A Cities: Skylines mod has added a brand-new, gigantic map based on the Grand Canyon, available now on Steam, just in time for the city-building game’s new DLC Plazas and Promenades.
Cities: Skylines mods have been fantastic for overhauling the management sim, adding new features, mechanics, and environments to Paradox Interactive’s definitive city-building game. The challenge is to create a hustling, bustling urban metropolis, typically smack-bang in the middle of a gigantic green landscape. This new mod, however, adds an extra layer of difficulty, as you have to design and operate your city despite the enormous – or, more specifically, grand – canyon running right down its centre.
Designed by Cities: Skylines content creator Teddy Ranko, the map, officially titled “Great Divide”, is described as “a 1:1 terrain heightmap of the Colorado River in Arizona, just north and upstream of Grand Canyon National Park and east of the Kaibab Plateau. The name is supposed to be a meaningful and poetic metaphor for how our world today is polarised and increasingly divided,” Ranko says, although they invite players to “feel free to rename it ‘The Big Ass Crack’ or ‘Poop Ravine’ as you see fit”.
You can download Great Divide via Cities: Skyline’s Steam workshop, and it requires the Mass Transit DLC in order to play. It launches just ahead of the next official Cities expansion, Plazas and Promenades, which adds a range of pedestrian-friendly areas and new legislation options to the in-depth city builder.
If you want the best experience out of Cities: Skylines, make sure to check out our guide to all the best Cities: Skylines mods and the best Cities: Skylines DLC. You might also want to try your hand at some of the other best building games, or the best city-building games on PC, including Tropico 6 and SimCity 4.