SimCity 4 (PC)

“Ever thought you could make a better city? Pah, I could be a better Mayor; well now you can! Sim City 4 is just that and offers this opportunity and lets you sit in the chair titled "mayor". Sim City 4 and Sim City Rush Hour is...”

“Ever thought you could make a better city? Pah, I could be a better Mayor; well now you can! Sim City 4 is just that and offers this opportunity and lets you sit in the chair titled "mayor".

Sim City 4 and Sim City Rush Hour is another one of those games that has been created by EA... EA? Not again you say - Except this time.. EA has really created a game and has polished it up to its standards. Sim City 4 is the 4th sequel to the Sim City series; released after Sim City 3000, it showed off superb graphic capabilities at the time and invented new ways to enjoy a Simulated city, where you play as the city's major, managing the finance for your very own city, build houses, roads, statues, ports, bridges, airports and create beaches for your time-out.

You start off with the tutorial scenario... and about 5-6 tutorials which teaches you in an in-game style, making you try things out as you go along and following objectives; learning how to build, managing power/water supplies, landscaping, and the rest. After you complete that (or can't be bothered to and skip it), you can either build in that same region (although I don't recommend it) or start building cities in one of the few preset regions that have already been created.

If you completed the tutorial and paid attention, starting and creating cities is all about understanding your basic ABC (When creating your city, there are no objectives - everything is free roam). However, taking in revenue will take longer to get used to as the system in the game to making money is like a rock-paper-scissors gamble. Building cleaner things or schools which can benefit the city will have a serious hit on your monthly expense, expect to raise your taxes, lose reputation, and lower management costs should you fall in debt; but the game helps you in many ways if this happens, but not a lot. Firstly, you would start to unlock buildings that will generate some small income that you would normally unlock several hours into the game; you will also be able to take out a loan from the bank, although it's only a maximum of only 100,000 simoleons, that would be reasonably enough to sort your expense-over-income situation out providing you know how to.

When starting a city you will first need to type in you preferred Mayor's name, then your city name, then your desired level on you wish to impose on the difficulty of managing the city. The level affects the costs, starting money and the actual difficulty of gaining income. You can then create three different zones, these are: "Residential Zones", "Commercial Zones", and "Industrial Zones". You then sit back and watch development take place as cement trucks, family cars, and trucks move in to take up the zones. You cannot choose exactly what buildings you want to be build there, this is because it all depends on its surroundings and the population in your city at the time the new buildings are being built. You can, however, limit the construction style to "Low Density", "Medium Density", or "High Density". Low Density forces the houses being built to house small families or mansions; whilst High Density houses towering skyscrapers which can be an overwhelming site to look at. The Commercial zones offers offices, retail stores, and local dining centres; and lastly the Industrial Zone creates factories, from dirty industry, manafacturers, to high-tech research buildings. A good combination of all 3 makes a good city; which makes good profit.

After creating your zones you also need to think about your water supply, power supply, and garbage waste. A city will not work efficiently without power and water (the two critical elements to a city). After they are bought, placed, and working - You will need to think about the education of your citizens, placing schools, colleges and libraries help enhance their knowledge which in-turn, create better jobs, provide places for wealthier people, which all contribute to making a great city.

Safety is also another priority in the game (but not one of the highest). You also have to build Police Stations, Fire Departments, Hospitals in key locations where they will help make your city a safer place which attracts wealthier citizens moving into your city, and again, creates a better city.

Lastly, another factor you have to remember when creating your city is Environment. You will, in some point later on in the game, have to build parks, flower gardens, fields of greens to halt the pollution your city makes which often keeps those hard-earning Sims away from moving in. In addition to building green space, you will also have to plant trees, or (one of my favourites) raise taxes on "Dirty Industry" to keep them away from producing in your city (as they are also the lowest type of sub-faction from the Industrial Zone to generate income).

Trading is also a valuable way to generate income, by making deals with neighbouring cities (of course you must create them first), but they ar”