Having been an avid Sim City player going back 20+ years, I will never not be excited about a new game in the franchise.
EA has just released a new trailer for its upcoming SimCity BuildIt worldwide launch, and it has to be said that it looks pretty darn fantastic.
Letting you do all the building, demolition, micro-management and, err, UFO survival the game series is known for, the mobile-only title incorporates full 360° controls, which means that you can explore your beautiful 3-D city from an angle you want.
The game itself is being described by its creators as, “the most advanced mobile building simulation game” yet, and based on the trailer above that doesn’t seem hard to believe. I’m particularly excited about night and day cycles. While not new to Sim City, they look pretty gorgeously implemented here — with what appears to be dynamic shadows that change according to the time of day.
SimCity BuildIt was first announced back in September and then soft-launched in several countries the month after.
So what’s the catch? Well, I’ll have to play it be able to comment with any authority, but the game is a free-to-play title, which means that you can expect in-app purchases up the wazoo.
As the iOS version of Rollercoaster Tycoon and Dungeon Keeper demonstrated, if there’s one thing that can kill a classic game dead it’s being asked to shell out huge quantities of cash in order to render a building game playable. I hope that’s not the case, but this is EA we’re talking about!
If you want to get your Sim City fix right now, I’ll be the first to nominate the gorgeous looking Sim City 4 Deluxe, which landed on Mac earlier this year. There’s not an IAP in sight!
Via: App Advice
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
3 responses to “Beautiful cities are at your fingertips in Sim City for iOS”
Nice, but after the Sim City debacle of last year, I won’t be giving a cent to EA.
After what EA did with the last Sim City I was cautiously optimistic about the headline. EA’s greed ruined that game. Once I read that this is a free app with in app purchases, all hope was lost.
I’ve been playing it for the past month its a really good game. I hated the older simcity games on mobile. this one is really good reminds me of the old simcity 2000 which is the last one i really played. (released earlier in Canada)