No matter how much of a force I am in strategy games, I’d still rather play simulation-style development games — which is exactly why I like Rise of Nations. Even in C&C-General (Command & Conquer: Generals), I like to pick the terrorist organization and grow a thriving little Arab town. By comparison, C&C3 Tiberium Wars gives you no room to play for development. I’m crazy about C&C3, but in the end I found that aside from the absolutely gorgeous battle scenes and a pace so fast your fingers cramp, it never gave me the feeling I was looking for — and the game is so damn huge.
At the end of 2007 I played SimCity Societies for a bit (some people translate it as “City of Dreams” — great translation, whoever came up with it must have grasped the essence of this version of the game!). It really does no longer suit the mayors who were devoted to the earlier SimCity games — we mayors took the most pride in macro-level control: zoning land, demolition, rebuilding, improving the city’s traffic layout, adjusting taxes at the macro level, promoting the industries we needed, and eventually watching the city grow bigger and bigger until it became an international metropolis. Every single problem we solved along the way — education / traffic / fire / crime / healthcare / pollution / power and water supply / development of agriculture, industry and commerce / budget deficits — gave us a huge sense of accomplishment.
In “City of Dreams” all of that becomes so simple, so comfortable — maybe the designers thought the earlier SimCity games cost players too many brain cells, that they were too tired and needed a rest, so they gave us a beautiful, fairy-tale, utopian heaven. From then on, mayors could sit back and relax. Or maybe the designers were thinking more about newcomers and completely overturned the SimCity style, building a simulation masterpiece tailor-made for brothers and sisters who have never played SimCity but still have a child’s heart! Why do I say that? Because back when I first played SimCity, I used to fantasize about putting up houses one by one, setting up all kinds of residential / public / workplace buildings, then building roads to connect them and creating a cozy little town. Heh, and now that naive dream can come true in SimCity! Thanks to the “City of Dreams” development team, thanks to EA. And thanks to all those brothers and sisters who put so much effort into the translation — a lot of the Americanized jokes in SimCity were translated in a thoroughly localized way!
I once played “City of Dreams” like a maniac for several all-nighters, because a game like that is just too beautiful, too fairy-tale. But later I chose to give it up. Three reasons: 1. After playing for a while, the screen would freeze for no reason — not a crash; I could click or move the mouse and still hear the game’s sound, but the screen was frozen. Bizarre. Once I switch machines I might keep playing. 2. Playing this game makes me dizzy… 3. Even though I really like that Platonic kind of city development, I’m better suited to the highly strategic SimCity 4.
Anyway, a few days ago Wenjun was designing his personal avatar, and the big V inevitably made me think of skyscrapers… which stirred up my desire to be a mayor again. So, unable to resist the powerful urge inside me… there was one more game on my machine: the long-lost SimCity 4 - Formosa. Sorry, I’m not using a legit copy — I’m so poor I can barely cover “food and clothing,” guess I’ll go sell blood… I’m using the http://www.verycd.com/topics/93139/ version.
Excited to death. Playing SC4 again now, I already feel completely at home with it — guess I’ve matured a fair bit ^_^ First, let me post a screenshot from last year’s playthrough. This one screenshot alone has plenty of planning problems: 
The problems: 1. The few high-rise buildings in the upper left of the center definitely have seriously inconvenient traffic access — it’s just a road, and there’s no subway. 2. It’s only year 35; there’s no need to build a highway yet, and budget deficits are bound to show up. Better to build light rail or invest in planning more industrial zones. 3. The location where the school was built — the surrounding residential area doesn’t make sense. Just one street to the north is a tech park, which wastes the community environment. Actually, high-tech parks should go where there are lots of parks / green space; those places have location value too.
I’ll grab a few more screenshots next time I have time to play.