I’m a big SimCity fan. City building games offer the complexity and strategy that someone like me can truly appreciate. The last authentic SimCity Maxis developed, SimCity 4, was a technical marvel, but with a steep learning curve. Despite its age, I still found myself dabbling in SimCity 4 on occasion for the last 8 years trying to master its complexities. Then, while Maxis focused their efforts on their new project Spore, they outsourced development of the ill-fated SimCity Societies, which unfortunately did not live up to expectations.
This brings us to the present day. Maxis has finally decided to grace the masses with a new, true successor in the SimCity franchise due for release in March 2013. So far, the information released about the game and its new so-called “Glass Box” simulation engine points to a return to form for the franchise, and a modern twist on city building games. SimCity‘s release, however, flirts with disaster by being burdened with the most despicable kind of Digital Rights Management (DRM) imaginable — “always-on” internet connectivity requirements, which there is never a legitimate reason to have in an otherwise offline single-player game.
