Rating: 
Summary: Not my favorite
Review: This game is too challenging. I bought Sim City 2000 and enjoyed it fairly well, even though it too was too difficult. This game is worse than Sim City 2000 because the land is far too small. The night and day stuff isn't all that great. Also, though the game did work on my computer, I hear it doesn't work on many machines. Plus, despite quite unspectacular graphics, the game will eat up space on your computer! There are many better games out there, and for the price and risk, this one's not worth it.
Rating:
Summary: Waited until this version came out.
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Wouldn't run at all!!!
Review: 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!
Rating: 
Summary: A true expansion pack
Review: 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!!!
Rating:
Summary: 4.5 Stars---The Best SimCity Yet!
Review: With SIMCITY 4 DELUXE EDITION, which conveniently contains both the regular SIMCITY 4 plus the RUSH HOUR EXPANSION PACK, EA Games is really beginning to live up to their tagline "Challenge Everything." Apparently, the game designers decided to challenge everything that seemed to be holding the game back in the past, and have taken a brave step forward in designing this new edition with those of us in mind who want to be able to create a SimWorld. In other words, you now have an entire continent on which to build cities; instead of having fake adjacent cities that you're forced to do business with, you now can make your own adjacent cities yourself! You can choose from any of a hundred or so "squares" on which you can build one city after another and have them all trade with each other and everything! You can connect them with superhighways, rail, roads, power, water; it's great! Another major improvement is in the increased flexibility in building up each of your cities. Remember how, in previous SimCity versions, it's such a pain to figure out where to place your streets within your zones? Not anymore; each time you lay out a zone, whether it be Residential, Commercial or Industrial, the game will automatically lay down a grid of streets for you! That saves A LOT of time right there. Also, remember how you had to blow up your streets in order to replace them with bigger streets? Now, it's a lot easier, because first of all, the road system is much better organized. For example, when you start building a town, you start by using the simple, narrow streets (which are now specifically labeled as being "streets"). However, as people move in and your streets begin to get crowded with traffic, you can then upgrade to wider roads. Eventually, as traffic begins to overwhelm your roads, you may upgrade to wide avenues. All you need to do to "upgrade" is to simply drag a road along a street, or an avenue along a road and---boom!---it automatically changes to a road or avenue. No more having to demolish anything in the process! The Rush Hour Expansion Pack just adds a new dimension to the game: now you can go out on selected "missions" by car, boat---even helicopter---and earn new buildings, more money, etc. for your city. Admittedly, I'm still trying to get the hang of these missions, as they aren't too easy, but it's still a cool feature for the game. Also, the buildings and airports are in much better detail now, and there is far greater variety of them. There are also many new landmarks to choose from; they are in much greater detail and there is no longer any limit how many you may place. (However, you now have to pay to place them.) There are many new rewards for being a good Mayor, too! My hope is that with SIMCITY 5, they will make everything more 3-D and will finally provide us with the ability for a ground-level Pedestrian View; imagine being able to walk the streets and boulevards of your own cities, drive around, even take your own trains! I think the possibilities are endless. Till then, this will have to do. But, for what it's worth, it's still a pretty darn good game! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED FOR SIM FANS
Rating:
Summary: 4.5 Stars---The Best SimCity Yet!
Review: With SIMCITY 4 DELUXE EDITION, which conveniently contains both the regular SIMCITY 4 plus the RUSH HOUR EXPANSION PACK, EA Games is really beginning to live up to their tagline "Challenge Everything." Apparently, the game designers decided to challenge everything that seemed to be holding the game back in the past, and have taken a brave step forward in designing this new edition with those of us in mind who want to be able to create a SimWorld. In other words, you now have an entire continent on which to build cities; instead of having fake adjacent cities that you're forced to do business with, you now can make your own adjacent cities yourself! You can choose from any of a hundred or so "squares" on which you can build one city after another and have them all trade with each other and everything! You can connect them with superhighways, rail, roads, power, water; it's great! Another major improvement is in the increased flexibility in building up each of your cities. Remember how, in previous SimCity versions, it's such a pain to figure out where to place your streets within your zones? Not anymore; each time you lay out a zone, whether it be Residential, Commercial or Industrial, the game will automatically lay down a grid of streets for you! That saves A LOT of time right there. Also, remember how you had to blow up your streets in order to replace them with bigger streets? Now, it's a lot easier, because first of all, the road system is much better organized. For example, when you start building a town, you start by using the simple, narrow streets (which are now specifically labeled as being "streets"). However, as people move in and your streets begin to get crowded with traffic, you can then upgrade to wider roads. Eventually, as traffic begins to overwhelm your roads, you may upgrade to wide avenues. All you need to do to "upgrade" is to simply drag a road along a street, or an avenue along a road and---boom!---it automatically changes to a road or avenue. No more having to demolish anything in the process! The Rush Hour Expansion Pack just adds a new dimension to the game: now you can go out on selected "missions" by car, boat---even helicopter---and earn new buildings, more money, etc. for your city. Admittedly, I'm still trying to get the hang of these missions, as they aren't too easy, but it's still a cool feature for the game. Also, the buildings and airports are in much better detail now, and there is far greater variety of them. There are also many new landmarks to choose from; they are in much greater detail and there is no longer any limit how many you may place. (However, you now have to pay to place them.) There are many new rewards for being a good Mayor, too! My hope is that with SIMCITY 5, they will make everything more 3-D and will finally provide us with the ability for a ground-level Pedestrian View; imagine being able to walk the streets and boulevards of your own cities, drive around, even take your own trains! I think the possibilities are endless. Till then, this will have to do. But, for what it's worth, it's still a pretty darn good game! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED FOR SIM FANS
Rating:
Summary: Addictive.
Review: Years ago I fell in love with the original SimCity, but hadn't played it or the subsequent versions until I bought this on a whim. It was one of the best purchases I have made! SimCity is a scrolling map of an area where you, as Mayor, create the city with its surrounding industrial, residential and commercial zones. You build the infrastructure - roads, rail, utilities. You balance a budget as you control the funding of new developments. It is so lifelike that typical problems arise and you are responsible for solving them, else your popularity will dive. The scope of SimCity4 is incredible in comparison to the previous versions; creating various districts in a region (multiple CBD's), creating beaches, subways, monorail, the list goes on. You also have the ability to create your own personalised landforms, including regional landforms from scratch. I haven't used any MySims in the Rush Hour expansion pack yet because there is so much to do first. The only problem I see so far is the inability to scroll across districts that border one another. You can link them through roads etc, but you cannot scroll from one zone to the next. You need to exit one district to enter the next. I have a modern computer, so I haven't found any problems with running the software (as others have found). But, I've had so much fun playing this version that time seems to travel five times faster than normal. Maybe I'm flying so fast, time is actually slowing down. Anyway, this game is very addictive and I find myself playing it at every opportunity. I thoroughly recommend it to everyone, especially town planners and politicians who could do with the practice.
Rating:
Summary: An Escape from Reality -- Or is it?
Review: 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.
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