Since several days, Cities XL is available for beta testing pre-registrations. In other words, if you want to be a beta tester of the game, go and register and hope you will have the chance to be drawn.

Cities XL is announced to be a new concept of city-building games. And what is supposed to be new is mainly this :

• Online 'Planet offer', which introduces for the first time MMO gameplay to the city builder genre
• Sophisticated transport system: players can define the number and uses of traffic lanes; while using bridges and tunnels to expand the size of their cities
• Realistic representation of the population. Citizens have a profile consisting of age, education and wealth. These profiles will affect what types of services and entertainment the player must make available to the city's inhabitants
• Different climates from tropical to desert, Mediterranean to temperate. Topography and terrain affect resource availability and city design
• GEMs (Gameplay Extension Modules) allow players to switch their mayor position for CEO seats, from car dealerships to ski resorts, players will find a wide variety of businesses available to them
• "Fantastic high-end graphics engine" (judge for yourself from the screenshot!), providing "near photo-realistic quality visuals".

The original post also offers a promo code that will, they say, increase your chances of being selected for beta-testing the game.

[ via Massively ]