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SimCity 4 was released 20 years ago

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Re: SimCity 4 was released 20 years ago

#41

Post by sbierwagen »

My favorite SimCity 4 bug:

There were several minigames where you would drive vehicles around in your city. If you drove a train, you would have to get from one point to another in a certain amount of time. Drive fire trucks to a fire to put it out. Stuff like that.

Emergency vehicles had sirens that you could turn on that caused other cars to drive towards the shoulder and stop so you could pass them, which worked great... except at intersections, which caused cars driving at right angles to your path to dart forward and come to a complete stop, blocking the road. Making the siren totally useless, oops!

Re: SimCity 4 was released 20 years ago

#42

Post by carabiner »

bombcar wrote: post #3

I think SimCity 4 is the best city simulator game. Cities Skylines is an excellent city painter ; however.

All of these city games need to simulate bureaucracy. For example, if trying to demolish an apartment, you need to solicit 400 approvals and gain local support before doing so. Or to build to a railway you need to buy out all of the land and organize environmental studies for every square foot of it before laying track.

Re: SimCity 4 was released 20 years ago

#43

Post by nextaccountic »

sidewndr46 wrote: post #23
bombcar wrote: post #3

I think SimCity 4 is the best city simulator game. Cities Skylines is an excellent city painter ; however.

Cities Skylines just turns into "transportation mode simulator" for me. Still fun, but it is not the same thing.

There's a Tropico game, I think it's Tropico 4, that is very realistic in that you don't need to literally make roads and asphalt all the things, and roads don't need to be car-centered; you just make buildings and people will walk, and you add a road network to make things more efficient, but it isn't required

Also curved roads and buildings don't need to be right besides the road, etc.

Sim City 4 is more like a suburbia simulator imo

Re: SimCity 4 was released 20 years ago

#44

Post by xixixao »

genocidicbunny wrote: post #11
chongli wrote: post #5

I prefer SimCity 2000. I feel like it hit a pretty good sweet spot between simulation and fun (which is to say, not even a vague gesturing at anything remotely realistic). Realistic simulation in games is almost universally less fun than simple, predictable game logic. Probably the most extreme example of this is chess: way more enjoyable than real warfare. Back on topic though. My beef with SimCity 4 is that it adde…

I thought 3000 was the best showing, though perhaps that's looking at it back later when performance is not as much of a concern. It felt like an upgraded SimCity 2000, rather than a big change in game mechanics that 4 was.

Age of Empires 2, Sim City 3000, Diablo2 and Red Alert 2. Released in the span of 3 years. What an incredible era. Can’t shake off the feeling that 3D took away as much as it gave gaming. Also can’t believe it’s just my age-based selection bias.

Re: SimCity 4 was released 20 years ago

#45

Post by jphalimi »

jcranmer wrote: post #15

Haven't seen it mentioned yet, so I also want to raise a toast to the wonderful music of SimCity 4.

If you love SimCity 3k/4 music, it is made by Jerry Martin and saxophonist Marc Russo.

A few great links for you: http://jerrymartinmusic.com/music_demo.php On this demo page website, you can find some original jazz samples not included in SC3k even though they are quite amazing

http://boombamboom.com/ Some website Jerry Martin opened a few years ago where you can download high-quality music from the games he worked on (Sims, Sim City etc)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1467440/SimCasino_Soundtr... Sim Casino is a way more recent game, and Jerry Martin / Marc Russo came back together to write the OST! It has a lot of feels from SC3k/SC4 music, so you might want to look into it.

You can also find one of their interviews here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1158420/view/4689895...

As you can see I am quite the fan... :-)

Re: SimCity 4 was released 20 years ago

#46

Post by ido »

JonathonW wrote: post #16
genocidicbunny wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought 3000 was the best showing, though perhaps that's looking at it back later when performance is not as much of a concern. It felt like an upgraded SimCity 2000, rather than a big change in game mechanics that 4 was.

Same here— SimCity 3000’s the one that really hit the right spot gameplay-wise for me. Prettier and deeper and more polished than 2000 without departing too far from 2000’s core mechanics or simulation approach.

I still occasion play 3k!

Re: SimCity 4 was released 20 years ago

#47

Post by harha »

crashingintoyou wrote: post #20

I was a little surprised that they actually released an Apple Silicon version for it just a few months ago ( https://support.aspyr.com/hc/en-us/articles/12168615035405-H... ) in spite of its age.

Would be nice if they’d do the same for civ 6 - it’s burning hot on my MacBook (not sure it would solve the issue but worth a try)

Re: SimCity 4 was released 20 years ago

#48

Post by somat »

tjpnz wrote: post #19
NBJack wrote: post #17

This is a stretch. 4 was alright, but it also marked the death of the series. 3 was great, 2 was legendary. There's a great reason Cities: Skylines became the spiritual successor.

If SimCity 4 marked the death of the series what was SimCity 2013?

the death itself
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