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Yay!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 264 / 287
Date: September 22, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Unlike some people who have the crazy idea of this being the same old thing trust me it's not. I was at the Ea exhibition in May and I was one of the lucky people who got to test the game. This game is incredible. The Graphics are very detailed and realistic. You can build more than one city on the same map. Not to mention importing your own Sims into the game. At The exhibition I saw that your city just didn't sleep like in SimCity 3000. You see your people walking about and running their daily lives, like walking their dogs, Driving to the supermarket, Driving their kids to school even going to church!

The biggest improvement that I saw in SimCity 4 were the disasters. In SimCity 3000 you had like what? 4? In SimCity 4 you get over eight disasters. The best part is that you can control and decide where your Tornado goes. You also get Volcanoes that erupt, Erathquakes that bury houses and split open the earth, Meteor showers that leave everlasting craters and
Lightning Bolts, Fires, Riots, Floods, Mudslides, Bank Robberies and even Car chases. You get to choose you terrian styles. You can ahve an African style with Rhino's and Giraffes. Sometimes they can even stampede into your city.

The other great thing about SimCity 4 is the terrian tools. You can sculpt gorges, Laggons, Cliffs, Craters, Valleys and even place galiciers. Then you have time settings. A 1900's Chicago style, A 1950'S Ne York Style, And a 2000 Houston Style. Then there is the constructions of buildings. When you build your buildings they just don't appear out of no where tou actually see your sims get into their work trucks and start to construct the building. And if the building is of no use anmore it decays and doesn't turn into a huge big purple borded up mess. Then if you want to destroy or knock down a building it just doesn't dissapear, you can actually impload or expload your building from any side you want. There are no old buildings from SimCity 3000, There are totally new realistic looking buildings in SimCity 4.

To me all this extra stuff makes this game totally anew. You won't get board if you like Simulation games.

Minimum System Requirements

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 181 / 243
Date: December 16, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Minimum PC System Requirements:

Processor Type: Intel® Pentium® III processor, AMD Athlon™ processor

Processor Speed: 500MHz

Operating System: Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows Millennium Edition (Windows Me), Windows XP

System Memory: 128MB RAM

Hard Drive Space: 1GB

Video: 16MB, DirectX 7.0-compatible driver, 3D accelerated mode requires a supported 3D chipset

Sound Card: DirectX 7.0-compatible sound card

Drive Type and Speed: CD-ROM 8x, DVD-ROM 8x

Additional Requirements: Keyboard
Mouse

Maxis Does It Again!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 96 / 123
Date: September 08, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Once again, Maxis has far outdone its previous version of Sim City. Sim City 4 looks to be one of the top selling games of the year, along with The Sims Online.

The graphics for this game are absolutely incredible. You can edit the terrain almost any way that you please. You can add mountains and cliffs and lagoons and even volcanoes!

Maxis is taking full advantage of its unprecedented sucess of The Sims game by incorporating them into Sim City 4. You can import your Sims into Sim City 4 and they will talk to you and complain about how bad your city is or compliment you about what a great mayor you are. As your Sims move away or die or something, their kids will grow up and continue to live in your city so you can have multi-generation families living in your city.

This game is much more complex than even Sim City 3000. The RCI meter is replaced with a meter with about 12 different things. The programmers have updated the game with even more complex algorithms for city growth and etc.

From the looks of the amazing graphics and other things I have heard about this game, I imagine it will have pretty steep PC requirements, but I can assure you, this game will be the most amazing Sim City game to date.

Beautiful but boring

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 33 / 39
Date: January 21, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Let me just say that I love SIM games. I have them all. I was looking forward to SimCity4 coming out. I even pre-ordered it.

It loaded fine. I've had no crashes, etc.

Pros:
-The coolest graphics I've ever seen. Seeing the little guys actually build their houses is cute.
-The sound effects and music are wonderful. (Some of the backround music could be sold as separate CD's, it's so good.)
-The terrain building mode is enjoyable.
-The disasters are beautiful. Love those volcanos!!

Cons:
-Aside from the graphics, there is nothing really new here.
I was bored after 2 hours. I've tried playing 3 or 4 times for a few hours each time hoping for some actual entertainment, but I haven't found any. Once your city is built, then there is little control over anything. You just sit back and watch... la la la.
-There's no way to control your economy (bring in new businesses at any kind of decent rate) to generate money.
-After you create the animal habitats for your new city, they disappear. They run around for a while, then run off of the edge of the city, never to be seen again. The only place I've ever seen them is in "God" mode, never in the "Mayor" mode. What's the point of that?

Overall, I regret shelling out $.. for this game. I could've waited and gotten it for $.. in a month. My only hope is that Maxis releases some sort of expansion pack that allows for more activities the player can do in the game.

A forward backward step.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 32 / 38
Date: January 16, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Sim City 4 has these Pros and Cons:

Pros:
Outstanding Graphics
Landscape "God-mode"
Realistic looking terrain
Expansive world in which to create multiple cities and work them in unison.
Import "The Sims"
Stunning disasters (check out the lightning bolt!)
Best Mayor interface ever
Lots of cool features like beaches, new landmarks, and people actually build on cliffs this time.
Whenever the website is up, you'll be able to d/l scenarios.

Now for the Cons:
No Building Architect tool.
Buildings are not exchangable or customizable.
The website Simcity4.com is behind schedule.

Be forewarned:
At the release of Sim City 3000, we all jumped on it. It was great, but with the arrival of Sim City 3000 UNLIMITED, the first was rendered moot. A lot of things couldn't be done in 3000 which could in Unlimited. The website was a strong point for getting new scenarios and buildings and uploading your own.

Sim City 4's intial release seems like a step forward, but backward. I'd wait a few months and see if an Unlimited or Unleashed version comes out. Wait until the websites is ready. I'm sure there is more to it than this basic game. Sim City 4 is like 2000 & 3000 without some perks and with some gorgeous graphics. Simply, the game is fantastic, yet incomplete.

Robert Eldridge (...)

Better than any game I've ever played!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 65 / 102
Date: August 24, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I've been a Sim City fan since the very first version way back years ago, before some of you wild and crazy kid gamers were born, and I've snapped up each new edition and addition, marveling at the evolution with every new version. As I say each time: This one tops them all, with bells on!

Better in every way: Everything I've wanted is finally included! Everything I've disliked is finally gone! Features I never could have dreamed of dazzle me as I discover them!

Trying to be coherent here for the benefit of normal people; fellow simians will know what I mean. More elaborate scenarios, sophisticated technical stuff (visual animations of weather, traffic, perspectives, sounds and music, etc.), more complex algorithms underlying sim city life and how to run or ruin it, refined interface, both more powerful and more intuitive, wittier (and wilier) advisors, and of course spectacular buildings rendered in tweezer-tight detail... well, I won't spill all the beans!

Argh! I'm bouncing off the walls!

Five stars with whipped cream and a cherry on top! Run, don't walk, to get this one! And then cancel all your appointments for the next three days at least, maybe even three months, because if you're a true Simaniac, you shouldn't plan on getting out much for a while!

Imperfect, but many good ideas

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 20 / 21
Date: June 24, 2003
Author: Amazon User

SimCity 4 is the latest in the long-survived SimCity series of games. Much like the others, the goal of the game is to contruct a burgeoning metropolis from the ground up. There are no set goals or parameters, it is very much like a sandbox where you can dictate your own expectations and try to meet them.

As the Mayor, you lay roads and zone land for development as residential, commercial, industrial, seaport, airport, and others. You build power plants and water pumping stations. You approve and reject city ordinances, keep the city safe from crime with police stations, and entertain your people with massive stadiums. All while keeping an eye on your annual income. Make no mistake - it's complicated, filled with micromanagement, and sometimes feels more like "work" than a "game." But the rewards for your labor are pleasant to watch.

From SimCity 3000, SimCity 4 has several major deviations - for better and for worse. Here's a brief rundown of them:

- In a nod to The Sims (which you can also import into your city), SimCity 4's world is somewhat persistent. You have a large "world" to develop and any given SimCity occupies a space in this world. But, they are all interconnected. The problem here is that "neighbor deals" - a substantial source of income in previous games - suddenly cease exist. You are responsible for building your neighboring cities. It would have been much cooler if the map was already dominated by a few larger cities. On the other hand, specialization is key as the world grows. You'll find yourself building "the industrial city," the sleepy "residential city," and so forth. Another annoying side effect of the world system is that backing up your cities and work is rather strange - as you have to dig around in the game directories to figure out where the heck they stored your work.

- There is only one difficulty level, and it starts tough. In some ways, I appreciate this. Early on, you have to be a serious penny-pincher, viciously slashing funding for schools and other public services just to make ends meet and become profitable. This feels much more realistic as most modern US cities face the same troubles. On the other hand, it makes the game hostile to newcomers, and don't expect those tremendous skyscrapers to appear anytime soon. You'll be the proud Mayor of a slum for a while.

- The game makes a distinction between streets and roads. It goes insofar as to automatically place the weaker of the two when you zone land. The problem is, the automatic placement doesn't always make the best use of land, nor jive with your intentions or existing road layouts. You can't turn off this "feature" either, which is disappointing.

- On the flip side, the game has a neat implemention of day and night cycles. Perhaps the coolest aspect of the game, early in the morning you witness a mass exodus of automobiles and vehicles from the residential zones to the industrial zones. As night falls, the street lamps and headlights turn on and the exodus happens in reverse. It's really a sight to behold and a testament to some of the intricate programming that's behind the game.

However the game was, and still is, quite buggy. While recent patches have improved its stability, SimCity 4 is still quite vulnerable. There have been cases where it would crash the venerable Windows XP such that a reset was necessary. The game is also on the sluggish side, so you'll want a high-end computer for this one. This thing taxes my machine more than Unreal Tournament 2003 does!

It's for these reasons that I find SimCity 4 a difficult game to judge. While I appreciate the inspired focus and vision of the game and just how beautifully many parts came together, the performance and stability issues cannot be ignored. So, in closing, I rate this game as many gaming magazines have - giving Maxis the benefit of the doubt and an above-average rating. Hopefully they'll iron out the last of the severe bugs in future patches.

By the way, I'd like to make special note of the game's music. SimCity 4 has an absolutely fabulous soundtrack that easily ranks as one of the best I've heard in a long while, surpassing even its predecessor in my opinion. You want to listen to the included MP3s outside of the game - it's that amazing. From hurried rush hour beats to soaring atmospheric pieces, this soundtrack is breathtaking!

Amazing Detail

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 54 / 81
Date: December 05, 2002
Author: Amazon User

SimCity 4 is similar to SimCity 3000 in terms of gameplay. The amount of city detail is almost stunning, at least to those used to playing standard games. The amount of control you have over the creation of your city is more than I had expected, especially with respect to adjusting the terrain topography. City development can now occur on hills. Each building can be 'quieried' for current status info and renamed. There is so much going on, I'm going to need to buy the add-on guide. It looks really good. A downside is that if you want a really big city, you'll need about 512MB of RAM (more?).

could have been so much better

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 23 / 27
Date: January 20, 2003
Author: Amazon User

In one aspect, there isn't enough micro-management. You merely zone a plot of land and wait and see. You put you 'sims' into your city, but I have yet to get any meaningful input from them. Also, all you can control is where they live...which can change very often. No control of where they work, the route they take to commute...you are left in the dark in these sort of things.

On the flip side, there is too much micromanagement. If there is a disaster, there isn't an auto-response feature. You have to click on emergency, click on the appropriate icon and click on the disaster. And when the pipes start leaking, it's a very hassling game of 'find the leak'. And speaking of pipes, you have no ability to divert your funds to just the pipes, or just the powerlines. You have a general water and power fund, and the lack of micromanagement in this part makes the game harder and more frustrating then it should have been.

The 2 things that have been vastly improved over the last installment of SimCity is the God Mode and graphics. A real visual treat of building up a city and calling down a meteor while zoomed in to the closest level. Shaping the land is a cinch, and you'll be making mountains and valleys in no time.

The ability to connect one region to another is also nice. You can build a massive housing zone in one region and build a highway to another region full of industrial zone.

Well, if you like SimCity, there's no reason why you shouldn't like this one. The feeling of creating a city with tall skyscrapers is a very rewarding feeling (I've only had the pleasure of having around 3 block full of skyscraper, but you know..). And hey, if you just feel like destroying stuff, load up a premade map, take control of a city and send down meteors, giant robots, lighting, and even sprout a volcano or two.

Who Is Responsible For This?

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 19 / 21
Date: May 16, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Sadly, most of the bad reviews (written by critical thinkers) that you're seeing here for SimCity 4 are accurate. I've been a SimCity fan ever since its earliest versions back in the early 90's. After mastering each version, I always look forward to what great new innovations the Maxis folks can come up with next. There are some excellent new features to SimCity 4, of course. The buildings look more futuristic and realistic, the disasters are cooler, and the ability to tie multiple cities into a regional entity is a real plus. The biggest improvement is with landscaping. In the "terraforming" mode you are able to create remarkable mountains and valleys, cliffs and canyons, resulting in eye-catching landscapes that the Sims can build upon in architecturally intriguing ways.

That's the end of the favorable portion of my review. See the other reviews here for the never-ending list of programming glitches that bog down this game. Here are some problems I've been having. The "rotate" buttons work in the wrong directions, when you are told to dispatch firemen or police to a disaster area you can't see where the disaster is, and residential units that are right next to the street say they don't have road access. One enhancement that I do not like is the automatic streets that appear when you lay down large zoning areas. These result in a messy traffic pattern with streets that may not even be connected to others, and then you have to remove zoned areas that you just spent money building. And finally there is the response time and program performance. Sure I don't have the most powerful computer in the world, but it's among the better models that regular consumers can get in the home computer market. That makes me part of the typical SimCity audience, so a game that doesn't freeze up my computer on a regular basis shouldn't be too much to ask for. Plus the installation took twenty minutes and three restarts.

Whoever made the decision at Maxis/EA to release this game in its current state made a really bad management decision. There are so many programming glitches that this product should not be in the hands of the public. Other folks here have suggested that you wait until a repaired or updated version of SimCity 4 is released. I don't disagree with them.

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