Sim City 4 Central

Sim City 4 may have been on the market for some time now, yet it has maintained an avid and loyal following. Unlike previous entries in the series, Sim City 4 took city building to the regional level. Each city operates within the dynamics of a particular region. This allows for the creation of sleepy suburbs surrounding an urban center city, or industrial centers surrounding by residential cities. These leads to the integration of vast inter-city regional transportation networks, electric grids, water sharing, garbage contracts, and the interplay of residential, commercial, and industrial zoning demand. Sim City 4 offers a more complex and satisfying form of play. If you are tired with one city, you can work on an adjoining suburb for a while, etc..

As always, the most difficult choices in planning your city have to do with the placement of various services such as local schools, police stations, fire stations, and medical care. This has to be juggled in conjunction with creating an effective power and water grid, ensuring that trash and refuse is being either recycled, dumped in a zoned landfill, or shipped out of town. However, where Sim City 4 truly shines is in the later stages of city development. At this point you decide where to build massive new airports to boost commercial demand, whether or not to build a seaport, or whether to construct a monorail system, a subway system, or both! Towering skyscrapers give the city builder a real sense of accomplishment. In the end, a finished city represents more of a work of art then a simple computer game.

The Sim City 4 Rush Hour expansion offers a number of new features the avid city builder will find useful. As the title suggests, Rush Hour deals mainly with adding various transportation features. Everything from broad tree-lined avenues to inter-modal transports for dense urban environments. Coastal communities will also be given a boost with the added option of either a passenger or passenger & car ferry network. This is a less expensive option to bridge construction and can efficiently and economically connect that lone island out in the bay with the rest of your regional network. There are also some nice added features like Deluxe police and fire stations to better serve and protect your population. If you have the original Sim City 4, the Rush Hour expansion is a great reason to dust off the game and give it another wonderful whirl.