PCG Article Cities: Skylines 2 coming this year: 'the most realistic city simulation ever created'

[McStabStab]

IT'S HERE! I am so freaking excited for this sequel, and it looks like it will start on Gamepass!

For those who don't know the background about why a second game is a big deal, Cities: Skylines runs on the Unity Engine and Colossal Order can't update it beyond its obsolete version because it would break too many game systems. Cities: Skylines 2 will run on Unreal 5+, which brings massive potential!*

Here's the PCG article:

Cities: Skylines 2 coming this year: 'the most realistic city simulation ever created'

*Edit - Colossal order has confirmed the engine will be Unity.

 

[Alm]

The graphics look nice. I never played the first one so I don't really know what to expect.

I have game pass though so I'll probably give it a try.

 

[Zloth]

I'm looking forward to seeing a lot more Unreal 5+ games. That engine seems awesome. (Maybe awesome to the point of "will destroy all competition and get a monopoly" - but that's another topic.)

I presume the "realistic" is just talking about graphics? A properly realistic city builder, where you have to get city council approval, get approval again when you find a bug in the architecture and have to double the costs to fix it, deal with your construction company getting bought, and so on would NOT be fun.

 

[Slasken]

Day one purchase for me.

I hope we get dynamic summer/winter in this game.

 

[Colif]

realism in city building can lead to over complicated. Sim city 3 to 4 was a jump in complexity and not everyone wanted realism that much.

I haven't played the 1st one in years.

 

[Pifanjr]

I wonder if they'll fix the traffic issues.

 

[Slasken]

Spoiler: Achievments

Name	Description	Gamerscore
My First City	Build city with residential, commercial and industrial zones, water, and electricity.	10
The Inspector	Have a look at each individual info view panel.	10
Happy to Be of Service	Create a city district and assign a city service to that district.	10
Royal Flush	Reach enough milestones to unlock all city services in a single city.	30
Key to the City	Unlock each building available in the base game.	50
Six Figures	Reach a population of 100,000.	50
Go Anywhere	Have 20 active transport lines. These can be passenger or cargo lines or any mix of the two.	20
The Size of Golf Balls!	Experience a hailstorm.	10
Out for a Spin	Experience a tornado.	10
Now They're All Ash Trees	Experience a forest fire.	10
Zero Emission	Have a city that produces electricity by only using renewable energy sources.	30
Up and Away!	Build any airport.	20
Making a Mark	Build 5 signature buildings in a single city.	50
Everything the Light Touches	Unlock 150 map tiles in a single city.	50
Calling the Shots	Have 5 city policies active simultaneously.	30
Wide Variety	Create 10 different districts in a single city and assign policies to each.	20
Executive Decision	Assign a policy to a city district.	10
All Smiles	Have at least 1000 citizens and an average happiness rating of 75%.	30
You Little Stalker!	Follow a citizen's lifepath from childhood to old age.	30
The Good Stuff	Listen to two different radio stations around the clock each.	10
I Made This	Use the editor to make an asset of any other type than map.	20
Cartography	Use the editor to make a map.	30
The Explorer	Unlock 50 map tiles in a single city.	20
The Last Mile Marker	Reach milestone 20.	50
The Architect	Build 10 signature buildings in a single city.	50
Things Are Not Looking Up	Experience a rat infestation.	10
Four Seasons	Experience all four seasons by building a city in a climate with a snowy winter.	10
Spiderwebbing	Have 50 active transport lines. These can be passenger or cargo lines or any mix of the two.	50
This Is Not My Happy Place	Have at least 1000 citizens and an average happiness rating of 25%.	20
Simply Irresistible	Have at least 1000 citizens and a city attractiveness rating of 90.	30
Top of the Class	Build a city where at least 20% of the population has a university level of education.	30
Snapshot!	Use the photo mode to take a screenshot	10
The Deep End	Have a total loan of at least 200,000 in a single city.	10
Groundskeeper	Build 10 parks in a single city.	20
Colossal Gardener	Plant 100 trees or bushes with the landscaping tool in a single city.	20
Strength Through Diversity	Have buildings from all four zone types in a single city.	10
Squasher-Downer	Bulldoze a total of 1000 buildings.	20
A Little Bit of TLC	Have 10,000 citizens treated at medical clinics or hospitals in a single city.	20
Welcome, One and All!	Have a total of 10,000 tourist visits in a single city.	30
One of Everything	Build all unique city service buildings in a single city.	50

Here are the achievments. Dynamic seasons confirmed!

 

[Pifanjr]

I feel like planting 100 trees is not that many to be considered "colossal". I used trees as noise barriers in Cities: Skylines and probably planted at least a hundred before my population came even close to 1000.

 

[McStabStab]

I wonder if they'll fix the traffic issues.

The only person that can fix the traffic issues is the mayor!

 

[Zloth]

I used trees as noise barriers in Cities: Skylines and probably planted at least a hundred before my population came even close to 1000.

C:S2 will have squirrels. Lots of them. The more trees you plant, the more chance there is of a squirrel rebellion, where the squirrels all start chattering and squawking. If you do not appease them with peanut butter, they'll start throwing acorns at your citizens.

Or so I heard. From somebody I dreamed about.

 

[Brian Boru]

squirrels. Lots of them

Uh oh, there go all the cable connections!
Former colleague in Mexico City, squirrels used to chew thru their internet cables regularly.

 

[Colif]

so it will assume every country on earth has squirrels then...

guess its better than having drop bears.

 

[Johnway]

I enjoyed the first one enough, But i think i'm going to wait a bit before i buy it. if its anything like the first one, there will be DLC galore. So i might as well wait a bit and see what else turns up. I know its foolhardy as they keep releasing content, but i would like to see all the features and cherry pick the ones i want.

 

[Brian Boru]

i would like to see all the features and cherry pick the ones i want

Yep, same here. I don't have the time to keep retrying a game every time it's updated, and I also don't like playing an incomplete game. 'Incomplete' as in compared to final state, not that first release is bad.

 

[Pifanjr]

Yep, same here. I don't have the time to keep retrying a game every time it's updated, and I also don't like playing an incomplete game. 'Incomplete' as in compared to final state, not that first release is bad.

Do you mean final state including DLC or just patches?

 

[Brian Boru]

Do you mean final state including DLC or just patches?

DLC, expansions, final patch, final community patch, required mods updated—the works!

I learned this thru Civ4 mainly, there was a steady drip of patches between vanilla release and the final 3.19 patch after the last expansion. It was fun for a while, but became annoying eventually—especially when I couldn't rely on my spearmen to defeat tanks anymore:

Civ6 I waited 5-6 years to get, and I only picked up Far Cry 6 after the DLCs were out. It's not set in stone—I got Command and Conquer Remastered the day after release once initial player reviews were out. Of course, that was 2 major games plus 3 big expansions all for $20—if it was like some recent grabs of $60 for one game… eh, no.

 

[Colif]

in other words, he will never buy Star Citizen

Good thing he doesn't do it with operating systems as WIn 10 still isn't finished.

 

[Pifanjr]

DLC, expansions, final patch, final community patch, required mods updated—the works!

I should have done that for Civ VI. I only played a couple of hours so far because I wanted to get the DLC before playing more, but then I haven't gotten around to buying the DLC because there's too many other games to play.

However, I don't complete most games I play, so I don't typically care about the DLCs or expansions that only add extra content without changing the mechanics (much). Similarly, I don't look at mods before I've played the game for a couple of hours at least, at which point I've usually decided to move on to another game. I just need the game to run stable enough to enjoy.

I never got any of the DLC for Cities Skylines because I never really got very far in the base game. I restarted a couple of times as I learned better ways to build my cities, got to a small city or something and moved on to the next game.

 

[Slasken]

I bought C:S at release, and got all but the last DLC. I've got a lot of fun out the game, and even though the total price of the game and DLCs are high, I think I got my moneys worth. I don't always pick up DLCs when they are released. I will do the same with C:S2.

 

[ZedClampet]

Depends on the type of game as to how much importance I put on DLC being ready, and I guess it depends on the type of DLC. For something like Pillars of Eternity, where the DLC adds to the story, I would wait for it to be released. Something like Civ or Cities Skylines, those DLC can be gotten later with no problem because those are games I would play more than once, whereas I'm only going to play Pillars one time because it's narrative focused.

Anyway, I've been playing city builders lately, but not Cities Skylines because some things like placing roads are way too finnicky, and I end up with a mess if I have to change the road system. Part of that is just being new to the game and not knowing the "tricks".

 

[Slasken]

I've been watching the trailer and using the pause button frequently. While I know that this is not a gameplay trailer, the trailer could give some clues about what could be in the game. I'll put the timestamp down.


0:33-0:36
A lot happens in this frame.
A police officer patroling1 on the pavement. You see cluttering on the street as well as the pavement. It also looks like it is a mixed zone with commercial and residential. Graffiti on the walls and other things. It looks like a not well kept neighborhood.
You see a some kind of maintenance person sweeping the pavement, which is obviously needed.
A guy is running.
The cims(as they are called in the Cities Skylines game) are not looking out of place. A guy is running, wearing training clothes.

0:39-0:40
Only a few seconds later it seems like we are in a completely different part of the city. No clutter, grafitti. People are wearing different types of clothes. It seems like a well kept neighborhood, and probably more expensive to live in. People looks to be wearing more expensive clothing as well.

0:46-0:52
Reflections on the puddles on the street. Ray Tracing confirmed? There are a lot of reflections throughout the trailer.
You also see two police officers patroling the sidewalk.

The logo at the end, with the four parts forming a hexagon, might be a tell as well. I think it means that we will see that the cities we create will be more connected than they were before, and maybe more organic. The opening sequence with the seed is a tell of this as well.

 

[Slasken]

They release a new video every monday going over features until mid September if I recall right. They have released two videos by now. There are so much new in just these two videos.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lt_sE16yZk

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgjpo2lKt7I

 

[McStabStab]

They release a new video every monday going over features until mid September if I recall right. They have released two videos by now. There are so much new in just these two videos.

Thanks for sharing! Really incredible to see how the game is changing. The Traffic AI looks impressive. RIP my CPU.

 

[Slasken]

It's Monday. That means another sneak peak. This time, public + cargo transportation.

View: https://youtu.be/QwIfNxWzihU

 

[Slasken]

This time it's Zones and Signature buildings. It's going to be great to have mixed zones with commercial and residential.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBwwZ4XnW34