SimCity (time well spent compared to Civ?)

[Adagio]

Now, could someone tell me, what that thing is, just next to the parking lot (on picture 1), infront of the two-stored house..?

[Adagio]

Hmmm...found even more screenies









And I just found an interview:

http://www.gamersclick.com/interview.cfm?p=v&id=860

[FlameFlash]

Originally posted by ADG
Now, could someone tell me, what that thing is, just next to the parking lot (on picture 1), infront of the two-stored house..?

Yes, it looks like a parking lot... there's probably something nearby that uses it... unless that isn't a house...

[Adagio]

I wasn't talking about the parking lot, but the "thing" just next to it...

[FrustratedPoet]

If you mean this thing then it looks like an Anderson Shelter to me.

Like these:

http://www.1940.co.uk/activ/postcards/images/card6.jpg

http://www.iwm.org.uk/cabinet/images/anderson.jpg

[Craig P.]

Subway entrance?

[FrustratedPoet]

It looks too grassy to be a subway entrance IMHO.

[Grumbold]

The entrance to Dr. No's underground base? Expect to see SimCity4 SuperHeroes! x-pack real soon. Fed up of natural disasters? Fight (super)man-made ones with some Supermen of your own!

[Maquiladora]

That building with the red roof tiles next to the parking lot looks like a pub/wine bar, maybe its a beer cellar.

At least they worked on a (proper) football stadium, thats encouraging for other building styles

But wheres all the low cost housing? Either way i can see im gonna have to turn off all those shadows and trees and lights and street details and play in a 640x480 resolution. BAH

[tniem]

What I don't like is that there is not any parking around the football stadium. Where are all the cars supposed to park? This is something that should have been fixed, there should have to be parking for things type of things to be filled.

[Space05us]

oh gads man!!!! that thing sticks out WAY too much. it looks horrible, what an eyesore!

other than that, it looks like a cellar of some sort. Maybe an underground house, it has two chimneys sticking out of it.

a few things I plucked out of the interview:

GC: How far along is the game in the development cycle?
KH: We're in the last month of development, primarily fixing bugs and tying up loose ends.

GC: At Camp EA we heard a tentative "Fall 2002" as a release date. Can you get anymore specific than this and if not are you still on lock to hit that "Fall 2002" date?
KH: We are tracking to ship in mid-November.

GC: Do you currently have a list of "if we have time" features?
KH: We have a ton of features that we'd love to get in if we have time. There's no possible way that we'll be able to do all of it, but those ideas won't be lost.

GC: To say the least, the graphics we've seen so far are astounding. How will these translate on lower end systems and what time of minimum requirements are you guys currently looking at?
KH: There are a number of graphics options that will need to be disabled on lower end systems to get a playable game, all of which can be customized by the player. The minimum spec will be a 600MHz Pentium III or equivalent, 128MB of RAM, and a 16 MB video card.

[Adagio]

Originally posted by FrustratedPoet
If you mean this thing then it looks like an Anderson Shelter to me.

Like these:

http://www.1940.co.uk/activ/postcards/images/card6.jpg

http://www.iwm.org.uk/cabinet/images/anderson.jpg

Hmmm...Anderson Shelter? Never heard about such thing, but those pictures you posted, gives me an idea, of what it is

[Maquiladora]

GC: How far along is the game in the development cycle?
KH: We're in the last month of development, primarily fixing bugs and tying up loose ends.

GC: At Camp EA we heard a tentative "Fall 2002" as a release date. Can you get anymore specific than this and if not are you still on lock to hit that "Fall 2002" date?
KH: We are tracking to ship in mid-November.

GC: Do you currently have a list of "if we have time" features?
KH: We have a ton of features that we'd love to get in if we have time. There's no possible way that we'll be able to do all of it, but those ideas won't be lost.

GC: To say the least, the graphics we've seen so far are astounding. How will these translate on lower end systems and what time of minimum requirements are you guys currently looking at?
KH: There are a number of graphics options that will need to be disabled on lower end systems to get a playable game, all of which can be customized by the player. The minimum spec will be a 600MHz Pentium III or equivalent, 128MB of RAM, and a 16 MB video card.

I qualify way above for all but the cpu mhz, i hope it at least starts without checking the system specs

I agree, people would always moan about the invisible carpark for the stadium since sc2k, or they would make that checkerboard effect with the road, shouldve been fixed.

[Adagio]

It's coming out in Janurary for PS2 not for the PC. From my look at it, they would have to launch the PC way before the PS2 version. Because they need time to get all the expansion packs ready for the game.

So no doubt the the PC version comes out mid-november. And the PS2 version, in January

Someone mentions this...has anyone else heard, the game will be released on both PC and PS2? I just can't see how a game like SC4 would even be playable on PS2...But on the other hand, someone says the one who said this, doesn't know what he's talking about, so I guess it's just a wrong fact...

Btw, I found it on the same site, as the interview (at the bottom)...

Too bad, they have raised the min reqs...now I NEED to upgrade

[FrustratedPoet]

Originally posted by ADG


Hmmm...Anderson Shelter? Never heard about such thing, but those pictures you posted, gives me an idea, of what it is

Yeah, it is a type of bomb shelter that was built in Britain during the Blitz of World War 2.
Some old houses in the UK still have them, mostly used as storage (a sort of detached basement) these days.

I'm not sure why they would appear in SimCity, though. Maybe that's not what they are, but they certainly look similar.