Well.. let's see. Aside from having very very details graphics..down to people getting in their car, and driving to and from work on a day-to-day basis .. it's very different than SimCity 2000 and 3000/Unlimited.
Let see.. what's new. Here's a screenshot of Terraforming the land in God Mode.
And here's what the actual game looks like. I'm not sure if it looks any better on the high res video cards, but it looks like this picture on my GeForce2mx.
Here's whats new.
disasters -- Not only can you unleash all new disasters, you get to control them! Want a tornado to rip through the nice new Residental neighborhood?? Just a few clicks and the tornado follows your mouse.
Want Giant Steel Robots to terrorize the city? click on an Industrial building and watch it get ripped apart.
How about Flames to sweep through the city, or a Volcano to erupt in the middle of the city and watch the lava flow through the city streets as your Sims run for their lives!!
That's the majority of the disasters, there a few more (Lightning bolts, and earthquakes.)
Traffic -
Night / Day
Another new feature is the ability to make your sims feel more alive. If you set Night/Day.. Sims come alive early morning.. rush hour traffic hits the streets toward the Industrial sector/commercialized areas..and then in the evening rush hour traffic heads the other direction back to their homes. Oh, and one major factor of the traffic. If you've ever played the game called Black and White? The AI for the traffic in SimCity 4 is the same team that created the AI for your godly creature in B&W.
What else... oh yeah!!
My Sim Mode
Another little neat feature.. that I haven't yet to experiement with is that you can actually place SIMS in your city, and watch their daily life. To and from work, to the grocery store. Friends come over..and so on. You cant actully interact with them, but you get to pick out 5 families in total, and pick their appearances..(race, gender), and watch them live out their life in your city!
Another cool feature that sort of goes along with the Disasters is the Dispatch mode. If one of your buildings catch on fire, you have to dispatch the fire dept, and you can actually watch the animated firetruck drive to the building..3 little guys get out, and spray water on the building.
I think the overall best new feature in the game is the different Regions.
You are no longer limited to just one mass of land, and have to start over after each city is complete. You get to choose a region of real land (Berlin, California? and so on.) Then you pick any little plot of land within the region and build a city there. After you have ..lets say 2 cities built and functioning to capacity..start a new one, and set up trade with a previous city you built yourself. But their's no need to manage the previous cities..the computer takes over and all you have to worry about is your current city. You can set up trade deals with the other lands you built upon, (Water, electricty, garbage).. just as in SimCity3000. Sell your other city garbage..and they give you money. If your other city wants to sell you water? No problem. Just give them some moeny...I think you get the idea though.
I think that about covers it. I highly recommend getting and playing this game! It's well worth your money!!
Even
http://www.gamespot.com gives this game an 8.4 on their scale. Which is GREAT according to them!
