SimCity™ 4 Deluxe Edition

SC4 is a burly game for it's age. To my thoughts, it's a bit too much Sim in Sim City. Gone was the studio that had once produced the Software Toys of old, and now was in an overcomplicated simulation that's too smart and stupid at the same time. See the thing is, as the series went onward it became less about crafting a city creatively and more of a traffic management sim. The problem with SC4 is that traffic management is absolutely broken by default. Sims can't even navigate across the street in many cases. A term was oft thrown at the SimCity series: SoCalization; the phenomena of things being presented in a way that makes sense to Southern California and nowhere else. In SC4, this phenomena was at it's peak. Be this a strength or weakness is to personal determination. For my personal tastes, SC4's presentation is a weakness. The music especially didn't particularly strike out to me, and the building styles…it was the height of Real Is Brown. While this does reflect how cities look to many satellites, good viewing this doesn't make. And for those aspiring to a high tech city, I dearly hope patches can be found, as once again by default, they're broken and ask for abysmal numbers for employment. The regional interconnectivity certainly exists and can be exploited quite easily, but it never feels like they really matter all that much. Citizens in City X won't demand that Ordinance Y be enacted because City Z has it. Nor would you get a notice from City Z, demanding to hypothetically stop dumping toxic waste into the river because it's flowing into theirs. UDrive exists. It could have been a potentially fun way to tour the city, but given the circumstances of the traffic AI, your vehicle will end up a burning wreck, even if you do try to grandma your way though the city. All in all, fun can be found and had, but I just feel the previous titles and successor series have done this all better. Skylines, SC2K, 3K; I'd rather go play those than this.

EA, please provide big maps and custom region making. You will sell more copies of SimCity.

I've downloaded Gog's SC4D twice in the last 3 years. Both games ended up deleted under mysterious circumstances. I've asked around about whether security software like Avast or Advanced System Care might have become aggressive enough to "recognize" the sc4d.exe as a threat and summarily delete it. Nobody is sure about this. Simtropolis remains a good site for information. Eventually I'm sure this vanishing exe. problem will be figured out. Do I want to download it again from Gog? Oy vey, I'm thinking about it.

People listen, don't buy this game. It's one hell of an addicting piece of wonderful crap... or a city simulator as some would call this... this,,, horror... Fuck you Maxis, give me my life back.

This is one of those games (especially at this price) that was an instant purchase for me. Now I'm just waiting on SC3000 and I'll be an even happier gamer.