I think every gamer on the planet has heard of the Sim City series, and at one time or another, chances are they would have owned or at least played one of the Sim City games, such is their predominance and heritage in the gaming world. Possibly the best known 'god' game, certainly the most popular in terms of sales, and their publishers (MAXIS) are keen to point this out, with big bold branding such as "5 MILLION SIM CITY OWNERS CAN'T BE WRONG!" and frankly who can blame tem for boasting of their success.

The game starts off with you, the player, and a piece of Land. This land is almost empty, with the exception of the odd bit of water and a few trees perhaps. U are also given a limited starting budget (the amount dependant upon the game settings), and from these two bare resources you are expected to construct a healthy thriving self-sufficient city! Yeah right - take my word for it, this is no easy task.

You must manage absolutely everything, and I mean everything. You need to build houses, roads, buildings, workplaces, power sources, water supplies, waste disposal, while ensuring the balance of everything is just about right. For example, if you build too many houses, there is an obvious waste of money, and you will be very limited in what else you have funding to do/ However, if you don't build enough, then you will hamper the growth of your town.
Schools, Colleges, Universities, Leisure attractions, Fire stations, police, ambulances, hospitals, doctors, monuments, attractions and much, much more, all need to be included in your new City, and at the same time, you must manage the books.

Keeping crime down, the people happy and healthy, provide enough facilities all demands an income, so you must regularly adjust your private and business tax rates - too high, and everyone will up sticks and leave, too low and you'll go into the red - The Sim Major is no easy task - mark my words!

Then you hav
e to think of your towns Isolation - are you generating too much power? Why not sell it to neighbouring villages? Do you need more waste disposal? Why not pay another town to dispose of it for you? This is costly, but villagers don't want rubbish dumps everywhere...Can you supply others with amenities to make your town more profitable? What can you share to be a good neighbour and earn 'favours' from local towns - all bare consideration and will play a major factor in your success in the game.

And even should you manage to strike the perfect balance, everyone is happy, your town is working with others, your turning a profit and everything is rosy, one freak moment of misfortune could change it all.
Tornados, earthquakes, lightning strikes, floods, fires, Alien Invasion and many other Natural (and not so natural) disasters could occur that devastate your city, and potentially take you back to step one...Are you prepared for such an outcome? how will you cope? Can you turn these things around? All of this will be tested and more!

The above is a lengthy list of things in the game, but when I tell you those listed above if probably not even 1% of the things in the game, you will have an idea of the magnitude of this colossal release. There are hundreds upon hundreds of things to consider, and letting any one go untouched, could mean disaster for the city. With this in mind, its a good job that you are not alone. You have many Advisors, working to help you make your city a success, and should you chose to listen (and it usually pays to, although not always) you get input from a wide range of sources such as the Financial Advisor, Transport Advisor, Planning Advisor, City Advisor, Environmental Advisor, Safety Advisor, Health Advisor, Aura Advisor, Education Advisor, Utilities Advisor and much, much more...The sheer amount of advice and assistance on offer should give you and idea of how in depth this game COULD be.

Graphically,
the game is not oil painting. The individual graphics such as buildings and animations are very primitive and look dated, but should you get your city in full flow, quite large and zoom right out and take a look, it can be a joy to behold. The same goes for the Audio - rather disappointing, very basic and adding little to the game, but this doesn't matter, as the game is more about user involvement than any other aspect.
Where the game excels is the playability. You can literally play this in a twelve hour stretch, and not notice the time fly, because you become involved and immersed, and rarely do you get the chance to sit back and do nothing - as the player, you are always on the go!

Minimum Specs for the game are as follows:

-> Windows 95/98 (or later)
-> Pentium 166Mhz CPU
-> 32Mb RAM
-> 230Mb Hard Disk Space
-> 4X CD Rom
-> 2Mb Video Card

The above are the absolute minimum, although I would suggest you double everything on the list to gain good performance. Lets face it, with Today?s PC's, resources are hardly an issue!

The game comes with a comprehensive user manual that does a fairly good job at getting your started. The game also comes with a tutorial mode to help you in your first game, and you'd be well advised to do this first!


As the latest in the long line of Sim City games, this is another top release. Sim City 3000 is very challenging indeed (rarely do I turn a profit!) and has longevity untouched by most other games. If you like this sort of game, you probably already own it. If you've never tried a Sim type game, this could well get you addicted...

This is another great release by maxim that I thoroughly enjoyed playing and would reccomend - it is not easy, in fact I would say it is INCREDIBLY hard, and you will rarely succeed, but we all like a challenge don't we?

Let the games begin!