City Life: World Edition - hands-on

Last year's popular city-building sim, City Life will get a well deserved follow-up when City Life: World Edition ships later this month. Besides its sleek visuals, which made it look like SimCity on steroids, City Life's main claim to fame was its unique subculture system.

You won't be able to build an egalitarian utopia where everyone lives in shiny glass towers and drives luxury cars to their sweet jobs. Instead, you'll have to manage six subcultures (read: classes) ranging from the hopelessly destitute Have-Nots to the disgustingly rich Elites.

Each subculture can fill specific job openings in various industries and businesses - all of which are necessary for a robust and prosperous city. For example, the trendy Radical Chics won't even think about moving to your city to run the profitable research and development business you want to build if there isn't ample access to shopping and safety.

But your super markets won't be able to serve the public without an ample supply of free-spirited Fringes to bag their groceries, and police stations can't protect and serve your citizens without some good old fashioned Blue Collars to pound the pavement. Also, without any minimum wage earning Have-Nots to clean up the dirty sheets at the hospital, your Blue Collars might start clamoring for better healthcare so you'd better build some rent controlled slums and... Well, you get the idea. The result is a diverse community with everything from dilapidated housing projects to shimmering skyscrapers as skater punks and affluent CEOs cross paths.

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