Rating: 
Summary: Wow, what a let down
Review: Prepare yourself for this game. It's not what you think.I had read all the ballyhoo about it and it was perhaps my heightened expectations that ultimately let me down when I first started playing it. First of all, it's pretty much the same game. The core values are the same, the way it works is the same; not much has changed from 3000 to SC4. Yes it's prettier graphically ... I like to equate it to the changeover from Windows 3.1 to 95 -- but only on a visual level. The add-on functions of SC4 are pretty slim. The game playing changes unnoticeable. One of the "changes" is the importation of your SIMS from The SIMS. Before I purchased this game I had visions of watching my imported SIMS walk into stores (like in Hot Date) in SC4 and see them go about their daily lives, but on a much bigger scale -- a whole growing city. Be warned, this is not the case at all. You import your SIMS, they live in a neighborhood and then proceed to bug the hell out of you about various things they're thinking. Import one and he's a chatterbox. Import the six they offer and it's a veritable zoo. You know how annoying pop-up ads are on the Internet? Think that. It's about the same. Don't even think about installing pipes in your city. They'll spring a leak every two seconds (even if you have water utilities fully funded) and destroy surrounding neighborhood housing. Fully funded police stations are lazy. You have to direct them to the crimes and have them pick up the criminals. There's no patrolling with these boys. Drop funding a tiny bit for the firestations and they're out protesting with picket signs. It's cute for the first five minutes. It seems that Maxis has forgotten what was attractive about its games in the first place and is now only after a buck. This trend started with the runaway smash hit that was The Sims and followed with (what? we're up to six?) upgrade packages -- all providing extras that should have been in their initial game in the first place -- or at the very least combined into one extra service package upgrade ... six is tantamount to exploitation of its consumer's wallets. The same goes with SC4. While it is prettier visually, it's not the blowout wunderkind game you're expecting. Get it only if you're a HUGE fan of SimCity, or if you've never played SimCity before ... otherwise, it'll likely let you down the same way it did with me.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I still favor Sim City 2000 over this. It is clunky, comes with a lack of instructions on what you are doing. Plus you have to have the CD-ROM in the drive when you play. This drives me crazy. I'd think twice about buying this product
Rating: 
Summary: If you loved previous versions you'll love this one
Review: This game is much more complex than previous Sim City games (I've been a fan, and owned all of them since the original on my Amiga). I've been playing it non-stop since I bought it on the 27th Jan. To trully appreciate the complexities you do NEED the strategy guide though; which is why I only gave it 5 stars. However if you don't like this type of game you will probably hate it because it is HARD to master and has no difficulty setting. The region play mode adds even more involvement than SC3K as you can design neighbor cities that have needs and then profit from selling or buying stuff directly from them or via arbitrage. The graphics are much improved and the music is outstanding for a video game, with plenty of variety in genres. Also the game runs fine on my machine (AMD XP 2000+ with Geforce 3 & 1GB RAM) even though it's over a year old. I think any one who bought a real computer (not Gateway, HP, Dell or any other mass market slug) in the last 12 months should have no trouble running this game at full detail level.
Rating: 
Summary: Great graphics but at a cost
Review: Really looked forward to this version based on a number of previews; graphics and city details definitely improved over SC3K.....but there's a cost to pay. Even with a computer running at 1.1GB w/128MB RAM, NVidia GEForce2 32 MB video card and most of the neat graphics features turned down/off, the gameplay becomes slow and erratic as your city develops. Just read a review where the same problem appears in a 2.2 GB system w/ 512MB RAM. If you're thinking of buying, wait and see what EA can do to fix this problem.
Rating:
Summary: SimCity is [fading]
Review: I've played since the original SimCity, on a Commodore 128. The last SimCity, SimCity 3000, was a letdown, and after a week of play, it seems as if the folks at EA/Maxis have lost sight of what this game is all about. You now have to chase after every little fire, there is no sandbox mode for creative play and city building, it's impossible to build a small town with a high living standard, and so on. My impression is that EA thinks Will Wright designed SimCity to be a strategy game. He didn't. He designed it to be a TOY. Something that creative types - especially older gamers such as myself - could sculpt with. Apparently EA/Maxis believes that all gamers have the mentality of 12 year old males with water on the brain. They don't. The second star is for the graphics. They're nice. So what. "Tropico" and "Stronghold," more modest games, are soothing compared to all this micromanagement, constriction, and inanity.
Rating: 
Summary: Wow, a great version of a classic
Review: I've played all the previous SIMCITY versions and Maxis has done a spectacular job with this one. Compared to SIMCITY 3000 this game has more depth, is more fun to play and is easier to get used to. I've been playing it for about three days now and it has really been a treat. There is a lot new in terms of how lots are laid out, how transportation and traffic work and the landscaping of the city. I highly recommend you get SIMCITY 4.
Rating: 
Summary: Released before its time!
Review: If it weren't for the serious bugs, this might be a fun game. As released, it crashes and burns to the point of frustration. It's a resource hog. I have a 1.5 GHz P4 with a gig of RAM and a GForce 4 video card. SC4 still runs slow, and crashes fairly often. Upon exiting SC4, one has to reboot to clear the debris left behind. It's sad that this stuff gets released long before it's ready.
I also "tested" SC4 on a 700 MHz P3 with 256 meg of RAM. It was unplayable. Taking the RAM up to 512 meg helped. 1 gig of RAM seems to be the point at which the game actually starts working decently.
So, how long do we have to wait on the patch?
Famous Programmer,
Ted Dead
Rating:
Summary: Worth Every Penny
Review: Wow........ Just got done playing SimCity 4 for the 5th hour straight......... LoL........ This game has everything. Zoom all the way in on you city and see little Sims swimming in their pools. High School students smoking on the side of the buildings. Homeless Sims wandering the neihborhoods. SimCops laying down the law. Kids on their skateboards. EVERYTHING IS INCLUDED!!! This game is also BEAUTIFUL graphically, and night time brings a whole new look to you city. Each little building has a set of lights, and street lamps come included on your roads and streets. Another COOL thing is in the morning you see all your little Sims heading off to work, and in the night time they return. This can become even greater in the region play when you can build one town with residential, one with commercial, and one with industrial, connecting them with highways and railways. In the morning, you can see your Sims speeding off to work in your different towns, and seeing them return at night. It is amazing. Another sweet feature is the God mode. You can create a world you've always wanted, and fine tune it in every detail. Form mountains, carve valleys....... make that giant bride over that canyon and then blow it out with the meteor while it has cars on it.......... And that leads me to my favorite: The disasters. Amazing. The lightning is my favorite, but you can bring reign of fire down on your Sims with the meteorite, or totally destroy it with a volcano. And a new disaster, obliterate, destroys every trace of your city and returns it to its natural state. The way they did it reminded me of those movies with the end of civilization..... simply great. Well, ok...... I want to get back to playing my game =) P.S. Whats this about bugs? It worked perfect for me, only zooming all the way in slowed down my computer, But I can live without this feature easily. Thank For Reading. Hope This Helped.
Rating:
Summary: So disappointed!!
Review: I'm so disappointed! I've been a big fan of Maxis and the Sim City games, but unless you have a brand new 2,000 dollar computer, DON'T GET THIS GAME! If your computer is one or two years old, Maxis recommends turning all graphics down to the lowest setting, which means you should just save your money and buy Sim City 3000.
Rating:
Summary: Same old, same old
Review: "Same same, but different" pretty much sums it up. There is not much new stuff there, except the graphics. Everything else is same old, same old. To me, SimCity gets more and more tiresome with each new installment.
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