SC4 - Aka City builders "Challenging Everything"
NOTE: This is the 5th entry in a series that is recommended to be read in a chronological order.
Hi again, fellow forumers!
Today the time of being featured in this non-typical Diary has come for the favorite game of many of us here.
As always, I will talk about everything that you need to know about the game: history, gameplay. And of course, memes! Life is better when we laugh and have fun.
So let's get started! As always, we will start with the history of the game:
History
SimCity 4, as its name suggests, is the fourth installment of the series. As you probably know the 2 previous ones were 2000 and 3000. It is not known at what point they decided to go from the thousands to a single digit number, or why, but however they did it ;-)
This game was released in January 2003 for Windows, varying the days depending on the countries. In June of that same year, it came out for Mac. A year later the "Rush Hour" expansion came out.
It marked the difference with the previous ones by finally incorporating 3D, although not completely, but in a mixed way. Also like the previous ones, it won several awards and was among the best-selling computer games of 2003.
To tell the truth, there is not much information about the game's story. It seems like nothing remarkable happened during its development like in the previous ones. Something fully comprehensible now that SC is a very well established franchise under the umbrella of a big company like EA. The really noteworthy things about SC4 are in the gameplay.
Like in SC3K the soundtrack was composed by Jerry Martin, and its length its from about 3 hours. Remember, in SC2K it was from only 10 minutes, what a improvement!
One very interesting fact that I do know after having been searching for information is that SimCity 4 was literally prototyped in Excel. Yes, in Excel, you read that right.
It was also the last SimCity game to be made with Will Wright at Maxis (he left the company in 2009).
Before ending this section, I would like to dedicate a moment to a very important person for this game, who passed away in 2021. We're talking about Paul Pedriana, lead programmer.
You may already know this, as it has been posted in the forum before. The loss of a human being is always a sad news, especially for his loved ones. I send my condolences, and my best wishes for his family to do well. I truly hope he rests in peace.
After this little break to remember Paul and his legacy, I will talk about what makes this game shine like few others, its gameplay.
Gameplay
The SC4 gameplay at first glance seems to be nothing new compared to what we've seen before, and at the same time, it's better than ever. The formula that we all know and love, created mainly in SC2K, and perfected in SC3K, reaches its peak here.
Let's start as always, with our city El Progreso. As you know since SC2K (where I got confused and put a wrong name to the city LOL) I've been trying to make it similar looking to the previous ones. So, there is our city in its first days:
*For new players, please note, this is not the original UI look. You can find this one in STEX (i'll post it at the end)
Not too long after, this is what it became:
Of all the games we tried so far, this is the one in which cities grow the fastest, without a doubt. To give you an idea, with each game I work in the city for an hour and a half. In SC2K I filled the original design. In SC3K I didn't have time enough. Here I filled the entire city, you will see.
If SC4 has always stood out for something, it is for the care with which it is made, and the level of detail is proof of that. Let's see some graphs, which have always been a strong point of SimCity:
Energy coverage
Police/crime coverage:
Traffic volume:
Aerial contamination:
Demographics (pop. on each age bracket)
Some budgeting:
As you can see, it is a videogame, but it could perfectly be a professional tool, and in fact, I promise that when I finish testing all the SimCity games I will tell you how Maxis had a division to produce games to be used in companies...
But back to that, another sense in which the level of care and attention to detail that this game exudes is when you look at the streets up close:
(1).jpg.d26762a4299c269b891433511a1f9bf5.jpg)
The animations are great. You can see events such as demonstrations, citizens celebrating or traffic accidents. Want to save money? Cut road funding and you'll see holes in the asphalt!
Car crash:
Citizens celebrating the inauguration of the Mayor's manor:
What's more, in the funny driving mode they even took care to make each dashboard different, here are some examples:
(3).jpg.45f42401809c143aaa474785cd73b8cb.jpg)
I always tell you: "the videos are not mine". Well, today, for the first time, I have recorded a video about what is probably the most humorous driving mission in the game. Hope you like it. I tried to be humorous too ;-)
https://www.veed.io/view/bcead218-d17d-4255-8fcf-36828facc1df?panel=share&sharingWidget=true
One thing completely new in this game was the inclusion of the "My Sim" game mode. It's worth remembering that this game was released in the space between The Sims and The Sims 2, so this was the perfect opportunity to remind people of the first The Sims game, and also let them know that there would be a second one. In fact, the nexus of this game with The Sims goes beyond this. Those of you who are also players of The Sims 2 will know that you can use the maps of your SimCity cities to create your custom Sims 2 cities as .sc4 archives were suportted by the game.
But of course, the My Sim mode was more than hype. This mode provides the option to add 5 Sims to the city, and they give you first hand information about what is happening in the city, they are like your correspondents. They can walk as pedestrians or use vehicles.
Some pics:
Slots for sims
The sims you can choose
Their means of transportation:
The options you have to control Sims
The feedback they give you
And we have reached this part. This is probably the worst part of the game. And yet, it's not all bad either. Yes, you guess right, I'm talking about those annoying advisors who keep telling you the same thing over and over again. Those who are supposed to be there to advise you but you do better when you don't listen to them. Yes, those same ones.
But still, they have funny moments. The sarcastic comments are funny. At first, of course, when you don't know them by heart yet. It's a game from 20 years ago, you have to forgive it.
And with this, I end my commentary on the gameplay of the game. I think that, although I've gone on for a long time, this only captures a tiny part of the wonderful whole that this game is made of.
And that's not to mention the enormous work that all the modders of this community do to make better what already seems unbeatable. And you do it for free, with all your passion and knowledge, so, I take this opportunity to thank you for improving our games. Thank you very much!
So I end this section to put more videos about the game (these as usual are not mine), memes and the link to the blue UI
Links:
10 hours of SimCity 4:
From Town to City:
https://youtu.be/8a60EXbeX-M?si=ssOhZDxDSQ60Uhcr
Blue UI:
Memes:
(This one's recycled)
(This one's new)
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As always, if you've made it this far, thank you so much for reading, really. I also look forward to any comments you may have
A really very very big thank you for reading!!
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