Electronic Arts has finally confirmed the existence of SimCity 5. Officially called SimCity (rather than SimCity with a number at the end) the game is being developed at Maxis, and is built entirely in 3D. It features customizable buildings, curvy roads, and new forms of zoning—features that place it far ahead of its predecessors.
SimCity also sees the addition of missions, which allow you to unlock new buildings and create more impressive cities upon completion.
The new SimCity will have multiplayer features for the first time ever in a SimCity game. Each player has a region of their own to build cities, and cities in your friends' regions can interact with your cities. A good neighbor can send assistance in the form of fire trucks in the event of an emergency, while a bad neighbor might produce mass pollution affecting the region around it.
Players can even share resources and accomplish feats together, like launching shuttles into space. Likewise, players can participate in global challenges to lower the pollution output or prevent global warming and earn trophy unlocks to place in their cities.
Unlike previous games, cities can be customized by specializing in a specific industry. You can turn your city into a casino resort like Las Vegas, invest in schools and universities like Cambridge, or even become an industrial powerhouse like Detroit in its heyday.
SimCity runs on a new engine called GlassBox that handles the Sims' day to day lives, manage the day to day operations of the city, while balancing multiple cities within a region all at once. The Sims in your city will interact with you directly, informing you of their wants and needs.
SimCity is exclusive to the PC and will be available for purchase in 2013.
