Reviews / previews
The third release in the SimCity
line feels less like a leap forward
than a measured step--more like
SimCity 2300. Strategy players
who have somehow missed earlier
versions will certainly want to get
this, but otherwise, it's not a
mandatory upgrade.
Fundamentally, this is the city-building sim that
established a new genre at the turn of the decade.
While you clear and zone land, place roads, train
stations, and utilities, issue ordinances and set tax
rates, it's your Sims (citizens) who decide over time
what structures get built and occupied--and
demolished or abandoned.
The most obvious change lies in the graphics.
SimCity 3000 offers four times the room to build than
in the last release, with 3D rendering of structures for
multiple views. (This was successfully faked in
SimCity 2000.) You
can zoom in closer
and watch animations
of joggers, traffic
jams, and buildings
under construction.
All this comes at a
price, of course. After
rotating the map or
slowly moving it, I experienced a series of notable
pauses as views and locations were gradually
recalculated. The kicker is that I'm running on a PII
450 with 120MB RAM and a Diamond Viper 550 card.
I'll gladly take bets from anybody who doesn't believe
they'll feel the drag more on a slower system.
My reactions to the new interface were also mixed.
It's certainly cleaner and more attractive than its predecessor, and the ticker
tape at the bottom of the screen really creates a sense of being in the middle
of events as they happen. Laying water and
electricity is also far easier than before. But I
miss the menus with their access by
key-combo to various functions. Optional
menus should've been made available to those
of us who still think hitting two keys is easier
than fiddling with a mouse. Different strokes,
and all that.
However, there can be no question about the
value of SimCity 3000's increased level of
interactivity with its citizens. As mayor, you have seven advisors
(environmental, transportation, and financial among them) who provide
detailed suggestions for handling each situation. You'll also receive petitioners
from time to time who offer proposals: the addition of a casino, for instance, or
a nearby town that wants to buy or sell electricity. Each arrangement has its
pros and cons, which helps determine the flavor of your city as it grows.
Frankly, much more of this would've been welcome. Although SimCity 3000
adds a greater variety of graphics for
identical buildings, there remains a sense
of sameness to it all--an absence of
feeling for cities' uniqueness. You can't
design a city for people who hate high
density, like some Californian towns, or
for people who regard public areas and
cultural buildings as essential historical
sites, as in Paris. And what about cities
reliant on local building materials and
landscape, like Siena, carved from a
mountainside, or Venice, with its canals
and pollution problems?
I can't help feeling that Maxis missed the gondola a bit on this one.-- Barry Brenesal / GamePro
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