Simcitizen diary entry, 27/04/2004 (Sim City 4 (PC))

Member Name: Jonny_Sleeze

Product:	Sim City 4 (PC)
Date:	28/04/04 (166 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some very nice touches, Well crafted, Addictive

Disadvantages: Need a beast of a PC, Lost some of that simcity soul

Y'know, a funny thing happened today. There I was, sitting on my sofa and dreaming about food (those pesky thought bubbles), when I felt this almighty presence in the room; a magnificent glow lit up the walls, and the house began to shake ominously as if in an earthquake. I thought it might be a problem with the central heating, so I got up to fiddle with the thermostat when this almighty booming voice came out of nowhere...

"BEHOLD, MY SIM! YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN!"

I sat back down.

"Erm... are you god?"

"No, my child" The voice replied, "Better still; I am MAYOR"

"Oh, okay... um"

I twiddled my thumbs.

"So... what have you chosen me for?"

"Well, there's this nifty little new device in this latest version of SimCity which lets you pick a handful of your vast array of humble simcitizens and have them personally report back to you about what life's like on the ground. I have chosen you. It helps me keep in touch with my roots"

"Really?"

"Well... not really. It's basically a gimmick, and the sims you choose don't really tell you anything you don't already know about the city dynamics. Clever people are well connected to schools, colleges etc, sims feel safer near police stations, that kind of thing. It's still a clever touch though. In fact, it makes it a bit like The Sims. Which is the general feel of this whole game actually; like The Sims, but bigger"

I didn't know what he was talking about, but I nodded my head sagely nonetheless.

"So" he continued, "&#
87;hat's life like in this city?"

"Well, it's a bit weird. Things appear out of nowhere; just the other day I was walking my dog when the ground shook and we found ourselves on top of a police station! Bloody hard explaining how we got there to the people inside."

"Yes, that would be my doing. It's a nice point and click interface; I zone things like residential, commercial and industrial zones of various density, and as long as they're well plied with water and electricity they develop into shops, homes, factories and farms. From there, I have to sustain the city's infrastructure with things like schools, police stations and fire protection."

"Blimey. Sounds like a handful."

"It is, and coupled with the constant challenge of balancing the books and keeping the income in line with expenses, it makes for a very tough game. At least, at first; as with all the previous versions, you get the hang of it after a while and then it becomes a joy to play. You just need a little patience and the reward is a truly moreish gaming experience."

"Err... great. So what's the catch?"

"Well," He said, wistfully, "My computer really struggles with the updated graphics and incredible detail. It's a 1ghz Athlon with a Geforce 3, which is generally fine for the rest of the games I play, but I can hear it choking and groning with Simcity 4, especially when I zoom right in. I had to knock the detail and resolution levels down a bit and it still has trouble. Don't even bother with it if you've only got the minimum spec; I'd imagine your computer would explode or something. Getting from one side of the city to the other is a real chore"

"Tell me about it. There's no trains or
buses round here and the roads are pretty awful"

"Yes, that would be me again. I spent all my money on parks so I couldn't build any public transport and had to reduce the road budget"

"Oh dear. But those parks do look lovely, don't they?"

"Yes they do, and sims love living next to things like parks. What they hate is living next to things like factories or missile silos... last time I make THAT mistake. In fact, everything looks lovely. It's a perfectly rendered environment; you zone the zones and the game fills in all the aesthetic touches; you get much more of a feel for things like the kind of neighbourhood you're looking at when there's burnt out cars in the back gardens. Even scrolling through the ugly industrial zones is a joy, just for the pedantic detail they've put in. All the action on the street is excellently choreographed as well; you can see cars getting held up at traffic lights, and it's tempting to just start fires so you can watch the firemen run around putting it out with their big blue water hoses. The 2D sprites of past versions are long gone. "

"Ahem. Righto"

"It's just... well, I preferred Simcity 3000. I don't know whether it's because they've become subsumed into the all-conquering games machine that is EA for this one, but it doesn't have the madcap sense of humour or subversive touches that the previous entries in the franchise have had. The city news scroller, for example, has gone, and so have the cartoonish balloon heads of your advisors and petitioners. Instead, you get that anonymous 3d head from The Sims. Obviously, some people will like that, but I miss it. Hence my rating; there's no doubt that this is an excellent and well created game; but it's
Simcity only by name. It's got mass appeal, like The Sims, but it's lost that Maxis soul."

"Are you saying I have no soul?"

"Don't be stupid, you're not real. How can you have a soul?"

And with that, he was gone.

Summary: