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Rumor: Spore Creature Creator included in SimCity Box
Ever since EA announced the early release of Spore's Creature Creator, we've been wondering how the company planned on distributing the pre-game title. Fingers were crossed for a free demo, but now it seems that EA would rather entice players into buying their SimCity Box, which will reportedly include the Creature Creator amongst its lineup of classic SimCity titles.On the game's Amazon product page, the box art indicates the presence of the "Creature Creator Trial Version" as a bonus feature. This same bonus is stated in the product description. If Amazon is to be trusted, we still don't know whether the "trial version" indicates a limited demo of the soon-to-be-released creature editor, or whether the editor is considered to be a "trial version" of Spore.We also don't know if this is EA's only intended method of distribution for the Creature Creator. We've contacted EA for further clarification, and will let you know once we have a few more facts.[Via GamerTell]
The SimCity Box starts construction in June for $40
EA announced today that it'll release The SimCity Box in June, which includes SimCity Societies, SimCity Societies Destinations, SimCity 4, SimCity 4 Rush Hour and The Sims Carnival SnapCity. The best part of the bundle is the very friendly $40 price tag; however, the only real draw inside the box is SimCity 4 and its expansion Rush Hour, which are available bundled for $15 - $20 at most retailers.SimCity Societies, which was not developed by Maxis, stumbled on release for various reasons. The SimCity Box might be worth it to those who missed out on the last half-decade of the series and are looking to test out its traditional and more casual incarnations over the summer.
Promotional Consideration: City planning
Promotional Consideration is a weekly feature about the Nintendo DS advertisements you usually flip past, change the channel on, or just tune out.We applaud any video game ad that eschews the common official-art-and-screenshots approach, a template that's been in place for as long as we can remember. This week's piece abandons those conventions, marketing EA's SimCity DS port and its city-management features in a much more creative fashion. Expand you commercial zoning, lower industrial taxes, and join us past the break!
New Sim City 2 screens, promo site erected
Sim City aficionados will enjoy this update from Famitsu. They've gone ahead and set up a small promo site for the upcoming sequel to Sim City DS, Sim City 2. And, as we still lack our whipping boy for reading Japanese, we've no idea what any of the text says on the page. But, there's plenty of new screens to look at! That's always nice.If you want to check out the new screens, which seem to show off multiple assistants, then hit up our gallery below.%Gallery-12347%
Sim City 2 constructs Japanese release date, new screens
Town-planning enthusiasts who are also adept at reading kanji rejoice! EA just declared that Sim City 2 DS will be layin' pipes and buildin' roads in Japan on March 19th.Don't get too excited, though. One look at any screens of Maxis' build-me-do should let you know that this is not most people's idea of an import-friendly title. There are lashings of Japanese text, and if the user interface is anywhere near as confusing as the one found in the first Sim City DS (which we struggled to understand in English), we may as well just give up now and wait for news of a western release.Go past the break for a sprinkling of new screens.%Gallery-12347%
Best Buy does 2 for $30 deal
Best Buy is having a sale on all of their video games priced at $19.99, allowing those looking to stock up on titles to snag two games for the sum of $30. And, looking over the list of titles that qualify, there's quite a bit of fun to be had. Notable games in the sale include Nintendo's training titles Brain Age, Brain Age 2 and Flash Focus. There are also other games like WordJong, SimCity DS, Spectrobes and Orcs & Elves up for grabs too. [Via QJ]
Screen City 2, population: some
We tried building a city on rock 'n roll, but it turns out that the citizens prefer stuff like pipes and roads. So, though we're horrified to learn that Starship misled us, we're going to start Sim City 2 with a plan to build a city on actual good ideas about city planning. And thanks to the opening of the Sim City 2 DS site, we can start pre-planning now, as we look at the neat new options available. Will we build (and subsequently ruin) a Renaissance-era European city? A prehistoric settlement? A Sim Edo-era Japan? Or will we end up with two squares of grass and a lapsed budget, like always?Luckily, we're much more successful at building galleries. Check out the screens to see all the new historical settings to be found in Sim City 2 DS!%Gallery-12347%
Build even more cities on your DS
If you loved the idea of a portable SimCity, then this news should make your day -- a sequel to the handheld simulation is in the works, and already set for a March release (in Japan). The DS sequel to the first entry in the popular franchise looks to be adding timelines -- with appropriate costumes for your advisors throughout each era, as well as buildings. Cue caveman garb! Otherwise, it seems like typical SimCity fare, which is actually good news.And hey, if you haven't picked up the first one, it looks like that GameFly sale is still going.
Metareview: SimCity Societies (PC)
Not only did SimCity Societies get thrown into the deep end of the pool to fight for attention this holiday season -- the critics are enjoying watching it drown. The big outlets have yet to give it above a 70 and there are apparently a lot of technical issues holding the title back. SimCity Societies could have been a reimagining of the series that started a different franchise from "SimCity core." But it looks like developer Tilted Mill, best known for the Caesar games, could have really taken more time with it. It's sad that a casual approach to SimCity didn't yield the best results. Perhaps it's because you need a Crysis-level computer to play it, as one review pointed out. 1UP (70/100): "And speaking of smooth, Societies isn't. When you reach the 10,000-population mark, you can expect the game to crawl (I routinely witnessed sub-30 frames per second on a machine I built to rock Crysis). In a game where constant zooming, map rotation, and precise building placement are key, laggy performance is more than a mere annoyance. 'Course, when you reinvent the omelet, you're gonna break a few wheels...or something. And, despite its few slipups, the core of Societies is strong enough -- and the gameplay addictive enough -- that even the stodgiest traditionalist will find something to shout about." GameSpy (60/100): " In short, Sim City Societies is a novel game with a unique new mechanic for building towns and cities with personality. Casual players will find a lot to tinker with as they sculpt towns out of their dreams or nightmares. More serious gamers will be able to plumb the depth of the title over the course of the weekend, so your enjoyment of the game depends a great deal on what you're looking for when you pick up the box." EuroGamer (50/100): "Those Maxis-faithful naysayers who crowed that Tilted Mill would sully their beloved series have sadly been proven right as the game suffers from many of the same complaints levelled at the studio's previous game, Caesar IV. But let me make my final point quite clear - Societies doesn't stumble just because "it isn't SimCity". Fresh takes on old concepts should always be welcome. It stumbles because it's a generally unsatisfying patchwork of a game, dragged down by inconsistent gameplay, outdated design and weirdly implemented ideas."
SimCity 'gifted' to One Laptop per Child
SimCity is EA's gift to the world, the publisher announced today as plans to include the seminal sim game on each computer in the One Laptop per Child initiative have been finalized. EA might describe this event as "the first time a major video game publisher has gifted a game to the world" (reality check: gifted a game to an estimated 10 million laptops by the end of '08), but we doubt the company is gonna take home many 'Philanthropist of the Year' awards for donating a game that was first booted up on Mac OS 6 (it's that old). While a proposed open source version appears to have been nixed from the agenda, we're confident that the generation of dormant hackers sure to be sprung by the OLPC program will make short work of any imposed limitations -- that is, if they ever tire of the free porn.
SimCity Societies teaches players to think 'green'
With Maxis still hip-deep in Spore's primordial ooze, EA's decision to hand the next game in the storied SimCity franchise over to Caesar IV devs Tilted Mill was understandable, if not entirely welcome given the game's move away from being a 'realistic urban simulation,' a shift decried by fans to the tune of "you killed my baby!"In keeping with the forthcoming SimCity Societies' touchy-feely approach, which looks to abandon simulation gameplay in favor of 'social energies,' EA has announced that the game will also include 'climate education' through "low-carbon electricity choices and carbon emission monitoring" thanks to a partnership with 'green minded' alternative energy organization BP. The goal, says EA, is to give players an "accurate" look at some of the causes and available solutions to the inconvenient truth of global warming, no doubt giving Al Gore reason to smile as he continues to tango with Mizuguchi.Thankfully, according to EA, the game will not shove any eco-friendly environmentalist perspectives down players' collective throat. Instead, Societies will offer choices on how players wish to power their cities, leaving those of us who feel less at home hugging trees than we do while shoveling coal into the furnace free to do as we please when the game ships for the PC this November.
Preorder offerings in Korea
Why can't publishers be more charitable with preorder gifts in the states? We're doing them a favor whenever we put down an advance for one of their games, giving retailers an idea of how many they should order to stock their shelves. Japan and Korea seem to get reservation rewards for almost every release! The latest preorder prizes, a branded system pouch and a stylus set, come with EA's SimCity DS and MySims, both due later this month for Korea. Publisher Fujitsu was more creative with its Cooking Mama gift, offering a limited edition pair of cooking mitts to any gamer who reserves the kitchen-themed minigame collection. Hand over five bucks and head past the post break for more photos of the bonus items.
SimCity Societies: new screenshots and impressions
Will Wright said it himself: SimCity is complicated. The series has always prided itself on its micromanagement but eventually, flexing the ol' executive muscle starts to feel more like work and less like playing god. No one actually dreams of being a city water commissioner, so why should you have to play one in a video game? SimCity Societies doesn't think you have to either.In an impromptu presentation, the Sims team at EA walked us through their latest city builder with a focus on accessibility. The act of zoning is gone entirely, leaving players to place their buildings one by one in order to lay our their city. That may sound contrary to the overall goal, but the structures themselves are the characters this time around. Each building comes with its own stats and attributes that more clearly affect the citizens of your city. Your choices are also tailored to your current societal path, which leaves much less room for confusion while still allowing for creative expansion.From there, it's business as usual, though more personal than ever before. With such a heavy focus on your citizens, its easy to understand the appeal of caring for the values and quality of life for your people as opposed to plotting out landfills and balancing budgets. For those who don't want to worry about money at all, a free play option will be made available from the very start.SimCity Societies is due out for PC later this year. When asked about other platforms such as the Mac or consoles, nothing was confirmed nor denied. %Gallery-4015%
Joystiq first look: SimCity Societies
When we asked the super-helpful PR representative at EA's E3 booth what game she was most excited about showing off, she cheerfully replied "SimCity Societies." It's easy to see why. The game is a major departure for the series, letting players truly build whatever kind of city they want.While the previous games in the SimCity franchise have generally avoided restrictions on your city-building options, the general visual style and implied goal of the cities was always that of a modern, metropolitan area. Societies throws that idea out the window, with all sorts of different types of city types available, from "industrial" to "fun."What type of city you build is your call, and is determined by which of the hundreds of buildings you decide to build. Each building affects your city's "societal values" -- knowledge, spirituality, productivity, creativity, and prosperity -- and these in turn determine what your citizens want and what type of city you will get.The city's look will change as you slide from one type to another, with a dingy, dirty look for "industrial" cities and bright, blue skies in the "fun" cities, for example. In another departure for the series, each type of city has specific victory goals such as population and financial production which earn the players trophies. Players can feel free to ignore the goals and just do whatever they want, but those who want something concrete to work towards now have it.The developers have focused on making Societies accessible to players who don't want to get into the nitty-gritty of city building. Societies does away with previous titles' focus on micromanaging systems like power grids and sewer pipes. You only really have to pay attention to four basic building types: power generators, homes, money generators and venues such as stadiums and libraries.If you do want to get micro, though, you can zoom in on the status of individual buildings. The location of your buildings in relation to one another will affect their individual stats -- for example, building a tight cluster of retail shops together will make each one produce more money (and more tax revenue).SimCity Societies will be available for the PC this holiday season.
Slate: Serious games are seriously boring
For all the bluster about serious games being the wave of the future, most examples of the form thus far are missing that key element of ... what's the word ... oh yeah, fun! Slate takes a withering look at the state of the serious games industry by asking the simple question: "Can a game still be called a game if it isn't any fun?"It's a good question, and one that doesn't reflect kindly on many of the serious games out there. The author is especially derisive of training games that mirror the repetitive, mindless nature of the workplace -- games that are "less alluring to people who love games and more alluring to people who don't. Your boss, for example."The author suggests that developers who want to make learning fun should focus on the fun first and the learning second. We couldn't agree more. We learned more about urban planning from SimCity than we ever learned about arithmetic from Math Blaster -- mainly because we kept playing SimCity long after Math Blaster got donated to the secondhand store. In other words: you can lead a player to an educational game, but you can't make them play. They have to want to do that.
SimCity Societies officially building this November
Initial reaction to the announcement and new look for SimCity Societies was a bit ... strong. EA tapped Tilted Mill (Caesar IV) to do the development on this game while Maxis hopefully finishes their long journey into the abyss of time known as Spore's development cycle. SimCity Societies is scheduled for this holiday season and players will be allowed to create not only the look of their city, but also the feel. You'll be able to create an "artistic city, haunted town, green city, spiritual community or most any society you want." This will also probably allow the SimCity community to go nuts and make all different types of structures. The Sim titles have always been open to community development. Gamers will have 350 building types to choose from in SimCity Societies, "each of which allows them to combine, connect and re-arrange structures freely." You'll also be able to change the way your society behaves by creating a 1984 society or one that lives in a Candyland. One of the more interesting facets is that players can combine buildings and consume resources to create "social energies." What you decide to do with the different resources (industry, wealth, obedience, knowledge, devotion, or creativity) determines the "social energy" of your society. It sounds like a very different take on SimCity, from a straight simulation to a more "game" experience. We're sure to get a taste for the game soon and it's expected to release this fall. For better or worse, we'll all get to try the new SimCity soon enough.[Via Press Release]%Gallery-3901%
Next SimCity changes hands
We brought word of the new SimCity title earlier in the week and now 1UP reports that SimCity Societies won't be developed by Maxis, which is presumably swamped with not finishing Spore. The reins will be passed to Tilted Mill Entertainment, which you might know from their work on Caesar IV. Surprising no one, the internet wasted no time in losing its mind. We see some of the first evidence in the hit forum thread "You killed Sim City!". Showing more consideration (or is it cunning?) than we've ever been accused of having, Tilted Mill president Chris Beatrice tried to calm fears in the thread, writing "This SC is not a realistic urban simulation, which I understand, to many, represents the heart of what SC is. No one is blind to that. And if you're just completely turned off, even angered by the mere notion of any game called SimCity that is not a detailed, realistic urban simulator, I absolutely understand that viewpoint, and absolutely respect it." Looks like SCS will be the big game in this month's Games for Windows Magazine, so we'll reserve judgment until we lay our eyes on that. Or, you know, until the game comes out and we actually play it. One of the two. [Via CVG]
EA confirms SimCity 'Societies'
Joystiq spoke with EA and confirmed the rumor that the next version of SimCity is on the way. Currently dubbed SimCity Societies, EA says that's merely a "working title" at this point. We've been told "it's completely different from SimCity 4, so they're trying to come up with something different than just calling it SimCity 5."A full feature of the upcoming SimCity can be found in this month's Games for Windows Magazine, which supposedly arrives for subscribers today and hits newsstands later this week. An official announcement of the game by EA is expected next week, which will coincide with the first official release of images. We've been told that the game will also be shown at next month's E3. A new SimCity is always happy news for all the wannabe civil engineers out there. To tide you over until SimCity Societies eats your current PC's RAM for lunch, you'll be able to enjoy SimCity DS this summer.
Going hands-on with SimCity DS
Joystiq recently got their hands on the upcoming U.S. localization of SimCity DS and they seemed to enjoy it quite a bit. They talk a lot about the transition from SimCity 3000 to the DS and what kind of changes, for the better and worse, the game has undergone. They even talk over a minigame involving Santa Claus, where he flies over the city and the player must tap the screen to make him drop presents. These presents allow for improvements to the city or turn into new buildings.SimCity DS even features a landmark trading mode, not unlike the Nintendogs Bark Mode. Sadly, this doesn't work online, so you're going to need to find someone out in the real world (GASP!) in order to take advantage of the feature. The game is currently slated for a June release in the United States.
Joystiq impressions: SimCity DS
While SimCity DS was already released for -- having been developed by -- Japanese gamers, the simulation hasn't gotten much coverage for is upcoming American release. At a recent EA event, it was apparent that the title should get the recognition it deserves soon enough, with its June release.Based approximately on SimCity 3000, SimCity DS seemed about as complicated as the most recent versions of the title. While the graphics represent a throwback to earlier SimCity games, the core gameplay is current. The title looks like it'll be a great match for portable simulation fans because of the touchscreen interface.%Gallery-3128%
