City building simulations have been around for many years and getting the balance of building and politics just right has been difficult. Cities XL looks to tackle that problem and also take the genre to an entirely new level by taking huge cities to the online multiplayer masses.

If you enjoy simulation games in general you will more than likely be familiar with the Sim City titles or other more recent titles like City Life, but unlike those Cities XL is much more than a city building simulation game. Cities XL allows you create massive cities on your choice of around 25 different foundation maps, and in glorious 3D detail.

CITIES XL TRAILER

The building process is a simple one in Cities XL and sim followers will master the controls in no time, but Cities XL really steps into a world of it’s own when you begin to make use of the games online features – even the entire game can be played as an online title, and you can welcome other players to explore your city on foot by taking the role of a single character walking on your streets, and of course you can take that role too and explore the cities of others.

Everything to do with your city, and other peoples cities, will tie in with the Cities XL website so you can still keep an eye on your city when you may be unable to actually play the game itself. The game encourages you to co-operate with other city builders across the globe – and yes, there is a real in game globe and your city will reside at a fixed point on it – and doing so can give you the added benefit of creating trade arrangements to bring in or ship out certain resources that your city may be wealthy in amongst other things.

Cities XL is quite simply the most ambitious city building simulation ever attempted, and the early signs are looking great! The game will also be expanded on a regular basis via new content being made available for download. Cities XL is released for the PC on October 9th 2009.