New screens: SimCity 4

Maxis sent along five new screenshots of its visually impressive SimCity 4, the latest in the company's long-running line of popular and successful city-building simulators. SimCity 4 is being designed using a brand-new 3D engine, and it will let would-be mayors create everything from quaint bedroom towns to sprawling metropolises. The game's new terrain technology will let players terraform the land as they see fit and even construct houses and buildings on slopes and hills. Additionally, the terrain will affect weather conditions, so doing things like creating hills near an ocean will create a foggy climate. And like previous SimCity games, SimCity 4 will also feature a number of devastating disasters like volcanoes, earthquakes, and tornadoes.

SimCity 4 is scheduled for release this fall. For more information on the game, check out our previous coverage.