SimCity Societies

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SimCity Societies

Developer(s) Tilted Mill Entertainment
Publisher(s) Electronic Arts
Series Sim games
Version 1.02.119
Platform(s) Microsoft Windows
Mobile Phone
Playstation Portable
Release date PC November 13, 2007[1]
Genre(s) City-building game
Mode(s) Single player
Rating(s) PEGI: 3+
ESRB: E10+
OFLC: G
System requirements Windows XP SP2, or Windows Vista, 1.7 GHz Intel CPU, or AMD XP 2100 processor, 512 MB RAM memory, 2.1 GB free hard disk drive space, 128 MB video card, DVD drive, DirectX 9.0-compatible video card. (Windows Vista requires a 2.4 GHz processor or equivalent and 1 GB RAM)
Input methods Keyboard and mouse

SimCity Societies is a city-building simulation computer game of Electronic Arts (EA) and is part of the Sim games series. The game was developed by Tilted Mill Entertainment and was released worldwide on November 13, 2007.[1]

Contents

[edit] Announcement

On June 5, 2007, Tilted Mill Entertainment, creator of Caesar IV, announced that it would be developing SimCity Societies instead of Maxis, which had created all preceding titles.[2] Rob Humble, head of EA's Sims Division, indicated that EA representatives had asked Tilted Mill to create the game at E3. Immediate reaction was negative, especially on the official forums of the developer towards this game. Responses directly from the developers attempted to ease some concerns.[3]

[edit] Gameplay

A city showing the day and night cycle within the game.
A city showing the day and night cycle within the game.

While previous mainstream SimCity titles could be best described as mayorship, or "God" simulators, SimCity Societies is different, as foreshadowed by the previews and statements from the developers,[4] by being a "social engineering simulator" rather than a city-building simulator.

Public works and a tax system do not play a part in the basic game. Instead, players get daily income from workplaces in the city. However, a downloadable update includes gameplay modes where a daily tax is incurred based on the buildings within a city. Transportation networks have been simplified to dirt roads, paved roads, subways and bus stops. Players do not build zones, a key element of past SimCity games; instead, they have the ability to directly place individual buildings, something not seen in previous editions, and similar to Monte Cristo's game City Life. There are also six "social energies", called societal values, which allow players to learn about the characteristics of the citizens. The six societal values are productivity, prosperity, creativity, spirituality, authority, and knowledge.[5] The city will look, and act, in accordance with the energies the players choose. Players may focus on satisfying one, several, or all of these values. An improved version of the reward system introduced in SimCity 2000 has been included in the game.[6]

The game is "fully customizable" and allows the players to customize individual buildings, decorations, citizens, and game rules.[7] Prior to its release, when mentioning the depth to which the game will allow customization a Tilted Mill representative stated that those who were proficient in C# and XML will have easy access to every asset of the game and that basic tools would be provided for building editing.[8]

[edit] Societies

  • Authoritarian: Built up with a focus on authority, authoritarian cities are reminiscent of communist capitals such as Moscow or Bucharest, or the fictional London from George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four—complete with surveillance cameras, secret police, propaganda ministries, opulent buildings for the leadership, and slum housing projects.
  • Capitalist: Focus is on productivity and prosperity. Capitalist cities feature buildings such as department stores, skyscrapers, stock markets, corporately-owned condos, and major company headquarters.
  • Contemplative: Focus is on spirituality. Buildings include cathedrals, pagodas, monasteries, evangelical centers, megachurches, dojos, and golden statues of Buddha.
  • Cyberpunk: A futuristic city built with the use of knowledge and authority, complete with flying cars and holographic sport stadiums.
  • Fun City: A city built up entirely of venues to maintain the happiness of its citizens. Buildings include ferris wheels, carnivals, zoos, casinos, water and amusement parks, and candy shops.
  • Industrial: Industrial cities are primarily made up of polluting industry, slum housing, high crime, sweatshops, and factories to produce various wares, similar to Pittsburgh in the 1900's.
  • Romantic: Focus is on providing prosperity to the Sims while maintaining cultural and artistic elements. Buildings include concert halls, opera houses, baroque fountains, and cobblestone streets, like Rome or Venezia.
  • Small town: Focus is in Europe, country style buildings. Buildings include windmills, sheriff stations, butcher shops, corner delis, town houses, and farms.
  • Haunted: Hidden profile included as an easter egg. It functions on a smaller scale than other profiles and is built up with buildings including graveyards, asylums, dungeons and haunted houses.
  • Normal: An average North American city with no extremes on social energies. Buildings include a mix of buildings from the societies listed above.

[edit] Buildings

In SimCity Societies there are four types of buildings: power plants, houses, workplaces, and venues. Houses are where citizens live (granted the Sims are not homeless), workplaces are where Sims work (granted the Sims are not unemployed), and venues are places that provide happiness to citizens. Power plants provide power to the city, and generate income. There are also decorations such as plazas and sculptures.

[edit] Reception

SimCity Societies received both positive and negative reviews. IGN criticized the changes;[9] GameSpot commented that this version of SimCity was a "lackluster spin-off" and cited that the game was “way too easy” with the frame rate being mediocre even on higher-end computers. Other reviews reached as low as 3 out of 10 saying the game had completely gotten rid of the "city feeling".[10] However, GameZone praised the game for taking the simulation franchise in a "bright and bold direction" and containing "great graphics".[11] GamePro added that the game has "pretty architecture," but the game is "far too simple" with "some frame rate woes". The review went on to add that the new direction taken by SimCity Societies was a good idea, but unsuccessfully implemented.[12] Aggregate review sites result in scores of 63% on Game Rankings[13] and 62 (out of 100) on Metacritic.[14]

In response to criticism a second update was released designed to fix bugs and add new features to the game.[15] In this update three new modes are introduced into the "Creative play" mode. These modes are, in order, "Basic", "Hardcore", and "Nightmare". Basic mode is the easiest of the three but is more difficult than the most challenging mode from the game's release version.[16] A third update adds a UFO attack, bug fixes, performance improvements, and content from all previous updates.[17] A fourth update, for which a release date has not yet been announced, will add a new disaster called "Monster!" to the game.[18] There are currently no updated reviews of SimCity Societies that take into account the changes made in the game through updates.

[edit] SimCity Societies: Destinations

Main article: SimCity Societies: Destinations

EA has announced the first expansion for SimCity Societies. The new expansion, SimCity Societies: Destinations will focus on a new strategic scene in SimCity, this time tourism and transportation.[19]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b SimCity released. Business Wire. Retrieved on 2007-11-14.
  2. ^ Lee, Garnett (5 June 2007). SimCity Societies Under Construction. 1Up.com. Retrieved on 2007-06-11.
  3. ^ Kollar, Phillip (7 June 2007). Tilted Mill Responds to SimCity Worries. 1Up.com. Retrieved on 2007-06-11.
  4. ^ DPreviews: SimCity Societies (7 June 2007). Retrieved on 2007-06-11.
  5. ^ SimCity Societies Official Site. Retrieved on 2007-09-19.
  6. ^ SimCity Societies PC Preview. 1Up.com (7 June 2007). Retrieved on 2007-06-08.
  7. ^ E3 2007: SimCity Societies Update. IGN (11 July 2007). Retrieved on 2007-07-14.
  8. ^ Breckon, Nick (13 July 2007). E3 07: SimCity Societies Impressions. shacknews. Retrieved on 2007-07-14.
  9. ^ Butts, Steve (2007-11-13). SimCity Societies Review. IGN. Retrieved on 2007-11-17.
  10. ^ VanOrd, Kevin (2007-11-16). SimCity Societies for PC Review. GameSpot. Retrieved on 2007-11-17.
  11. ^ Lafferty, Michael (2007-11-13). SimCity Societies Review - PC. GameZone. Retrieved on 2007-11-17.
  12. ^ Lewis, Cameron (2007-12-17). SimCity Societies review. GamePro. Retrieved on 2008-01-11.
  13. ^ SimCity Societies Reviews. Game Rankings. Retrieved on 2008-01-10.
  14. ^ SimCity Societies (pc: 2007) Reviews. Metacritic. Retrieved on 2008-01-10.
  15. ^ SimCity Societies Second Update. Retrieved on 2007-12-22.
  16. ^ Game Update #2 Notes. Electronic Arts. Retrieved on 2008-03-30.
  17. ^ SimCity Societies Game Update #3. Electronic Arts. Retrieved on 2008-03-20.
  18. ^ New Monsters Update. Infinite Sims. Retrieved on 2008-03-25.
  19. ^ EA Announces First City Pack for SimCity Societies, SimCity Societies Destinations. IGN (2008-02-21). Retrieved on 2008-03-20.

[edit] External links


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