SimCity

One of the oldest and most successful computer game series has just been rebooted. SIMCITY, the open-ended city-building simulation that first debuted almost a quarter of a century ago, has undergone a much-needed makeover. Once again you're a mayor tasked with building and maintaining a thriving city: you'll build roads and construct buildings to lure in residents; provide job opportunities by laying down commercial and industrial businesses; ensure power, water, and waste flows smoothly throughout the city; and fix problems to keep your residents happy, such as addressing high taxes, pollution, crime, and natural and unnatural disasters (such as earthquakes and UFO attacks, respectively). As you'd expect, every single decision you make shapes your city. Traffic congestion could prevent emergency services from reaching a location in a timely manner. To reduce pollution you might implement greener technology, like windmills, but it'll likely mean higher unemployment. If you want to build up your city into a tourist haven, you might build a casino and widen roads to other cities –- but this will cost the taxpayer. If you need to scale back on public schools to save cash, parents might protest at city hall.

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Seasoned SimCity players should know this new game doesn't offer subways, agriculture, or land terraforming. Instead, for the first time in a SimCity game there's multi-city play, where you can invite friends to see your city, visit other cities for business opportunities (such as trading resources), or collaborate to build a city together or compete in various online challenges.