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Good, but slightly problematic

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: April 24, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I had the same problem as another reviewer: from time to time the game just cuts out, no saving, not even an error message, and my computer is less than 8 months old! It is definitely a glitch in the game. Highly annoying if you've been working on a city for hours.

But, if you just remember to save frequently, it's a very fun game. More realistic looking than the previous versions, and the traffic expansion is very detailed. The rewards aren't quite as fun as in 2000 and 3000, but there are new ones.

For the price, it is certainly worth a shot.

In most ways, the pinnacle of the series

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: November 24, 2007
Author: Amazon User

First the housekeeping: Sim city begat Sim City 2000, then 3000, then 4, then an enhanced version of 4 called Rush Hour. This deluxe edition rolls 4 in with Rush Hour; it doesn't add to the package of 4+rush hour, just consolidates it. So I will speak about "4" to mean this 4+rush hour=deluxe edition.

Sim City 4 is miles ahead of its ancestors in almost every way. Technically, the graphics are head and shoulders above the old versions, as we should expect from the evolution in the field over those years. Game play is both more intricate and less annoying--there are more choices to make, but they are interesting ones; much of the tedious housekeeping has been streamlined. Things are way more sophisticated, for instance your city is rated for desirability not just overall, but differently among different demographic "types" of sims (citizens). You need to attract and retain both yuppies and blue-collar people, by providing different amenities and industries. The people on your panel of advisors in city government now all have their own devious agendas, so you need to scrutinize their advice before accepting it! A nice touch, and done with humor, if not subtlety.

When you zone land, a grid of streets builds itself automatically. Touches like that make the world of this version manageable while also complex enough to be interesting. Water systems are a nuisance but an interesting challenge. Power stations and water stations function in very complex and interesting ways, affected by surroundings (a water pumping station near a garbage dump will provide very little useful water, because of the pollution, for instance) and degrading in gruesome ways. Every facility from a firehouse to a school to a power station can and must be tweaked to reduce costs: the number of teachers reduced at first, then more hired as the student population grows. Turn down the usage of the power station until the surrounding area grows to require lots of power. Schools and fire stations can be tweaked not just by staff levels but by funds spent on buses and fire engines, to extend their area of coverage (which is conveniently indicated by a faint surrounding circle).

Commuting imperatives are visible in great detail: Click on any house, and see how many people live in it, where they work, how long they must spend getting to and from work, and even the route they take. Sometimes they will be unemployed because they can't get to a job easily or quickly; that's a warning sign.

The view zooms down to micro level, where you can see individual sims and their cars getting into accidents, overheating, etc. Very impressive.

To my great surprise, the nuts and bolts of making this game go are in some ways smoother than the previous versions. Of course it demands a beefier PC, but it seems to be more stable and perform better on its platform than versions 2000 and 3000 did on the PCs of their day. It even runs better on a modern PC than 3000 does on the same computer. They seem to have optimized something in their code. I notice, though, that often the whole screen will "smear" when I pan in a certain way--very annoying. Might be my wimpy video card; I don't know. I've figured a workaround: Instead of panning, I click and make the city jump, instead of slide, to a new position.

The most glaring omission in my view is the facilities to design buildings that was so much fun in the earlier versions. From what I can tell, there's nothing like the old extensive tool sets for design and construction of unique buildings. Also, the structure of the game is less building- and city-oriented, and more "zone"-oriented. No more trading of prefabricated cities among other players. It's all "zones."

Also, writing in 2007, it's a MAJOR problem that the third-party books (by which I mean the Prima books, which became the standard reference for the series) for 4 have gone out of print! They're available from Amazon marketplace merchants, used, for staggering prices more suitable for original Gutenberg bibles. As always, the tiny booklet that comes with the game is very, very minimal and inadequate in every way. So if you're starting fresh, or if like me you've lost your Prima book, you're either out of luck or in for a major expense, many times greater than the cost of the game or the cost of the book when it was published. Actually I refer to the documentation in the original box for sim city 4 and for rush hour; I haven't seen deluxe edition's booklet, but I doubt it's large and comprehensive. The usual course is for documentation to get ever smaller.

As did 3000, SC 4 has an endlessly annoying feature that requires the game CD to be present in the CD drive of the computer, even when the game is installed on the hard drive. This isn't to save space on the hard drive, or any other useful function for the player/customer. Its only purpose seems to be a misguided and stupid attempt to defeat piracy. Requiring the CD means you can't just install it and give the CD to your friends, right? Um, right, unless you COPY THE CD. (DUH!) Copying a CD is the simplest thing in the world, so this does nothing to prevent piracy. In fact, because the CD has to be jammed into the drive every time to play, and thereby will get scratched and damaged from the repeated handling, one has to make a backup copy just to have a working disk at hand. Thus, EA's boneheaded anti-piracy scheme ends up requiring users to make copies of the game disk, exactly the act EA presumably doesn't like.

For newcomers to this game, and for sim city fans of previous versions, who weren't too attached to making their own buildings, this is absolutely a winner. Especially if you can track down a Prima book for it that costs less than $50.

if you need money I have a tip

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 11
Date: April 25, 2005
Author: Amazon User

When you start the game there are tutorials click on rush hour tutorial and you would have 8,000,000. overall this is a cool game you get to make your own city and be the mayor. And you can also driv tons of boats,cars,airplanes

EA has quality problem

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 9 / 22
Date: March 27, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I bought 2 copies of this game, neither of which had a 20-digit registration code included in the package. Evidently this is a well-known problem (as I discovered afterwards).

EA clearly has a quality-control problem. I would recommend *against* buying any of their stuff ever.

Oh, if I want to mail $10 to EA, write up my 'problem' I can do so. They will then determine if I'm worthy of a registration code (some weeks later). What a scam!!

Defective Product, No Code Included!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 8 / 20
Date: December 28, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I ordered the Simcity 4 Deluxe Edition pack as a Christmas gift this year and was disappointed to find out the product is defective. There is no registration/serial code included in the package so the game cannot be installed or played at all.

I have checked online on various gaming websites and discovered that this is not unique to my individual unit, but a widespread problem occurring for units within the last 2-3 months. Still, there is no FAQ on EA's support website that addresses the issue and their technical support (which is long-distance, NOT a 1-800 number) currently has 20+ minute wait time, steadily INCREASING in 5 minute increments. It is pathetic that I will have to spend money calling them for a problem they most likely cannot fix over the phone anyway.

Overall, an extremely disappointing experience with EA. It will be a long time before I bother purchasing one of their titles again.

Wonderful, great! Except...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: June 12, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I loved this game. Period. It's great to have a game that is chock full of different paths to follow to your own varied definitions of success - ethical or unethical as they may be! The hours of gameplay are infinite if you are a creative enough soul. There are many reviews that talk about the details of the game I'm sure, so i just wanted to throw in another one that points out that the bigger and better the game, the more fuel it needs to run. I adored the game but my 4-5 year old laptop wasn't the hugest fan (though it ran it decently enough for me to write a good review). So if you are looking to have fast smooth gameplay, make sure you have a good system and read the minimum requirements (and then exceed them). All right, back to my rickshaw then.

15 bucks! How can you lose?

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: April 03, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I was sitting in my discrete math class one day and had this Urge to Play a Sim City, this was really odd. I was looking online for the Original Sim City. You know the one, everything was black and white, residential buildings where Labeled with an R, while Commercial sectors where Labeled C. I later discovered you could play it online for free, so I did not buy it. However I did find Sim City 4, and Wow, it was a shock, it was amazing what Will Wright has done with this Genre. Zooming in on my little happy city (Bob Ross reference) there were cars with headlights driving around! And not to mention all the people walking around! It wasn't long before i started to wonder what these simple pixelated city inhabitants where having for breakfast, before their long commute from the residential peninsula to Commercial Boulevard, where they work at their white collar job to feed their pixelated families. But i guess that is what the game The Sims if for eh? Anyways, if you love Simulations, for 15 bucks I promise you nothing will go wrong.

A little disappointed

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 10 / 29
Date: February 09, 2005
Author: Amazon User

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.

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 14
Date: May 17, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I LOVED IT!!!
It was so cool you can DRIVE (yes you Read Right)-DRIVE Cars or
Boats or Trains or Plains WOW!
There is a Regen Mode wicht is usfull.
You can terraform (Make Mountons & Stuff)
Give the city your own name (Naturly)
and SOOOO much more
OH! and for every city you get nifty set of advicers!
Thats what I have to say By!

Excellent for the Brain!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 11
Date: May 14, 2006
Author: Amazon User

An Urban Planning emerald; an architectural diamond, this application works wonders on the brain and is a masterpiece of creation and strategy. I rate this:

700,000,000,000 out of 10

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