Sim City- Societies

[TMTree]

I've just read that there's a new game in the SimCity franchise being made, and the description doesn't seem good:

http://uk.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/simcitysocieties/news.html?sid=6172717&tag=topslot;title;3

Does this seem like it has the potential to be less than great to anybody else? I mean, I can see why they would want to change the gameplay a bit and maybe simplify it slightly, but it's not even being made by Maxis, but the guys who madew CivCity: Rome, another spin-off that wasn't great. I guess the glimmer of hope here s that it is a name change, and like the Civ game, might not be considered as part of the main series.

I really liked the other SimCity games, including the last one, and I didn't think it was becoming too complex, although I know that some people did. How does everybody else think it sounds?

[The Evil Thing]

Well, it looks like this will be to SimCity as CotN was to Pharaoh. Just as long as it's easier than SimCity 4... Or SimCity 3000 for that matter.

[Mercutio's Love]

I never really enjoyed the SimCity games. I mean, don't get me wrong, sending an army of aliens to destroy everything you spent hours building can be a lot of fun. It's just, the idea of making buildings...in a game, really doesn't appeal to me.
The Sims 2 on PC was very good though. The Sims 2 Stories....not so much.

[Neek]

This doesn't look like a bad concept, but I'm not sure if I like them trusting an outsider to make their game. Remember when that happened with Civilizations, there came Civilizations: Call to Power? One of the hardest games I've ever played.

I didn't think SimCity 3 was all too complicated, no more than SimCity 2000 at least (which had a level of complexity that made it infinitely better than SimCity).

I like the direction this game is going, though, and I may pick it up if the reviews hold good.

[Tor the Fallen]

Oh god, this looks horrible. The entire appeal about the Sim games was that they were simulations. Th efun was in the complexity of modeling complex systems. Back when Maxis was producing lots of these Sim titles, the real limit to what they could make was computing power.

Now, their limit is the general dumbassery of the game consumer. "Dur, what? Dis is hard!!" Under EA, it looks like games that require higher level thinking aren't going to get funded.

The Sims was an egregious blow to the Sim titles. It wasn't a simulator; you had to baby sit the AI constantly. It wasn't difficult, you didn't have to think hard. It was just tedious. The beauty of games like SimLife or the SimCity franchise was the amount of skill and learning required to play.