Sim City Alternative?

Footyslayer · 24 Jul 2013 at 16:24

Hi everyone

I am a bit of an avid sim city player and have loved many versions of the game, except this newest one is a pain in the arse.

I have built around 4 or 5 good cities with my latest making £1.5 mil a day, the arcology is built and it is a very successful city. However, I have been using nuclear power to run the city, very well in fact until I got the very unrealistic lizard walk into it and cause a nuclear fallout on 75% of my city. Apparently it could take 32 in game years to start clearing away :eek:

So with all that said what are the best alternatives for this type of game, I've been looking at tropico 4 but am on the fence with it, I am not a fan of anything political to be honest...

G-MAN2004 · 24 Jul 2013 at 16:35

Could go with Anno 2070, but obviously it's set in the future.

Footyslayer · 24 Jul 2013 at 16:37

G-MAN2004 said:
Could go with Anno 2070, but obviously it's set in the future.

Hmm, which also doesn't interest me. Anything sci-fi isn't for me

PsychoPigeon · 24 Jul 2013 at 16:39

tropico 4

Suarez7 · 24 Jul 2013 at 16:39

Footyslayer said:
Hmm, which also doesn't interest me. Anything sci-fi isn't for me

Old Anno 1404 I think it is, is good with all the DLC.

Cities XL is pretty decent.

Footyslayer · 24 Jul 2013 at 19:17

Suarez7 said:
Old Anno 1404 I think it is, is good with all the DLC.

Cities XL is pretty decent.

Both look quite decent, I'm tempted.

What are people thoughts on sim city 4?

fergie128 · 24 Jul 2013 at 20:22

Sim City 4 modded up is rather good. There are plenty of different types of roads and railways you can add to the game to give you more freedom.

Huggie86 · 24 Jul 2013 at 20:31

I've never played the cities games. But the Anno games are really good fun and quite a time sink

Doco · 24 Jul 2013 at 21:44

Not quite simcity - but have you ever played and of the Civilization games? Played 2 and 4 and just bought 5 in the steam sale week past, build up a civilization (no **** eh lol) manage resources focus on certain areas and keep an eye out on what the AI is doing, and it's just like simcity in that you plan to pop on for half an hour to complete 1-2 tasks you have in mind then next thing you know you've sunk hours into it......actually on that note dont get it

lol

almoststew1990 · 24 Jul 2013 at 21:45

another vote for Cities XL. I picked it up in the sales for a tenner. I haven't played it yet but apparently it is pretty good.

Wow that was a pointless post.

orderoftheflame · 24 Jul 2013 at 22:02

Anno is superb. Even if you don't like a Sci-Fi, it beats the socks off the rest.

StriderX · 24 Jul 2013 at 22:24

Anno 1404 is one of best gems in the genre, it has some issues still unsolved, like German words not being translated, but there is a unofficial patch around...though I believe it is only for Venice.

The game is still good without it though, however the Warfare side of things i never liked in it, I just liked building cities and managing the economy, which are all quite interactive.

CaptainRAVE · 24 Jul 2013 at 22:26

Lots of great suggestions in here, but avoid Cities XL...avoid it like the plague. It might look pretty, but it is an unfinished (memory leaks, missing features, frequent re-releases that fix nothing) money grabbing piece of rubbish.

Anno would get my vote, any of them tbh. Don't let the sci fi aspect put you off, it is an excellent game for city building.

Tropico 4 is a lot of fun too, but you do need to pick up some of the DLC IMO.

Raumarik · 24 Jul 2013 at 22:37

Check out Prison Architect, in alpha just now but very playable. Not a city builder as such but similar "resource management" game. love it!

Housey · 24 Jul 2013 at 22:46

CaptainRAVE said:
Lots of great suggestions in here, but avoid Cities XL...avoid it like the plague. It might look pretty, but it is an unfinished (memory leaks, missing features, frequent re-releases that fix nothing) money grabbing piece of rubbish.

Totally disagree. Modded up it's great and the game I play the most. Never crashes for me, but then my love is simply sandboxing and building pretty cities with good road infrastructures so perhaps don't fit the typical player. I load a map, max money and other stuff and simply build and can waste hours in it

Lithon · 25 Jul 2013 at 09:10

It's difficult to suggest alternatives if you're an avid fan of the single best series in city building games - so if you're set on specifically city building I'd look into modding the pants off SC4 and see if you find new enjoyment.

If you enjoy building up a little civilisation, considering tech paths and trade chains then consider the Settlers and Anno series. Anno is more complex but in a good way if you enjoy the genre, you'll spend hours just building the perfect trade network.

arknor · 25 Jul 2013 at 09:15

might e worth looking at the tropico games as well whilst they aren't exactly sim city they are still about doing the same thing

Howitzer · 25 Jul 2013 at 09:55

You've probably played Ceasar III & Pharoah to death I would assume?

Perhaps Ceasar IV? Not fantastic imo as I prefer the isometric III but can be had fairly cheap now and it's pretty entertaining

uncle_rufus · 25 Jul 2013 at 12:27

Lithon said:
If you enjoy building up a little civilisation, considering tech paths and trade chains then consider the Settlers and Anno series. Anno is more complex but in a good way if you enjoy the genre, you'll spend hours just building the perfect trade network.

And also on this note if you want the ultimate game for building a complicated trade network (rather than city building specifically) but still set in present times then you could check out Transport Tycoon (well the remake, OpenTTD)