The worst part of games like Cities: Skylines is that you can make an awesome city you can’t actually live in. Cities: Skylines new Concerts add on won’t let you live in the city of your dreams, but it brings the game a little closer to the things that make cities fun to live in.
The Concerts expansion adds a new ploppable building to your game. There’s only one flavor of venue, a festival grounds, which is surprisingly pristine for place where absolutely no one is having an existential crisis after their fifth beer. On the plus side, it’s always packed with dogs.
The festival venue comes with a schedule of concerts that play out throughout the in-game year, cycling through a few bands that all have unique stage set ups. Check out Nestor’s fire centric logos:
The more often bands play, the more popular they get, and when these bands reach a certain level of popularity and you’ve had a certain number of concerts, the festival grounds will upgrade. I haven’t made it there quite yet, but I’ve really been enjoying watching the venue fill up as bands grow more popular.
While other, more substantial Cities: Skylines add ons and expansions add more depth to the game, such as a day night cycle and more mass transit options, now that I know I can have a festival grounds in my cities, I can’t imagine playing without one. It seems like a minor thing, but being able to imagine my citizens going to see their favorite band—or ever having one in the first place—makes me even more motivated to make sure they all live happy lives, with minimal traffic.