Monte Cristo games have just issued a statement saying that the MMO element of Cities XL is going to be shut down:"Three months after the launch we have to admit that the subscription rate is lower than what we expected and therefore the Planet Offer is not sustainable. Not enough players decided to subscribe. Therefore, it is with deep regret that we decided to put…
Posts tagged “monte cristo games”
Last month I spent some time in Cities XL with another RPS ally as we tried to figure out the MMO side of the game. We both ended up feeling a little frustrated by the way it wasn't really possible for us to construct complimentary cities. "You be tank city, I'll be DPS city" was the joke that came to mind, but there was a…
Remember how angry you were last week when we told you there was a Cities XL demo out, but it turned out an American chap like you couldn't play it, or found it agonisingly laggy because it was European only? Ooh, you were mad. Remember how you did terrible things to a passing hobo in the name of misplaced vengeance? He may never recover, but…
A while back, I got together with Jerome Gastaldi - Monte Cristo CEO and lead on Cities XL - to talk about Cities XL. By "a while back" I mean, January. RPS has been busy with not doing anything. Since the demo has just been released, I thought it time to go back to the recording of Mr Gastaldi's splendid Gallic accent and forthrightness -…
Huzzah! The Cities XL demo is here, 1gb in breadth, for you to download, play, and then weigh on the platinum scales of consumer judgment. The new city-builder with an online dimension seems like it's been in beta for about 47 years, but it's actually only a few weeks. Nevertheless there's been a marked improvement since the early wobbles, and this limited demo gives you…
My present "spare-time" gaming could not have two more extreme poles. On the one hand I am playing a bit of Quake Live - jumping onto capture the flag maps to realise I still know how to use a railgun (weird how it returns, like different programming, hardwired into fundamental bits of my brain) - and on the other I am poking about in Cities…
Cities XL is the French massively multiplayer cousin of SimCity. It carries genes from both genres: you create an avatar, and then you start a city on a vast, heavily populated planet. Populated, that is, by other player's cities. It might just be where the city-building genre goes next. The closed beta is up (keys still available from some sites, according to the homepage) and…