Caesar 3

Very good fun. Probably some nostalgia at play too.

Playing this game since 1999, never grets old!

A great game with a few small flaws that can be mitigated with installing either Julius (plain improvement of vanilla) or Augustus (a complete overhaul and MUCH better experience) open source mods. In its non-modded version, it's a bit more crude than Pharaoh (e.g. warehouses distributing goods in a bit different way, no roadblocks, simpler trading and goods management and less obvious housing improvement criteria sometimes), but still offers a really good experience, even though it does miss the "prefecture" map view from the previous games (and the ability to fight with other cities in such way). For me, it's still the first entry in the series that wasn't too archaic - previous versions were a bit too rudimentary for me (sounds, interface, information about the city not presented in the best way) and I'm a big fan of Pharaoh an Zeus games. The GOG version also works without any issuses. For people experiencing animation issues - RESTART YOUR PC - City Building games series rely on the system clock for calculating the animations (and also some actions, as e.g. Urchin collectors in Zeus) and if you don't restart your machine every couple days the signed integer calculation used for them just STALLS. For people struggling with not having some more modern mechanics from Pharaoh and Zeus (and wanting to play in windowed mode without issues) - install Augustus (or more barebones Julius). It'll give you a lot of quality-of-live improvements, along new buildings and mechanics from its successors.

Just like the old days, good stuff.

Ok, this is a heavyweight among the city-building games. This game is not a casual game like the Sim City series This game is for the purists, the perfectionists. It will reward you for good urban planning, but it will punish your mistakes very hard. You can play for hours and hours on a city, just to realize this wasn't a good strategy on that map, and you have to start the map over again. Sometimes frustrating, but when you accomplish a mission, it was because of YOUR hard work, and you feel so proud ! Possibly the best of the series (Caesar/Pharaoh/Zeus) by a tiny bit.