SimCity 4

A few days after we came back from the vacation I bought SimCity 4 Deluxe, and spent a long time playing it.

Graphically, it is even better than the previous versions. Everything is very detailed and realistic. Lots of improvements have been made that make the game less irritating - larger schools, police and fire stations (a city no longer needs the 3 for every few blocks), a huge amount of transportation options and the biggest boon of all - regional play, which allows to build several inter-communicating cities in a region, and specialize each one.

There are drawbacks too, however. The game is very complicated and difficult to play right. I can't imagine a new player (who've never played the previous versions of SimCity) getting around the game, since the tutorials are very superficial and there's no "encyclopedia" (like in Civilization) to explain everything. Seasoned players won't find it easy, for instance managing the traffic is just nightmare - so much, as a matter of fact, that dedicated fans have developed several add-ons (and "mods") that alleviate the problem.

All in all it's a fun game to play. And time consuming :-)