SimCity (time well spent compared to Civ?)

MattyBoy · July 29, 2002, 18:36

I gather that SimCity has similar addictive qualities to Civ games. I loved the latter, but have never tried the former. Beneath all of this is a fear that I'll spend Civ-like hours on a game that is not as good.

Given that my life is already going down the toilet, should I steer clear of SimCity as a dangerous time sap?
Or am I simply missing out on a wonderful experience?

General Ludd · July 29, 2002, 19:25

I can't imagine anyone being addicted to Sim City.... It's an OK game, but there really isn't enough to it to keep you interested for long periods of time.

Eli · July 29, 2002, 19:28

Exactly.

Once every half a year or so I spend a few days on building a huge city, but after a certain point I lose all interest in the game.

MosesPresley · July 29, 2002, 19:41

I love Sim City, I don't play it as much as Civ or a few others, but I'm always returning to it, just give another tweak to my city. It's also fun to run a deliberately mismanaged city.

Skanky Burns · July 29, 2002, 21:19

I'd equate it with the Sims. Then again, I do like the Sims...

MattyBoy · July 29, 2002, 21:20

I work in a pretty big city centre and yesterday I was looking and taking in how everybody's little efforts go to make it all work and how it's all built on layers of technological foundations.

That's what got me thinking about enjoying Civ's city view and wondering about Sim City.

MattyBoy · July 29, 2002, 21:21

Hey, welcome back Skanky.
I agree, I'm over being snobbish about sophisticated games for the moment. They are only games, after all, and never as broadly challenging as RL.

Space05us · July 29, 2002, 21:24

Its a fun game in the sense that a board game is fun. you can play it every now and then and get full enjoyment out of it, but its not a game you can sit down and play for hours on end and day after day.
I say give it a try, and dont get frustrated when your first 2 billion cities fail or you have a perfect city and all of a sudden it turns to crap

MattyBoy · July 29, 2002, 21:27

Which version should I try?
My PC is about 4 years old.

Space05us · July 29, 2002, 21:31

sim city 2000

MosesPresley · July 29, 2002, 21:36

I ran sim city 3000 unlimited on my 233 mhz mmx 96 mb ram, 16 mb video card pretty well. There were some slowups, but nothing devastating.

Space05us · July 29, 2002, 21:43

SimCity3000 likes to turn everything into little blue blocks and those 'hangups' are frequent.not to mention you dont get the newspaper

1.59ghz
256mb ram

i dont know about my video card let me go find it

edit: 64mb GeForce2 MX

Leonel · July 29, 2002, 22:22

Yeah, that little block think in SimCity 3000 is kind of irritating but no game is perfect, though it would be great if it were.

I like SimCity 2000 Special Edition 'cause I can use the tilesets which are really cool. THough I wish there was a tileset based on SimCity 3000 for the Mac 'cause I found it for the windows version.

Space05us · July 29, 2002, 22:33

it's kinda irritating when you cant see the building thats on fire.

Ive never played SimCity2000SE, whats special about it?

Rasbelin · July 29, 2002, 23:47

On Matty's original message...

SimCity is the Civ of city level strategy gaming and micromanagement, when Civ is the opposite on a larger scale (= the rest of the World).

Sharpe · July 30, 2002, 00:08

I thought Simcity 2000 had a bug with the water pipes ?

Simcity 3000 Unlimited works with my ancient machine which is nearly 5 years old (P II 266 mhz, 160 MB RAM), except for problems with my firewall. I have seen it for less than $20 US - but it will drop even further when Simcity 4 is released (in Sept or Oct I think ?)

Urban Ranger · July 30, 2002, 00:23

SimCity is fun. The addictive quality lies in watching your city grow and take shape. There are no worries about Zulus breathing down your neck. In other words, it's nice and peaceful.

Unless you unleash the monsters, that is.

Space05us · July 30, 2002, 01:08

I like watching my biggest cities burn

MosesPresley · July 30, 2002, 01:23

Quote:

Originally posted by Space05us
not to mention you dont get the newspaper

Instead of the newspaper, you get a tickertape. It has the same bad jokes and some useful info. I played the helloutof SC2000, but I love SC3000 unlimited so much more.

With SC3000, you have to cope with the garbage your sims produce. You can also make deals with your neighbors. There are a lot of deals that you can make with special interest contractors too. All in all, SC3000 offers the better gaming experience.

Space05us · July 30, 2002, 06:08

yeah but I liked the newspaper, it had stories

and I forgot about those differences I havent played either game in a few months. If they say SC3000 works on older machines than I say go with SC3000.

FrustratedPoet · July 30, 2002, 08:22

Quote:

Originally posted by Skanky Burns
Then again, I do like the Sims...

/me throws a pie at Skanky

Space05us · July 30, 2002, 08:59

hey theres nothing wrong with the sims. other than there's no obvious reason to enjoy it

Rasbelin · July 30, 2002, 09:23

Are you trying to tarnish the name of Will Wright and the Sim game family?

*throws rotten tomatoes on those who dislike Sim City*

Grumbold · July 30, 2002, 10:34

I enjoyed all SC games. Unfortunately SC3000 doesn't want to run on my PC any more. It installs fine, but nothing happens when I run it afterward. I suspect the damn copy protection is at fault.

Space05us · July 30, 2002, 13:30

if it starts half way then crashes try changing your screen resolution and color. I had a problem with the game where it would get the the intro and crash, turns out I was in the wrong resolution.

tniem · July 30, 2002, 15:59

I always found SimCity was well spent time even compared to Civ. Loved the original SimCity and I liked 2k. Never got 3k and so I cannot offer any suggestions on that one, but do not worry about wasting time. It is a lot of fun and lets you believe you control a city. I would highly recommend getting the best version that will run adequately on your computer.

MattyBoy · July 30, 2002, 20:29

I am a cheapskate, so I'll keep an eye out for SC2000 or SC3000, but only if they are cheap.

tishco · July 31, 2002, 08:59

the sc2000 stories are cool.

[prepare pies for those who dilike them]

[for throwing of course]

Grumbold · July 31, 2002, 11:26

Quote:

Originally posted by Space05us
if it starts half way then crashes try changing your screen resolution and color. I had a problem with the game where it would get the the intro and crash, turns out I was in the wrong resolution.

Thanks I read up on various crash on start bugs but this seems different. You click the icon, it checks the CD drive then nothing else happens. No error message and no active program running when you check task manager.

Alex · August 1, 2002, 11:15

Quote:

Originally posted by Skanky Burns
I'd equate it with the Sims. Then again, I do like the Sims...

*Alex joins FrustatedPoet throwing pies at Skanky*