Despite my faulty microphone, which made me sound like I was broadcasting atop mount Everest, we have produced a long but excellent episode for everyone! This may be the last episode for a little while, since me and Rex will be very busy in the coming weeks. This week we talk about feedback regarding the holiday special, the new Cities Unlimited screenshot, community opinions concerning SimCity Societies, SIMphoni site statistics and of course we unveil the winners of the SIMphoni 007 Awards. We will also be needing some guests in the near future and so far we have only received one request, so please don’t be shy and feel free to email us or PM me here at the forums.

Click here to listen to episode four (52.5 MB, 57:21, mp3).
Not interested in listening to the full episode? Click here to listen to just the awards ceremony (25.3 MB, 27:35, mp3).

Both the full episode and the edited section of the podcast have been marked as track number five, for those of you who listen to the show using iTunes; this is not a mistake. If anyone has questions or comments, please feel free to post them here or send us an email to podcast@simphoni.net. This episode was produced, recorded and edited by me and it features Trixin as host and Rexer as co-host. Enjoy and stay tuned for episode five!

 

 Simphoni Podcast Episode 4 [57:21m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (90)

 

 Simphoni Podcast Episode 4, 007 awards [27:35m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (92)

5 years and 3 months after the first post, the 350,000th post was just made in our forum. This gives us an impressive average of over 190 posts a day! Trixin made the landmark post in the Cities Unlimited forum thread about Traffic Calming. Congratulations to Trixin, the forum staff and especially our wonderful members. Want to help us reach the next landmark? Join the forums and participate in the community!

Forumer The Monkeys Uncle has gone trawling the Internet for the latest SimCity Societies news coming from E3. He finds:

• Kotaku’s SimCity Societies Impressions is a “quick summary of what SCS is so far.” It describes how the new development model is different than previous SimCity releases, and how the type of city you see depends on what you build. They are hopeful: “It looks like this game has some great potential for both hardcore fans of the franchise and those, like me, who have over the years grown a bit bored with its formulaic feel.”
• Eurogamer has an episode of “EGTV” featuring Societies (starting 7:00 in).
• GameSpy took advantage of the opportunity to just sit back and look at Societies, and says it’s “just what [the reporter] needed to really begin to appreciate what Tilted Mill is trying to do with the title.” It also looks like the game will be “massively moddable” out-of-the-box, since it will ship with the tools. The Monkeys Uncle summarizes their story very well: “the graphics look nice… but the lack of real city simulation makes gameplay a little iffy.”
• Gamespot has some new SimCity Societies video, with lots of great shots of the little things that bring life to the game.
• IGN’s most recent SimCity Societies update details some of the minor changes that the game has undergone (renaming several “societal energies”, for one), and reveals an interesting pattern in gameplay: certain buildings affect the “energies” more than others, and putting down a building which has a very large energy production or consumption has a drastic effect on the city. They write, “After placing a steel mill in the city, […] [e]verything about the city’s aesthetics changed. Streets were cracked and littered with trash, smog rolled in choking the air…” Interesting developments!

SIMphoni member Whirly, who is studio manager for French game developer Creative Patterns, today announced in our forums that we will be able to sample their construction simulation “Building World“. He said: “normally in two weeks the demo of the game will be out”. We had some lively discussion in our forums on this simulation, that involves managing a project to build a skyscraper. The concept of the game is somewhat reminiscent of SIMtower of old, but with evolved graphics, that a lot of SIMphoni visitors would have liked to see in a new Simcity.