strategy

SimCity 4 (SC4) is the latest entry in the popular, excellent series of city simulation games of the same name. The basic "point" of the game is to create, run and grow a city successfully from a fledgling community up to a megalopolis -- the game play is therefore open ended and limitless in variety.

As the city's mayor, you will need to balance wants and needs with your budget -- and in Sim City 4, that can be quite difficult because the budgetary aspects of the simulation are quite difficult (the "Rush Hour" expansion bundled with this edition mollifies this somewhat by providing an "easy" difficulty setting, which was not available with the original edition of SC4, that provides additional funds to start with, making the budgetary crisis easier to manage). You must zone effectively, make effective decisions about providing utilities, education and other civic resources, manage transportation and work-related issues and the like in order to make your city an attractive place and attract Sims to your town, increase the population and tax base and grow, grow, grow. And the fun doesn't stop there -- in SC4, you are able to widen the focus to include an entire region of interdependent cities and towns -- with one acting as the downtown, another as the industrial port town, and still another as the affluent suburb -- all linked together by utilities and transportation links into one major conurbanation. The game is really limitless in terms of what you can do with it once you get the basic hang of it, and it is not like other computer games that require extensive fingerwork or hand-eye coordination skills -- this is a pure strategy simulation in urban planning, development and management.

The "Rush Hour" expansion bundled with this edition adds a few notable features, including the difficulty setting noted above. Most of the more useful ones involve additional transportation options, such as overhead subway lines or Els and surface-level highways, that are more useful for when your cities achieve a certain size. In addition, there are some further bells and whistles, like the ability to name streets, parks, neighborhoods and natural formations and give them signs visible in the game, as well as the addition of "missions" -- essentially minigames within the larger game that have you playing the role of a policeman, fireman, etc., fulfilling a certain defined task in your city in exchange for the reward of unlocking a certain type of buidling or landmark that will later appear in your city.

Bottom line: if you have a penchant for (or even an interest in) urban planning or design, this is a great, immersive simulation that will keep you happily occupied for quite some time.

Nearly every good idea or advancement they promised, has been implemented badly. And oddly enough, everything fun and addictive about previous versions has been forgotten. This game actually gets worse the more you play.

Just a few problems with this game are:
A poor interface with few options - No multiple saves here.
Bad "terrascaping" tools. Worse than SC2000
Circa 1999 graphics. (despite killing your system's specs)
No real "regional" play - Time stops in parts of your city not played. So one can throw all the 'junk' in those parts, and it will never actually affect your played "cities".
Horrible AI/pathfinding -cars drive in circles and sims can't get to work right across the street.
This game has MANY more horrid mistakes, too many to list here.
The bad AI within SC Deluxe is especially damaging because nearly every factor in one's city runs off of your citizens abilities to commute- (jobs,land values,pollution, costs, etc.) not even mentioning traffic congestion problems!
SimCity 4 Deluxe is NOT a game for thinkers and observant gamers, as they will quickly see a game that should never have been released. It is just that awful.

I've been playing SimCity since the original was released on Windows systems. With every new release, Maxis (and now their partners EA) the crew packs more realism and fun than the previous version--Simcity 4 is no exception to this legacy. While the gameplay may seem a bit complicated if you're not currently a hardcore Simmer, it's pretty easy to get used to. Also, this game isn't for the faint of heart-like the other game from EA, The Sims, I find myself spending hours on my cities...this is a great gift for anyone--kid or adult!