Will You Help Me Choose?

[chazdraves]

Allrighty, I'm doing an experiment and could really benefit from the experience of others willing to share.

I've had friends and seen others that mostly play only one game for extended periods of time and inevitably become very good at those games which seems to be very satisfying. I've decided I want to spend the next year playing one game almost exclusively. I've also locked it into a genre: "City" Builders. This can include anything from SimCity to Dawn of Discovery - anything where the primary focus is creating a functioning city of some sorts with little focus on military/etc. (in other words, I'm not describing Civilization/Sins of a Solar Empire and other 4X games).

So, I've listed some of the games I seem to encounter searching around as well as a blank spot in the poll. If you'd be so kind, please submit a vote at least and perhaps expound on your reasoning below. Remember, this game will be "it" for the next year so it needs to have some depth but I've also spent some time with Dawn of Discovery already and found there might be such a thing as too much depth. I'd also prefer a title within the last year or two with rare exceptions.

Thank you for your time,
- Chaz

 

[paperfist]

Will the experiment include using mods or user content?

I'm also intrigued that you've gotten so much play time out of DoD. I found it rather simple while admittedly not really focusing on achievements.

 

[chazdraves]

I've only been playing DoD for a few weeks, but I see that it continues to become ludicrously complex. I now have the Historic Warehouse and access to the Imperial Cathedral and Sultan's Mosque but I find the increasing needs of my Noblemen upsetting. Balancing all of my trade routes across a dozen islands has become a nightmare and I have 3.5 Million in Gold with nothing to use it on except should I want to slowly deplete it with building maintenance.

Ultimately, I'm looking for a sandbox-type city builder and I'd gladly include mods (I know SimCity 4 requires mods to be worthwhile for example). I listed Settlers, but I'm thinking that might not allow the sort of unlimited play I'm intending.

Thanks for the post!
- Chaz

 

[paperfist]

I've only been playing DoD for a few weeks, but I see that it continues to become ludicrously complex. I now have the Historic Warehouse and access to the Imperial Cathedral and Sultan's Mosque but I find the increasing needs of my Noblemen upsetting. Balancing all of my trade routes across a dozen islands has become a nightmare and I have 3.5 Million in Gold with nothing to use it on except should I want to slowly deplete it with building maintenance.

Ultimately, I'm looking for a sandbox-type city builder and I'd gladly include mods (I know SimCity 4 requires mods to be worthwhile for example). I listed Settlers, but I'm thinking that might not allow the sort of unlimited play I'm intending.

Thanks for the post!
- Chaz

You're making me want to dig DoD back out as you're making me feel like I didn't get enough out of it before kicking it to the curb

I vote Simcity 4. The base game alone is worthy of hundreds of hours of game play building your cities up and then 'remodeling' to suit your fancy. The mods and user made content over at simtropolis is immense to the point you couldn't ever hope to use all of it.

Tropico 3 is an awesome game, but not nearly deep enough to keep you entertained for a year.

Cities XL = Simcity 4 extra lite.

I haven't played Settlers to comment on it.

 

[chazdraves]

Sorry to cause you the discontent

I have spent some time at Simtropolis looking around and you're right that it's beyond counting. I actually have a hunch that Simcity 4 will come out on top in this one but I'm going to try and give it a week before I decide.

I have also played Cities XL only to find that it runs very poorly even on great hardware and certainly has it's limitations.

I think there are a good number of hours in DoD if you can withstand the fiddling. I don't remember that sort of micromanagement in SimCity.

Either way, thank you for your opinion and to the others that have voted so far. I will be basing roughly 70% of my decision on this poll if it gets enough response so please feel encouraged to vote.

- Chaz

 

[chazdraves]

Not a lot of activity since yesterday but SimCity 4 continues to be the favorite so far. I intend to resolve this one week from yesterday so please feel free to continue voting.

Regards,
- Chaz

 

[chazdraves]

I think the poll may have hit end-life already but I was still hoping for a few more votes. Please don't be shy if you have an opinion.

Thanks again to anyone who already voted.
- Chaz

 

[snewdle]

SimCity 4. Probably the most addictive and time-consuming non-MMO PC game I can think of.

Edit: Maybe Civ 4 comes close... maybe

 

[kamikazekyle]

Out of those, I'd go with SimCity 4. If you're running on anything resembling a modern system, however, get ready to have to beat it with a stick to make sure it works right. There's problems with multicore processors, 3D acceleration, and then some. But you can get it working, it'll just take some convincing. Plus there's still a large community behind it and a LOT of mods.

Cities XL is an interesting alternative. I've been playing that recently since I got it on sale. On one hand it's nice not having to worry about some minutae and having large flexibilty in building layout (you can place individual buildings, for example). I found it plays nicer with modern systems -- though some are reporting memory leaks -- and it's easier to create interesting transportation layouts and designs. But as paperfist said, it doesn't feel as challenging or complex as SimCity 4.

If I just want to build a city and worry less about administrative minutae, I go with Cities XL 2011. If I want the full shebang, I go with SimCity 4.

 

[chazdraves]

Thanks for the continuing input, guys!

I may not hit the 100 votes by Sunday I was hoping for, but the feedback has still been very useful and I'm surprised that a 7-year-old game is holding it's own right now. I've played a bit of both Cities 2011 and SC4 Deluxe and I guess I can see what you mean about the added complexity of SC4.

- Chaz

 

[RavenSEAL]

Thanks for the continuing input, guys!

I may not hit the 100 votes by Sunday I was hoping for, but the feedback has still been very useful and I'm surprised that a 7-year-old game is holding it's own right now. I've played a bit of both Cities 2011 and SC4 Deluxe and I guess I can see what you mean about the added complexity of SC4.

- Chaz

The Simulator genre is dying slowing, no one seems to give a shit now a days, EA killed Sim City a while ago, sad they don't have any plans to bring it back. With how far technology has come, i think a new Sim City game could have so much potential, but EA is too busy trying to catch up to Call of Duty

Best of luck with your project, beware though, i have waken up some days only to find myself still playing Sim City 4 at 5am the next day.

 

[chazdraves]

I actually really appreciate that last bit. Part of the reason I'm doing this is that games have often been a timesuck and I can no longer suffer that loss. I was (in addition to my other hypothesis) hoping that this would help control hours lost and so your comment is relevant.

Again, thank you to everyone voting. I am monitoring this post.
- Chaz

 

[chazdraves]

Well, I was intending to let this go until tomorrow and I think I still will. If anyone has held their opinion to this point, please feel encouraged to share.

Regards,
- Chaz

 

[TecHNooB]

is sim city 4 the latest sim city game?

 

[chazdraves]

The latest *true* SimCity game, yes. Societies came out a while back and was generally disregarded as I understand.

- Chaz

 

[heat901]

Allrighty, I'm doing an experiment and could really benefit from the experience of others willing to share.

I've had friends and seen others that mostly play only one game for extended periods of time and inevitably become very good at those games which seems to be very satisfying. I've decided I want to spend the next year playing one game almost exclusively. I've also locked it into a genre: "City" Builders. This can include anything from SimCity to Dawn of Discovery - anything where the primary focus is creating a functioning city of some sorts with little focus on military/etc. (in other words, I'm not describing Civilization/Sins of a Solar Empire and other 4X games).

So, I've listed some of the games I seem to encounter searching around as well as a blank spot in the poll. If you'd be so kind, please submit a vote at least and perhaps expound on your reasoning below. Remember, this game will be "it" for the next year so it needs to have some depth but I've also spent some time with Dawn of Discovery already and found there might be such a thing as too much depth. I'd also prefer a title within the last year or two with rare exceptions.

Thank you for your time,
- Chaz

I would look up Patrician 3... I like you wanted a game like cesaer 3 with more city building/trade then military. After looking for something other than cesaer 3 I came across Patrician 3, though dated its got soooo much depth. You can build in mutliple cities, creating different industries thus trading among them, you can fight pirates by upgrade your ships and becoming governor and you even hire pirates to mess around with compedition. I would look into it, I got it for $5 dollars on steam and serious played it for hours and I still do not know what I am doing exactly.

 

[chazdraves]

Last day of the poll.

I appreciate the above advice, but I'm hoping for something newer (save, of course, if it should be SimCity 4 only because of the active community).

- Chaz

 

[Fenixgoon]

the answer is to choose pikachu. duh!

 

[chazdraves]

A lot of diversity in these last few hours.

And, as for Pikachu, that was my first pick but eventually he evolved and became too large for my family to care for. I couldn't bear the loss twice.

- Chaz