Cities XL Impressions and Giveaway!
Contest System(s): PC
Doing something a little out of the norm for Co-Optimus, we have a contest today for city building sim, Cities XL from developer Monte Cristo. Why might you ask are we giving away the keys to a city building simulator? Well it has co-op...sorta!
Cities XL is actually an MMO of sorts, complete with a small subscription fee. This may turn some people off, but if you are a hardcore fan of the genre the cooperative aspect of this game is pretty unique.
First lets talk about the game in general. Having not played a city sim since Sim City 3000, I was a bit rusty - but everything felt right at home. Cities XL does away with some of the menial tasks of the Maxis game like placing water pipes and electrical lines and instead focuses on zoning placement.
The zones in Cities XL range from residential, to commercial, and finally industrial. It sounds familar, but here's the kicker. Under each zone you'll find sub categories like farming, shopping, offices and other categories to really shape the city to your liking. You'll unlock new buildings and structures by reaching population milestones.
The co-op portion of the game places your city on a virtual world that lives on Monte Cristo's servers. Depending on where you place the city, joins you to a neighboring one getting you bonuses from that player. There's a global chat area where you can meet other players and try to create construction and resource contracts to further enhance your city. It's in this mode where you can build some truly epic structures.
The one thing I really enjoyed about Cities XL was the attention to detail within the city. Tiny people and cars are visible when zooming all the way in, and zooming out yielding a vast and beautiful landscape. Interestingly enough the game supported some pretty interesting lighting effects on my Alienware M17x laptop with the keyboard color representing my financial state - which usually meant red.
There's definitely some quirks within the game, and I didn't have enough time to learn or overcome them. The game seems like something that would work well if you had a consistent group of friends to play and make contracts with, as I had a difficult time setting things up with other players.
If you do want to check it out, we've got a contest for you. We're giving away 5 Steam keys for the game. All you need to do is reply and tell us what you'd name your city and we'll draws the winners on Friday, October 30th at 9AM EDT.
For more info on Cities XL visit: http://www.citiesxl.com
City Name Transylvopolis
My city was and will be named "Casperia".
P.S. There is a legitimate reason why I chose that name.
Or Cydonia.
I'd name my city Cloacina after the goddess of construction.
^ bit unusual but works for me
A Norse influenced name. I prefer to go with realistic city names, something that feels real to go along with a game that looks very realistic
nanomatrix and Metacore
Megalotranstroptimustranspartixus!
I would name my city: BlackWater (and I did in the 7 day trial ^^, -reached 1 million people - sadly it got deleted by now I suppose)
BlackWater because of the oil production and exports greater than water supply
I soooo loved the 7 days demo ... but couldn't buy the game then ...
Cause Land Sharks make everything cooler.
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