If it doesn’t start at the SimCity interview, go to the 2:00 mark to begin.

Check out this cool Gamescom preview by the new and improved SimsNetwork!

In fact it’s gone one step further: almost everything has to be attached to a road when you build your city. This is most obvious when you’re zoning areas in residential, commercial or industrial areas. Previously you could just drag a rectangular area and have the game put some roads in between automatically. In the new SimCity you start off with the roads. Once that’s done, you go to the zoning tool and drag along a road to zone the area. The game will show you the exact area that you can zone.

Continue

Enjoy!

Via: SimCity Facebook

Stage II

Stage III

This is the first stage of a wind farm in SimCity, Stage four Wind Farm can be seen here

Source: The Sims Hub

Society has always pondered tough, philosophical questions: Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Do dinosaurs really exist? If a tree falls in the forest, would anyone hear it (and moreover, would anyone care to pick it up?)? We here at Maxis, however, only care about one particularly chin-rubbing query: Can a city really be built on rock ‘n’ roll?

Well, thanks to Associate Designer Chris Schmidt, it sounds like the answer to that question is an ear-splitting, “Yes!” Chris recently took his creativity to 11 when he built this guitar-shaped city (and accompanying amp) using SimCity’s new curvy road tool. Like we showcased with our past Cool Looking City, part of the fun of playing the new SimCity is not only building (or destroying) the city of your dreams, but also using the in-game tools to create fully functional metropolitan works of art.

Of course, while this design may look rad, it certainly ain’t practical – since Chris built all of his commercial zoning up the “fret board” of the city, he ended up creating a massive traffic jam for all his Sims trying to visit stores and restaurants. But if you think about, traffic and rock ‘n’ roll concerts go bumper-to-bumper, so it almost makes sense. Almost. Do admire the creative touches, though, like the six water towers signifying each tuner. Pretty cool, eh?

Because we think his city rocks, we spoke with Chris to find out more about it.

Community Manager Michael Donahoe: What was the inspiration for building this city?

Associate Designer Chris Schmidt: Well, our Producer Tyler Thompson told me I should try making some different city layouts, because classically with SimCity, I make a grid-based city since it is the most efficient. So I was thinking about weird ways to build a city and the Internet radio station I was listening to just so happened to put on Starship’s “We Built This City.” Next thing I knew, I was making a guitar-shaped city. [laughs]

MD: Theoretically, what are the chances of us seeing a rock ‘n’ roll-themed restaurant and/or hotel appear in your city?

CS: Actually, my city is more industrial, because I’m focusing more on mining and metals.

MD: What kind of music do you think fits this city?

CS: Since I was trying to design my city like a classic Fender Stratocaster, I’d say a little classic rock. Maybe a little bit of metal.

MD: What’s next? A Drum City? Trombone City? Bagpipe City?

CS: Really, I just focus on crazy designs. I did a zen city, which is a yin yang. I made a city out of the phrase “Curvy Roads,” just to see if I could make it work. I don’t know what’s next. Whatever inspires me.

MD: Do tell us: Is this city really built on rock-n-roll?

CS: Well, I do spend most of my time listening to classic rock while I’m playing, so perhaps it is!

Source: SimCity Blog

EA hasn’t left SimCity fans in the dry, and has left them something to look at. SiMCity will be getting region exclusive Collectors Editions – so far a German one, English one and French one. These region-exclusive Collectors Editions seem to contain their city sets (the English Collector’s Edition contains the English city set, French Edition, French city set, etc.)

Source: SimCookie

Two previews of SimCity that you won’t want to miss!

Click here to read the Preview!

For fans of SimCity, I suggest you read now previews Generation SimCities City and All!

Generation City [ Read preview ] 
“The map that we played was quite small, about the size of a map of SimCity Societies. But developers have reassured us by saying that this is not the final size. Certainly reduced the beta. The final size should be the size of a card on average SimCity 4 (ie 2km ²). And as stated in previous articles, not for terraforming the city … With any platform on which we played, I could not see how the buildings and roads react to the terrain. ‘  

All SimCities [ Read a preview ]
“Personally I find it hard to conceive otherwise than SimCity player game, just simply be routinely. If the idea is good, the experience Citiex XL urges caution. How will be managed abandoned cities whose players do not come? Y did he risk speculation on the resources that plague the game? These questions have so far no response. Producers are aware and working there. If free is confirmed, it will be by a very good point against which allow everyone to try to SimCity online. ‘

Source: SimCookie