Post by Skyline on Aug 12, 2009 18:13:10 GMT -5
The Simcity Box Review
Skyline7284
8/11/09
The Simcity Box: 5 Games for the Price of 1
The Simcity Box is being positioned as the best way to get the entire Simcity Experience. The Box which includes four DVDs, includes Simcity 4 Deluxe, Simcity Societies, Simcity Societies: Destinations, and Snapcity. It also includes a free copy of the Spore Creature Creator which you can get off of Spore.com for free also. Is the Simcity Box the deal we’ve all been waiting for? Read on to find out!
As soon as you open the box it immediately gives a bad first impression. There is no manual for Simcity 4. Not even a piece of paper explaining the game. Now for someone as a big Simcity 4 fan this was a disappointment, though I already had a copy of SC4 it seems that this is proof EA really has all but abandoned this classic franchise. Another gripe simply with the physical product is that it is on four DVDs. Why this could not have been done on a single disc is beyond me. Simcity 4, and Simcity Societies combined come up less in space then The Sims 3, which runs off of a single DVD, so why can’t the Simcity Box? It makes no sense at all for Simcity 4 to be two separate discs either. The game was put on two CDs originally, so why does it have to be on two DVDs now? This is what we call an incredibly lazy port. They just took all of their leftover discs and shoved them into a box. Even Snapcity has its own Disc! Why?! The 100mb puzzle game doesn’t even deserve a disc let alone a DVD. It’s just an incredibly lazily put together package which could have easily turned into a much nicer box.
Packaging issues aside what you get in the software is great. According to the back of the Box you get six games in the case. So let’s break them down shall we? You get two Simcity Games, Societies and Simcity 4, each includes an Expansion, Destinations and Rush Hour respectively. These 4 games are the meat of the package and are a great value seeing as the box runs retail for $20. Also included in the Box is “The Sims Carnival: SnapCity” which to be honest is a terrible, and I mean downright terrible, puzzle arcade game. Snapcity is so boring and repetitive I had to stop playing after half an hour. Snapcity is like Simcity meats tetris in a 3D Plain. It sounds good in theory, but in the end it’s just terrible. The game has no character whatsoever (not even actual characters either). It just lacks that Simcity vibe which got people addicted for hours on end. It’s just a mess of a puzzle game that should have never been green lighted in the first place. The final component in the Simcity Box is the FREE Spore Creature Creator. This is not the $10 Spore Creature Creator which has all of the parts unlocked. This is the Free version you can get of Spore.com. Obviously this is in there just as a marketing tie-in, but still it’s incredibly limited and if you’re buying the Simcity Box for this, go back and just buy Spore.
So back to the meat of the package, we’ll start with Simcity 4. Simcity 4 is the best game in the franchise to date. The game is a complete city Simulator and with the Rush Hour expansion included, it really is the best City Simulator to date on any platform. The sheer number of options is staggering. You will never see two cities turn out the same. There’s a multitude of options in every category. From varius power plants, to different types of roads, to different police stations. Every single thing you need to run a city has different variations which differ in a multitude of ways. Want less power but also less pollution? Choose a Solar Power Plant. Don’t mind pollution and want a good value? Go with a Coal Plant. Do you mind risking a nuclear meltdown? Go with a Nuclear Plant. Every option you choose will give you a different outcome. Your mayoral strategy also plays a role in how your city turns out. If you choose to focus on industry your Sims will most likely end up living in slum like conditions before long. However if you invest more highly in education and healthcare eventually you will have a high rolling society full of wealth and happiness. It’s this type of gameplay that sucks the player in for hours at a time, and makes it the best Simcity game to date.
Simcity Societies on the other hand, while it isn’t as bad as SnapCity, is a poor man’s Simcity at best. Simcity Societies is not as fun as you might think by the name. It consists of boring repetitive gameplay which boils down to placing Residential buildings next to venues which you place next to office buildings. It is a very basic approach to Simcity that many will find dull and just un-inspired. The maps are not nearly as big as those in Simcity 4, and there is nowhere near the number of options. Two road types, which can only go straight, versus close to a dozen types in Simcity 4 which can do Diagonal or straight seems incredibly lacking. There is also no zoning in Societies which many fans will miss from Simcity 4, as placing buildings is nowhere near as fun as watching them develop (trust me).
Now, while I don’t like Societies a whole lot, I have found its expansion pack, Destinations, to be a much better experience. Destinations feels more of a Tycoon type game then a city simulator, and that’s a good thing. You have to go around building various attractions to provide luxuries for the tourists that enter your city. This scramble to keep tourists happy along with your city citizens becomes a fairly enjoyable experience. Almost any item from Simcity Societies can be used by tourists which Is nice, as it doesn’t limit you just to the objects in Destinations. The gameplay in Destinations is surprisingly addicting, as you get invested in making your puny 1 Star resort into a magnificent 5 Star resort. When something isn’t all the way up to 100% you find ways to fix it.
There are only a few issues I had with Destinations. First is that it distracts you from your actual city. I’m not sure if the developers mean for Destinations to be more of a distraction or not, but it clearly makes you forget that you’re actually running a city along with a tourist trap. Once you start up a resort the only thing your city will be doing is helping to support your lavish spending. Which depending on how you built your city can be a good thing as you will need quite a bit of money. The other issue I have with Destinations is that you run out of space really quickly. A lot of the new buildings in Destinations are larger then those found in the base game for Societies. The resort buildings in particular take up a ton of space compared to older buildings. I found myself constantly running out of space, and to this day have never had room to place an airport in my city. It’s kind of depressing that you run out of space so quickly which compared to the maps in Simcity 4 which you will probably never fill.
Overall, packaging issues aside, the Simcity Box is a great deal for $20. If you don’t have Simcity 4 at all then I highly recommend this package for Simcity 4 alone. If you already have Simcity 4 and Societies base game I would still recommend it just for the Destinations expansion, and to have another copy of Simcity 4. However if you’re hoping to get something fun out of Snapcity, don’t. It’s complete and utter garbage. This is one of the best deals in the PC market and shouldn’t be overlooked even by those who already have SimCity 4. You’re bound to find something you like.
Skyline7284
8/11/09
The Simcity Box: 5 Games for the Price of 1
The Simcity Box is being positioned as the best way to get the entire Simcity Experience. The Box which includes four DVDs, includes Simcity 4 Deluxe, Simcity Societies, Simcity Societies: Destinations, and Snapcity. It also includes a free copy of the Spore Creature Creator which you can get off of Spore.com for free also. Is the Simcity Box the deal we’ve all been waiting for? Read on to find out!
As soon as you open the box it immediately gives a bad first impression. There is no manual for Simcity 4. Not even a piece of paper explaining the game. Now for someone as a big Simcity 4 fan this was a disappointment, though I already had a copy of SC4 it seems that this is proof EA really has all but abandoned this classic franchise. Another gripe simply with the physical product is that it is on four DVDs. Why this could not have been done on a single disc is beyond me. Simcity 4, and Simcity Societies combined come up less in space then The Sims 3, which runs off of a single DVD, so why can’t the Simcity Box? It makes no sense at all for Simcity 4 to be two separate discs either. The game was put on two CDs originally, so why does it have to be on two DVDs now? This is what we call an incredibly lazy port. They just took all of their leftover discs and shoved them into a box. Even Snapcity has its own Disc! Why?! The 100mb puzzle game doesn’t even deserve a disc let alone a DVD. It’s just an incredibly lazily put together package which could have easily turned into a much nicer box.
Packaging issues aside what you get in the software is great. According to the back of the Box you get six games in the case. So let’s break them down shall we? You get two Simcity Games, Societies and Simcity 4, each includes an Expansion, Destinations and Rush Hour respectively. These 4 games are the meat of the package and are a great value seeing as the box runs retail for $20. Also included in the Box is “The Sims Carnival: SnapCity” which to be honest is a terrible, and I mean downright terrible, puzzle arcade game. Snapcity is so boring and repetitive I had to stop playing after half an hour. Snapcity is like Simcity meats tetris in a 3D Plain. It sounds good in theory, but in the end it’s just terrible. The game has no character whatsoever (not even actual characters either). It just lacks that Simcity vibe which got people addicted for hours on end. It’s just a mess of a puzzle game that should have never been green lighted in the first place. The final component in the Simcity Box is the FREE Spore Creature Creator. This is not the $10 Spore Creature Creator which has all of the parts unlocked. This is the Free version you can get of Spore.com. Obviously this is in there just as a marketing tie-in, but still it’s incredibly limited and if you’re buying the Simcity Box for this, go back and just buy Spore.
So back to the meat of the package, we’ll start with Simcity 4. Simcity 4 is the best game in the franchise to date. The game is a complete city Simulator and with the Rush Hour expansion included, it really is the best City Simulator to date on any platform. The sheer number of options is staggering. You will never see two cities turn out the same. There’s a multitude of options in every category. From varius power plants, to different types of roads, to different police stations. Every single thing you need to run a city has different variations which differ in a multitude of ways. Want less power but also less pollution? Choose a Solar Power Plant. Don’t mind pollution and want a good value? Go with a Coal Plant. Do you mind risking a nuclear meltdown? Go with a Nuclear Plant. Every option you choose will give you a different outcome. Your mayoral strategy also plays a role in how your city turns out. If you choose to focus on industry your Sims will most likely end up living in slum like conditions before long. However if you invest more highly in education and healthcare eventually you will have a high rolling society full of wealth and happiness. It’s this type of gameplay that sucks the player in for hours at a time, and makes it the best Simcity game to date.
Simcity Societies on the other hand, while it isn’t as bad as SnapCity, is a poor man’s Simcity at best. Simcity Societies is not as fun as you might think by the name. It consists of boring repetitive gameplay which boils down to placing Residential buildings next to venues which you place next to office buildings. It is a very basic approach to Simcity that many will find dull and just un-inspired. The maps are not nearly as big as those in Simcity 4, and there is nowhere near the number of options. Two road types, which can only go straight, versus close to a dozen types in Simcity 4 which can do Diagonal or straight seems incredibly lacking. There is also no zoning in Societies which many fans will miss from Simcity 4, as placing buildings is nowhere near as fun as watching them develop (trust me).
Now, while I don’t like Societies a whole lot, I have found its expansion pack, Destinations, to be a much better experience. Destinations feels more of a Tycoon type game then a city simulator, and that’s a good thing. You have to go around building various attractions to provide luxuries for the tourists that enter your city. This scramble to keep tourists happy along with your city citizens becomes a fairly enjoyable experience. Almost any item from Simcity Societies can be used by tourists which Is nice, as it doesn’t limit you just to the objects in Destinations. The gameplay in Destinations is surprisingly addicting, as you get invested in making your puny 1 Star resort into a magnificent 5 Star resort. When something isn’t all the way up to 100% you find ways to fix it.
There are only a few issues I had with Destinations. First is that it distracts you from your actual city. I’m not sure if the developers mean for Destinations to be more of a distraction or not, but it clearly makes you forget that you’re actually running a city along with a tourist trap. Once you start up a resort the only thing your city will be doing is helping to support your lavish spending. Which depending on how you built your city can be a good thing as you will need quite a bit of money. The other issue I have with Destinations is that you run out of space really quickly. A lot of the new buildings in Destinations are larger then those found in the base game for Societies. The resort buildings in particular take up a ton of space compared to older buildings. I found myself constantly running out of space, and to this day have never had room to place an airport in my city. It’s kind of depressing that you run out of space so quickly which compared to the maps in Simcity 4 which you will probably never fill.
Overall, packaging issues aside, the Simcity Box is a great deal for $20. If you don’t have Simcity 4 at all then I highly recommend this package for Simcity 4 alone. If you already have Simcity 4 and Societies base game I would still recommend it just for the Destinations expansion, and to have another copy of Simcity 4. However if you’re hoping to get something fun out of Snapcity, don’t. It’s complete and utter garbage. This is one of the best deals in the PC market and shouldn’t be overlooked even by those who already have SimCity 4. You’re bound to find something you like.