SimCity 3000

The Good
One thing I enjoyed the most about SimCity 3000 is the extra emphasis on the advisors (in SimCity 2000 they were pretty much useless), which gave the game more of a political atmosphere. They've also thrown in petitioners who want ordinances enacted, buildings removed, and various other things. I loved how Maxis revamped the graphics and music (you might hear a few tracks from SimCity 2000 that you'll recognize). The graphics look a great amount smoother than in SC2K, the music is no longer in the MIDI format it's digital CD music. You can even see details on cars in your city and see people walking on the sidewalks.

Besides the political part, they've added a few new features which includes landfills, making deals with other cities, and adding famous landmarks to your city. The landfill part becomes a hassle sometimes, but it adds more realism to being mayor. If your cashflow runs low you can always accept a deal from another city to sell them electricity, water, or take some of their garbage. Want to recreate some of the world's most famous cities? Maxis gives you a whole assortment of landmarks so you can.

They have also improved the interface so it seems more user friendly to people who have never gotten into the SimCity series. Those who are old SimCity 2000 users will like the SC2K city import feature. However, you'll have to put in landfills and get you city prepared for the world of SimCity 3000.

The Bad
To start, this game is pretty hard to play (legitimately), even on easy. I had a hard time adapting to it, expecting the gameplay to be exactly like SC2K. Throughout the earlier stages of your city, you'll be wanting to look up cheat codes. Maxis cut down on the disasters; you have tornados, aliens, fires, and others. They completely removed the flood disaster from this game, unless I overlooked it. They removed the Newspaper and replaced it with a scrolling ticker. You find out problems in your city, and hear Maxis' puns and jokes as well.

I had a hard time replaying the game, I seemed to go through the same exact steps as my previous city, just had a different terrain. The amount of complaints you receive from neighboring cities, protesters, advisors, etc. seems overbearing sometimes. I'd rather have some sort of "Inbox" instead of having to watch the ticker all the time. Another thing is that your SC3K cities aren't compatible with some Maxis titles such as SimCopter and Streets of SimCity (I haven't tested that myself, yet).

The Bottom Line
The game has many similarities to SimCity 2000, but many differences. Some of them disappointed me, but others may love them. It won't be added to my favorites, but it's a very fun game.

The Good
Loads of new features. Garbage dumps, megamalls, toxic waste dumps, new power sources, farmland, better advisers, business deals with neighbors. A lot of stuff which add depth to gameplay. The scroll ticker is hilarious.

The Bad
Lots of bells and whistles, but not much soul. The game is a lot harder than 2000 was. You run out of money fast unless you create some high-aura housing. And you are usually stuck with nothing to do because you only get your taxes in once a year, and that money soon runs out and you're left waiting for the next year to roll around. I suppose making money tight is needed to make business deals viable, but it leads to boring gameplay.

The Bottom Line
A new and improved version of Simcity 2000, with more bells and whistles than you can shake a llama at.

The Good
This title in many ways was a serious upgrade from its famous two brothers. Much better graphics, TERRIFIC SOUND, Excellent use of facilities, and system tools.

I cant say enough about the music in this game. The music never ever got dull or old. For me this was hands down the best music in a PC game EVER! I loved building the entire town before turing on the time. That way you could build everything that a town needed and even zone everything before any time had passed. There was so many good aspects to this game EVEN MY WIFE LOVES IT!

The Bad
The only real problem with this game is that when you do get your city to a certain level, there just isnt anything left to do. Sure you can cause fires, tornados and other accidents to happen and clean up the mess but that only goes so far. Even if you have the tax rates at 0 at some point you will outgrow that tax rate. (ie citizens will complain that tax rates are too high) The game just doesnt have a proper way to extend gameplay. Thus I come to my main problem. Once you have taken Sim City to the extreme, there is just no use to play again. The replayability (i.e. the ability for a gamer to play again and again) is just not long enough.

The Bottom Line
Terrific game with outstanding music, graphics , humor, and many other small pearls of terrific gaming. But dont plan playing this game for more than a month.