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1. Simcity 4 Deluxe Edition

.: January 14, 2003.: June 20, 2003Mode(s)SimCity 4 is a developed by, a subsidiary of. It was released on January 14, 2003. It is the fourth major installment in the. SimCity 4 has a single expansion pack called which adds features to the game. SimCity 4: Deluxe Edition contained the original game and Rush Hour combined as a single.The game allows players to create a region of land by, and then to design and build a settlement which can grow into a.

Players can zone different areas of land as, or development, as well as build and maintain,. For the success of a city, players must manage its, and for its residents.

SimCity 4 introduces night and day cycles and other special effects for the first time in the SimCity series. External tools such as the Building Architect Tool (BAT) allow custom third-party buildings and content to be added to the gameplay.SimCity 4 was praised for being the second game in the SimCity series to primarily use a engine to render its graphics, the first being for the discontinued.

It received widespread acclaim, won several awards, and was one of the top ten selling games of 2003. However, it was criticized for its difficulty and its demands on computer performance. A collection of neighbouring cities, as seen in the game's regional view.As with previous SimCity titles, SimCity 4 places players in the role of a, tasked with populating and developing tracts of lands into, while fulfilling the needs of fellow that live in the cities. Cities are now located in that are divided into, each of which can be developed. The player has the option of starting the city in a segment of any of three area sizes.

In real measurements, the smallest has a length of one on a side, and the largest has a length of four kilometers on a side. The size of a region and its layout of segments can be changed in a file provided for each region.Neighbor cities play a larger role than in the previous versions of the game. For example, neighbor deals can be established, where a city can exchange resources such as, and with other cities for money.

Players may develop several inter-dependent cities at the same time, eventually populating the entire region.Game modes Upon selecting a specific segment in a region, gameplay is divided into three 'modes': god mode, mayor mode, and MySim mode. Mayor and MySim modes become available after establishing a city. The god mode is available before establishing a city, as well as after, but with fewer functions. The unavailable functions can be re-activated by obliterating the city.God mode The first mode is god mode, which allows players to design or a selected tract of land where the city will be built. God mode also allows players to trigger, including and among several others. Players can select an area where a disaster will occur and even control the direction of certain disasters. Most terraforming tools are disabled after the city is named and founded.

The player still has some terraforming tools made available in mayor mode, although they become very limited and expensive, and they can still trigger disasters at will.In addition to these abilities, god mode also gives the player tools to reconcile the borders of the cities, so as to fix any discrepancies created during the terraforming process, and a day/night cycle adjustment, so that one can make it always day, always night, or alternate between day or night in accordance with the in-universe game clock. Both the ability to reconcile the city edges and the ability to modify the day/night cycle are available even once the city has been established.Mayor mode. A densely populated city including third-party modifications.The second of the modes is the mayor mode, where the actual city building is conducted. Several advisors may give advice to the player on how to best manage a city.

Players can build, which include,. Players can also terraform and plant trees in this mode, but in a much smaller scale than in god mode. Terraforming in this mode costs money. Zones are conducted building plots that are empty at first but then controlled buildings pop up in these spaces depending on the density of the zone type.Areas of land in this mode can be as, or areas in various densities where the city will begin to grow. Is now a separate zone-type, unlike previous versions of SimCity, enabling farms to grow regardless of high, so long as demand exists for agriculture and agricultural zones have been provided.

Zones are now automatically aligned towards roads and most buildings must be adjacent to a road in order to function properly; streets are automatically created when zoning on large tracts of land.Buildings are now classified into several levels, zone types, and building size stages, which are affected by the region's population and the city's condition. The game simulates and with buildings deteriorating and refurbished accordingly. Buildings originally constructed for occupation by higher wealth tenants can now support lower wealth tenants in the event surrounding factors forces the current tenants to vacate the building; this allows certain buildings to remain in use despite lacking its initial occupants.

Buildings and lots can now be constructed on.Other activities that players can do in mayor mode include building civic buildings that need constant funding to work properly, such as,. These buildings now come in two or more sizes compared to the single, universal types that were used in previous games. Settlements also need such as electricity with more or less polluting and more or less expensive types of power stations, water pumps, water purification plants, and services. Facilities that had previously provided citywide coverage, such as and, have now been modified to provide a more limited coverage, as it has been with police stations and fire stations in previous SimCity titles.Funding can now be adjusted for individual buildings rather than having to change the funding to all buildings, allowing users to specify how much money should be spent to supply a service in accordance to the local population.

Maintenance expenses for public utility facilities will increase as they age. The maximum output of facilities also decreases as they get older. The rate at which facilities age is dependent on the percentage of its capacity being used and the level of funding being given to it. MySim mode The final mode is the MySim mode which enables players to create user-defined Sims, which will live and work in the city the player has created.

When moving a Sim into a city, the player can choose from a selection of characters or import others from. Sims can be killed by certain disasters or catastrophic events, leave the city if conditions are unfavorable, or die of old age. After they die, their 'child' sometimes takes over for them by taking their name, house, and job.Building designs Buildings in SimCity 4 borrow heavily from early 20th century, particularly and, while houses can appear in a traditional style. However, there is an additional, more modern, architectural style similar to 's architectural style, and a European style that is based on the skyline of, Germany. The construction of new buildings on zoned areas is now animated. There are a number of buildings based on those found in, including the (appearing as 'Wren Insurance'), (appearing as 'Vu Financial'), and the Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Building also known as (as 'The Galvin Corp').

The May Company store in Los Angeles, now West, also appears as 'Dennis Department Store.' The game also includes famous landmarks from various cities, such as the from New York City.Development Graphics Unlike its predecessors, which used an engine based on 2D and, SimCity 4 primarily uses a engine to render its graphics. The landscape and moving props such as vehicles are modeled as fully and rotatable 3D objects. Small buildings and props are drawn as flat images, which are pasted onto; polygons with their facing into the camera. Larger buildings are modeled using a hybrid approach; a simple polygonal model defines the shape of the building, then are added to create detail such as doors, windows and rooftop clutter.Although a 3D engine is used, the camera in SimCity 4 is restricted to a fixed for performance reasons. Additionally, a simulated city can now be seen at nighttime as well as during daytime.

The time of the day does not affect the gameplay.Audio The game includes over three hours of background music in format, ranging from three to eight minutes in length. The music is divided between that used in region mode and god mode, and that used in the city view in mayor mode and MySim mode. In addition, the game has a facility for players to use their own music in the game, also divided between the two views. The music, largely composed by, was also released separately as a soundtrack. Add-ons and modifications Maxis releases Following SimCity 4 's release, several add-ons and development kits were made available on its official site.New landmarks, including, the, and were made available online. Later, landmarks were primarily used to demonstrate the capability of and the Building Architect Tool (BAT) around the time of the BAT's release.The Terrain Generator tool allowed users to create maps based on any of the. The maps are based on data collected by the.The Building Architect Tool (BAT) is a suite of tools developed for producing custom buildings.

The suite consists of three applications: The Building Architect game pack for, which enabled users to Gmax models into SimCity 4 or props to be imported into the LE; an updated version of the LE; and the standalone Plug-in Manager, which enables users to modify simulation properties for new lots. Several modified versions have been released that have, in effect, served as bug fixes for various problems that had not been discovered before the initial release. First released on February 2004, it enabled the modding community to produce custom buildings and props for SC4.

SimCity 4 's Building Architect Tool is similar in function to and; however, previous programs of this kind were created from scratch by Maxis and used completely different interfaces. The SC4 BAT required a third-party application to function and was never bundled with SC4 's or the Rush Hour expansion pack, as SimCity 3000 Unlimited had with its own BAT.The Lot Editor (LE) is a tool which allows users to edit or design lots for SimCity 4 using available props. Because it was released several months before the BAT as a stand-alone version, users at the time were only capable of producing lots that consisted of built-in props from SC4. The BAT provided users with an updated version of the LE, which rendered the original LE utility. However, the old version is still made available in the official site. Third-party content In addition to official tools, third-party programs were released for further accessibility in editing SimCity 4 contents, potentially allowing users to change the nature of the game itself. Following the release of the Lot Editor, the Network Addon Mod (NAM) and the 'BAT' (Building Architect Tool), the majority of add-ons in circulation consist of user-created content; most are buildings and lots, including real life landmarks, chain stores, extra houses, etc., while others include cosmetic changes for terrain, flora, custom vehicles and modifications in the game's behavior.

Some even fundamentally change the mechanics of the game. In some cases, both the skills of lot building and modding are combined, producing lots that are capable of affecting a city in a variety of ways. Some third-party content is only available to those with expansion packs or another mod. Reception Sales In the United Kingdom, SimCity 4 sold over 100,000 units during the first half of 2003.

This made it the United Kingdom's third-best-selling computer game for the period, or eighth across all platforms. At the time, Kristan Reed of wrote that its performance proved 'you can still have big hits on PC'. By the end of the year, British sales of the game had reached 105,000 units, which made it 79th-biggest seller across all platforms that year.

The game later received a 'Gold' sales award from the (ELSPA), indicating sales of at least 200,000 copies in the United Kingdom. Its Deluxe edition earned a 'Silver' award from ELSPA, for at least 100,000 sales. Reviews and awards ReceptionAggregate scoresAggregatorScore85.23%84/100Review scoresPublicationScoreB+8.1/1075/1009.2/107.25/10AwardsPublicationAward: Editors' ChoiceParents' Choice Foundation:Shortly after its release, the PC version of SimCity 4 garnered mainly positive reviews, gaining 84/100 from, and an 85.09% overall score from.The game got a 9.2/10 rating at, calling it a 'major evolutionary step in the series'. The review commented that the addition of the region view mode adds more depth to SimCity 4 and that the gameplay has a 'more accurate representation of city planning and maintenance' than of previous titles in the SimCity series.The game scored an 8.1/10 rating at, stating that the game had a 'sleek, attractive interface' and 'great audio'; it added however that SimCity 4 was 'rather rushed' and that the MySim mode 'seems like an afterthought.' The review concluded that it was a 'complex and detailed strategy game,' 'though not as polished as it could have been.' Gave the game a score of 75/100, commenting that SimCity 4 is 'graphically stunning'; the review also criticized the game for having issues 'that will likely kill the game for casual players' including and difficulty.rated the game at B+ and praised the region view feature as well as the detail of the graphics which create a 'deeper sense of simulation.'

The review however criticizes SimCity 4 for suffering and performance issues.SimCity 4 received further reviews after the release of the version. The game received a rating of 7.25/10 from. The review commented that the regional gameplay was a 'new and welcome addition' and that it had detailed and realistic graphics; it was also said however that the game was not 'revolutionary,' had 'horrendous bugs,' and that the tutorial and manual lacked information.

Awards SimCity 4 was chosen as one of IGN's 'Editors' Choice' games for January 2003. It was also given the by the Parents' Choice Foundation. Additional content and releases SimCity 4: Rush Hour. Main article:On September 22, 2003, released an for SimCity 4 dubbed Rush Hour. The expansion pack enhances the range of transportation facilities available to the player, such as being able to build four lane avenues and elevated rail networks, as well as allowing them to trace traffic flow, while also allowing them to construct larger civic facilities; some such facilities have greater capacities, but all have increased maintenance costs.

SimCity kind of worked itself into a corner, because we were still appealing to this core SimCity group. It had gotten a little complicated for people who had never played SimCity. We want to take it back to its roots where somebody who had never heard of SimCity can pick it up and enjoy playing it without thinking it was really, really hard.Will Wrightstated in an interview on May 16, 2003, that there would probably be more expansion packs after Rush Hour, but none were ever released. In another interview on May 22, 2004, Wright stated that was attempting to work out a 'new direction' for SimCity after new versions had become 'steadily more complex'.Two SimCity games for PC have followed SimCity 4. The first was, which was developed by and released on November 13, 2007. The second was, which was announced on March 2012 and was released in March 2013. In popular culture During the, candidate 's was widely attributed to a similar tax structure presented in SimCity 4; the cable networks relayed the story of the linkage of the SimCity ideal parameters as a possible origin of the taxation proposal (the story itself may have originated in the technical press), but denied any link to the game.

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Simcity 4 Deluxe Edition

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