Cheap SimCity 4 (Software) (Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows 2000, Windows XP) Price

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Customer Reviews of SimCity 4

The graphics are photo-realisically awesome. So much so, that they will tax anything less than a 2 year-old or older PC. The game can be played on a 800-900MHz/ 128K machine, but it will be slow at times...be warned.

The scenery and buildings are very realistic. No more 20-story apartment buildings in cities of only 1500 inhabitants, either. Plus, once something's built, it tends to last for a long time, making the bulldozer tool a necessity for growth.

This game is much more difficult. It's taken me several tries to get a city of 10,000 with a balanced budget, without going broke. Watch your expenses carefully and don't build schools or police until you absolutely have to. Keep your budget constantly in mind. Accounting happens monthly, so deficit spending wipes you out fast.

A few quips -- the roads are less real-looking here. You almost have to establish a grid, where they seemed more natural in SC3000. Now, though, they can traverse the topography much easier. It's a trade-off.

There seems to be little benefit to linking to the region unless you've developed other areas. This means you're on an island and development even to a small town of 5,000 to 7,000 can take hours and lots of money. This may not be a bad thing.

Also, editing the terrain is tricky business. On the regional level, it seems almost impossible. Could we please have a God mode for the region view, instead of only at the city level?

Be patient and this one will ruin your career, mariage, etc. Awesome.

A forward backward step.
Sim City 4 has these Pros and Cons:

Pros:
Outstanding Graphics
Landscape "God-mode"
Realistic looking terrain
Expansive world in which to create multiple cities and work them in unison.
Import "The Sims"
Stunning disasters (check out the lightning bolt!)
Best Mayor interface ever
Lots of cool features like beaches, new landmarks, and people actually build on cliffs this time.
Whenever the website is up, you'll be able to d/l scenarios.

Now for the Cons:
No Building Architect tool.
Buildings are not exchangable or customizable.
The website Simcity4.com is behind schedule.

Be forewarned:
At the release of Sim City 3000, we all jumped on it. It was great, but with the arrival of Sim City 3000 UNLIMITED, the first was rendered moot. A lot of things couldn't be done in 3000 which could in Unlimited. The website was a strong point for getting new scenarios and buildings and uploading your own.

Sim City 4's intial release seems like a step forward, but backward. I'd wait a few months and see if an Unlimited or Unleashed version comes out. Wait until the websites is ready. I'm sure there is more to it than this basic game. Sim City 4 is like 2000 & 3000 without some perks and with some gorgeous graphics. Simply, the game is fantastic, yet incomplete.

Robert Eldridge (...)

Impossibly hard, but slightly rewarding
First off, this was a ... mleh game. This is a extremely complex game. The farthest i've gone without cheats is about 5 min. The traffic is absurd, subways are beyond expensive, trains and buses placed in the most congested areas only recieve 10% usage at most. The buildings look great and all the graphics are amazing, but the difficulty is beyond anything. SC3000 was a simpler and more addicting.SC4 is still addicting, but the frustration you will recieve trying to balance the budget is too much. BUT, if you pass all that, (i have managed that once), the difficulty gets even harder, powerplants either take up too much space or are too expensive, the budget gets extremly fragile, schools and hospitals overflow once built. But the rewards to see the cities bloom are great. My record pop. is 128,923. Is low for what i see, skyscrapes offices are not enough to get a mil. But still try the game you might get lucky.