City Life (computer game)

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City Life

Developer(s)	Monte Cristo
Publisher(s)	CDV Deep Silver Focus Home Interactive
Release date(s)	May 12, 2006 (Europe) May 19, 2006 (Scandinavia) May 29, 2006 (NA) October 12, 2006 (Steam)
Genre(s)	City building games
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	ESRB: Everyone PEGI: 3+
Platform(s)	Windows
Media	CD-ROM, Steam
System requirements	Windows 2000 SP 2/ME/XP 1.5GHz CPU 256MB RAM 2GB hard disk space 64MB Radeon 8500 or GeForce 4 Ti graphics card CD-ROM drive
Input	Keyboard and mouse

City Life is a real-time strategy game that lets the player create a modern city. It is the first modern city-building game to allow the player to work in full 3D environment. The game is by French developer Monte Cristo. It is published in France by Focus, in Germany and the UK by Deep Silver and in North America by CDV. It was released in May 2006.

City Life allows players to zoom in and see every little bit of detail. The placement method allows buildings to be placed at an angle, which is not something that has been seen before in such games.

1 Summary
2 Classes
3 Economy
4 Startup problems
5 Technical Support
6 City Life: World Edition Expansion Pack
- 6.1 Download
7 Graphics
8 Screenshot gallery
9 References
10 External links

[edit] Summary

City Life continues the very long tradition of city-building simulation games that was originally started by Will Wright's SimCity series by allowing the player to customize their urban city's roads, buildings, finances, ordinances and much more. City Life utillizes a three dimensional game engine in displaying cities, and also includes the requirement to satisfy six different socioeconomic groups within the city, an essential part of gameplay. The six groups include: The Elites, Suits, Radical Chics, Fringe, Blue collars and Have-Nots.

[edit] Classes

In game, the six classes are depicted in a circle. Clockwise from the top are Elites, Suits, Blue Collars, Have-Nots, Fringes, and Radical Chics. Each class can tolerate the two adjacent to it, but is hostile towards the three across the circle. Further, the income generated by businesses focusing on each class is indicated by its height on the circle, Have-Nots generating the least and Elites generating the most. Lastly, the left side of the circle favors education while the right side favors safety (e.g. police and fire department coverage). The higher classes are of course more demanding.

When a city is founded, only Fringes, Have-Nots, and Blue Collars will settle there. The Suits must be attracted by having good conditions for the Blue Collars, the Radical Chics are attracted by good conditions for the Fringes, and the Elites are attracted by good conditions for the Suits and Radical Chics alike. Every building will employ a specific mix of classes; the earlier, less profitable buildings may employ only one class, e.g. six fringe, but later buildings require a mix of several classes to reach their full potential. Thus, a successful city must manage a population of each of the classes. Due to the literal class warfare that will erupt if classes that dislike each other live near each other, much of the gameplay focuses on arranging your city so that this will not occur.

As their name indicates, The Elite community brings together the wealthiest segments of the population. They're also the most demanding. The Radical Chics are in the upper ranks of high-income individuals. They are very close to the artistic and creative world and have liberal views and disposition. The Suits are a fairly wealthy community which moves in the industrial circles in your city. Broadly speaking, they are generally managers of business. The Suits generally like the near proximity of Blue Collars and Elites.

The Fringes are artists with moderate incomes who are therefore usually fans of cultural activities. They also lean towards the liberalistic views of the world. The Blue Collars work in the industries of your city and have revenues close to or the same as the fringe. They represent the typical suburbian family with traditional values. The Have-Not community is at the crossroads between the artistic and the industrial worlds. They are also lowest on the scale of power, representing the poor people of your city.

[edit] Economy

City Life has a very basic economy, compared to SimCity. Rather than SimCity 4, City Life has an easier, less complicated way of generating revenue. City services and tax revenue are the base of income in the game, while large businesses and extreme building sprees decrease revenue.

Revenue-generating buildings

Power plants $200-$2,000 in revenue
Waste Management $1,500-$3,000

Revenue-decreasing acts

Large businesses $500-$2,000 in losses
Building sprees (building too fast) $400-$2,500
Parks/Plazas $120-$800
Unsuccessful businesses $50+

[edit] Startup problems

Many users seem to have a problem getting the game to actually play. Usually before the game loads to 100%, the game crashes to the desktop.^{[citation needed]} To date, Monte Cristo has yet to officially rectify the problem. Also, the game has compatibility issues with Windows Media Center XP and old video card drivers^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] Technical Support

Technical support for City Life may be hard to find online, as the Monte Cristo website offers very little technical information about their products. One source for technical information can be found on an Atari website at http://www.gr.atari.com/index.php?pg=product&id=334 (although much of the site is in written Greek, the game related information is in English).

[edit] City Life: World Edition Expansion Pack

A City Life expansion pack, dubbed City Life: World Edition, was released on December 30, 2006 online and on January 15, 2007 in stores. World Edition features landmarks around the world, including the Eiffel Tower and the Sears Tower. Additional content includes:

Building Creation Tool
100 new buildings, totaling the number of buildings at 300.

[edit] Download

On December 30th, 2006, registered game users received an advertising e-mail, listing the price of the game at $19.99 US (£9.99 UK). The game is now available for download at the City Life website through a Pay Pal payment^[1]. The website does not give further information about the file size or extra updates in the expansion, if there are any.

City Life Deluxe Website

[edit] Graphics

Compared to SimCity 4, City Life has a much better graphic engine. It also features different time of the day: day, dawn, dusk and night but they should be selected by the player and do not have a cycle like SimCity 4. One of it's new features is the reflexion of buildings on water.

Downtown Skyline at Dawn

The same Image at Day time

At Dusk

At Night

[edit] Screenshot gallery


Downtown	The Elite Island of city at dusk	The Elite section of city at night	The Elite Island at night
A view of a city in the Valley of Peace environment. The population is nearing 500.	Another view of the Valley of Peace city. The camera is at ground view, located near City Hall.