Well, I never though I’d see myself playing this but at present, P.C. action gaming is in stasis. The new stuff is coming but I need something to fill a gap. And its why I love my P.C. It allows me to play games that might sound boring in writing, but are, in fact, very enjoyable to play. A bit like chess.
Bought for 29.99, this pack also gives you the Rush Hour Add on. I’ve not played that yet as SC4 has taken up so much time by itself.
Playing god has always been an interesting genre and has even cascaded down to the arcade with simplistic but enjoyable games like Taitos ‘Landmaker’.
Since the current ‘next-gen’ console era, the genre has seen a demise, although it has been supported to a lesser extent on certain RPG’s.
So whats so great about the game?
I like the idea of controlling a world. Like Civilisation did too, it gives younger games a great insight into the way the world works on a political, geographic and social level. This is really the kind of game that P.C.s are suited for because it does take quite a while to really get going. A new function is the Region mode and this allows you to build cities over a region (say London) and connect them all up to make one big ‘Uber-city (hence London was once lots of small inbred communities, that came together, to make it what it is now).
Of course you don’t have to use the London region. Regions can be sculpted by yourself and can be as hard or easy as you like. This is quite a good feature as it makes the cities look rather different.
So once you have your region defined, you become mayor and rule the thing.
According to S.C 4 a city is divided into Zones. Not like travelcard zones, but different areas of residential, commercial and industry. Placement of these is crucial to making your city work.
Actually, If the government had this, towns like Warrington and Newport wouldn’t exist. Unfornutely, it didn’t happen like this and both places do exist, even today.
If the government had this game they would know its bad news to place a High density Residential area next to a high density Industrial area. Very bad.
So, Zonal placement is very important and if you take a look around you, you will see it in evidence today. Espeically in Baldock, Herts.
Once your city starts to expand, high density zones need water. This allows further growth skywards, but it must be kept clean, else the environment advisor will stop the pump, costing you lots of simeons (that’s the currency).
Oh yeah. You have 6 advisors, Trainsport, Enviroment, Power, etc, and they are all vying for your money. You should listen to them though as they sometimes have things to say they you’ll need to take on board. Like if your about to loose all the electricity as you have to much being utilised, or a road needs widening to account for more traffic, or just to ruin your lush hillscapes.
This all costs money and the money comes from taxes so these must be altered to balance your books, or if you need that extra cash to buy a statue of yourself, or buy that transport system you always wanted (subways, the E.L as they say in E.R, boats, rail, buses, cars, and planes are all included).
Sometimes a company will do you a deal and pay you to build an army base or missle test site (which can cause problems) or a toxic waste dump (just like Pitsea, Essex, or just whole Essex in fact).
Some buildings only becoming available when you complete missions.
Missions?
Yes.
Missions?
Around 80 of them in fact.
You see, when you build certain buildings, an icon appears over the vehicle included with that building (like a police car). You can then drive in your town (not First Person) and complete the mission. Doing so will earn you cash, or mayor points or a new building like a Casino. These too will bring in the money but also can bring risks like crime, and err drugs. Maybe.
So its just like where you live.
Of course, if people frustrate you, you can move to god mode and go hellbent on destruction.
Meteors, Earthquakes and even that beast in Larger of Lamot commercials are available to rain havok on your sims. (you can import sims from the game ‘the sims too’)
Its very stress relieving to just wipe out the buildings with the different weapons available. The buildings explode well too, with some nice, but faux physics.
Bad points?
Well, its can be quite hard to drive the missions with the streets as busy as they are.
Also vehicles and people will dissappear at junctions, so you can’t follow a vehicle home and spy.
Theres animals in the game to, but I just build over them. I think zoning agriculture helps perhaps. I dunno. You can’t run them over anyway.
Err, it can crash (longest sess was 5 hours between saves, so try to save quite often).
On my 2.8 P4 with a ATI 9600Pro (not overclocked) in ran well at 1280x1024, but starts to slow a little when your city gets bigger. As is always the case with this type of game.
Also, an average game is quite long too. Mine hasn’t finished yet and I’ve been playing for about 20 hours.
Anyway, to end, it’s the best looking god sim game about (theres 5 different building styles, and around 20,435 buildings at last count) and plays rather well.
It gives you an insight into the world you live in and the problems you’ll face if you ever become mayor, drive in heavy traffic at speed, or directing a meteor into a city.
8/10.
Steve.
Bought for 29.99, this pack also gives you the Rush Hour Add on. I’ve not played that yet as SC4 has taken up so much time by itself.
Playing god has always been an interesting genre and has even cascaded down to the arcade with simplistic but enjoyable games like Taitos ‘Landmaker’.
Since the current ‘next-gen’ console era, the genre has seen a demise, although it has been supported to a lesser extent on certain RPG’s.
So whats so great about the game?
I like the idea of controlling a world. Like Civilisation did too, it gives younger games a great insight into the way the world works on a political, geographic and social level. This is really the kind of game that P.C.s are suited for because it does take quite a while to really get going. A new function is the Region mode and this allows you to build cities over a region (say London) and connect them all up to make one big ‘Uber-city (hence London was once lots of small inbred communities, that came together, to make it what it is now).
Of course you don’t have to use the London region. Regions can be sculpted by yourself and can be as hard or easy as you like. This is quite a good feature as it makes the cities look rather different.
So once you have your region defined, you become mayor and rule the thing.
According to S.C 4 a city is divided into Zones. Not like travelcard zones, but different areas of residential, commercial and industry. Placement of these is crucial to making your city work.
Actually, If the government had this, towns like Warrington and Newport wouldn’t exist. Unfornutely, it didn’t happen like this and both places do exist, even today.
If the government had this game they would know its bad news to place a High density Residential area next to a high density Industrial area. Very bad.
So, Zonal placement is very important and if you take a look around you, you will see it in evidence today. Espeically in Baldock, Herts.
Once your city starts to expand, high density zones need water. This allows further growth skywards, but it must be kept clean, else the environment advisor will stop the pump, costing you lots of simeons (that’s the currency).
Oh yeah. You have 6 advisors, Trainsport, Enviroment, Power, etc, and they are all vying for your money. You should listen to them though as they sometimes have things to say they you’ll need to take on board. Like if your about to loose all the electricity as you have to much being utilised, or a road needs widening to account for more traffic, or just to ruin your lush hillscapes.
This all costs money and the money comes from taxes so these must be altered to balance your books, or if you need that extra cash to buy a statue of yourself, or buy that transport system you always wanted (subways, the E.L as they say in E.R, boats, rail, buses, cars, and planes are all included).
Sometimes a company will do you a deal and pay you to build an army base or missle test site (which can cause problems) or a toxic waste dump (just like Pitsea, Essex, or just whole Essex in fact).
Some buildings only becoming available when you complete missions.
Missions?
Yes.
Missions?
Around 80 of them in fact.
You see, when you build certain buildings, an icon appears over the vehicle included with that building (like a police car). You can then drive in your town (not First Person) and complete the mission. Doing so will earn you cash, or mayor points or a new building like a Casino. These too will bring in the money but also can bring risks like crime, and err drugs. Maybe.
So its just like where you live.
Of course, if people frustrate you, you can move to god mode and go hellbent on destruction.
Meteors, Earthquakes and even that beast in Larger of Lamot commercials are available to rain havok on your sims. (you can import sims from the game ‘the sims too’)
Its very stress relieving to just wipe out the buildings with the different weapons available. The buildings explode well too, with some nice, but faux physics.
Bad points?
Well, its can be quite hard to drive the missions with the streets as busy as they are.
Also vehicles and people will dissappear at junctions, so you can’t follow a vehicle home and spy.
Theres animals in the game to, but I just build over them. I think zoning agriculture helps perhaps. I dunno. You can’t run them over anyway.
Err, it can crash (longest sess was 5 hours between saves, so try to save quite often).
On my 2.8 P4 with a ATI 9600Pro (not overclocked) in ran well at 1280x1024, but starts to slow a little when your city gets bigger. As is always the case with this type of game.
Also, an average game is quite long too. Mine hasn’t finished yet and I’ve been playing for about 20 hours.
Anyway, to end, it’s the best looking god sim game about (theres 5 different building styles, and around 20,435 buildings at last count) and plays rather well.
It gives you an insight into the world you live in and the problems you’ll face if you ever become mayor, drive in heavy traffic at speed, or directing a meteor into a city.
8/10.
Steve.