''Cities XL'' (originally ''Cities Unlimited'') is a city-building video game developed by Monte Cristo as a sequel to their earlier title '' City Life''. It was originally scheduled for release in the first quarter of 2009, but was eventually released on October 8, 2009. The game allowed players to play online and interact with others on massive persistent ''planets'', and to work together by trading resources or building blueprints in order to satisfy the needs of city inhabitants. However, on March 8, 2010 the online service was closed and the game became single-player only.

Focus Home Interactive Focus Entertainment (formerly Focus Home Interactive) is a French video game publisher based in Paris. It is a subsidiary of PulluP Entertainment Group. Founded in 1996, Focus has published and distributed original titles such as ''Sherlock Holm ...

acquired the franchise in June 2010 and released '' Cities XL 2011'' on October 14, 2010. The third installment, ''Cities XL Platinum'', was released on February 14, 2013. A new version, ''

Cities XXL ''Cities XXL'' is a city-building computer game developed by Focus Home Interactive as a sequel to their earlier game '' Cities XL Platinum''. The game allows players to design, build, and manage cities. Gameplay Zoning The game offers th ...

'', was announced on November 15, 2014, and released on February 5, 2015.

Gameplay

Beginnings as MMO

''Cities XL'' allowed players an option to play on a persistent online virtual community known as a ''planet'' which required a monthly subscription fee. As a member of a planet, players were able to build their cities in a virtual world populated by other subscribers, trade resources such as electricity with other players, work together to create structures such as the

Eiffel Tower The Eiffel Tower ( ; ) is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower from 1887 to 1889. Locally nicknamed "''La dame de fe ...

, and visit other cities as an avatar and host events. On January 27, 2010 Monte Cristo announced due to a low subscription rate they would be closing the multiplayer online service, and they did so on March 8, 2010. A patch was released on the same day allowing players to use

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used ...

es in single-player mode, as they had previously only been available in multiplayer mode.

Zoning

The game offers the designation of three types of

building A building or edifice is an enclosed Structure#Load-bearing, structure with a roof, walls and window, windows, usually standing permanently in one place, such as a house or factory. Buildings come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and functions, a ...

lots:

residential A residential area is a land used in which houses, housing predominates, as opposed to industrial district, industrial and Commercial Area, commercial areas. Housing may vary significantly between, and through, residential areas. These include ...

commercial Commercial may refer to: * (adjective for) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and services ** (adjective for) trade, the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information or money * a dose of advertising ...

and industrial, each of which can have a different density. Residential

lots Lot, LOT, The Lot or similar may refer to: Common meanings Areas *Land lot, an area of land *Parking lot, for automobiles *Backlot, in movie production Sets of items *A Quantity, great many of something, as in, "There are a lot of beetles," or "T ...

are furthermore distinguished by four

social class A social class or social stratum is a grouping of people into a set of Dominance hierarchy, hierarchical social categories, the most common being the working class and the Bourgeoisie, capitalist class. Membership of a social class can for exam ...

es:

unskilled worker A laborer ( or labourer) is a person who works in manual labor typed within the construction industry. There is a generic factory laborer which is defined separately as a factory worker. Laborers are in a working class of wage-earners in which ...

skilled worker A skilled worker is any worker who has special skill, training, or knowledge which they can then apply to their work. A skilled worker may have learned their skills through work experience, on-the-job training, an apprenticeship program or f ...

s, executives, and

elite In political and sociological theory, the elite (, from , to select or to sort out) are a small group of powerful or wealthy people who hold a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege, political power, or skill in a group. Defined by the ...

s. Before designating building lots, players are required to select which class of residents may live there. The social class chosen for a lot will not be modified by the simulation. To create building lots, players can

zone Zone, Zones or The Zone may refer to: Places Military zones * Zone, any of the divisions of France during the World War II German occupation * Zone, any of the divisions of Germany during the post-World War II Allied occupation * Korean Demilit ...

an area of the map in which, upon confirmation, individual building lots will be created by the game. Players can also plop building lots individually. A Mass Placement Tool has been announced in previews allowing players to select tags that define what categories of buildings they want to see created when outlining an area of lots.

Transport

''Cities XL'' allows players to create a road network of a variety of road types at many different angles and curvatures.

Bridge A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...

s and

tunnel A tunnel is an underground or undersea passageway. It is dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, or laid under water, and is usually completely enclosed except for the two portals common at each end, though there may be access and ve ...

s are also part of the simulator. Other transport options that were planned to be included in the game were

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial Aviation, air transport. They usually consist of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surf ...

train A train (from Old French , from Latin">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ... , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles th ...

ferries A ferry is a boat or ship that transports passengers, and occasionally vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A small passenger ferry with multiple stops, like those in Venice, Italy, is sometimes referred to as a water taxi or water bus. ...

and subways. An add-on introducing

es to the game was released in December 2009.

Gameplay Extension Modules

An unimplemented feature known as Gameplay Extension Modules (GEMs), also referred to as Game Enhancement Modules, were features, such as a

ski resort A ski resort is a resort developed for skiing, snowboarding, and other winter sports. In Europe, most ski resorts are towns or villages in or adjacent to a ski area–a mountainous area with pistes (ski trails) and a ski lift system. In North Am ...

or a

beach A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from Rock (geology), rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle beach, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological s ...

, that would have been implemented into a city and managed in extra detail by the player. For example, in a ski resort GEM, it would have been possible to add ski lifts, restaurants, shelters, and ski-trails. It was planned that when a player was managing a GEM the main city simulation was stopped, but successful management of GEMs could help enhance a city.

Development

Terrain

The terrain is composed of height maps, textures and a normal map. Instead of creating new tools, Monte Cristo relies on existing third-party tools like EarthSculptor,

World Machine ''World Machine'' is the sixth studio album by British pop group Level 42, released in 1985. It was the band's breakthrough album internationally and features one of their most successful singles, " Something About You". Composition This releas ...

and GeoControl to generate unique realistic terrain before importing it into their terrain-editing software. In addition, middleware like

SpeedTree SpeedTree is a group of vegetation programming and modeling software products developed and sold by Unity Technologies, and originally by Interactive Data Visualization, Inc. (IDV), that generates virtual foliage for animations, architecture and ...

has also been used for in-game afforestation. In an interview on September 11, 2007 Philippe Da Silva announced that ''Cities XL'' would include a large variety of maps and landscapes, which would allow players a greater depth with the types of cities they wanted to create. A pre-released screen shot of an Aspen map confirmed that ''Cities XL'' would include

snow Snow consists of individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water througho ...

y landscapes.

3D engine

Monte Cristo has made a 3D engine that allows lower-range PCs to run the game. The player may not have all the graphic options fully turned on but still get better quality visuals than ''City Life''.

Release

In June 2007, a screenshot of a new city building game from Monte Cristo was posted in Philippe Da Silva's personal

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

. However, it was later revealed in a community website interview that it would not be called ''City Life 2'', and was initially named ''Cities Unlimited'' to avoid confusion. On April 15, 2008 it was announced that ''Cities Unlimited'' official game title would be ''Cities XL''. On July 6, 2009,

Namco Bandai Partners Namco Bandai Partners S.A.S. (formerly Distribution Partners SAS) was a video game distribution company that was an amalgamation of several former Atari SA (formerly known as Infogrames Entertainment SA) offices located in PAL territories, which ...

announced that they would distribute the game in the United Kingdom, Nordic regions, Iberica, Italy, Australia and New Zealand, while Monte Cristo would continue to distribute for the rest of Europe. The game was released on October 8, 2009 in Oceania and in Europe, and on October 9, 2009 in North America. Two different versions of the game were released, a standard edition and a limited edition. The limited edition contained extra content including additional landmarks, additional maps, and a poster. A demo was also previously available. During the development of ''Cities XL'', Monte Cristo maintained a developer blog and internet forums on their main

website A website (also written as a web site) is any web page whose content is identified by a common domain name and is published on at least one web server. Websites are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose, such as news, educatio ...

. Prior to the game's release, both the blog and user forum were closed and removed from public view. The company had stated that the community was not to worry, as they have "saved all of the good posts", and would continue to maintain a presence on websites such as Simtropolis. Monte Cristo shut down in May 2010 following poor sales of ''Cities XL''.

''Cities XL 2011''

On June 25, 2010 it was announced that

had acquired the ''Cities XL'' franchise, and that a new version of ''Cities XL'' titled ''Cities XL 2011'' would be released on October 14, 2010. New features included more buildings and maps, improved

public transport Public transport (also known as public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) are forms of transport available to the general public. It typically uses a fixed schedule, route and charges a fixed fare. There is no rigid definition of whic ...

, an enhanced

tax A tax is a mandatory financial charge or levy imposed on an individual or legal entity by a governmental organization to support government spending and public expenditures collectively or to regulate and reduce negative externalities. Tax co ...

system, and better

trading Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market (economics), market. Traders generally negotiate throu ...

options.

''Cities XL 2012''

On July 11, 2011 the franchise's developers announced a new version of ''Cities XL'' titled ''Cities XL 2012''. It became available on October 20, 2011 as a standalone game.http://eu-focushop.gamesplanet.com/shop/citiesxl2012 Cities Xl 2012, Release Date The new version includes new structures, new maps, a starter guide, opens the game to

modding Modding (from "modifying") is the act of modifying hardware, software, or anything else to perform a function not originally intended by the designer, or to achieve bespoke specification or appearance. The term is often used in reference to vid ...

and allows players to share their mods. It is fully compatible with ''Cities XL 2011'' version with a discounted upgrade available. It was also simultaneously released as an

expansion pack An expansion pack, expansion set, supplement, or simply expansion, is an addition to an existing role-playing game, tabletop game, video game, collectible card game or Miniature wargaming, miniature wargame. An expansion may introduce new rules ...

or update of ''Cities XL 2011''.

''Cities XL Platinum''

Cities XL Platinum was released on February 6, 2013, a sequel to ''Cities XL 2012'' which adds 50 new buildings and new maps.

''Cities XXL''

On February 5, 2015 the franchise's developers released a new version of ''Cities XL'' titled ''Cities XXL''. It features enhanced logic, and a few new buildings, with a new style for the user interface.

Reception

''Cities XL'' received average reviews.

IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...

described the game as having "pushed the genre in the right direction" with its "friendlier learning curve" compared to the ''SimCity'' series. The review praised the ability to add curved roads, and the "gorgeous" graphics, however, the multiplayer feature was described as "shallow" and the subscription cost was questioned.

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady, and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

praised ''Cities XL'' for "taking a city builder online", but described the multiplayer feature as "limited and overpriced", and the single-player mode as an "afterthought". The review criticised the limited trading options in single-player mode and commented that the graphics were "bland".

1UP.com ''1Up.com'' was an American entertainment website that focused on video games. Launched in 2003, ''1Up.com'' provided its own original features, news stories, game reviews, and video interviews, and also featured comprehensive PC-focused conte ...

also criticised the trading features of the game, and while the review did describe the graphics as "fantastic", it concluded that ''Cities XL'' was being "dragged down" by a lack of features. Aggregate review websites give scores of 68.27% on

GameRankings GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...

, and 69 (out of 100) on

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

References

External links

''Cities XL'' official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cities Xl 2009 video games City-building games Inactive massively multiplayer online games Monte Cristo (company) games Multiplayer and single-player video games Video games developed in France Windows games Windows-only games