SimCity shows off lengthy strategy session

A lengthy new "strategy" trailer walks players through the basics of building a bustling SimCity.

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SimCity marks a return to form for the series, but it won't be out until February. If you're an interested newcomer or just a long-time fan wanting something to tide you over for the next few months, a new lengthy video detailing strategies should hit the spot.

In a ten-minute gameplay trailer, producer Stone Librande walks through some of the basic strategies for building your modern metropolis. The game has had a few long demonstrations like this one, showing the team isn't afraid to put it through its paces. Check it out below.

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  • reply
    October 4, 2012 7:30 AM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, SimCity shows off lengthy strategy session.

    A lengthy new "strategy" trailer walks players through the basics of building a bustling SimCity.

    • reply
      October 4, 2012 7:45 AM

      Ten minutes of new SimCity in this video, people. If you don't watch it, fuck you, get dead.

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        October 4, 2012 7:55 AM

        This is the game I am most excited and nervous about. I really really really hope it's good.

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          October 4, 2012 8:04 AM

          How can you have a train track at a 90 degree angle to another track? I'm really a fan of different transportation systems in SimCity, so I hope they make it a bit more realistic and give it some added complexity.

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        October 4, 2012 9:46 AM

        I'm not watching it because I don't have any interest in getting all psyched for a game I won't play for 5 months. I'll end up buying it sight unseen anyway.

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      October 4, 2012 7:52 AM

      i want this game, now.

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      October 4, 2012 7:57 AM

      MUST play this NOW!
      Feb can't come soon enough

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      October 4, 2012 8:02 AM

      DAT CURVED ROAD

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      October 4, 2012 8:06 AM

      Looks like they're using fake tilt-shift instead of real tilt-shift... for some reason. :(

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        October 4, 2012 8:08 AM

        wth does that mean?

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          October 4, 2012 8:16 AM

          Fake tilt-shift means that you simply blur bands in the photo or the screen to create a sense of depth-of-field. You see it in stuff like Instagram because camera phones don't have much depth-of-field because of a pretty small aperture, or in photos of large things to make them appear miniature ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Oregon_State_Beavers_Tilt-Shift_Miniature_Greg_Keene.jpg ).

          It's really obvious that SimCity is faking it about 13 seconds into the video, where the top of the windmills are blurred while the bottom isn't—even though they're both the same distance from the camera and should be in the same focal plane. I misspoke and what they should be using is depth-of-field; real tilt-shift and fake tilt-shift are the same result, just created via different processes.

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        October 4, 2012 8:52 AM

        no, that's not true. it's depth based.

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          October 4, 2012 9:00 AM

          Then why is the top of the wind turbine blurring? Is it simply sunshine HDR/bloom that looks similar?

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            October 4, 2012 9:02 AM

            Yep.

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              October 4, 2012 9:03 AM

              it's probably the blurry background behind it + the bloom off the white blades reading as extra DOF when it's not.

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      October 4, 2012 8:23 AM

      [deleted]

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      October 4, 2012 8:27 AM

      [deleted]

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      October 4, 2012 8:30 AM

      That looks awesome. Man, I really, really hope we don't end up with another Spore in our hands.

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      October 4, 2012 8:38 AM

      That looks really, really well done. I love the UI.

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        October 4, 2012 8:56 AM

        When they started the water demo, I immediately remembered what a horsefuck SC2K's water was, and then they were like PLOP and I was like WHAT. YES. YES.

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          October 4, 2012 9:42 AM

          haha. No doubt. Gotta love having to have your pipes reach everyone. Fucking hated that.

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      October 4, 2012 8:40 AM

      This is pure data vis porn. I love how they're managing to simplify massive amounts of complex data into simple to understand ideas.

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      October 4, 2012 8:43 AM

      SimCity MMO trailer: Strategic planning vision for your city (character) build.
      Next up: How to connect to other people and play together. Yayness...

      No, not really. Call me egoistic, but I want to manage my own region and specializing my own city(ies) without depending on other people's cities around mine (aka true singleplayer session). If they can allow players to do that, then I might be interested.

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        October 4, 2012 9:03 AM

        ties around mine (aka true singleplayer session). If they can allow players to do that, then I might be interested.
        You can, they've confirmed this play-style a while ago.

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          October 4, 2012 9:20 AM

          Articles or sites that support this? You can save/load anywhere? No need for always online?

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            October 4, 2012 9:32 AM

            I think it's going to be like D3 always online (i.e. you can play single player, but have to be connected).

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              October 4, 2012 10:08 AM

              Well, then it's still a no to me :(

              But I gotta admit, curved roads, information and eye candies overload presented in this game is actually very nice.

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            October 4, 2012 10:10 AM

            Ah, you didn't mention you wanted offline. What they've confirmed is that you can solo-play a region, which is what your original request read as.

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              October 4, 2012 10:14 AM

              I think Diablo 3 signaled the beginning of the end of offline AAA singleplayer. To much money to be made by cutting into rentals and piracy.

              Indie games will still have it but there is too much at risk in a $50-$100 million title.

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              October 4, 2012 10:17 AM

              Yeah, my bad on this one. I'm actually QUITE okay with always online, but that will not constitute to allowing you to save/load anywhere. I don't remember any always-online game that allows this.

              However, I will still be interested in reading the confirmation to solo-play a whole region instead of just one or two cities.

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                October 4, 2012 10:26 AM

                http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/8878525.page#24472641

                It's been confirmed by the community manager and mentioned in several of their PR events that I'm too lazy to track down for you (hint: you should try googling ;) ).

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                  October 4, 2012 11:39 AM

                  Hehe, thanks for looking this up for me :) I'll take your hint and google it myself but all I could find is just a lot of people complaining about no terraforming, no offline, pretty much my other concerns..

                  Plus, PR events usually do not mean a lot when it comes to EA. I guess I'll just wait until the beta and see how it plays. No option to play offline and no save/load is already a pretty big turn-off for me.

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      October 4, 2012 8:45 AM

      Played it, dope game

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      October 4, 2012 8:55 AM

      That...that, looks like something that could eat ALL of my free time.

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        October 4, 2012 10:32 AM

        and my not free time!

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          October 4, 2012 10:44 AM

          Heh, I wonder how many hours I could bill to "training" with SimCIty...

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      October 4, 2012 9:03 AM

      my only fear is that the game will be bloated with buy-to-play garbage. Want highways? Buy the transportation DLC! Want nuclear power? Buy the power plant DLC! Want to expand beyond 100k Sims? Buy the city limits DLC!

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        October 4, 2012 11:17 AM

        Large gameplay changings things I wouldn't mind paying for. But I can imagine style sets for sale. "Want the London Set? What about Berlin? Tokyo!"

        Simpoints are already there for the picking.

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          October 4, 2012 11:39 AM

          Look at the Origin pre-order there's a "DIGITAL DELUXE" version with "three European City packs".
          So yeah, there's that.

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        October 4, 2012 12:01 PM

        The Sims has a lot of that, but at the same time the main game (plus its expansions of course) are so full of content that I've never felt a need for the buy-to-play stuff. That stuff tends not to be huge gameplay changing items anyway. I agree that I don't want to see SimCity get burdened with that crap, but as long as they keep it "The Sims" style where it's primarily new skins and "theme" packs, it shouldn't impact the fun we can have with the main game.

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      October 4, 2012 9:54 AM

      ON MY FACE PLEASE! I can't wait for this to come out!

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      October 4, 2012 10:09 AM

      Sign me the fuck up.

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      October 4, 2012 10:35 AM

      Preorder Confirmed!

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      October 4, 2012 10:42 AM

      Reading the Simcity forums are making me worried. Things pointed out: really small city sizes, train connecting at 90 degrees. Apparently there will also be no terraforming regions and things like that as well..

      Why, EA, why? :(

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        October 4, 2012 10:52 AM

        They have not had a good track record since Sim City 4. Spore was horrible, Sim City Societies.. pff

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          October 4, 2012 11:18 AM

          Didn't Tilted Mill do societies. That's even worse seeing as their guys made Pharaoh, Caesar and the like.

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        October 4, 2012 1:13 PM

        Wait, no terraforming? That sucks ass. Where are they getting this info? I saw the 90 degree train track thing in the video, but I assumed that was part of the "not final software" thing that shows at the top.

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          October 4, 2012 1:15 PM

          Terraforming will be at the civil engineering scale, not the godlike powers. You can't raise a mountain, but you'll be able to cut a road into the side of a hill.

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            October 4, 2012 1:16 PM

            But no custom made maps via the terraformer? :(

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            October 4, 2012 1:24 PM

            That's like a big step backwards :(

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            October 5, 2012 1:11 AM

            [deleted]

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              October 6, 2012 2:14 PM

              According to PC gamer there is a complex "layering" system to the preformed maps though. Such as ground water, oil, fuel, sewage, etc, etc.

              Meaning that there are layers to the map that wll interact with the city in complex ways.

              Making that alterable on the fly was too complicated.

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        October 4, 2012 11:53 PM

        TRAINS CONNECT 90 DEGREES NO BUY

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      October 4, 2012 10:44 AM

      I don't want to see them make things too simple.

      Sim City appeals to all ages, because as a kid you can go in a goof off and blow up your crappy little city, but as an older person you can really get evil and build a utopian society and then slowly whittle down your subjects into soulless mediocrity, or you can get meticulous and plan out their lives around using buses to transport everyone, or trains.

      So hopefully they keep the micromanaging features for the crazy people out there who like to do that.

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        October 4, 2012 11:20 AM

        They way they added more wind turbines to that wind farm was interesting. I hope more of the lots have that ability (improvement/upgrade).

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          October 4, 2012 11:30 AM

          I think the biggest factor for me in buying this would be how much access modders will have.

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            October 4, 2012 1:04 PM

            As far as I know, in the initial release, the answer to that will be close to none. I really hope I'm wrong in this one, but just think of this game as Diablo3, except you build stuff co-op with friends instead of killing stuff.

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            October 4, 2012 10:55 PM

            [deleted]

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          October 4, 2012 11:57 AM

          Agreed - I really like the idea of customization of individual buildings that way.

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          October 4, 2012 11:12 PM

          they do, police stations let you add extra car bays and lots of other widgets, likewise for fire and such

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        October 4, 2012 12:20 PM

        it's kind of hard though, because sim city is supposed to be a simulation at the city level, not necessarily at every level

        when it comes to city management in general, like, in real life, there's a reason why you've things like transportation secretaries and stuff, because it's literally impossible for an individual to keep up that level of governance.

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      October 4, 2012 11:57 AM

      God damn, that was really awesome. As long as their multiplayer stuff doesn't interfere with my ability to play this completely solo, I'm sold. I put a ridiculous amount of time into SimCity 2000 and its sequels, so I've been dieing for a new SimCity game for a long time now. I really hope this lives up to the promise it shows here.

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      October 4, 2012 12:12 PM

      I never thought I'd be genuinely hyped about a simcity game, but man, this looks amazing.

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      October 4, 2012 12:18 PM

      Wow I don't play many games anymore but I fucking want that!

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      October 4, 2012 12:23 PM

      i have a simboner

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      October 4, 2012 12:40 PM

      sweet jesus. a real simcity sequel. rip me

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      October 4, 2012 1:02 PM

      I think one of the reasons sim city did well in the past was because of mass transit things. If the game is just plopping houses and businesses on simple roads, it's losing some depth. judging by the modding community behind sc4, transportation is where lots of enthusiasm is to this day.

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      October 4, 2012 1:07 PM

      this is mildly better than simcity social

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      October 4, 2012 5:06 PM

      Woo! I can't wait for it coming out! That video cracked me up.

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      October 4, 2012 10:22 PM

      damn that looks awesome

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      October 4, 2012 10:35 PM

      looks awesome, I think I'll preorder.

      PC or 360?

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      October 4, 2012 10:40 PM

      looks pretty good.

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      October 4, 2012 10:43 PM

      I really want to know about public transportation. Without modding, Sim 4 pub trans seemed garbage even with the expansion.

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      October 4, 2012 10:48 PM

      That looks pretty awesome

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      October 4, 2012 11:18 PM

      [deleted]

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      October 4, 2012 11:54 PM

      Always-online DRM? Fuck off.

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      October 5, 2012 1:16 AM

      [deleted]

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