SimCity expansion Cities of Tomorrow announced
Future tech, but no offline mode.
Maxis has announced the first major expansion to SimCity: Cities of Tomorrow.
The expansion, due out on 15th November for PC and Mac, is set 50 years in the future and features new technologies, new urban planning techniques - but no offline mode.
Fans have called for an offline mode to the city simulation game since its troubled launch, but so far EA has kept the game online-only.
Fans have also asked for larger maps. One of the chief criticisms of the new SimCity is that the play space is much smaller than previous games in the series. The cities in Cities of Tomorrow remain the same size, but they can expand upwards.
The expansion adds new regions, new future technology, new city specialisations and new transportation methods. There's an evil giant corporation called OmegaCo which strip-mines natural resources and pollutes the environment. Cities can now be built vertically with multi-zone MegaTowers (someone likes Judge Dredd). There are service drones fueled by green energy. And, finally, there's an all-new disaster exclusive to the expansion pack.
More than two million people are playing SimCity worldwide, Maxis said. "Will the world of tomorrow be a utopia powered by clean energy or an industrial society consumed by mass commercialism?" added Maxis Emeryville Patrick Buechner general manager.
"With SimCity Cities of Tomorrow, players can build the future as they imagine it. Transport your Sims on MagLev, power your cities with fusion reactors or tidal wave generators, manufacture a legion of drones to serve your Sims and build massive MegaTowers that dwarf modern skyscrapers.
"We're giving you plausible technologies to take your cities onto a journey 50 years into the future. What will you create?"
