July 3rd, 2019 at 10:39 PM
I spent many hours back in the day playing Cities XL (and its iterations that followed, such as the 2012, Platinum, and XXL versions). It was overall a great game that seemed like it was lacking something somewhere. I can't exactly pinpoint exactly what it was. It should have blown SC4 absolutely out of the water, but for whatever reason it didn't cut it for me. The cities just felt... lifeless.
However, for its time, CXL was a pretty ambitious game. The maps were absolutely gigantic. I've never even come close to filling a tile in the game, so it was awesome to have the freedom to build as far as you wanted to. And of course the graphics were absolutely gorgeous. Even by today's standards, they blow even Skylines out of the water. It was perhaps the single biggest selling point for the game.
What it lacked was a sense of fine-grained detail in the simulation. Skylines is the only game in the genre that simulates each sim individually. SC4 and CXL both simulate in batches, where batches will take the same routes, work at the same places, have the same attributes, etc. This is done to save CPU, which is a large part of the reason that Skylines cities never seem to reach higher populations, despite the sheer number of skyscrapers you can build in a city.
In CXL, there aren't any disasters, aren't really any fine grained events that happen with the sims that make you feel connected. It's more crude and more generalized in a lot of ways. And it really kinda kicked CXL in the behind in the end. The original developer went bankrupt from developing it, and as a result, Focus Interactive took over the project and didn't really do much to add to it or to finish some of the unfinished aspects of the game.
What are your thoughts on this ancient game? Despite its shortcomings, the graphics are gorgeous (even by today's standards), and the maps are huge. It definitely has things that were done right, despite its pitfalls.
However, for its time, CXL was a pretty ambitious game. The maps were absolutely gigantic. I've never even come close to filling a tile in the game, so it was awesome to have the freedom to build as far as you wanted to. And of course the graphics were absolutely gorgeous. Even by today's standards, they blow even Skylines out of the water. It was perhaps the single biggest selling point for the game.
What it lacked was a sense of fine-grained detail in the simulation. Skylines is the only game in the genre that simulates each sim individually. SC4 and CXL both simulate in batches, where batches will take the same routes, work at the same places, have the same attributes, etc. This is done to save CPU, which is a large part of the reason that Skylines cities never seem to reach higher populations, despite the sheer number of skyscrapers you can build in a city.
In CXL, there aren't any disasters, aren't really any fine grained events that happen with the sims that make you feel connected. It's more crude and more generalized in a lot of ways. And it really kinda kicked CXL in the behind in the end. The original developer went bankrupt from developing it, and as a result, Focus Interactive took over the project and didn't really do much to add to it or to finish some of the unfinished aspects of the game.
What are your thoughts on this ancient game? Despite its shortcomings, the graphics are gorgeous (even by today's standards), and the maps are huge. It definitely has things that were done right, despite its pitfalls.
