Paradox has postponed the release of Roman city-builder Heart of Empire Rome until the first quarter of 2007. No reason was given for the delay, naturally. Heart of Empire hasn’t been getting nearly the press coverage that CivCity and Caesar IV have which suggests that they have less to show at this point than two games that were announced months later.

Reading interviews and seeing screenshots of the Roman SimCities still leaves me with the disturbing sensation that there will be nothing to distinguish one game from another. If I had to bet now, it would be on Caesar IV being the best of the three, mostly because of Tilted Mill’s beautiful and underappreciated Children of the Nile.

In the meantime, you can build modern cities in the new release City Life from CDV and Monte Cristo. It has been getting good reviews, even from the hardasses at PCGamerUK and Eurogamer (the Old World is mean).