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For Those Having Issues.....

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 20 / 21
Date: December 28, 2005
Author: Amazon User

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.

Terrific Game, Others are Wrong

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 26 / 31
Date: September 01, 2004
Author: Amazon User

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.

Entertainment, frustration, construction and destruction

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 17 / 18
Date: October 04, 2005
Author: Amazon User

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.

Stunning Experience!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 20 / 23
Date: January 03, 2004
Author: Amazon User

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.

All the promises fulfilled!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 16 / 17
Date: June 16, 2005
Author: Amazon User

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!

Can't stop playing it!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 19 / 22
Date: March 05, 2006
Author: Amazon User

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!

Great Version of a Great Simulation Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 20 / 24
Date: January 06, 2004
Author: Amazon User

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.

good game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 16 / 18
Date: December 10, 2003
Author: Amazon User

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.

4.5 stars rounded to 5

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 14 / 15
Date: June 10, 2005
Author: Amazon User

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.

Waited until this version came out.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 12 / 12
Date: October 06, 2003
Author: Amazon User

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.

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