Cities: Skylines Is A Game That Exists And That I Want
This is one of those game trailers and developer diaries which doesn't contain any new information. We already knew that Cities: Skylines was a city builder, that it was coming out in 2015, and that it was aiming to offer sprawling metropolises where the previous SimCity offered only small towns.
But I don't mind an occasional, 'Hey, remember that we exist?' from a game I'm looking forward to, and Skylines qualifies. Look how pretty it is.
I could also watch traffic simulation for hours. I live on a somewhat busy road and can often be found staring out at the commuters, making rude gestures at any of the drivers who glance up towards my window.
I'm a rare apologist for the previous SimCity game, which I thought was pretty and pretty fun even in spite of its reduced size and online-only shenanigans, but I can't deny that I'm relishing the opportunity to return to large scale mayoral management. My favourite SimCity game was the fourth, and a core part of that was that different parts of your urban projects felt as if they had their own personalities. That was mostly projection on my part - I would resent an area I was struggling to balance and then make its inhabitants suffer - but even that was impossible when there was no longer distance separating the different parts town.
I'm looking forward to re-naming disticts in Cities: Skylines to Buttsville, introducing needlessly punishing edicts for the local Buttonians to follow, and then burning down all their houses to start again.