SimCity 5 screenshots give a close up view

Maxis has released three screenshots for the upcoming Sim City 5 (which is simply named SimCity in some sort of attempt to reboot the series, although this makes little sense as SimCity has never been a story and lore-driven franchise, and having an iterative number behind a title just makes logical sense). Whatever EA, I’m keeping it real and calling it SimCity 5!

Moving on, the screenshots give us a static glimpse on the in-game visuals – previously we have only been treated to concept art.

SimCity 5 – University city

SimCity 5 – Sims fighting fires

SimCity 5 – Industrial city

SimCity 5 has been dragged into the modern PC gaming era of ~~always-annoying~~ always-on internet connectivity requirements. Maxis justifies this by touting a persistent regional and global economy system that’s influenced by all players online, which admittedly does sound pretty interesting.

Multiplayer features will include cloud saves and persistent statistics. Multiplayer will use an asynchronous server model. Interactions with friends (or foe) will be possible without being simultaneously online.

Maxis also promises that the game will be offering a rich single-player experience.

Other notable improvements and features include Glass Box, a data simulation engine. Glass Box is a simulation of resources (wood, water, pollution, labour hours), units (houses, factories, shops, workplaces), maps (uniform grids laid over the world such as coal, oil, forests and land value).

SimCity 5 is expected to support “tens of thousands” of units (people and vehicles) each with their own self-contained simulation logic and can all be moving at once.

Zig-zagging roads, pipes and power cables are no more. “Fully 3D spline-based paths” replace them, making placements look even on uneven terrain or awkward directions.

SimCity 5 is tentatively pegged for a 2013 launch.