Which version was the best Sim City?

[xedoc gpr]

I heard that Sim City Societies sucked and that Sim City 4 was a mess.

?

 

[Dementia Praecox]

SimCity 2000, no contest.

 

[GeneralSamov]

Yep.

 

[Jeff Graw]

Sim City 2000, if only because of the Streets of Sim City tie-in.

 

[Dementia Praecox]

Sim City 2000, if only because of the Streets of Sim City tie-in.

I liked SimCopter better.

 

[MetalCraze]

huh? what was wrong with Sim City 3000?

 

[OSK]

I thought 3000 was a solid update to 2000.

 

[xedoc gpr]

I'm playing Sim City 3000 and it has been pretty enjoyable so far. I'm just wondering if there's something "better" since I heard the sequels sucked.

 

[GeneralSamov]

I thought 3000 was a solid update to 2000.

You hit the nail on the head. Other than that, they even dared to remove the editor. Two blasphemies not to remain unpunished.

 

[LaDoushe]

I vote 3k. Although building the no-roads city in SC1 was pretty exciting...

 

[Major_Blackhart]

I truly enjoyed 2000, as did I with 3000, but it's been so long I don't remember whats what.

 

[Elwro]

I prefered the original SimCity to the 2000 edition because in the first game I actually understood what I was doing. And I always thought pipelines were working wrong in 2000.

 

[Wilco]

SimCity 3000. I never figured out how to get people moving into my city in 2k for some reason. Provided almost everything required, zoned light residential but still no house would be built. Sim City 4 is pretty good as well, it seems the most logical & complex of all the SCs.

 

[NiM82]

SC2000

 

[Gildamere]

Sim City 4 is pretty good as well, it seems the most logical & complex of all the SCs.

I recently bought SC4 Deluxe and first thought it sucked, especially because of those stupid "missions". Good thing you can disregard them without adverse consequences.

After I thoroughly played the tutorials I must say that it is indeed logical and complex. I still fail to get the whole picture but in terms of enjoyment it is equal to 3000 (my actual favorite SC).

For the first time you can actuallyhave a farming community and there's an easy to see connection between health/education and industrial growth. Plus the demands are more transparent.

On the downside, SC4 starts in the year 2000 apparently with all the technology available, once you meet certain demands (minimum population, etc.) and you can't auto-generate the terrain, which sucks, because I don't have the time and motivation to model the environment before starting the actual city (or did I just miss the option?).

 

[Shoelip]

I loved building cities to fly around in Sim Copter, so 2000 was my favorite. I hardly played 3000 and don't know what happened to my disc. I don't think I ever played 4.

 

[Comrade Hamster]

SimCity 2000 was by far the best, even without all the silly tie-in games. SimCity 3000 wasn't too shabby either, though it was a mixed bag - it made changes that I liked, and changes that I disliked.

However, I think that the shining Sim games of that time period were SimIsle and SimFarm. SimFarm was a guilty pleasure, but SimIsle had the most depth out of any Maxis game I've played. Not only do you have to hire and pay agents to do your bidding, instead of directing all the action immediately yourself, but I also enjoyed the strong consequence system and interplay of elements, whether you decide to tree hug, rape the local natural resources and villagers for all they're worth, or act somewhere in between.

In no other game have I been able to exploit native villagers for unskilled labor, so I can exploit their local natural resources, thereby allowing me to further develop my population centers, which are then exploited for skilled labor for my high-tech processing and manufacturing plants, where all those resources I've pillaged go to work and grease the wheels of an expanding economy.