Sim City Announcement Gets Mixed Reception

For the first time in Sim City’s long and illustrious history Maxis/EA are not developing it in house. The task of building Sim City: Societies has been passed to Tilted Mill, whose previous efforts include Ceaser IV and Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile.

Gone is much of the complexity of later Sim City titles like pipes, power grids, and individually funded buildings. A new emphasis is given to the actual society that grows in your city, based on six ’social energies’ the environment of your metropolis will depend on which of these values you choose to focus on. Choosing Obedience as your focus leads to blanket CCTV and constant monitoring of the populace, with a dash of oppression thrown in, but also makes the population more law abiding.
The announcement that Maxis would not be working on this iteration of the series brought some outcry from various fan forums, with many dubious about the new direction that Tilted Mill is taking the franchise in. Lead designer, Chris Beatrice said “We are not out to fix something that’s broken,” seeking to reassure the Sim City faithful.
Personally I found the latest iterations of the game too complex and in depth, it simply wasn’t fun any more. Hopefully taking out a lot of the micromanagement and adding in a more fluid social aspect to the game will rekindle my interest in the series. Time will tell I suppose. (From 1UP.com.)