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A true expansion pack

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 21
Date: September 22, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Well if u really like simcity series but u didnt have an opportunity to play sc4 this is your change cos with this new package u will get simcity4 plus its new expansion pack called rush hour, both are amazing and now u really can have your dream city and control everything inside it from taxes to your sims life!!!

this is so far the best game out there sim city does it agai

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 14
Date: September 27, 2003
Author: Amazon User

i love sim city its the greatest software out there i spend our hours at theis game cause you do get addicted to it even my mom is starting to play with it and shes 40 something well you wont waste ur money on this game its a good game especially since it is a deluxe version you get more features for your money so you gettin some good stuff overall this game rocks you will not regret buyin this game!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! sim city rocks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wouldn't run at all!!!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 56
Date: September 29, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This wouldn't run at all on my grandson's computer, because it requires a WHOPPING 1.2GB (yes GB) of FREE disk space, just to install it!!!!

Now I have to buy him a new computer just to run this game! Aaargh!

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.

Wonderful but hard.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 11
Date: October 13, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I'm not talking exactly about very hard is just that you have to play and I mean play, be there, feel the stress and at the same time feel emotion and be excited.
Well but is difficult to see the city of my dreams, but how ever the game represents a challenge, hard but you enjoy the time, the time flies...
Now PLEASE read the requirements.Why the people write a review against the game just for the requirements... that's crazy.. Please write something about the game not about YOUR MISTAKES!

Game won't work

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 44
Date: October 18, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I loved earlier Sim City's, so this one looked like the end all be all. I tried installing it on 2 totally different systems, and it will not work on either system. One system is a Toshiba laptop, Satellite 2455-S305, which i bought i FEB03. The other system is a home built, Intel P4 running XP Pro. I went to Simcity's website and there are no patches available yet. This game could not have been tested AT ALL before they decided to market it... i thought only microsoft sent things out the door only half baked???

Great thinking game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 36 / 43
Date: October 19, 2003
Author: Amazon User

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!

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.

An Escape from Reality -- Or is it?

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 414 / 432
Date: November 09, 2003
Author: Amazon User

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.

Extremely addictive and entertaining

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 42 / 49
Date: November 11, 2003
Author: Amazon User

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 :)

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