From what I can see from the GDC demonstration, and the reddit responses, it sounds like they're going for an even more deeper simulation. Resources are now finite, such as water and coal. The cars and pedestrians are not just visuals, they're actual agents that go from one destination to another. Windmills don't always generate power because some days may be less windy.

It sounds exciting, but I'm still reserving my judgment until more gameplay videos come out with real cities, instead of just demonstration city.

Looking interesting, but needs more Llamas.

From what I can see from the GDC demonstration, and the reddit responses, it sounds like they're going for an even more deeper simulation. Resources are now finite, such as water and coal. The cars and pedestrians are not just visuals, they're actual agents that go from one destination to another. Windmills don't always generate power because some days may be less windy.

It sounds exciting, but I'm still reserving my judgment until more gameplay videos come out with real cities, instead of just demonstration city.

Thats cool and all, but what I am worried about is how visible this depth is to the end user. What I would like to see is more in-depth info on why a particular neighborhood is booming, for instance. Can I get a map showing the network connections of all commuters in and out of a given neighborhood, for instance?

Stuff like that is what I liked about simcity; but in the end, the frustration that 90% of things seemed randomish or otherwise outside of your control put me off.

Can I get a map showing the network connections of all commuters in and out of a given neighborhood, for instance?

You can in SimCity 4 (well, they don't present it by 'neighbourhood' - instead you can select buildings (housing or workplaces) or roads, but the model is certainly there). Having said that, I preferred 3000 - 4 has fewer levels for land value... and I generally suck at it in a way I didn't with its predecessor.

They say the graphs are being redone more towards infographics to make things easier to read (easy to say, we'll have to see how it looks) but also the citizens will be actual game agents so you can get much more detailed info on how the city is running by querying them directly, hopefully on a level similar to your imported Sims into SC4, which I thought was a great feature

There was this game called StarPeace I played for a while. It was essentially an MMO SimCity. You build your little space in the world and then you have to interact with the global market (make goods that are in demand, set prices to control supply and demand). I wish they would do that with the new SimCity. A persistent world real-time option.

I like the Sim City on the SNES the best. It's more goal-oriented. I remember getting an immense thrill after growing my city to megalopolis level. The other sim cities that I've tried (2000 and 3000) were less fun. Once I got the formula down, it got easy, even on hard mode. All I needed to do was start on a flat map with minimal water, put industrial zones on the edge, commercial/residential zones at the center, and plop various public buildings and parks in the middle of those clusters. I only paid attention to the land value, since that was the most important.

This announcement made me reinstall Sim City 4, and I truly can't wait for the next one. Here's hoping for a proper entry into the franchise!

Yeah SimCity 4 is one of my fav games, which I still go back to sometimes. I'll be very disappointed if they screw this new one up, or produce an abomination like SimCity Societies.

P.S. Did anyone else ever see the ending of SimCity 2000 when you finally build the ultimate city?

[edit]Also, n.b. that while SimCity 4 had four fixed isometric camera angles like it's predecessors, the buildings are actually polygonal 3d models.

No, I didn't know about those things.