As someone who hasn't played any SimCity game in years (not since SimCity 4 came out), I really enjoy Cities: Skyline.

I particularly love that I can have curved streets and named districts, and that I can rename individual shops, people, and even cars. Makes the city seem more like a character than a simulation.

> but it's iterative; it's definitely "picking up the pieces"

Do you mind elaborating?

Paradox Interactive also published Crusader Kings 2, which came out in 2012, and its latest free update was Feb. 16. They support their games for a long time.

CK2 is made by a totally different developer.

Nope, Paradox. They also make Europa Universalis 4, another major time sink.

Edit: You're right, Paradox is only the publisher in this case, not the developer as well.

Wikipedia says it's Paradox Development Studio, which is the design studio, where Paradox Interactive is the publisher, and both are under the same parent company. As far as I am aware, the 'clausewitz engine' used by these games isn't available to other developers.

Who are you seeing as the 'not-Paradox' developer for CK2?

Cities: Skylines. Wikipedia says it's made by Colossal Order, a Finnish company: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cities:_Skylines

EU4 and CK2 are made by PDS, part of Paradox Interactive, a Swedish company.

The confusion was because the thread is actually about Cities: Skylines. That's the game that's only distributed by Paradox, not also made by them, and the one I was confused about.

Sorry, I misread what the thread was about. Thanks for the clarification.

Another fantastic game. I've sunk a lot of hours into that one.

Just saying that I think that Cities: Skyline is a great next step in city builders, but is not ground-breakingly different from the last Sim City. I am hoping that there's some ground-breaking changes soon enough. This is a great start!