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SimCity 4 Deluxe

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 13 / 15
Date: July 23, 2005
Author: Amazon User

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.

Quite simply the best computer game of all time in one pack

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 14 / 17
Date: February 29, 2004
Author: Amazon User

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.

Very Very Good and Very Addictive

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 13 / 17
Date: December 06, 2003
Author: Amazon User

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.

hours of fun

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 10
Date: December 13, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This game is so addicting and fun, the best thing to do is naming streets and roads and naming neighborhoods and districts. You can make a poor and rich side of town, depending on what area you pay most attention to. The poor side has bad schools and crack houses and the rich side has excellent schools and mansions and snobby people. just a fun and addicting game

Good game but with some odd quirks

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 19 / 32
Date: April 14, 2006
Author: Amazon User

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.

Difficult to install but found the answer

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 14 / 21
Date: November 07, 2005
Author: Amazon User

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.

A great game for creative people!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: May 05, 2006
Author: Amazon User

SimCity 4 is a terrific and fun game. Build banks, airports, and anything else you can think of. There is also a god mode, where you can create the environment, or set things on fire, or other natural disasters. Managing the economy is a bit complicated, but if you manage it right, you would be suprised what you can do! Overall, this is a great game!!Note:don't take out a loan every time you need money, or you will go bankrupt in about 10 minutes!

missing code found

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 13
Date: April 08, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Like other reviewers, I was disappointed when I couldn't find the 20 character/digit code that was required to install the game. It wasn't on the CD box which was where the installation program told me to look for it. I searched through all the written material that came with the program and finally found the code on the back of the SimCity 4 manual at the top of the page. If other owners are having trouble finding the code, check the manual.

We've only been playing this game for about an hour, but the sound and graphics are great and it seems fairly straight forward as far as building and running the city.

Excellent

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 18 / 31
Date: November 03, 2003
Author: Amazon User

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.

Sim City 4 (Deluxe Edition)

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: May 12, 2007
Author: Amazon User

If you like the past Sim City games, you should really try this one out. What I like the most is you can see what roads the sims take to and from work, also the driving missions. I believe these features are available only in the rush hour expansion though.

The things that could've been better are just teidious little hassles you have to deal with. The biggest thing I have trouble with is the roads. When you zone a space, the game makes a grid of roads within the zone. Its hard to get the roads to line up with neighboring zones hence the annoying hassle.

Annoyance #2 is zoning along the coast or steep hills. Every lot of property has to have at least one side facing a road and the property itself has to be pointed in the direction of the road or you get a big icon that shows the lot isnt accessable. This is a very unessisary rule and there isnt a option to turn it off. When zoning steep uneven terrain the automatic grid of roads cant always get roads to cooperate resulting in a bunch of unaccessable lots.

Overall the gameplay is nice and once you get the hang of dealing with the road grids it is a very cool game to play. Unlike SC3000 bigger and better power plants, schools, parks and other luxuries are not only restricted by dates invented, but you have to meet certain specifications to make them available (usually population benchmarks). These give the game little goals to achieve as you go, if you like that kind of thing.

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