This latest iteration of Sim City adds a societal influence to the already well-tuned city builder. In Sim Cities Societies you still create your own kind of world, but instead of using zoning to do it, you use social pressure. The game tracks six different "social energies": Education, wealth, religion, industry, obedience and creativity and depending on which type of structures you build it can change the entire look of the game.

For instance, you can build very obedience-heavy structures, like assimilation centers, security cameras and corrupt police departments and it starts to change the way your entire city looks, turning it into something it of 1984.

The idea is that gamers should instead of focusing on where and how a city is built, focus on how the inhabitants live and will be effected by your decisions. The demo showed us a bustling Metropolis, a gritty urban setting, a utopian green city, a secular town and even a religious commune.

I like that Maxis has decided to break Sim City a bit out of the mold and is trying to get gamers to think more creatively about how they would fashion their civilization or culture.

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.

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