Customer Reviews

SimCity 4 (Mac)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

When Aspyr licensed SimCity 4 from EA Games to do a Macintosh version they quietly decided that there was no need to allow Macintosh users the one ability that makes this game a lasting favorite. While PC users are linked by a network of designers who regularly edit and release additional lots, buildings, landmarks, game enhancements and regions, Macintosh users will find themselves left out in the cold. The serial number included with the game will get you registered at Aspyr's website but will not register you with SimCity.com, the ONLY place a SimDesigner can obtain a little program called the Lot Editor which allows you design your own buildings and parks and just about anything else you can imagine. Additionally, Aspyr tells you that all the official landmarks and 3rd party buildings will work with the Macintoch version, howver they do not tell you that to recieve these extra, free landmarks from SimCity.com that you must be registered there... which you can't.

My recommendation is to NOT buy this game is you are a fan of the previous versions. Aspyr makes no apologies about the limited features in the Macintosh version and has no plans to currently resolve any of these issues. Additionally, other users who report slow game play are correct. A Dual G4 1GHz with 2GB of RAM creeps along once a city reaches 100,000 inhabitants and there are numerous visual anomalies during game play as well as unexplainable random crashes which require you to regularly reinstall the game to resolve.

While the game has lots of promise for those who enjoy this series, I find the Aspyr Macintosh version HIGHLY disappointing.

While SC4 isn't without it's flaws, Aspyr has taken pains to code windows-like interfaces for file access and skipped on making them work with the Mac file system. The game blocks many system features making it impossible to Command-Tab out to check e-mail, fast forward iTunes or whatever else you want. My attempts to contact customer support were responded to tersely and with no concern for my patronage.

But maybe you don't want to switch out of the game or customize maps. Maybe you don't want access to the Maxis conent, such as making a SC4 map of the area you live in. Did you want to play the game? You do? I hope you have 15 minutes to spare because that's the longest I've ever gotten it to run.

But there's the Rush Hour expansion... Sure it's been panned but it must stabalize the game... Nope, check the fan forums.

Once again Aspyr has taken a popular game, done a weak port and avoided all forms of support. Thay have your money, go away. My advise is to load an older version in classic and tell Maxis hat they won't get their cut from Mac games as long as they continue letting Aspyr screw their customers.

I've been a fan of the Sim games since the days of playing SimCity (and later, SimCity 2000) on my old 386 PC running DOS. Times have changed a lot since then, but oddly SimCity has largely stood still. SimCity 2000 was the first and only major revision to the series, and arguably was the best out of all of them. So how does SimCity 4 stack up?

SimCity 4, like SC3K before it, is largely a visual upgrade. The graphics are indeed very well done, and the game has a rich lifelike feel to it. The sound effects are top knotch as well. Cars driving around, children playing at a playground, the soft whoosh of wind power generators. Sadly the music does not match up to the quality of the sound, varying wildly between very annoying and passable. Unlike previous Sim games, there are no catchy tunes to be found here. And don't expect to play this game on a slow Mac - even my Power Mac with dual 1GHz G4s tends to chug when I change zoom levels and such.

The mechanics of the game are largely unchanged from the days of SimCity 2000: build a city, manage taxes and infrastructure, keep the Sims happy. SimCity 4 is more complicated in some ways (budgeting is more detailed, the model for residential/commercial/industrial demand is more complex, etc.) and this can make things very difficult. It took me a number of tries to build a city that wasn't burning thousands of simoleons every month. The game is still just as fun as ever, though.

Unfortunately, a number of the changes are actually omissions. Gone are the scenarios (like Dullsville), the real world cities, and the ability to generate random terrain by adjusting a few sliders. You have to custom carve each area you build a city in, unless you load up a pre-built region. These features are sorely missed, and they take away quite a bit of what made SimCity so enjoyable in the past.

What it all comes down to is this: SimCity 4 is a lot of fun to play, and Aspyr did a great job porting it. If you can forgive the missing features from previous SimCity games, and if your machine is powerful enough, I definitely recommend this game. Now if you'll excuse me, I must attend to some unhappy Sims protesting outside my mansion...

Even with SuperSaver I got this game in 1 day, which was great because I have been thirsting for the OSX version of this upgrade. I was surprised to note that it requires 2 discs, and takes about a Gig of space. There were problems loading the intro movies, but even first-run, the game worked buglessly, and my 800Mhz iBook handles the complex graphic with ease. And the graphics are complex! Even in the regional view the graphics take ones breath away. Cities are agglomerated in this region view, and interdependence is the key. It is much slower than Sc3K to develop a city, and requires a lot more input and attention, though it is equally more accurate in portraying real-mayoral duty. The transport generator is amazing, and the details are astonishing. Where I used to take a day off work to play, now I will need a week.

I gave SimCity 4 a shot for a whole month. I tried it on my dad's PowerBook G4, and my son's new iBook G4, in addition to my own Blue & White upgraded with a G4 and an ATI Radeon 7000 Mac Edition. The performance for this game is in the pooper.

The reason this product gets more than one star from me, however, is, it's simply a great game in concept, it's trying to be that game, and you can get some sense of that, despite the performance challenges. I first fell in love with the original SimCity. This game does, to some degree, carry that torch.

I have read many reviews that have only one star, and most complain about the performance, particularly scrolling. They ignore that this game has a great game soundtrack, and a great game play, in concept.

The problem with this game, since version 3, and far worse in version 4, is...it's designed to take the most advantage of the fastest computers available on the market, using the most amazing graphics cards available on the market.

Trouble is, most computers sold to you and me aren't that. If you simply apply Moore's Law that computer performance doubles every 18 months, which it has (more or less), and also apply the rule that consumer computers run at up to 1/2 the performance of the top of the line, only the elite can truly enjoy this game. If your computer is 1-2 years old, or not a top-of-the-line G4 with the top-of-the-line graphics card, or both, PERFORMANCE WILL SUCK.

It's as simple as that. I would only recommend this game for fair-weather friends and potential enemies.

I played all the previous versions of Sim City back in my bad old Windows days and really enjoy the game. But for some reason this version will paralyze even a fast Mac. I'm running this on an iMac 1.8GHz G5 with 1GB of memory, and after about 10 minutes of play I have to quit and restart the game because the response becomes impossibly slow. Very frustrating. Haven't tried the updater yet, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

UPDATE (Apr 05): Installed the updater and it appears to have fixed the slow response problem.

Running this game on a 1.42 GHz Mac Mini with 512MB and 32MB VRAM ARI Radeon I have never managed to play this game more than 45 minutes before the system hangs. Yes - entire system.

I'll play around with the built-in graphics options a couple more times, but my patience has essentially run out already.

I was a SimCity fan since age 5, when SimCity 2000 was released. The game was challenging then, and it still is now. This game is a huge step up from SC3K, with tons of Graphics improvements. However, I oftentimes find it challenging to create a city where you aren't in debt after 30 minutes! Very fun to play, though, and it runs quickly on my eMac 1GHz running Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther). I recommend it to anyone who loves the Sims and like to be in charge.

This game was very entertaining for about the first 2 weeks, but after that, it got a little old. The graphics are superb. It wasn't that hard to master the financial aspect of the game. The things I was dissapointed with was that there were no prebuilt cities, there aren't random disasters (only fire), all other disasters you have to create yourself which takes away half the fun. Overall it's a good game. Just gets old like any game after a while.

I bought this game for my son and I am now spending many minutes a day rebooting his MAC computer. The game locks up the entire system and requires a hard reboot each time. If this was an automobile from GM of Ford the roads would be littered with wrecked cars. Don't waste you money.