SimCity™ 3000 Unlimited

As Maxis transitioned out of it's retro years and into modernity we received SC3K, a charming but awkward entry in the franchise. With graphical improvements, a host of tools to access data and charts on your cities progress and a wonderful soundtrack, humorous advisors and petitioners... there is just something about this one that doesn't hold my interest the way SC2K does. Maybe I prefer the aesthetic and simple and clean interface of 2K more than this, but that isn't to say 3K doesn't have its place. The options for making your city look and feel the way you want it to, with special reward buildings, monuments and tilesets it an incredible addition to the game that really gives your city some variety. The scenarios this time around are well excecuted and quite interesting as well. The game is quite easy, even compared to the already fairly easy SC2K and though your city may face a few problems here and there, nothing is ever unsolvable or frustrating. I can't place my finger on exactly why, since 3K is a wonderful game, but I just simply prefer the retro approach of 2K. Still this one is well worth your time, and is probably the last very good entry in the series as Sim City 4 and 5 never came as close to capturing the simplistic joys of these classic Maxis titles.

Given that Maxis has shuttered their doors and there was no way to patch the game disc in order to run on Windows 10, I was about to enter what seemed like 10-13 years of no SimCity 3000 UL and I had to deal with having Sim City 4 which is a good game in its own but SC4 sucks because it's too realistic in some areas. SC3KUL was SC2K on steriods. I tried again a day ago to see if I could get the cd to run and I was bummed so I was thinking I'd have to do torrent (I am against piracy and I have a legal cd copy of the game I bought from Amazon) then I found out that it was on GOG.com. Easiest $9.99 I have ever spent on! I am playing SC3KUL on my 46" HDTV and it works FULL SCREEN! It still looks good on a HDTV that large. The only con I have in this case is that it crashed once but I remembered I need to hit CTRL+S to save the game and I encourage everyone to read the listings of keyboard shortcuts. A good mouse is also highly recommended as well. Given its requirements, I think it's possible it could run on a Windows tablet and I hated those SimCity games that looked like SC3K but were on iOS. You couldn't even change the terrian to fit your desires and you couldn't build subways & highways. EA was trolling those hardcore SC3KUL fans hard. Having both SC3KUL and SC4 on GOG.com, you would have the city sim games you would want & need. The rebooted SC was such a huge disaster that it led EA to shutting Maxis down. Thank you so much GOG.com, I'm going to put more priority on shopping on this website.

Its hard to know what Simcity I like more. I put this game alongside Simcity 2000 and Simcity SNES all about equal. But yet they are all so different which makes them each fun to play. Its been some years since I played Simcity 3000 and I already have the original disc version but I saw this on sale and decided to get it as a secondary backup, its nice to have an online backup of such a classic game while supporting it at the same time. When I first booted up this game, I noticed you can't set the resolution to 1920x1080, I did a quick search for how to change the resolution, and there is a resolution hack you can edit the .exe file with a hex editor which unlocks more resolutions... I suggest doing that if you are running this game on a resolution that isn't listed in the settings so you can make full use of your monitors scale without stretching the game. The sound is great in this game, as with pretty much all Simcity games, the music is perfect and never gets old. Sound effects are really good also, I can't remember if the original version had them this good or if its just the gog version. Must say though, the interface is a bit more awkward than I remember. Its probably because games have come so far that it feels clunkier. Also the mouse scroll for the camera is extremely sensitive, so much so its really unusable and unforunately I can't see any setting to change it. Graphically though this game holds up extremely well. It looks really sharp and crisp. I think the game engine is using some kind of 3d/2d type rendering but I'm not really sure. I remember when i first got this game in the late 1990s my PC could play it but it was a game that did put it to work a bit. Gameplay, it has minor changes from previous Simcity games, but its got some similar systems that were in Simcity 2000 like having to manage water pipe system. One neat thing was how you can make money by taking other cities garbage and can burn it for power while making money. You don't have to over micromanage the city either, which is one thing that turned me off Simcity 4 quite a bit since I don't like doing that.... but its not over simplistic like the failed Simcity 2013 game (the music was very well done in the game at least, just too bad the rest of it wasn't fun). So like I said, I love this game. But I can't say its the best Simcity, I also think Simcity SNES and Simcity 2000 are very much up there as my favourite Simcity games. It all comes down to what mood im in and what Simcity must be played at that time.

Great game, but doesn't work on Windows 11. Tried everything. A pity.

Works no problem, and plays great. Only problem is the camera jumps around if you move the cursor to the edge of the screen while placing things. So laying pipes and roads can be a pain unless you zoom out. But that's a in game problem I doubt they would touch. Outside that issue its a good game.