In the solo mode, you can build from a selection of 500 buildings on varied landscape maps. In the online mode – subject to a monthly subscription - you can collaborate to build famous landmarks, trade resources with other players, and get monthly new content such as new building packs. The game has an RRP of £29.99.
In Cities XL, you build up your city in resplendent 3D from a selection of 500 buildings, whilst trying to keep your population happy – in the beta, players have managed to get up to 17,000,000 inhabitants in one city! You have to take account pollution, traffic, trade and class to build that perfect city.
Cities are built on amazing 3D maps (such as Mount St Helens), and the game really reflects that impressive scale, letting you zoom out to a Google Earth perspective or right into street level to watch your inhabitants going about their day.
If you want, you can go online and build your city on a planet with up to 10,000 other cities per planet. Here you can trade excess resources, chat with friends, specialize your city to corner your local market, or build Megastructures that aren’t available in the single-player game.
Solo Mode Features:
- 25 maps with landscapes representing different types of climates
- 500 buildings inspired by European, American and Asian architecture styles
- 15 types of resources to manage and trade in order to develop your city
- 4 types of citizens of different wealth level and satisfaction requirements
- A large choice of enterprises producing agriculture, industrial goods, services, tourism and much more
- An innovative traffic system including many types of roads, bridges, tunnels, highways, ports and airports
- A set of never-seen-before construction tools allowing creation of curved roads and building zones of various shapes
- An avatar studio and web-based profile pages
Planet Mode Features:
- Web-Play
- All trading activities are playable on the Web (without being connected to the game). During your lunch break, you can continue trading from any PC.
- You can also display your creations on the Web to maintain your social network outside the game.
- Hunting for Blueprints
- Blueprints are architectural plans you can use to start constructing exceptional buildings: the Megastructures.
- These Megastructures require a large quantity of resources and the collaboration of players to be built. They bring important bonuses to the cities in which they are built.
- Blueprints are awarded at random on the players' webpage or can be won by maintaining trade activities for multinational Megastructures (the ultimate specialization building will be introduced at the end of October).
Regular content for Download
The first content pack will include:
- Old England Pack: 10 residences, 1 hotel, 1 shop, 1 restaurant, 1 plaza, 1 church 2-lane road textures, 1 decoration based on Strafford upon Avon.
- A realistic map of Rio de Janeiro featuring the famous statue of Christ the Redeemer.
- Sponsored Content: a Ford dealership producing real Ford cars.
- Megastructures (buildings that are erected with the help of other players after obtaining the Blueprint): Glass Gherkin (London), Tokyo Imperial Palace, Alcatraz.
- One new farm model.
The second content pack will include:
- Chinatown Pack: 10 residences, 1 hotel, 1 shop, 1 restaurant, 1 arch, 1 temple, 1 plaza
- A realistic map of Manhattan featuring the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building and the road network.
- New maps
- An animated Ferris wheel
- Blueprints: three stadiums: soccer, baseball and football
The third content pack will include:
- A bus company, roads and service vehicles.
- The possibility to create your own bus lines by deciding where to place each stop.
- A selection of US, British or Continental Europe roads.
- A selection of different service vehicles depending on the countries.
Cities XL Limited Edition costs £34.99, the Normal Edition, £29.99, Online Subscriptions are available in various formats: 3 months: £11.95 (£3.98/month) 2 months: £8.95 (£4.48/month) 1 month: £6.99
MINIMUM SYSTEM SPECIFICATIONS.
- OS: Microsoft Windows XP SP3 or Microsoft Windows Vista SP1
- Processor: Intel Pentium IV 2.5 GHz or AMD equivalent or better, Laptop: Centrino 2 or better
- Memory: 1GB (XP), 1.5GB (Vista), Laptop: 1.5GB (XP), 2.5GB (Vista), 8GB Hard Disk Space
- Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT/ ATI Radeon X1600 or better, 256 MB RAM, Laptop: Intel Graphics Accelerator or better, DirectX 9.0c