Simcity 4

  • Thread starter Thread starter vat_man
  • 50 comments
  • 2,766 views
V

vat_man

Staff Emeritus
Messages
9,428
Just got this last night - played it for an hour or so. Looks pretty good, you can set up a region of cities (managing each city individually as you would normally in Simcity) and join them together, and you can import your Sims and watch them live in the city - monitor their health, education, work.

It's certainly an attractive looking game, though. Looks like they've done a good job. More to come as my partner and I go through it.
 
This is the first PC game I've played in a while, and it's pretty cool. I like the concept of creating an entire geographicical area full of cities, and having it all interconnected. I haven't played with the Sim importing feature, but plan on doing that soon.
So far I like it better than SC3000, but I'd like to see if Maxis creates as many extra landmarks like they have in the past.
The single greatest improvement is in the landscape, which seems to be done in full 3d (still has a 4 point Isometric view, because you would apparently need a 3 gig PC to run it in full 3D)
The gives the landscape a much more natural feel, as do the little wild animals you can have running around.
 
I can't wait until I pick this one up. What are the system requirements? I probably have more than enough, but I want to make sure.
 
I just saw the commercial for this game a second ago. Looks pretty tight. I have one question though... What makes it different (better) from the older SimCitys (specifically SimCity 3000)?
 
Originally posted by mark2080
I just saw the commercial for this game a second ago. Looks pretty tight. I have one question though... What makes it different (better) from the older SimCitys (specifically SimCity 3000)?
Click to expand...

Well, based on the small amount of play I've had so far, the big difference is the regions - you can set it up so you don't just have one city now. Remember the neighbouring cities from Simcity 2000 and 3000 - you can now set them up and run them as well, so you have interlinking economies that you can manage at a macro-level.

Introducing the Sims is actually quite useful - I thought it would be a gimmick, but it's actually a useful guide to how well service delivery (water, education, health, pollution, employment and traffic) is at a micro-level - much more useful than the news ticker from SC3K.

Demand representation (the ol' RCI graph) is much more refined in pinpointing exactly what type of zones the Sims are demanding.

I already prefer it to SC3K - I loved SC2K, but struggled to get into SC3K - but on initial playing of SC4, I'm sitting here at work now plotting how I'm going to approach my existing town, and how I'm going to set up its neighbouring city. I can already see this region being set up with my cities and my partner's cities, and it's going to turn into some ugly contest. Again. :lol:
 
Originally posted by Viper Zero
I can't wait until I pick this one up. What are the system requirements? I probably have more than enough, but I want to make sure.
Click to expand...
SimCity 4 requirements:
OS: Windows XP/Me/2000/98 CPU: 500 MHz Intel Pentium III or AMD Athlon processor: RAM: 128 MB CD/DVD-Rom Speed: 8x Hard Drive Space: 1 GB DirectX 8.1 or higer. Video: 16MB video card, 3D accelerated mode requires a supported 3D chipset,

SUPPORTED 3d CHIPSETS: NVIDIA GeForce4, GeForece3, GeForce2, GeForce 256; NVIDIA TNT2, TNT; ATI Radeon 9700, 9500, 9000, 8500, 7500, 7200, 7000, Radeon; Matrox Parhella; Matrox G550, G450, G400.

Recommended 1 GHZ or faster Intel or AMD processor, 256 or more RAM, 32 MB or greater supported Direct3D video card.

Have to add... this is an awesome game. A must buy for a sim city fan.
;)
 
You'll need as much RAM as you can get your hands on - I'm running a 1.7 AMD, GeForce 2 and 256mb, and you don't want to be a hurry when you rotate the view.

I love the regions thing - I've got three towns set up - one has an excess of water and power, but no room for landfill - so I've got this deal set-up with my neighbouring town which has no access to water to swap power and water for trash.
 
Originally posted by vat_man
You'll need as much RAM as you can get your hands on - I'm running a 1.7 AMD, GeForce 2 and 256mb, and you don't want to be a hurry when you rotate the view.

I love the regions thing - I've got three towns set up - one has an excess of water and power, but no room for landfill - so I've got this deal set-up with my neighbouring town which has no access to water to swap power and water for trash.
Click to expand...

Yep... i have my 1.6 AMD with a ATI 9500 Pro and 256 or ram. I have to have everything to mid detail just to run smooth. How do you swap deals? Do you just have to wait till they make them with you? As for the water pumps on SC4 its different then SC3. You can place the pumps anywhere on the map. They dont need to be next to water.
 
Originally posted by NocturnalPS
As for the water pumps on SC4 its different then SC3. You can place the pumps anywhere on the map. They dont need to be next to water.
Click to expand...

Really? Excellent. :cool:
 
Originally posted by NocturnalPS
Yep... i have my 1.6 AMD with a ATI 9500 Pro and 256 or ram. I have to have everything to mid detail just to run smooth. How do you swap deals? Do you just have to wait till they make them with you? As for the water pumps on SC4 its different then SC3. You can place the pumps anywhere on the map. They dont need to be next to water.
Click to expand...

They need to be suggested by the advisers - and you need to have neighbouring cities in a position to do deals - i.e. one city have a garbage problem, and the neighbouring city have excess landfill space, like that.
 
Originally posted by vat_man
They need to be suggested by the advisers - and you need to have neighbouring cities in a position to do deals - i.e. one city have a garbage problem, and the neighbouring city have excess landfill space, like that.
Click to expand...
Yeah thats what i was guessing. I havent had any offers yet but then again i only have 2 city built.
 
Originally posted by vat_man
Just got this last night - played it for an hour or so. Looks pretty good, you can set up a region of cities (managing each city individually as you would normally in Simcity) and join them together, and you can import your Sims and watch them live in the city - monitor their health, education, work.

It's certainly an attractive looking game, though. Looks like they've done a good job. More to come as my partner and I go through it.
Click to expand...
cool is there any way to get it from the internet?
 
If you want to steal it, meet me by the alley...

just go to kazaa if you want to "steal" it. Not that i'd have anything to do with it ( i haven't).
 
Originally posted by ran
cool is there any way to get it from the internet?
Click to expand...

people who steal it a jack asses because they are the primay cause of the games going up in price now go buy the damn thing u cheap mofo:mad: :mad: :mad:
 
Hey mate i was just giving him an option...i've never downloaded anything from kazaa even though i did have it once. i use an ftp.
 
I can't wait to pick this game. The fact you can also manage your neighboring cities is fantasic! I can't wait to see it on my flat screen moniter to also. I am sure the graphics are amazing.

I have a question through? Since when did EA Games owned the SIM series? I thought Maxis owned it. :confused: I didn't think they did, but when watching the advertisments, they let you know at the end they do now.
 
Originally posted by NocturnalPS
Yep... i have my 1.6 AMD with a ATI 9500 Pro and 256 or ram. I have to have everything to mid detail just to run smooth. How do you swap deals? Do you just have to wait till they make them with you? As for the water pumps on SC4 its different then SC3. You can place the pumps anywhere on the map. They dont need to be next to water.
Click to expand...

Oh man... I'm on a 1.7 P4, ATI 8500 w/ 512 ram, I think.... It'll probably be worth buying for me, but seeing that I have $0.05US, I can't really buy it too soon, and I need a job, but since I have no license(3 months away) it'll be hard commuting....
 
Glad to see I'm not the only one struggling with specs - I'm running an Athlon at about 1.7, with 256m ram and an old GEForce 2.

I want to get some additional ram anyway - I tried it with 512mb (borrowed 256mb from work) - and it made a difference. I'm going to get 1 gig and see how that goes, and later this year upgrade the video card.
 
Originally posted by vat_man
Glad to see I'm not the only one struggling with specs - I'm running an Athlon at about 1.7, with 256m ram and an old GEForce 2.

I want to get some additional ram anyway - I tried it with 512mb (borrowed 256mb from work) - and it made a difference. I'm going to get 1 gig and see how that goes, and later this year upgrade the video card.
Click to expand...
Yeah thats what im guessing. I too need to get another strip of 256 or maybe just a strip of 512. But kindof want to wait for prices to drop on memory. Its always going up and down. :p
 
I know - fortunately, a mate of mine sells cheap hardware as part of his IT contracting, so it shouldn't be too bad. I think the price is up at the moment.
 
Originally posted by vat_man
I know - fortunately, a mate of mine sells cheap hardware as part of his IT contracting, so it shouldn't be too bad. I think the price is up at the moment.
Click to expand...
Yes it is up a little bit. But compaired to a few months ago its gone down quite a bit. When i was building my new comp i paid about $75-$78 for just one strip of 256 DDR 2700. Yesterday i found that same strip for just $49. But ive seen ram lower before. Just dont want to miss the opportunity to buy it for that price just in case it goes back up again. ;)


Oh yeah 512 ends up helping me a bit more on that game rather then 256.

But its still a little slow.
 
Guys - just a note on this, it's better once you've got the two patches installed. It coincided with installing half a gig to take me to 768 meg, but it was A LOT better than what it was with 512 meg (see notes above), more than an additional 256 meg could have caused.

Just need that video card now....
 
So - how are people going with this? I've a solid little region going now, with three cities - a small one, a medium one, and now a large one I'm starting to get rolling along. The region's got around 100-120k people now. I'll put some screenshots up later (if I remember).

I get a little graphical update slowdown when moving around, but it's much better than before - I was finding it was getting unplayable as you approached 30,000 population, but one of my towns is over 60,000, and it's fine.
 

Latest Posts

Back