Geesh, this was a LONG wait at nearly 4-gig. But yeah, it was worth it. I'm a SimCity addict, with the old original SC being my very first "real" computer game. I faithfully followed the series, crying a little tear when I figured out that the WONDERFUL SC-4 just might be the last one. (I'll plead the 5th on the dismal SC-Societies, which su----, oh wait, I'm pleading the 5th on that)

So naturally I was over-joyed to see that we have a NEW version of SimCity coming soon ... but it ain't here yet. So just to kinda get my architectural skills dusted off, I decided to lock myself in my office & cohabitate with Cities-XL for a while. It gets a solid 4 stars because it IS enjoyable & I didn't ever even try to directly compare it with the unbeatable SimCity series. Cities is it's own game & does well at it, just not perfect.

Still, a comparison is inevitable. So I had to deduct 1/2 of a star, rounded up to 1, because it simply ISN'T SimCity material. But it tries.

Cities XL is an attempt to remake the good old Sim City which has somewhat gone out dated.

It has some interesting additions such as the various classes of citizens (which exist in Sim City, but to a lesser effect). They seem to have expanded more on that part of the game and it plays a huge part in how your city develops and progresses. In fact the game is allot about how you plan your cities citizen zones as they could end up conflicting with each other (such as the working class citizens do not get along well with the high class ones and so on).

The graphics are decent if not spectacular and you get the standard expected from the sound, i heard there is a newer version of the game which is suppose to be seriously improved.

Overall i gave it a 3\5, i probably would have given it 3.5 if there was an option, not that it was a bad game, just i was expecting more. I would pay the extra and get Anno 2070 or stick to a free game such as lordempires.com until the newest version comes out.

Its a game where you get to be the mayor of your own city from the first road to the last sky-scraper everything is in your control. The only downfall is you have to have a good processor to keep up with all the detail after you start to get your city going. The overall gameplay is very nice I would recommend as a great strategy management game.