The city building simulation is moving into new and exciting times. When the most noticeable enhancement in a genre is the graphical look, in most games it really wouldn't count for anything if the gameplay hadn't improved with it, or at least be on par. However, thanks now to technological advancements in the majority of home PCs, tycoon games have entered a new phase - fully environments. We marveled at this achievement just recently in a preview of Tycoon City: New York, which looks to have pulled off such a feat successfully. Hot on its heels is City Life, a game that also boasts fully 3D, interactive possibilities and a rival that hopes that Tycoon City: New York won't stand alone in the spotlight for very long.

Entering City Life you must begin by selecting the terrain that you want to build your city on. Pretty much every type of land you can imagine is available, and, obviously, the type you choose contributes somewhat to the challenge you face from the beginning. In the preview version of the game just one area is available, a luscious green landscape, relatively flat and close to the sea - perfect conditions for building. Though there is no tutorial as such, a pop-up box relays to you simple instructions that help you understand where to start. This includes, firstly, providing the basic facilities for your residents, housing, leisure and workplaces.

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Without a solid tutorial to ease you into City Life it can take a while to find your bearings. It was often a case of hitting or missing, (mostly missing in the preview, it has to be said). However, if a tutorial is included in the game, surely then the masses of in-game options wouldn't be so daunting. And there really is a lot of them. If you can think of something that you'd need to include when planning a town, then City Life probably has it. Whether they are all absolutely necessary is questionable; however in such a competitive genre such detail is often necessary, the best games managing to cater for both gamers and diehards alike.

What's interesting about the structure of City Life is the existence of a social hierarchy (one that reacts to how it is governed) and therein prompting you to really think about the layout of your budding metropolis. There are six unique cultures ranging from the elite few to the Have-not tribe (the others are the bobos, the suits, the fringe, the blue collars). Playing God to them all means satisfying each group's personal needs, though not just the mandatory employment ones. Your extra responsibilities include each culture's business, health, leisure and safety needs as well as balancing their conflicting views on such as the environment (waste, pollution, et al). Succeed in harmonising these and individuals will climb the social ladder and your society will flourish, but neglect their concerns and you face rebellion from angry mobs that will turn to rioting and vandalism.

City Life's biggest boast, like Tycoon City: New York is its fully interactive 3D environments. In essence, you are able to navigate the city you have created in full 3D and from any angle you wish. Whether you just want to admire your handiwork or criticize the critical positioning of your megalopolis' buildings, then you can do, pivoting and zooming from 360 individual degrees. At the moment, the detail when panning through the city is mostly very impressive. Every building seems to have its own unique character, identifiable to the community it belongs to. Complicated shadowing effects are promised in the finished version, which is sure to add the final touch of gloss. People-wise there's a lot of cloning going on at the moment in City Life and their movements are still a little ropey, but this will probably be fixed when the full version of the game arrives in May as it promises over 40 non-playable characters, each with over a hundred animations. Speaking of the complete version, it will boast over 150 different types of building, 20 predefined maps and a custom option for creating your own, as well as cubic reflection on the windows of your buildings, dynamic shadows, real-time mirroring effects on the water, control of the day and night cycle, moving clouds and fog, movement of trees in the wind, etc. That's really quite a lot to take-in in one sentence, I know, but its sure to look magnificent on PCs capable of showing it all off.

It'll certainly be interesting to see how City Life turns out. It is hard not to make comparisons to Tycoon City: New York as really they're competing for the same sort of audience. The similarities are definitely there, it just remains to be seen whether City Life can overshadow the appeal of a game that boasts the ability to rebuild arguably the world's most famous city. Comparisons aside, City Life is looking promising. As another forefather to the next generation of city building simulations it looks to have laid the foundations for a pleasant, rewarding and lengthy gaming experience.

By Andrew Macarthy