So, I'm interested in Simcity. What game should I get?

[Lieju]

I used to play some of the older Simcity-games as a kid with my friend's computer, can't remember which one, though.

But the city-building-game I really was into was The Pharaoh, and all this talk of Simcity has made me nostalgic, and feeling like playing a game like that again.

For obvious reasons, I'm not going to get the new Simcity, so what city-management-game can you recommend?
I really liked Pharaoh because of the setting and the storyline, and some historic or fantasy-setting like that would be preferred.

(Or should I just try to get Pharaoh working again?)

 

[IndomitableSam]

I love Pharaoh - and Emperor, which is a few years younger and made by the same company and is Ancient China. I have Zeus as well, but don't like it as much. I've never actually played any of the Caesar games beyond demos, though.

Anyway, I've played one Anno game - the 1600's or so ish one, and I did enjoy it, so perhaps try an Anno game. others may be able to tell you more as I didn't finish that one either.

Civ may be a little too far removed for you - I like it, but sometimes miss the 'closer' bit of a city builder.

Not sure what else to suggest, as I'm always looking for games like Pharaoh and am disappointed still Impressions Games folded.

However, a lot of those people moved to Tilted Mill [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilted_Mill_Entertainment], and I've been watching a lot of nothing happening on the website for Midieval Mayor (blog hasn't been updated since January, which is balls), which seems exactly like Pharoah. Maybe check out their games as well. I wasted a decent number of hours in Sim City Societies, but it gets old very quickly when you know how the system works.

... On a similar vein, maybe check out Folk Tale on Steam's Greenlight, as that's the Greenlight title I'm most looking forward to.

Edit: Wow is my typing/train of thought not quite right today. It's the end of the work day and I'm tired and a bit headachey.

 

[Lieju]

I love Pharaoh - and Emperor, which is a few years younger and made by the same company and is Ancient China. I have Zeus as well, but don't like it as much. I've never actually played any of the Caesar games beyond demos, though.

Anyway, I've played one Anno game - the 1600's or so ish one, and I did enjoy it, so perhaps try an Anno game. others may be able to tell you more as I didn't finish that one either.

Civ may be a little too far removed for you - I like it, but sometimes miss the 'closer' bit of a city builder.

I play Civilization V with my friend, but I don't really consider that to be a city-builder-game.

Anno sounds interesting, but are the computer-players kinda the main opposition in that game?
I'm looking for a game where your own incompetence and internal problems like starvation and crime are the bigger threats than rival players.

More domestic policy and less international politics.

 

[GloatingSwine]

Tropico 4.

Which is basically what Maxis said the new Simcity would be, except Tropico has been doing it actually right for ages.

 

[Greyhamster]

I'm looking for a game where your own incompetence and internal problems like starvation and crime are the bigger threats than rival players.

If that's what you're looking for the most and you have lots of spare time, patience and tolerance for weirdness: Dwarf Fortress.

Also fun: Tropico 4 and Cities XL. Cities is broken on a technical aspect but is a decent game.

 

[crono738]

Tropico 4.

Which is basically what Maxis said the new Simcity would be, except Tropico has been doing it actually right for ages.

This. Or, if you want to go old school, Simcity 2000 is on GOG for $5.99.

 

[Lieju]

I'm looking for a game where your own incompetence and internal problems like starvation and crime are the bigger threats than rival players.

If that's what you're looking for the most and you have lots of spare time, patience and tolerance for weirdness: Dwarf Fortress.

I was under the impression Dwarf fortress was about adventuring and battling, but reading up on it, it seems interesting.

 

[wurrble182]

honestly, id ignore all the nay-sayers and give the new simcity a shot. we're two weeks past launch now, those initial connection issues are a thing of the past for most and the game just recieved a game changing patch to fix traffic flow. i for one am having a blast with it!

 

[Gestapo Hunter]

I'm looking for a game where your own incompetence and internal problems like starvation and crime are the bigger threats than rival players.

If that's what you're looking for the most and you have lots of spare time, patience and tolerance for weirdness: Dwarf Fortress.

I was under the impression Dwarf fortress was about adventuring and battling, but reading up on it, it seems interesting.

And screwing up and getting your dwarf killed but thats most of the fun.

 

[Lieju]

honestly, id ignore all the nay-sayers and give the new simcity a shot. we're two weeks past launch now, those initial connection issues are a thing of the past for most and the game just recieved a game changing patch to fix traffic flow. i for one am having a blast with it!

Even if the always-online worked perfectly, it would be a problem for me, as I'd like to be able to play it when I travel or visit places with a crappy Internet connection.

 

[Squilookle]

If you're asking about non- Simcity games to play, I can't help, but if you're asking which Older Simcity game to get?

SimCity 2000. Hands down the best in the series, and still has more charm to it than most building games period.

 

[Risingblade]

Tropico 4 is pretty fun

 

[omicron1]

Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile.
1. It's from Tilted Mill, EG the Impressions guys.
2. It did the "All your citizens are individuals" thing - you know, Maxis' selling point - right.
3. It's basically Pharaoh 3D in theme.

 

[Jadwick]

My favorite Sim City game was Sim City 3000 Unlimited (1999), which I've been playing in my free-time since the new one came out, no problems running on win7.

Also, while not exactly a city building game, Open Transport Tycoon maybe be worth a look, its free, and has the same sort of isometric view.

 

[DanielBrown]

Try Cities XL 2012 or 2011. I've played the 2011 version and it was pretty great. Huuuge, realistic maps and more varied options than SimCity 4. I didn't really understand it myself though. The inhabitants of my cities always cried out for leisure in spite of having tons of it and I could never get traffic to work well.
Try to make sure your city grows at a controlled pace if you play it. I tended to throw down tons of buildings and wait. Never worked out well.

There are some other Sierra games almost identical to Pharao as well. Can't remember the names, but I think one of them was just named Zeus. Same thing, but Greek setting.

 

[Roxor]

From the older SimCity games, I'd suggest SimCity 2000 (Of the several versions of that, My favourite is the MS-DOS version, due to the GUI looking nicer than the Windows versions). The original is decent, if a bit short on variety, and 4 is pretty good, too. I don't think I ever owned 3000, so I can't comment on it.

 

[thiosk]

I did tropico 4, but I found it ultimately less engrossing than Anno 2070. Now, anno2070 is always online. If thats a deal breaker, tropico 4, which is a ultimately a repackaged and bugfixed rerelease of tropico 3, and has some of the worst dlc ever.

So pick your poison, both are really the tops for city management.

If you want a real goody, do evil genius.

if you want a really real goody, learn to dwarf fortress.

 

[Joccaren]

I was under the impression Dwarf fortress was about adventuring and battling, but reading up on it, it seems interesting.

To be fair it is, if you can get your fort to sustain itself, and even then its mostly just exploring a small area of caves and breaking into the HFS, another small area, so far as exploration goes. Most of it really is just making sure your Dwarfs don't kill themselves.
Following the walkthrough I lost my first fort to dehydration, and maintained my second fort.

The game is mostly going to kill you based off dehydration and/or starvation at the start of your time playing it, Tantrum Spirals when you get competent at setting things up sustainably, and through massive goblin raids [Very easily defeatable with cheese strategies though], Mega-Beasts [Not so defeatable with cheese strategies] and HFS [HOLY DEAR GOD YOU ARE DEAD {Through either FPS death or your dwarves having to fight enemies so OP its not funny {Or so UP it is funny at times, its procedurally generated so its up to luck, but you will die here}].

Of course, you can just run your fort sustainably and try to keep everything working without breaking into the caves or HFS, and fending off the odd Goblin raid with cheese tactics if you want, but the game's motto is true; losing is fun. If you don't do something ridiculously ambitious and stupid, IMO you're not really having fun, and if you do do something ridiculously ambitious and stupid there is a 99.95% chance you will lose.

 

[VladG]

Zeus: Master of Olympus follows Pharaoh and is so much better in my opinion, you should really try it.

CitiesXL is similar to Simcity, but it has some fairly major issues - performance for one thing, the game is not multi-core optimized (no, not even the 2013 version) and even a fairly small city (compared to the map size) will drop your framerate like a rock.

Also the company who bought the original devs of CitiesXL have been shamelessly milking the franchise - CitiesXL 2013 edition (can't be arsed to remember the actual name) is basically IDENTICAL to the 2012 version (and no, I'm not talking about CoD identical, I mean REALLY identical). It has a bunch of new buildings and that's it. The current owners of the franchise have no respect for the IP or it's fans. If you really want it, get the 2012 version, it should be cheaper anyway.

Anno games are a bunch of fun as well, but they aren't as much a city builders as supply chain managers.

 

[Lieju]

Zeus: Master of Olympus follows Pharaoh and is so much better in my opinion, you should really try it.

I think I will, it sounds like fun. How is it better?