Cities: Skylines gets free European-themed content

Paradox Interactive and Colossal Order have released the first major update for their city building simulator Cities: Skylines — and even better, it's completely free!

The new update, Version 1.1 – European Theme, is the first brand new content the game has seen since release back in March. As the title of the update suggests, the free content includes a variety of European-themed additions. This includes:

• Three new European Themed Maps
• Over 50 European style buildings for the new European map themes
• Wall-to-wall buildings enabled for the European Style buildings
• Tunnels, one of the community’s most requested features
• A number of Asset Editor additions including the ability to import custom vehicles
• A multitude of smaller cosmetic additions and bug fixes.

 “Cities: Skylines will continue to follow the traditions set by other recent Paradox releases such as Crusader Kings II and Europa Universalis IV of paid expansions combined with large updates of free content ensuring that all players, whether they choose to purchase the expansions or not, will have plenty of new features to look forward to," brand manager Jakob Munthe said. "One of the major differences, however, between those titles and Cities: Skylines will be that minor DLC updates will be uncommon. The majority of content updates will be significant upgrades and additions.”

Munthe added that moving forward, Paradox will continue to give away "main features" for free and improve the modding tools, while also selling major expansions "around new mechanics." Free content will include such things as new buildings and road types.

The full patch notes for today's update can be found here.