[typing]
Another year, another update to Cities XL,
the SimCity-esque city builder from Focus Home Interactive.
This time, going by the name Cities XXL,
meaning the game has an even harder time
finding shirts that fit than ever before.
Full disclosure here:
while I've not been paid to do this video,
I was sent a copy of the game by the company.
That being said, Cities XXL is a freakin' ripoff.
Except it's also not,
and is arguably the best one in the series.
Which I know makes no sense, but bear with me for a moment.
First, a wee bit of history.
Cities XL was released in 2009 as a sequel to the game City Life,
developed by the now-defunct Monte Cristo.
It was hugely ambitious but hugely flawed,
featuring a massively-multiplayer online planet to build cities on,
but ultimately falling flat on its face for a variety of reasons,
especially in regards to performance.
Focus Home Interactive bought the property the following year
and re-released the game sans multiplayer
under the name Cities XL 2011.
It added a few new maps and features, but was otherwise the same game.
Then they released Cities XL 2012,
which added a few new maps and features,
but was otherwise the same game.
Then they released Cities XL Platinum,
which added a few new maps and features,
but was otherwise the same game.
Now they've released Cities XXL,
which adds a few maps and features,
but is otherwise the same game.
[chuckles]
Yeah, I don't know if it's just me, but I'm sensing a pattern here.
So in case you're not familiar, the Cities games are about, uh, cities.
You know, urban planning, zoning, taxes, skyscrapers,
crime rates, traffic statistics, and all that stuff
the SimCity set into motion back in 1989.
But the overall gameplay is a bit different from SimCity,
with more of a focus on balancing the social classes of your citizens
and participating in global trade,
without worrying about passing laws or fighting off disasters.
And it does this with a graphics engine that, back in 2009,
looked amazing with its 3D visuals,
and the ability to zoom all the way down to street level.
But the problem with this was that the game ran like absolute trash.
It was plagued with instability, a lack of multithreading,
memory leaks, and all sorts of performance problems
that just made the game unplayable,
even on the highest-end computers up to this day.
Thankfully, this has been fixed,
and in my time playing Cities XXL,
I haven't had any crashes.
The frame rate is still all over the place,
but at least it doesn't chug to death like it used to,
and it's more than playable during normal gameplay,
even on huge cities.
I never really had a problem with the gameplay itself,
It was just the performance that hindered my ability
to enjoy the game the most.
Even still, the gameplay has indeed been improved here,
with a slightly augmented user interface,
more options for sorting through buildings,
and the requirement for things like leisure being lessened
so they're not as annoying later into the game.
There are also a slew of little tweaks and refinements
to the game's various systems and dependencies
which, combined with the far better performance
and 30-plus new buildings,
make for the most solid entry in the Cities series yet.
As someone who has played every city builder I can get my hands on,
Cities XXL is a game that very heartily scratches my urban planning itch.
But the fact of the matter is
I've been scratching that itch with the same basic backscratcher since 2009.
Existing fans of Cities XL have been herded
from one title to the next for years.
And many potential new fans have been confused
and put off by this whole ordeal.
While some of these frequent updates have been free,
Cities XXL is not,
and costs a whopping $40.
Unless you own one of the previous games on Steam,
in which case it costs $20.
Why might this be a problem?
Well, it depends entirely on what you're looking for.
XXL's largest selling point really is the fact
that the thing is actually playable now,
but that's something that is normally expected to be patched in for free.
To try and justify the price, they added things like new buildings and maps,
some rather enjoyable, if melancholy, new music,
additional skyboxes, Steam Workshop support,
and painting the menus gray instead of blue.
You can tell they put some effort into trying to add value here,
but is it $40 worth?
If you ask me, no.
What I wanted most was the ability to play the game I payed for.
You know, years ago? Several times over?
Now that I can, it feels like treading water
instead of diving deeper.
Which makes this difficult to recommend,
even though it's genuinely the best game in the series to date.
Here's my verdict:
if you've never played the previous games, then this is a nice choice.
Now's the time to play it.
But if this is not your first rodeo,
then think hard about whether or not $20 is worth it
for what is primarily a performance patch.
[music plays]
And if you enjoyed this video on a Cities game,
then you might enjoy my others that I've done on SimCity.
Or any other number of subjects that I've covered here on LGR.
There are new videos every Monday and Friday,
so subscribing would be beneficial if you'd like to see them.
You can also walk the social walk.
Twitter and Facebook are things.
As is Patreon, if you would like to support the goals of this show even further.
And thanks to Focus Home Interactive
for giving me the opportunity to say their game isn't worth the money.
And thank you very much for watching.