SimCity 3000
$29.95		Includes Strategy Guide plus Soundtrack CD (Win95/98) (Retail) (SIMC3PLPR)

Maxis

Game

Ratings:

4 stars from Computer Gaming World

89% from PC Gamer

The FamilyPC 100 (June/July 1999)

Get Ready for the Power Trip of a Lifetime!

You're in charge of creating an entire city from the ground up - and the sky's the limit. But your power doesn't stop at construction. You'll manage everything from budgets to bulldozers, taxes to tornadoes - all with more control than ever before.

New close-up zoom levels put your Sims under the microscope

Real landmarks let you add a piece of Paris or a measure of Manhattan

Trade resources with neighboring cities or swindle them mercilessly

Import your favorite SimCity 1000 cities

Download the Building Architect Tool and design - everything from Bauhaus to ranch house

Bonus: Value Pack included Prima Strategy Guide plus Soundtrack CD

Requirements:

Windows 95 or Windows 98, Pentium 166MHz or higher, 230MB of free hard disk space, 32MB RAM, 4x CD-ROM drive or faster, mouse, keyboard, 2MB DirectDraw compatible video card, DirectX 6.0 compatible sound card.

Recommended: Pentium 233MHz or higher, 4MB DirectDraw compatible video card, 8x CD-ROM drive or faster.

NOTE: There's been a lot of bewilderment about whether SimCity 3000 utilizes 3D hardware acceleration. ... The bottom line: For the best performance you need to select your 2D video card. (Computer Gaming World, May 1999)

Reviews

Computer Gaming World, May 1999

"...somewhere in the design process the street-level plans were tossed in the shredder. the SimCity 3000 that's been released relies on the tried-and-true urban planning model of its predecessors, resulting in a product that is more of an upgrade to SimCity 2000 than a radically new game. Whether that's worthy of jeers or cheers is a matter of taste and expectations."

"You could argue that the changes from SimCity 2000 to SimCity 3000 are superficial, but spending in-depth game time with the new game reveals that the improvements are significant. The graphic enhancements produce cities with more of a feeling of life - a change that can only truly be appreciated by going back and playing the older version. Suddenly you realize how much better this game looks and feels, with its wider variety of buildings and with Sims going about their lives on foot or bicycle, or on the roads and highways. A plethora of animations bring the recreational and business aspects of your city to life, all combining to create a dynamic vibrancy that makes its predecessor feel as flat as two-day-old hot Pepsi."

"As mayor of your city, you'll have the services of a staff of department heads, all with distinct backgrounds and agendas. They will advise you on the pros and cons of the myriad decisions you'll face, generally providing sound counsel. However, they can be realistically parochial, delivering self-serving advice.

"The petitions that special-interest groups will present are another entertaining and authentic touch. From senior citizens and environmental groups to Shiners and bowling clubs, everybody wants something from you. You'll find that the surest road to failure is trying to please everyone. But if you don't please enough people, you city will start to fail. Nobody said life at the top was easy.

"Such balancing acts are the heart and soul of SimCity 3000. When you first start your city, you'll be strapped for cash and can easily find yourself facing a negative cash flow. Raising taxes seems like an easy way to get back in the black, but it can also cause citizens and businesses to leave. Do you accept a lucrative contract to place a toxic waste processing plant in your budding utopia? How about agreeing to take your neighbor's garbage for extra moolah? Or will you take the high road...straight to bankruptcy?"

• Appeal: SimCity fanatics who want the latest and greatest; gamers looking for an open-ended, detailed software "toy."
• Pros: Great details and humorous touches; deeper than it initially appears.
• Cons: Changes from SimCity 2000 evolutionary rather than revolutionary.

PC Gamer, May 1999

"And so, what we have with SimCity 3000 is a game which, both on the surface and underneath, bears more than a passing resemblance to its predecessor. It looks a lot better, of course - if the luscious visuals were part of what drew you into SimCity 2000, you'll be in seventh heaven here, with more varied and detailed buildings than ever before. Plus, you'll be able to zoom in even closer - close enough to see individual people and vehicles (the building graphics can get a little blocky at maximum zoom, however). With dozens of real-life monuments - everything from Big Ben to the Empire State Building - added to the mix, SimCity 3000 reaches a whole new level of visual splendor, but there's a price to pay for all this beauty. Even on a fully loaded 450MHz gaming rig, the screen can be slow to update when scrolling at full detail..."

"For the most part, the gameplay of this new SimCity is just as fans will remember it - acting as a kind of omnipotent city manager, you define residential, industrial, and commercial zones, build roads and amenities, manage the budget and hope that your city is good enough to attract taxpaying citizens. Of course, there's much more to it than that - everything from maintaining an adequate water and power supply to running mass transit, ensuring good fire, police, and school services, and now even managing the city's garbage by creating eyesore landfill zones."

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