to console version it will be garbage. Sim City 1 barely worked on a console.
29/02/2012 at 17:15 FriendlyFire says:
Sim City 5? What the… Am I dreaming? Will we see an announcement for Freespace 3, Homeworld 3 and Freelancer 2 next? Maybe HL2:EP3?
This really just made my day. Let’s hope Will Wright is working on it.
01/03/2012 at 07:29 G-Lord says:
Just read the article. Will Wright is not involved in this one, but he was also not involved in SimCity 4.
29/02/2012 at 17:17 crazydane says:
OH SWEET JESUS YES. The best part is that it can’t be any worse than SimCity Societies. SimCity 4 could really do with a makeover and the Cities XL series has never really filled the empty hole that it left behind. Maxis better make this a good one.
Oh noes. This will be on Origin… won’t it? *cries*
29/02/2012 at 18:02 Eich says:
Sim City + Origin = Yar – har – fiddle-dee-dee, being a pirate is all right to be!
29/02/2012 at 21:05 Ba5 says:
Indeed, Origin = no sale. I managed to resist ME3 and Kingdoms of Amalur, and I will resist this.
29/02/2012 at 21:12 caddyB says:
Maybe buy it on origin then put on your pirate hat to actually play it? there’s no way I’m using that software. That and GFWL.
29/02/2012 at 21:55 Ganjatron says:
I’ll buy it the second it hits Origin. i don’t give a fuck who has it, just let me play.
29/02/2012 at 22:28 crazydane says:
The sad thing is that I know I’ll probably end up buying it if it looks half decent
29/02/2012 at 17:24 Leaufai says:
Wow, this is welcome news to say the least. Games like CitiesXL have advanced the genre with off-grid building but those games never seem to capture the feel that the SimCity games have. Wonder what Maxis will come up with. Too bad Will Wright isn’t with them anymore, he’d knock this out of the park.
29/02/2012 at 17:24 Splynter says:
I literally gasped when I read this headline, and I never gasp. I hope so much that it’s good.
29/02/2012 at 19:52 Smashbox says:
So did I, then I was overcome with a wave of giddiness, followed by dread. Weird as it may sound a GOOD new SimCity is my biggest game development wish, by a long way. I don’t want to get my hopes up too much, but I really hope this is a good, complex city sim.
29/02/2012 at 17:31 Moni says:
I’m hoping they can squeeze the Frostbite destruction tech in, unlikely though.
29/02/2012 at 17:59 tungstenHead says:
Menu -> Disasters -> Modern Warzone
29/02/2012 at 17:32 krisanto says:
Cool! Can’t wait for the DLC packs for Landmarks and Advisors.
29/02/2012 at 17:53 Eddy9000 says:
I hear power plants, roads and residential zones will be included in the £10 day 1 DLC.
29/02/2012 at 17:45 The Dark One says:
You all raise good points, but the number one feature SC5 must have in order to recapture the spirit of the series is a jazzy soundtrack.
29/02/2012 at 17:54 Ninja Foodstuff says:
I predict that it will be Facebook-only.
01/03/2012 at 08:51 Raiyan 1.0 says:
Considering EA green lit Tiberium Alliance, yeah…
29/02/2012 at 17:55 nimzy says:
All I need is Dies Irae to start playing when I cut funding to transportation and I’ll be set.
29/02/2012 at 18:01 Blackcompany says:
They’ll probably make it an FPS.
29/02/2012 at 18:03 Leelad says:
As long as i’m able to reticulate splines MANUALLY i’d be happy with anything.
CitiesXL have been an OK filler but lacking something, Fingers crossed for something wonderful.
29/02/2012 at 18:09 Kollega says:
Well, shit, will you look at that. I wanted a decent city simulator for a long time now, since SC4 is… more than a little outdated. Let’s just hope that our beloved Electronic Antichrist dosen’t fuck it up as badly as some people here predict, and that the game will actually be decent.
29/02/2012 at 18:53 Lenderz says:
Day one DLC, containng a vital part of the game, calling it now.
29/02/2012 at 18:18 tsmike says:
Here’s hoping Jerry Martin will be composing the soundtrack again. Simcity has some excellent music.
Please don’t be some dumbed-down, console port with ridiculous DLC. Please!
29/02/2012 at 18:22 Jimbo says:
What’s the circulation of GameStar?
29/02/2012 at 18:51 DdCno1 says:
Ca. 120.000, the biggest PC only gaming magazine in Germany, although far from former greatness. I remember them selling more than 200.000 copies each month a few years ago.
29/02/2012 at 18:22 Tokamak says:
Well, after the last few terrible Sim Society games I can’t say I’m particularly looking forward to this.
29/02/2012 at 18:44 Sardonic says:
Here’s to hoping that the game won’t be ruined by the taint of consoles. PC Exclusive or don’t make it.
29/02/2012 at 18:48 Bobtree says:
Unless they’ve somehow gotten Will Wright back, I don’t think I care. SimCity4 was a mess, and Maxis have made nothing but Sims and Spore franchise stuff since then.
29/02/2012 at 18:56 BULArmy says:
Over at Kotaku there are some leaked screens, so it is real.
29/02/2012 at 19:12 DennisK4 says:
“Your sims are out of water – download ‘Big Gulp Reservoir’ DLC for only $2.99!”
29/02/2012 at 21:28 Mctittles says:
Awww no. Was pretty excited about the possibility of a sequel and now you just ruined my fantasy with the hard reality of things nowadays.
29/02/2012 at 19:17 SwiftRanger says:
Sounds like the issue at hand has more to do with the one spreading the information online rather than the actual source. I seriously hope that RPS (which is ex-PCG UK all over the place) isn’t implying that exclusives in print mags should die out? I recall a couple of exclusives which were launched on this site as well you know. Maybe you should let go of those too as sites and gaming forums might misquote the lot of you? One doesn’t need blurry scans or another language than his/her own to misread things.
Print isn’t always perfect but it’s more pleasing to read than a website imo. I also don’t have access to internet all the time but I do want to read stuff about games whenever I want. Print mags are lagging behind in timely updates for obvious reasons so getting exclusives seems like a bit more important for them.
I can understand the point that quotes of quotes of quotes and articles written in another language than your saintly English could lead to misinformation or misguided early expectations but that’s not the fault of the print magazine (nor of the publishers doing the exclusive deal). As if gaming sites always present game information in such an accurate way when their source is another site or even their own preview article.
As for Sim City 5; never really cared for the franchise but it’s good to see EA doing another PC title.
01/03/2012 at 03:57 P7uen says:
I wouldn’t worry, he didn’t even nearly say any of those things at all.
29/02/2012 at 19:45 mingbu says:
http://ppt.cc/7mA7
29/02/2012 at 21:26 Mctittles says:
Excited!
Time to boot up Sim City 4 to get in the mood early; which by the way still runs like crap on my modern pc. Here’s hoping they have a more optimized game this time around.
29/02/2012 at 22:07 MistyMike says:
Sim City is good. SERF City is better.
29/02/2012 at 22:21 Creaturemagic says:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sims_Studio#cite_note-0
That would suggest Maxis has nothing to do with the SimCity Franchise anymore.
29/02/2012 at 23:09 Bhazor says:
Hmm, good point.
Speaking of the Sims Studio I really didn’t care for the MMO lite approach they took with Sims 3 in over complicating the system. Colour me cautious.
01/03/2012 at 08:17 RedViv says:
Maxis’ most recent sim game was Spore. The Sims Studio has been created before that, and is only developing the titular series. SimCity will be made by Maxis, in whatever state that studio is right now, after the not-as-good-as-imagined Spore, and the worse-than-imagined spin-off.
01/03/2012 at 12:58 Jimbo says:
There are some major elements from Spore which could work really well in Sim City though. Like the creation tools (something similar could be used for custom buildings, roads, everything) and the tech for sharing content between users. Throw in some Forza style trading over the top of it and they could be on to a winner.
29/02/2012 at 23:38 roguewombat says:
Sad day. I thought the image on the article indicated that the original Sim City was being remade via HTML5. Alas, thou hast misled me.
01/03/2012 at 00:21 rockman29 says:
@Author: Just quick correction: the game should be called SimCity 5.
I always used to spell it Sim City 5 as well. I only recently realized the game is called SimCity hahaha.
Anyhow…
I need this game. I need it to be good. My life depends on it! I hope it looks like those concept arts…
Ze game to end all ze games… I am ready for more SimCity… please for the love of jeebus be another amazing true SimCity!
01/03/2012 at 03:12 cw8 says:
I’m more worried that the game will suck like Simcity Societies than actually being happy for the news.
01/03/2012 at 08:14 L3TUC3 says:
Oh fraptious day!
I’ve spent some good times in SC4 and RH. I found it great fun to create a grand metropolis and then destroy it. I hope SC5 will continue the Maxis magic with plenty of llamas.
01/03/2012 at 08:27 Jim9137 says:
I wish it would have pixels
perhaps in a slightly twisted angle
arranded by the prettiest color to the pretty
I would not mind blowing
up things a little
up them to sky
up love
screenshots
01/03/2012 at 15:14 Megadyptes says:
I have a bad feeling about this.