SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition Reviews

• An Escape from Reality -- Or is it?

  
  By A20CQ20J30DJZT on 2003-11-09
  You don't have to be a gamer to appreciate SimCity 4. If you have the hand-eye coordination to browse a website, you're covered there. You don't need a great sense of spatial relations with the various levels of zoom. You don't need to be able to make split-second decisions with the possible exception of quickly hitting the pause button. You don't need many of the traditional computer gamer skills to enjoy SimCity 4.

  What you do need is the ability to make risk-benefit decisions, and a sense of how the real world works. You need to know, for example, that people with a few bucks in their pockets don't choose to live next to a factory, and you need to understand whether it's better to spend money to build a fire station now, or risk having to rebuild if you wait.

  One thing that SimCity 4 does real well is it's simulation of how a government budget works. If, for example, you build an infrastructure that appropriately supports your city, you'll find that funding everything at 100% would require raising taxes beyond what the residents and business owners will stand for. Pretty soon you'll see abandoned residential, commercial and industrial properties. That means your tax base goes down, and you'll have to raise taxes even further.

  If you take the alternative and cut the funding to your infrastructure so you can lower taxes, you'll be faced with teachers, fire fighters, police, transit and healthcare worker strikes, and satisfying them enough to bring them back to work will cost you more than appropriate funding would have.

  Just when you think you've found that balance between funding your infrastructure and your tax rate, the power plant and roads you originally built start reaching the end of their lives, and you need to replace them. (You were building up a surplus you can tap into, weren't you?)

  While your budgetary problems may consume you, there are other factors to consider. A big one is transportation. Sims don't like rush hour traffic any more than you do - and probably less. If you let commutes get too bad, the Sims will stop going to work. You'll either need bigger roads, more efficient mass transit, or you'll need to move the factories and residential areas closer. But wait... Didn't we already establish that people don't like to live next to factories? Again you have to struggle to find a balance - and that balance needs to fit within your budgetary constraints, too!

  SimCity 4 Deluxe includes the Rush Hour Expansion Pack. In addition to more transportation options, Rush Hour (and thus Deluxe) adds a "you drive it" feature that allows you to control cars, planes, helicopters, and other transports. If you're really getting into the planning and strategy of the game, these options are a distraction. But if you're showing your city to someone less interested in city planning, a you drive it mission may be a fun way to tour the city.

  Something I would love to see in real life is instead of having candidates for public office debate each other, set them down in front of computers, and have them prove their ability to successfully build a working city in SimCity 4. The only governing skill SimCity 4 doesn't simulate well is the ability to work with others. I think we should be very worried about any big city mayor who isn't able to demonstrate their abilities by being successful in SimCity 4.
  
  

• 4.5 Stars---The Best SimCity Yet!

  
  By AW3FTPCBPVQNB on 2004-04-12
  With SIMCITY 4 DELUXE EDITION, which conveniently contains both the regular SIMCITY 4 plus the RUSH HOUR EXPANSION PACK, EA Games is really beginning to live up to their tagline "Challenge Everything." Apparently, the game designers decided to challenge everything that seemed to be holding the game back in the past, and have taken a brave step forward in designing this new edition with those of us in mind who want to be able to create a SimWorld. In other words, you now have an entire continent on which to build cities; instead of having fake adjacent cities that you're forced to do business with, you now can make your own adjacent cities yourself! You can choose from any of a hundred or so "squares" on which you can build one city after another and have them all trade with each other and everything! You can connect them with superhighways, rail, roads, power, water; it's great!

  Another major improvement is in the increased flexibility in building up each of your cities. Remember how, in previous SimCity versions, it's such a pain to figure out where to place your streets within your zones? Not anymore; each time you lay out a zone, whether it be Residential, Commercial or Industrial, the game will automatically lay down a grid of streets for you! That saves A LOT of time right there. Also, remember how you had to blow up your streets in order to replace them with bigger streets? Now, it's a lot easier, because first of all, the road system is much better organized. For example, when you start building a town, you start by using the simple, narrow streets (which are now specifically labeled as being "streets"). However, as people move in and your streets begin to get crowded with traffic, you can then upgrade to wider roads. Eventually, as traffic begins to overwhelm your roads, you may upgrade to wide avenues. All you need to do to "upgrade" is to simply drag a road along a street, or an avenue along a road and---boom!---it automatically changes to a road or avenue. No more having to demolish anything in the process!

  The Rush Hour Expansion Pack just adds a new dimension to the game: now you can go out on selected "missions" by car, boat---even helicopter---and earn new buildings, more money, etc. for your city. Admittedly, I'm still trying to get the hang of these missions, as they aren't too easy, but it's still a cool feature for the game. Also, the buildings and airports are in much better detail now, and there is far greater variety of them. There are also many new landmarks to choose from; they are in much greater detail and there is no longer any limit how many you may place. (However, you now have to pay to place them.) There are many new rewards for being a good Mayor, too!

  My hope is that with SIMCITY 5, they will make everything more 3-D and will finally provide us with the ability for a ground-level Pedestrian View; imagine being able to walk the streets and boulevards of your own cities, drive around, even take your own trains! I think the possibilities are endless. Till then, this will have to do. But, for what it's worth, it's still a pretty darn good game!

  HIGHLY RECOMMENDED FOR SIM FANS
  
  

• Great game at any time

  
  By A2G0LEMQC4T64B on 2004-03-10
  Simcity 4 could probably be one of the best of its kind ever. The game is very realistic and involves most of the daily problems a city mayor has to deal with. It is even very difficult to keep the budget balanced. But here is a tip for this: when you start a new city, always create industrial zones and some commercial that will start to generate new business that would add an income to the city and they do not need any or but a few public services. One you have a big budget surplus you start creating residential zones and leaving space for public buildings. Never create small hospitals, fire and police stations, because in the long term you'll need about 3 times de number of big buildings to keep your citizents happy.
  The only bad thing the game has is the fact that it needs a super pc to run always at a normal speed. I have a Pentium 4 2.80 ghz and 512 RAM with and excellent Video Card and when you use the zoom in your city it sometimes goes a bit slow. So I would suggest that if your planning to get this video game you better have a superb pc or you'll find it frustating to see that the game runs slow.
  I don't know if this game can get any better but I sure hope so. Buy it, you'll end up playing it for hours.
  
  

• Failed attempt to advance the series.

  
  By A58JKPYE7OYVF on 2004-09-05
  In over five years since SimCity 3000 ("Unlimited" included only add-ons), one would expect major advances in gameplay with this next in the series. Sadly, SimCity 4's creator Maxis failed horribly. The result was SO bad, that the original version of SC4 is no longer published. "Deluxe" includes the "Rush Hour" expansion add-ons that were intended to improve gameplay and fix major errors with the game, but ends up doing neither.
  For the first time, SC4 attempts a system where the citizens of the cities would actually "think" (AI) about what is located around them within the city and how each would get to that destination. Unfortunatley, this system is a disaster. Citizens most likely pick congested streets instead of a clear highway next to them to get to a location. Since nearly everything else in a city is intended to run off of this AI (from pollution - to emergency services - to land worth), thoughtful city planners will fail in maintaining a city. Patient and easily entertained gamers may eventually come up with goofy stategies to combat this awfully designed system, but SC4 Deluxe will leave thinking gamers wondering how (and WHY) this game was even released. Even Maxis has admitted it will be "back to basics" with the next version of the series. Given this disastrous version, SC5 should take MANY years to release. Those of us gamers not easily hyptnotized by colorful graphics are hoping more thought goes into it ... for the sake of ALL gamers.
  
  

• Extremely addictive and entertaining

  
  By A2RU92TLE29NKH on 2003-11-10
  Let me start by saying that the first few times i played this game (my first SimCity game) i wasn't too happy. It seemed a little hard and made me feel that playing this game is more about money management than planning and building a city. However as i tried it out some more i got the hang of things and began to realize that the simulation is pretty realistic and has a lot of variety built in.
  The key to enjoying this game is to understand that adding more amenities to the city - like colleges, garbage collection, hospitals, public transportation,... is expensive and to prevent those investments from draining your money, the city needs to expand as soon as every one of these things is added. So basically you need to zone more areas for residential, commercial and industrial growth as you add more facilities so that these facilities are shared by more people which makes them cheaper to you and more people means more tax revenue.
  The other thing i found very interesting is how the city doesn't always need to grow the same way. You could decide to build a farming community where you don't bother much with education and pollution or you could build a high tech city where you have to make sure you're encouraging the right kind of industry and people to move into your city.
  The Rush Hour expansion (which is part of this Deluxe edition) is more useful when your city gets really big (i would say 50,000+) so that you can now add different kinds of public transportation means. To make the right decision regarding the location of subway stations, etc. you can look at the traffic flow across the whole city or concentrate on one building and see how people are getting to this place.
  Then there is also the next step of connecting cities together. This enables you to build an industrial city with high rises and a neighboring one thats an affluent suburb with big mansions and boutique stores.
  This game has a lot of depth. It does take a little time to get the hang of it but hey... no pain, no gain :)
  
  
• Great thinking game
  By on 2003-10-19
  Sim City 4 is a game that challenges your management skills. You have to really keep track of everything that is going on in your city. From Urban planning, to SDOT(Sims Dept. of Transportation), to Education. You need to stay on top of it all. You do have advisors in the city that give you great advice and will help you through most everything.

  This is not an easy game. If you're anything like me I had heard about sim city but I had never played it. I took the chance, bought the game, and started playing. After an hour I had a small city that I really liked. The thing that really hooks you about this game is that it can just keep going. It's not like other games that once you have beaten it, you're done an you never play it again. This is a great game that you can play for a few hours a week and really not get tired of it. I became totally addicted to it. I try to play whereever and whenever I can! Your city keeps changing and growing and evolving. Plus you can try different types of cities. Try the agracultural city, there's a real challenge. If you can figure out how to make a farming community prosper, then you're really starting to think about what it takes to run a city.

  This game recently won the Parenting approval award. Here is a game that actually forces you to think in order to win. This is a great game. Just try it for an hour or two.

  Also, please read the system requirements. This game is big and requires a fair bit of horse power to run. The technology is changing folks, yes the games are getting bigger and need more power to run, but, because of that you get a game that is really incredible to play.

  Good luck!
  
  

• A Huge Achievment
  By on 2004-05-31
  I purchased SimCity 4 at least a year ago for $89 :( . I wasn't that happy with it, not being into the RTS genre at the time. So it sat there for around 11 months until I really got into the RTS "spirit". Then SimCity 4 really shined. It covers every detail of running a city, from taxes to landfill. The graphics are superb, even on my Dell 2400 computer, (which has an integregrated graphics device). You see Sims talking, driving, taking the train, everything. The structures are much more realistic then those of Sim City 3000,(which we have at school). It takes a little getting used to at first, but once you get the hang of it, It's quite easy.

  PROS:
  1. Superb Graphics
  2. Complete City Governing Coverage
  3. Advisors are more help then in SC3
  4. Rush Hour adds complete transportation coverage
  5. Graphs and Data Views are more detailed

  CONS:

  1. My computer deletes cities sometimes
  2. Some Gliches with less powerful graphic cards or processors

  Score

  Graphics 5/5
  Sound 5/5
  Speed 4/5
  Compatability 4/5

  OVERALL 5/5

  This is not a game for people who hate fiddling with every detail of everything. Gamers new to RTS or expierienced will find this game enjoyable.
  I thouroughly recommend it
  
  

• Unable to stop playing
  By A25ZWIKQ7J6XP4 on 2005-01-17
  First, some history:
  
  I've been playing SimCity since the old DOS version. I loved it (all of Will Wright's sim games, like SimAnt and SimEarth), and loved the series even more when SimCity 2000 came out. I would spend sometimes all day playing it, and using SCURK to make my own buildings.
  
  When SimCity 4 came out I begged my mother to buy it for me for my 21st birthday (she did), and I played it once - then didn't play it ever again until just a few weeks ago. I finally got into the game then.
  
  Let me tell you - don't play SimCity 4 unless you've got Rush Hour or Deluxe because you'll never manage to get a city up and running. In no time there is too much traffic and the budget is terrible. You only get property taxes and an incredibly tiny amount of fares for public transportation (no wonder the CTA has never made a dime) as income, but everything else comes out of your pocket - hospitals and clinics, schools, fire and police protection, as well as maintaince for the roads, pipes, and other infrastructure to keep a bustling metropolis going.
  
  Rush Hour (or Deluxe) makes it all better - your city has many more, sometimes cheaper, alternatives to transit, which helps reduce your burden. Use larger avenues for increased traffic, and place tollbooths on them and make a few hundred simoleons a month extra. Create elevated rails in your car clogged downtown and elimiate both traffic and pollution at once. On top of that, you now have easy/normal/hard modes that start you out with a bit more than the original 100,000 (500,000 in easy). Also, I swear, your population, jobs, and demand are more balanced in the expansion than the original game. It is also easier for commuters to get to jobs too - I haven't seen a single No Job zot over any houses yet, even though my city is physically larger than any I'd created in the original SimCity 4.
  
  On easy, you also get more from taxes than the other difficulty levels. Create cities next to each other and sell services, or better yet, put your power, industrial, and garbage in the next town - and your residential and water in the first and sell back and forth. Use a few avenues to lead up to the industrial and place a tollbooth on each one and watch your revenues rise.
  
  Just remember, though: read the manual - SimCity 4 is really really complex and hard to understand at first, but is worth it!
  
  
• Addictive.
  By A1ZUC5J8G6KZXA on 2004-06-01
  Years ago I fell in love with the original SimCity, but hadn't played it or the subsequent versions until I bought this on a whim. It was one of the best purchases I have made!

  SimCity is a scrolling map of an area where you, as Mayor, create the city with its surrounding industrial, residential and commercial zones. You build the infrastructure - roads, rail, utilities. You balance a budget as you control the funding of new developments. It is so lifelike that typical problems arise and you are responsible for solving them, else your popularity will dive.

  The scope of SimCity4 is incredible in comparison to the previous versions; creating various districts in a region (multiple CBD's), creating beaches, subways, monorail, the list goes on. You also have the ability to create your own personalised landforms, including regional landforms from scratch. I haven't used any MySims in the Rush Hour expansion pack yet because there is so much to do first.

  The only problem I see so far is the inability to scroll across districts that border one another. You can link them through roads etc, but you cannot scroll from one zone to the next. You need to exit one district to enter the next. I have a modern computer, so I haven't found any problems with running the software (as others have found).

  But, I've had so much fun playing this version that time seems to travel five times faster than normal. Maybe I'm flying so fast, time is actually slowing down. Anyway, this game is very addictive and I find myself playing it at every opportunity. I thoroughly recommend it to everyone, especially town planners and politicians who could do with the practice.
  
  

• Terrific Game, Others are Wrong
  By AZHL6ZFZ2LST0 on 2004-09-01
  For anyone who gives this game below 4 stars, they obviously aren't seeing the true point to this game. Here are just a few responses to some of the bad ratings:
  
  -CD's rarely explode in the drive. This happens once every few million or so CDs when there is a slight imperfection (not your fault) and the high speeds and warm temperatures in the drive cause the CD to warp more than it is and eventually explode. This can take some time as the warp may take some time to grow.
  -The graphics are amazing for this type of game. If it kills your specs, get a new comp, not my problem.
  -The point of the game is not to have perfect AI going exactly where they're supposed to, but going in general areas of traffic where there would normally be the MOST commotion (dense areas) and tell you to expand those roads. This is incredibly realistic, because people don't just go across the street to work, they have to go to school, shop, and rarely is their job across the street.
  -If you're experienced and take the tutorials, the game can be challenging, fun, and easy at the same time. This is what I look for in a game.
  -If you can't afford 1.2 Gigs to install this baby, you don't deserve it. Get a new comp man, its that simple. It's not 1993 anymore.
  
  
  Graphics: 5/5
  Gameplay: 5/5
  Interactability: 5/5
  Sound: 5/5
  Originality: 5/5
  
  I like a game with a lot to think about and work up to, and this game has hights that I can't even see for months to keep me busy. It also seems that there are more city areas to expand to after timbuktu. The U-Drive-It mode is uniquely original and offers somewhat of a cab driving and even a slight tint of GTA to the game, giving you something to relax on when you're losing focus from the city itself. My favorite expansion is the increase in transportation means. I didn't play much of 3000, but this definately blew 2000's out of the water. The music was well themed and well written, unlike many MIDI powered music sources this one seemed recorded and I liked the scores to the music as well. If this review hasn't convinced you to buy it, then don't.
  
  
• What a mess!
  By on 2004-06-29
  Nearly every good idea or advancement they promised, has been implemented badly. And oddly enough, everything fun and addictive about previous versions has been forgotten. This game actually gets worse the more you play.
  
  Just a few problems with this game are:
  A poor interface with few options - No multiple saves here.
  Bad "terrascaping" tools. Worse than SC2000
  Circa 1999 graphics. (despite killing your system's specs)
  No real "regional" play - Time stops in parts of your city not played. So one can throw all the 'junk' in those parts, and it will never actually affect your played "cities".
  Horrible AI/pathfinding -cars drive in circles and sims can't get to work right across the street.
  This game has MANY more horrid mistakes, too many to list here.
  The bad AI within SC Deluxe is especially damaging because nearly every factor in one's city runs off of your citizens abilities to commute- (jobs,land values,pollution, costs, etc.) not even mentioning traffic congestion problems!
  SimCity 4 Deluxe is NOT a game for thinkers and observant gamers, as they will quickly see a game that should never have been released. It is just that awful.
  
  
• A Mixed Bag
  By A1LPDCW44JVCFT on 2006-03-04
  Well, being a fan of Simcity for a long time I decided to purchase this game, *after* I finally got a computer capable of running it - the system requirements are very large, so it's not going to work well on a computer more than three or four years old.
  
  I found out fairly soon that there were some problems with the game like spontaneous crashes and stuff, which need to be fixed by downloading a patch from the official website. And it still has occasional problems with crashing or parts of cities disappearing when I save. There could be significant improvements in stability here, and it doesn't appear that EA is going to release any more patches for the game.
  
  The graphics are a definite improvement over the previous SimCity games, there's a lot more detail to everything, and there is a larger variety of buildings, although you still start to see the same building over and over pretty fast.
  
  The game differs from previous versions right away - the map is a large region of squares to build interconnected cities on. Unfortunately, there is no large-scale terrain editor here, nor is there a terrain generator as in Simcity 3000. Instead, you have to go into each little square and edit from there with the terrain tools, which are better than the previous versions, but aren't very useful in the sense that you will have to go back and forth between squares, reconciling the edges to make a realistic region. It is possible to import grayscale images into a whole region, but it requires being a total geek and a lot of time and patience, something that a lot of people won't have time to do.
  
  Once you do have a suitable area to start the game is pretty fun, if a bit challenging. If you've never played the previous versions of this game before you'll definitely need to play the tutorials, and if you have played before, you are going to need to unlearn a lot of stuff. It can be a bit difficult at first to get things going and the money coming in, but after a little while you'll start to fill up the square on the map, and that's where things get start to get interesting. People can and will commute between two connected squares, and the two "cities" can trade utilies much like the neighbor deals in Simcity 3000. And from this point, at least in theory, you can build a much larger city.
  
  That's the idea, anyway. In reality as my megacities expanded I've just noticed more and more problems that make the game become very frustrating. There are a number of problems I've hit at this stage of the game:
  
  1. The large squares become basically unusable as they fill up. The transportation system becomes so complex that the simulation more or less gives up on finding paths for commuting, which in turn halts new development. I've had to stop using these altogether because of the choke they can put on the region. And then there's an issue where things like trees and other of the so-called "props" (basically a lot of small detail that goes along with buildings) may just disappear from large sections of these maps while saving the game.
  
  2. The transportation system eventually stops working logically. People will start commuting just to the closest edge of the map connected to another "city", which leads to going in circles, extremely high traffic counts on side streets when there's an empty freeway nearby, and eventually brings the game to the point where I'm trying all sorts of strange tricks to force people into driving in a direction that makes some sort of sense.
  
  3. There's also this issue with micro-management that becomes very annoying later in the game. Each school and hospital needs to have funding set for them just right - if it's too low the workers go on strike for apparently eternity, if it's too high it's easy to lose a lot money fast. And then there's the fact that buildings (especially factories) catch on fire an awful lot, and apparently the fire department can't dispatch to these fires on their own.
  
  4. It's difficult to build any sort of realism in these cities, partially because of the issues with the scale of things, for example you will likely need dozens of power plants scattered all over the place, and the same thing goes for sanitary landfills, and while it's theoretically possible to have some central location for these kind of things, in reality the cost is prohibitive. In addition people will not commute more than about 1 1/2 miles from their homes, which takes them like TWO HOURS in good traffic.
  
  In addition, perhaps it's just me, but I don't see a whole lot of fun in the so-called "U-Drive-It" part of this game. I find it boring for the most part and difficult to use. I think this feature is way overrated and overhyped.
  
  My advice is if you are already a fan of Simcity go ahead and buy this game (if your computer can handle it), but don't pay full price for it. If you haven't played a Simcity game before this one will likely be somewhat overwhelming and confusing and I would recommend buying and playing an older version, such as Simcity 3000.
  
  
• Stunning Experience!
  By A1EC3GUNBSEAG0 on 2004-01-03
  I am a long time owner of the original SimCity. The new game is absolutely light years away from the original.

  Not only is the AI much more advanced in SimCity4, but the functionality and graphics are tremendous. There is simply nothing as fulfilling after finally getting the city budget into the black than entering the sims screen and driving a police cruiser around the city running cars off the street. ;)

  Also, The night time mode is absolutely beautiful, and I find myself exposing my sims to an eternal nocturnal environment. :)

  The gameplay and superb graphics do come at a price. The memory and disk space needed to run the game are intensive for most computers that don't have the latest generation processing speeds, video cards and memory. The game worked seamlessly over Christmas on my parents laptop, but was sluggish on my computer which barely meets the minimum requirements. Much to my distress, the game will be shelved until I can purchase a newer system.
  
  

• Great Version of a Great Simulation Game
  By on 2004-01-05
  SimCity 4 (SC4) is the latest entry in the popular, excellent series of city simulation games of the same name. The basic "point" of the game is to create, run and grow a city successfully from a fledgling community up to a megalopolis -- the game play is therefore open ended and limitless in variety.

  As the city's mayor, you will need to balance wants and needs with your budget -- and in Sim City 4, that can be quite difficult because the budgetary aspects of the simulation are quite difficult (the "Rush Hour" expansion bundled with this edition mollifies this somewhat by providing an "easy" difficulty setting, which was not available with the original edition of SC4, that provides additional funds to start with, making the budgetary crisis easier to manage). You must zone effectively, make effective decisions about providing utilities, education and other civic resources, manage transportation and work-related issues and the like in order to make your city an attractive place and attract Sims to your town, increase the population and tax base and grow, grow, grow. And the fun doesn't stop there -- in SC4, you are able to widen the focus to include an entire region of interdependent cities and towns -- with one acting as the downtown, another as the industrial port town, and still another as the affluent suburb -- all linked together by utilities and transportation links into one major conurbanation. The game is really limitless in terms of what you can do with it once you get the basic hang of it, and it is not like other computer games that require extensive fingerwork or hand-eye coordination skills -- this is a pure strategy simulation in urban planning, development and management.

  The "Rush Hour" expansion bundled with this edition adds a few notable features, including the difficulty setting noted above. Most of the more useful ones involve additional transportation options, such as overhead subway lines or Els and surface-level highways, that are more useful for when your cities achieve a certain size. In addition, there are some further bells and whistles, like the ability to name streets, parks, neighborhoods and natural formations and give them signs visible in the game, as well as the addition of "missions" -- essentially minigames within the larger game that have you playing the role of a policeman, fireman, etc., fulfilling a certain defined task in your city in exchange for the reward of unlocking a certain type of buidling or landmark that will later appear in your city.

  Bottom line: if you have a penchant for (or even an interest in) urban planning or design, this is a great, immersive simulation that will keep you happily occupied for quite some time.
  
  

• For Those Having Issues.....
  By A3P0HKA3GK9UGX on 2005-12-28
  First off, I'd like to say that I'm enjoying this game. I got it as a gift this Christmas. I have played the previous 3 installments, and this one is by far, the most detailed in terms of managing city infastructure, and graphically. Thus my 5-star rating.
  
  For those having issues with this title, first off, a high-spec PC or laptop is a must. Don't go with the minimal requirements. I did this with my old PC (P4 @ 1.8Ghtz / 256Mb RAM / 64Mb video) when I bought just the plain vanilla version of SC4 back in 2003, and ended up having to return the game, due to the sluggish playback on my PC at the time.
  
  I now have an Intel Pentium D, 2.8 Ghtz PC with 1Gb RAM, and 256 Mb Nvidia GeForce 6800. Running this puppy at full blown graphics and sound, and it still runs smooth for me, even at the closest zoom level. The detail is stunning, and I've only begun to dive in. I've yet to build up a bustling city, but I'm still learning the ropes and getting a refresher course using the tutorial maps.
  
  Second, it's probably best to run this game under XP Pro/Home, and make sure Windows, your video, and sound drivers, and DirectX are current.
  
  Looking for the serial #? Try the back cover of the instruction manual at the top.
  
  Hopefully my pointers help anyone out who's having issues, and are able to enjoy this, perhaps the best of the SimCity series to date. I'm already anxious to see what Maxis/EA may have in store if a SC5 is on the horizon.
  
  
• Good game but with some odd quirks
  By A3UMLZYEAZPK9G on 2006-04-14
  As a fan of the old original Sim City, I decided to try this new version out. For the most part I've been quite pleased, but I have noticed a couple of odd quirks.
  
  First off, during installation you are asked for a 20 digit key code which is supposed to be printed on the back of the CD Case or the back of the Install Guide. It was in neither place, but I did find it on the back of the game instruction booklet. It's also not a 'digit' key but rather an alphanumeric key (contains both letters and numbers).
  
  Second, launching the game after installation is a bit odd. There are 2 disks. Disk 1 has an autorun routine that seems to launch the game but then pops up an error asking for the play disk. Disk 2 does NOT seem to have an autorun routine. I eventually discovered that the easiest way to launch this game was to insert Disk 2 in the drive and use the program launch that the game installs into Windows XP. There doesn't seem to be anything in the documentation anywhere that specifies which disk is the 'play' disk, but it is apparently disk #2.
  
  Other than these two quirks, I'm enjoying this new enhanced version of Sim City.
  
  
• Excellent
  By ABZLDRNGG5S6A on 2003-11-03
  The most helpful thing I've gathered from most of these reviews is that people don't read. First, gugegonji, read your installation manual for some help. I agree the installation of this game is not the best, but it can be done. I had to disable almost everything on startup and then it went smoothly. Afterwards, I could turn everything back on to run the game. So, gugegonji, please review the game and not your equipment. And if you still need help, call technical support.

  As for the "gamer from Texas", I'm not really sure he's played other versions of this game or he'd know that you can turn of Auto Go To Disasters. As for the street situation, it says right in the manual how to not have the game lay down streets for you. Read. Also, the menus are about the same as SimCity 3000. Trust me, if you think about something you'd like in this game, it's probably there.

  This game was worth the wait, especially with the expansion pack. If you are considering it, get it! You will not be disappointed. The depth of this game is incredible. Of course, the price of that is that you need a fairly decent system.
  
  

• Entertainment, frustration, construction and destruction
  By AR9QPZFX65LDV on 2005-10-04
  Sim City 4 lets you create and run any kind of city you can think of. Will you build a small farming town or a massive metropolis? As mayor, you have a group of advisors who inform you of problems and other issues. A few of my friends who had never played any of the Sim City games were horrified when they looked at some screenshots on the back of the box and saw the hundreds of tiny houses that covered the citys, as they were under the impression that you had to individually place every little building. This is not so. Instead, you zone areas (as you would in real life) for certain types of buildings and the citizens will take care of the rest. You do choose where to build governmental buildings such as court houses, police stations, fire stations, hospitals, power plants, ect. This game does come with frustrations as well. Balancing your expenses can be very difficult. In this area, your cities are as realistic as the real thing. One decision leads to multiple others forcing you to make very careful choices. For example: You are trying to decide what you should invest your money in. Your trying to keep your monthly expenses below your monthly income which is already too close for comfort. Should you raise funding for the police station in the most heavily crime infested neighborhood in the city, or construct larger roads to lessen the horrible traffic in the residential area at the end of the highway? You could raise taxes or cut funding but less people will move to your city and cutting too much funding in one area will cause the employees to go on strike. The military will give you money if you let them build a missile testing site in your city, but doing this might start protests and riots. If your city becomes a disaster thats just too much to handle or if you just get tired of it, you can unleash tornados, astroids, giant robots, freak lightning storms, earthquakes and (my personal favorate) a giant UFO that can wipe out a large portion of your city with a big laser and then launches three tiny UFOs that shoot fireballs. This is a great game for people who love city builders and have the patience and decision making ability to keep your city from falling apart.
  
  
• good game
  By ABZURZQ6OBQSD on 2003-12-10
  There are two complaints I have about the game: (1) placing water/land objects (marinas, etc.) is difficult and tiresome because the game requires that they be positioned in a very specific way that is not clear to the user, and (2) it is hard to switch between the game and other applications running on your PC (such as Outlook), even with a powerful processor and sufficient RAM.

  I use a 1.7Ghz Pentium with 512 MB RAM and find it slow to switch applications; those who have faster processors and more RAM may find it easier, or this may be a deficiency with the design of the game. Regardless, I find it surprising that a game could use so much RAM and tie up the processor to such a great degree.

  Other than these two, minor complaints, the game is impressive. The level of detail is greater than in previous versions.

  One note about the 'missions': I find these silly and annoying and thus never use them. But, apparently from the reviews, there are those who swear by the, so as they say, different strokes for different folks.

  Make sure your hard drive has at least three GB to spare when installing.
  
  

• Can't stop playing it!
  By AIIR8E34EDKCQ on 2006-03-05
  I absolutely love this game, and sure the main idea is set on a specific principle, regarding that this is a computer game, yet you don't kill anyone here and you don't go to different levels, and I love my crazy games, yet this one gives ms me the satisfaction of making something while I play rather than destroying it.
  
  Right of the bat, I must say I love the music, at times I leave the city running and growing on the slow speed, just so that I can listen to the jazzy cool tunes. I have been a fan of anything that has to do with the Sims since I was in 7th grade when I discovered Sim City 2000 on a computer in my computer class, yes in 7th grade. I'm almost 25 now and I am still crazy about the Maxis ideology behind the city games, as this grew and evolved into a marvelous game. I seriously don't know how they can improve this, because the graphics are phenomenal, you get to sculpt your land, and you can seriously choose from a whole globe of land to play on. You can plant your trees and wild animals, and then the zones, buildings, the natural disasters, the people who need you, your taxes, community programs, ordinances, and really fun decisions on where to plop your park, and this time you can choose from a huge variety of building and entertainment centers for your Sims.
  
  I this game takes a bit to get used to and figure out how to play wile actually making money instead of spending them, and they sure give you enough at the beginning, and while you can Google for cheat codes, it's really fun to roll up my sleeves and really get my brain pumping while I manage my city. I love how many things I can be in charge of, the style of the buildings, where I want a farm with fruitful trees and orchards, what neighborhood I want the bus to stop in, what schools and museums I want resting in the shade provided by so many kinds of tress I can choose from, and so on.
  I love this as it's a game you can play forever, I wonder how old I can grow my city to be and how I can sculpt it to perfection. Really fun game with gorgeous graphics, and the zoom button is amazing, you can get down to the street levels you build yourself and observe, just like watching ants on the ant hill, but 10000 times more fun!
  
  
• All the promises fulfilled!
  By on 2005-06-16
  SimCity 4 is amazing...you get to create your very own "region" (a network of cities) from the ground up! Each city is placed on a "tile" in the region. There are 3 sizes of tiles and are created randomly (small, medium, and large). The large tile is kind of overwhelming, but allows alot of mountains and scenery in between neighborhoods. Overall, the medium tile is probably the best; it gives you enough space to do just about anything.
  
  When you load a tile for the first time, all there is on it is, well, nothing, but you can change that! With the "God Mode" (the first mode in the game) you can create mountains, hills, rivers, valleys, and add effects like erosion. Then you can place trees and animals in the world.
  
  The "Mayor Mode" is the mode where you build your city. Zone off residential, commercial, and industrial areas, place a power plant, and watch your city begin! Then connect roads to distant places unoccupied on the tile, and zome off more land. If you really want to get serious about things, you can upgrade streets to roads, multilane "avenues", or even freeways if you are really crazy.
  
  Eventually the highways and streets get clogged, and your Sims need another way to travel. This is where you can roll out totally AWESOME transportation options. If you want to stick to the roads, place a few bus stops and the buses will start to go. But if you want to get your Sims away from the roads, you can build railroads. Place a couple stations and build the tracks to them! You'll soon see your Sims flocking to the trains. You can even throw freight haulers off the roads as well, if you place freight train stations!
  
  Up to a different type of train? SimCity offers elivated railroads (just like the ones in Chicago), and monorails too. You can even transfer your elivated trains from over the roads, to UNDER the roads, via the subway/elivated train piece!
  
  When you're city is up and running well, you can go to the next mode, called the "My Sim Mode". Don't get the idea in your head that you can't ever go back to the Mayor Mode, though. If you want to add on later you can!
  
  The My Sim Mode is probably the most fun in the game. You can place your own Sims in your city, and watch them go from work to home. But, that isn't the best part. The BEST part of My Sim Mode is the U-Drive-It feature, which allows you to drive vehicles! Some of the vehicles you can drive are police cars, fire trucks, school buses, ice cream trucks, freight and passenger trains, monorails, and army tanks. That's not EVEN including all of the water and air vehicles, which are ENDLESS fun as well!
  
  Drive the vehicles on missions and earn cool buildings, or money, depending on what mission you are doing. Then you can go back into the Mayor Mode and place them in your city!
  
  I would HIGHLY recommend SimCity 4, mainly because it is SO COOL! The only thing I don't like is how it frezzes up, but it doesn't crash or anything, so it's not really a problem after a while. I bought that JoWooD game called Traffic Giant and it was JUNK, mainly because it froze and crashed! Not including that you can't build cities or drive the vehicles. SC4 is just the oppisate!! And, if you are going to get it, get the Deluxe Edition because you get A LOT more for the SAME PRICE!
  
  And listen to that other guy's cheat code thing. It is REALLY useful (once you have the game, of course) especially for those people who can't wait to place cool skyscrapers and buildings!
  
  This game does not deserve the bad reviews it is getting. I havn't had ANY problems with it since I got it. Just make sure your computer has PLENTY of hardrive space, and it wouldn't hurt if it was a farily new computer as well. I'm sure it would run really choppy on Windows 95 or 98 (if you could even get it to work on them). Windows 2000 probably isn't very good either. Windows ME and XP are GREAT!
  
  
• Difficult to install but found the answer
  By A22TETBGXM334G on 2005-11-07
  I just wrote the same basic review for The Sims2. I had difficulty getting the second disk to install. I went to techsupport.ea.com and quickly found the answer. So it must be a common problem.
  
  Here is what the website said to do. After that I add a comment because it didn't quite work for me the way they stated:
  
  Install the game from your hard drive by copying the CD contents of the discs to your hard drive. (Make sure that you have 2.5gb of free space on your hard drive before attempting this.)
  
  Right-click on your Desktop and select New, then click Folder and name it SimCity4.
  Insert the SimCity 4 disk 1 into your CD/DVD-ROM drive.
  Double-click on My Computer and right-click on your CD/DVD-ROM and click Open.
  Hold down the Ctrl button and press the A button to highlight everything, and then press the C button while still holding Ctrl to copy everything.
  Close the current window, and double-click on the SimCity4 folder on your desktop.
  Right-click in center of the empty window and click Paste.
  When the files finish copying, remove the SimCity 4 disk 1 from the CD/DVD-ROM.
  In the SimCity4 folder, double-click on the file labeled Setup.exe that has a EA icon next to it.
  NOTE: The installation will now start. Once the installation gets to 45% it will prompt you for disk 2. Do not close the installation window, just minimize it and proceed with the steps.
  Double-click on the SimCity4 folder you created on your desktop.
  Delete all of the files and folders except for the folders Autorun, Support, and DirectX.
  To delete the files, hold down the Ctrl button and click with your mouse on all of the files that need to be deleted.
  Once the files are highlighted, right-click on one of the highlighted files and choose Delete.
  When prompted if you are sure, choose Yes.
  Insert the SimCity 4 disk 2 into your CD/DVD-ROM drive.
  Double-click on My Computer and right-click on your CD/DVD-ROM and click Open.
  Hold down the Ctrl button and press the A button to highlight everything, and then press the C button while still holding Ctrl to copy everything.
  Close the current window, and double-click on the SimCity4 folder on your desktop.
  Select Edit from the window toolbar, and then select Paste.
  When prompted This file already exists do you wish to overwrite? select Yes to all.
  When the files finish copying, remove the SimCity 4 disk 2 from the CD/DVD-ROM.
  Go back to the installation window and select Ok, and the installation will continue
  After the installation finishes, you can delete the SimCity4 folder.
  
  What happened to me was I clicked OK and it wouldn't just go to the file and finish the installation. I actually put the secdon cd in and this time it installed all the way.
  
  I love sim city it has given me years of enjoyment.
  
  
• Very Very Good and Very Addictive
  By A10DN5GTTHIKOJ on 2003-12-06
  I really love playing simulation games and Sim City 4 Deluxe Edition is the best I've come across so far. I used to have the orginal Sim City for the Commodore 64. Yes I'm showing my age, I have also had other versions of Sim City for the PC and I found the older ones more frustrating.

  I been up sometimes to 3 am working with my cities.

  I was in local government for 15 years and this game is also very realistic with traffic problems, budget problems, other officals who sometimes put their own interests above others and so on.

  After reading some of the reviews I have a few tips for who ever is interested.

  Computer Tips:

  1.) Turn off antivirus software while installing and playing the game (this goes for about every game)
  2.) Check for video card driver updates and direct x updates

  Game Play Hints:

  1.) Try and keep your schools in a central location in your residential areas, that way you can use less bus funding. Also do the same with your public services.
  2.) Don't build any fire dept until the public safety dude is yelling at you.
  3.) Try not to let the game auto place your streets when zoning. Build your own first and then zone around them and make sure the arrows are pointing to the street.
  4.) When doing a lot of street building and zoning pause the game, it cuts down on the distractions
  5.) You can sneak funding down a little on public ultities.
  6.) You can sneak taxes up a little over time without too many problems.

  Sim City 4 Deluxe is worth having.
  
  

• Quite simply the best computer game of all time in one pack
  By A3EJYJC25OJVKK on 2004-02-29
  Computer games my friends don't get any better than this! THis "Deluxe EditioN" compiles the original Simcity 4 game along with the "Rush Hour" expansion pack into one package!

  Simcity 4 suffered from many flaws that I felt really hindered the game's credibility in many areas. One was the freeways where they would just simply end in a dangling cliff where it would look like a daredevil stunt arena. Another one was the street system where you couldn't build anything more than two lane roads other than freeways. The game felt a bit unfinished in many areas.

  However the graphics, music and scope are absolutely amazing and are a grand improvement over the Simcity 2000 game from many years back.

  The Rush Hour Expansion pack corrects many of these mistakes by adding a freeway terminal interchange and you can also build wide four-lane avenues with medians and civic buildings are also improved on a vast scale (Larger police stations, Larger schools, etc.), and adds so many new things to this game like monorail, elevated rail to subway, new disasters, and a "U-Drive It" feature where you can actually drive around your newly built city.

  This item is a must-have for Simcity fanatics. Just be sure you have lots of disk space or else the game might go at a cold molasses pace.
  
  

• SimCity 4 Deluxe
  By ATY98WEL5B2NU on 2005-07-23
  Hello. I first played SimCity around '95, and bought the most recent version, 4 (with the expansion), earlier this year. I very much enjoyed playing SC2.
  
  The game has much better graphics (less of a DOS feel and more of an XP feel), although running the game requires a very substantial machine. My system is in good condition, it runs XP, I have 512MB RAM and Radeon 128MB graphics card and still my machine lags in terms of displaying the buildings as you move around the city or zoom in or out. The game also eats up huge amounts of your hard disk space.
  
  There are many more things to build and interesting mayor rewards, for example: Disease Research Centre, Conference Centre, Opera House, Private Schools, Golf Course, Area 51, Toxic Waste Dump, Radio Station, etc. This is most enjoyable aspect of game in my opinion, the sheer variety of stuff to build which makes a neighbourhood attractive to certain types of Sims or businesses or industries, and attractive landscapes on which to build thanks to terrain/terraforming editor.
  
  There are also huge interconnected maps which can assist each other in terms of business deals, so you can build a dirty city which takes the pollution out of your other cities, or a commuter city which supplies the workers for another city which is one huge industrial hub. This is also a very interesting feature.
  
  Transport system more realistic and works more like you would expect in real life, although you must plan very carefully to leave enough room to turn roads into avenues then into ground-level highways, etc. - you can very easily box yourself in and have to resort to metro only which is expensive. You must lay out your city with a very keen eye on the future, plan ahead in terms of traffic congestion and associated pollution. Again in my opinion this is what makes the game interesting, you must think hard and plan ahead. This requires you play a couple of maps first and make a hash of things, to learn how to lay out properly in future :-) Of course in real life town planners cannot simply demolish whole neighbourhoods or start afresh with a new map. So to some extent this game gives you respect for real town planning and the problems and issues involved.
  
  The ability to drive vehicles is laughable graphically, and gives you the opportunity to earn huge amounts of cash which unbalances the game - I would advise you to avoid this feature and play `properly' to earn your money, otherwise it feels like cheating. Maybe that's what you want though...
  
  The ability to transplant your SIMS into the communities you create initially seems good idea, and for a few minutes is fun to hear them comment on life around them, and to watch them drive around and change jobs, but soon becomes apparent that they just spam your news window and give you very little meaningful information which you could not get from the regular news.
  
  So, overall, the problem is the demands it places on your system, otherwise very interesting and enjoyable and worth buying if you like town planning simulations.
  
  
  
• Waited until this version came out.
  By on 2003-10-06
  This is the SimCity I've been waiting for. Not just the Delux version, but overal version too. Versions 1-3 were all fun, but there was always something in the features that was missing. Version 4 seems to be fairly complete and sophisticated with all the options and feedback I want. Previous versions left you guessing about the consequences of a change, but with all the graphs and statistical overlays you don't have to guess much. Also the buildings change right on screen when thing get better or worse. There are several variations on transportation structure and buildings/parks than add alot to the fun of taloring your city.

  Not that SC4 is perfect. There are some annoying things, like the menu system that is too deeply nested. The fire and alert popups that interrupt whatever you waded through the menu to do, and jerks the view over to another area. Sometimes zoned areas say that they have no transportation access with a road right next to it. There are no scenarios that I can see, but I never play the scenarios, so that is not a problem for me. When you lay down zones, steets are automatically placed too. I am not sure I like this, though it makes things easier. Dense areas need roads, not streets, so I have to go through and replace them. Also, you have no control over how they are placed and sometimes they are placed hapazardly.

  Overall, this is a very fun game that I recommend.
  
  

• 4.5 stars rounded to 5
  By on 2005-06-10
  First, let me tell you that this game takes a lot of power. I have a dell dimension 2100 1ghz celeron with 128 mb of memory, and it went soooooo slow. When I upgraded the memory to 384, it was alright. It takes op about 3 gigabytes of space, so make sure you have some hard disk left. Now about the game. The realism in the game is spectactular. Yoiu have to manage taxes, traffic, garbage, water, fire, crime, pollution, environment and power. You can drive around the city to get a "feel" for it. It's very addicting and despite what other people say, I don't think it's that repetitive. You can build airports, sea ports, tourist attractions and other stuff. The reason I gave this a 4.5 is because it has some major bugs. (I got this on xmas 03') One of them was when I was playing the game it just suddenly exited out back to my desktop. I downloaded the path and the problem seemed to have disappeared. The second problem is that sometimes, saved cities get deleted. The current patch has not been able to address this problem. Overall, it's a great game, if you have the computer capacity.
  
  
• SimCity 4 is Addicting
  By A1PD82AIC010I5 on 2004-02-14
  SimCity 4 is a very addicting game. The first few days I had it I played it late into the night. It is very fun, and very realistic. You have many, many activities that are available to you and you get to control your own city! You can develop it into a great vacation spot and a thriving community, or you can destroy it with an earthquake, a tornado, lightning, a volcano, aliens, giant robots, and a Godzilla-like creature.
  One of the most fun things to do is to drive cars and fly airplanes.
  This game will be fun to both serious gamers and people seeking a good laugh! It's an all-around well designed game that never gets boring.
  
  
• Disaster of a game.
  By A389PXVOW7R2TP on 2005-01-11
  So many game-breaking flaws in just one game. One of many major errors in the design of the game is the so-called "region play". Because time stops in the parts of your region not played (you can only play one part at a time), major gameplay problems arise. A gamer who wants an easier time with the game can simply dump negative things like trash and polluting industry (pollution doesn't even travel thoughout the region) into never played portions of the map, and have all good items in the played ones. If however, one wants to play all parts of the map, this VERY serious 'time' flaw comes into view - The played portions react to the others toward the last time those others were played and new elements were put into it. This means that the played part of a city in the year 2060 may be reacting to another part that is stopped at 2040, a part in year 2090, another in 2065, etc. Imagine trying to play each and all areas! The horrible problems this creates, is compounded by the truly awful AI contained in this game. SimCity 4's design intends to have one's citizens think about what is within the immediate area as well as the region beyond, and react. This 'AI' is terrible. Citizens choose and stick to already congested streets to get to a destination instead of choosing a clear highway running to the same place. Common too is the fact that one's residents can not seem to find thier way to work even if it is directly across the street! Even if one is to continue to play despite these horrid flaws, many more gameplay issues plague SC4. The claims of this game as "3D" are also misleading, you are still limited to four basic angles of view (with a few different zoom levels), not free motion camera controls as many games have today. The interface is lacking positive features previous versions had such as multiple saves. Released in 2003, the game still contains many game ruining bugs that have yet to be patched. The reviews calling this game "hard" are not due to gamers' poor strategy. Its difficulty is due to a "broken" game. This game is so flawed that the developers themselves could not create a completed large, profit making city. This isn't your old SimCity...It is much worse!
  
  
• A little disappointed
  By A15T45VLAFQVTD on 2005-02-09
  I really did prefer simcity 3 to this version. The new one just is more complicated and the graphics are about the same as version 3. I would just stick to simcity 3 if i was you.
  
  

• PC Gamer (1-year)

• Civilization 3 Complete
• SimCity Societies
• Zoo Tycoon Complete Collection
• Sid Meier's Civilization IV
• Sid Meiers Civilization IV Beyond the Sword