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A general thread on city simulators, one of my favorite gaming genres.

In the past I've spent countless hours on the Sim City series, from the DOS version of the original game up to Sim City 4, and enjoyed each version pretty thoroughly. Of those, Sim City 4 would have to be my favorite, both through the scope (building an entire region of cities as opposed to just one city) and the amount of custom content available through modding communities over the years.

I've also dabbled with games like Pharaoh and Caesar IV, which are more mission-focused as opposed to the more open-ended Sim series. Though I never got anywhere close to finishing either of those games, the concept of building a city in earlier time periods is one that I wish were more explored in other games.

I've been looking into more recently-released games, and wonder if anyone here has played any that they would recommend? I've heard not-so-great things about Cities XL and Sim City Societies. Cities in Motion looks pretty interesting, even if it is only mass-transit focused. Are there any others I might not be aware of?

FWIW I'm using a newish Macbook Pro running only Mac OS X, though installing Windows might not be about of the question

Ahh... City sims.

I completely suck at them but I enjoy playing one every now and then.

Have you tried Afterlife by (I think) LucasArts? It's basically Sim-City but in Heaven and Hell. Instead of office buildings/train stations you build Rewards (Heaven) and Punishments (Hell... obviously).

Never heard of Afterlife, but looking at the Wiki article it looks pretty neat. I'll have to see if there's a way for me to try it out. I used to have a few spare 486 machines laying around but no longer do.

I should also add that I've played some of the newer console Sim City games, like Sim City Creator on both the Wii and NDS. I couldn't stand using the motion controls on the Wii version. And while the NDS version was somewhat limited (no terrain editing for one thing) it allowed you to build a city through different ages and watch technology levels increase (i.e. playing from the stone age, medieval era to the modern era), which I really enjoyed.

you know that Populous starts for Together Retro... TODAY, right?

noiseredux wrote:you know that Populous starts for Together Retro... TODAY, right?

I traded in my Genesis copy at a store about a year ago. Guess my goal this week is to find a way to play!

qix wrote:

noiseredux wrote:you know that Populous starts for Together Retro... TODAY, right?

I traded in my Genesis copy at a store about a year ago. Guess my goal this week is to find a way to play!

Get it for PC, the console versions are awful.