Curios-city (Sim City 4 (PC))

Member Name: SlyClone2k

Product:	Sim City 4 (PC)
Date:	04/02/03 (1268 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fun, expansive

Disadvantages: Lack originality, Not as good as it says on the box, Very very system hungry

The lure of the SimCity marketing strategy has dangled its meaty little worm and like the rampant consumer I am I?ve nibbled and finally swallowed it whole and been hooked without chance of parole.

Maxis (famed maker of ?The Sims? have been tempting, luring and seducing me into being the master of virtual people for many, many years. Ever since, in fact, the release of the first SimCity so many moons ago. Well things have changed a lot since then, machines have grown to be the size of small houses and crime is a thing of the past. Actually no it hasn?t, you?ve got me on that one, but games most certainly have developed, and knowing this may well have been what recaptured my attention to the SimCity franchise.

You see we are now on the fourth incarnation of the game. After buying and being decidedly unsatisfied with the first SimCity I took a rest, merely testing the water by playing other peoples editions of the following two sequels. Little had changed, except the inclusion of isometrics and a growing world. Yet SimCity 4 looked good on the box, and the EA marketing people did a fantastic job of making me believe this was a game that should not escape my attention, so I bought it.

Well here?s the op! To conclude (this is going to be a bit backward but I really need a conclusion here first) the game hasn?t changed quite as much as you?d believe from the wrapper. Now I can explain!

The premise of SimCity is simple. You lay the blue print for your city, a little at a time, in a method that will dictate how the Sims (the little folk who will live in your town) will grow into their surroundings.

The SimCity4 website has used cunning terminology to describe a feature that realistically is just a glorified map editor. The overview of the game on the back of the box demonstrates careful use of marketing concepts to sell this as the ability to ?sculpt mountains and gouge va
lleys.? You have been given the divine hand of Go
d, or should that be god, your powers are actually rather limited. I?m sure someone said that that wasn?t going to be enough so they remember to include one of the interesting features of previous outings and included the ability to throw a meteor, set off a tornado or have a giant robot stamp across your town.

The second major concept in the game is that you actually create and manage your town from your position as mayor. To this end you will find that a tutorial will take you through the basic concepts of building a small town, however in brief there are 3 types of zoning available (as there always have been in the SimCity series) Residential, Commercial and Industrial. These areas as you might expect deliver areas where your Sims can build housing, offices and factories. These zones need supporting with an infrastructure of roads, power and water, and, as with any town, their growth will increase the demand for a civic infrastructure to include the need for education, health, emergency services and recreation. The growth and running of your town is a costly affair that is of set by the collection of taxes that are levied against your zones. >Phew< Did that sound complicated? It shouldn?t have done. And if it did, stay well clear of SimCity 4.

Maxis, the producers of ?SimCity 4? and many of the other familiar ?TheSims? series, have employed their, now very recognisable, GUI (Graphical User Interface) on to the game making navigation particularly easy for the experienced Simer (he says boiling effortlessly!). An easy to use button bar floats on the side of the screen and can be expanded and collapsed via a set of master buttons that sit at the bottom. For here lie all your powers, the power to edit the landscape, place the buildings and the access by which you shall make the tweaks and fiddles that will be needed to run the budget of your burgeoni
ng city tightly. And tightly it will be too. Early on things are relatively easy, you can ex
pand pretty much across the map in cheap low income housing, but your growing population become restless very quickly, particularly if you cut of their water or electricity through lack of funding.

SimCity 4 does go someway to expanding on its previous manifestations though. The graphical aspect has improved considerably. Towns really do come to life at the highest zoom (the closest). Little people can be seen going about their business; the occasional wheelchair bound person will be seen motoring along the pavement. Burnt out cars and bathtubs will appear in the gardens of areas of urban decay. The city beneath you never stops evolving, the changing shape of your city is always reflected as a result of the placement of key services such as schools and police stations, such amenities attract rich residents and crucial high wealth commercial offices. On the downside the machine I use (A PIII 600 with 500MB Ram and a 32mb graphics card) are absolutely hammered at the first two zooms, this makes scrolling across your city a laborious and slow affair, even when your town is relatively small. I can?t imagine what you need to run it properly as the machine I use at work (which has a higher P4 processor but marginally less RAM) still begins to have problems as the town grows. Even reducing the graphical settings, which rather detracts from the fun in my opinion, does little to help the monster run along smoothly.

The next important difference in SC4 comes by the way of the land you are given to play with. As I mentioned earlier in previous incarnations you have a plot of land and developed it. Period. Once you had your city you either knocked it down or started again. SC4 gives a wonderful opportunity to develop a massive metropolis by allowing the growth of several cities that can connect, cooperate and compete to expand into a massive, thriving region inte
rconnected cities. At this early stage I have two towns growing along side each other and the
y do seem to like each other, sharing such items as rubbish dumps and power supplies (and paying for it out of the budgets of course!).

The second item of major importance is the inclusion of The Sims as secondary source of information. The buzz on the box says you?ve built your sims and given them lives now see them on the street. Well this is a little misleading, the concept means that should you be a Sims addict you can import your little chaps/chapettes and let them be your eyes and ears on the city at your feet. It goes little further than though, as essentially all your Sims seems to do is repeat the same thing over and over again. ?I like being on the safe side? says Stupid Joe Sim who lives close to the police station, so nothing particularly informative about that. On the other hand it is a nice touch. ( So, not many positives then!). I have read warnings that indicate if you move your bright, clever and socially adjust Sim into a low education and poor area then they too will come out that way. I hope that doesn?t mean when you play them back in the Sims they become morose idiots with chips on the shoulders.

Control of the game as I mentioned earlier is provided by the toolbar. In all honesty I?ve found it can be particularly lacking in responsiveness and have had to rely quite heavily on the keyboard. Particularly when zooming in or out or changing the time. For the most part building is easy, but as you develop the infrastructure a mass transit system is crucial. It is here the game has caused me no end of frustration. The placement of bus stops and subway stations may seem to be predictive but in actual fact I?ve spent hundreds on bus stops and thousands on a subway system only to find they are pointing in the wrong direction!

Sound is nice. That could sum it up really; several atmospheric tracks c
an be selected for your audio delight. The sounds of the city drift up better as you zoom in, but there?s nothing particular
ly splendid to shout home about.

I will be taking full use of Games 10 day returns policy imminently because unfortunately SimCity4 is one of those games that crashes my machine. In fact it crashes a lot. In fact it crashed so much upon my installation of it to Windows2000 I rebuilt my OS to XP and for one short burst it played magnificently. I have since attempted playing it and had no success at all. Hmmmm. I don?t think this is common to all machines as at work I can play it fine, but I?m not supposed to play games at work so I don?t really give it that much time and energy, the sort of time and patience such a title is obviously going to require.

So, in closing. If you liked the first outings, or are a fan of ?Siming? and ?god games? then this is likely to appeal. But it does take a lot of resources and if your pc hasn?t got at least my spec I wouldn?t even bother.

The minimum required spec on the box is a P(x) 500, 128mb RAM, 1gb hdd space and a 16mb graphics card. I?d say you?d need at least a P4-1.2, 256RAM and a 64mb graphics card to get a decent scroll speed with all the bells and whistles.


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