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SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition by Aspyr

Computer-freezing at its finest

Written by RC from Silver Spring

Aug 8, 2008

I feel a little odd writing a review since I'm still in the process of working with tech support at Aspyr, but out of the box this game has critical problems. My computer is ridiculously above the recommended system, yet it cannot run the software without lagging-freezing in the tutorial. I've done some maintenance work and installed the game in a fresh account and the root directory, all to no avail. Since they ask that you install it to the root directory, I assume the thinking is the performance issues are disk related, and I have 4 gigs of ram so I decided to try running it from a disk image, still to no avail. It's sad to see a game I have admired and enjoyed since almost the dawn of PCs, in such a state of disarray: I hope tech support can get this game up and playable for me quickly, else I'll be forced to seek a refund.

47 of 61 people found this useful

SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition by Aspyr

Great game, poor performance

Written by JK from Honolulu

Jul 11, 2008

When I recently purchased a new iMac, Simcity 4 was the first game I purchased. However, I was deeply disapointed at the performance on my machine. I went the Aspyr website and couldnt download any patches they provided. I also am not able to load my itunes into the game, despite the claim on the box. Its good to hear that others are having better experiences because I really regret buying this game.

27 of 32 people found this useful

SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition by Aspyr

Great game, if it worked

Written by BB from Red Deer County

Jun 20, 2008

I've loved all the Sim City's for the PC, so I decided to buy it for the mac. I was really disappointed when it didn't work. I called Aspyr, downloaded a patch, and other stuff. It never worked. There's black boxes around all the graphics, and it's REALLY slow. Not worth playing on the mac because it just simply won't work. I've got a 2.2 MBP 2g ram.

(I just ordered C&C for the mac, hopefully I'll have better luck)

31 of 38 people found this useful

SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition by Aspyr

really great creative game

Written by DB from Newton

May 13, 2008

Simcity is a game that doesn't really have any objectives. You're basically given a piece of land, and you try to make it into a successful metropolis. Something like this could get old quickly, but luckily this game is full of tons of stuff to add to your city, and you can even download extra buildings from simtropolis.com

One thing to watch out for is the system requirements though, since if you have an older computer it might have trouble with this game.

31 of 65 people found this useful

SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition by Aspyr

I am delighted!

Written by LA from Grand Jncton

Feb 19, 2008

After I had ordered this game, I read a review that said it probably wouldn't run on Macs with Intel Core Duo processors. I have a Mac Mini with a 1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo processor and the game seems to work fine. Other reviews have mentioned that the game runs slow on Macs. It does, but the last time I played Sim City, it was Sim City 3000 on an old Pentium II processor. This runs much better than that so far . . . :-)

So, I am delighted to say that this game works with the Intel Core Duo Processors and I am off and running.

91 of 163 people found this useful

SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition by Aspyr

rocks

Written by WM from Scotts Valley

Feb 4, 2008

this game is awsome and worth the prive

78 of 158 people found this useful

SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition by Aspyr

Great game, poor performance

Written by KD from Madison

Dec 8, 2007

This could be a great game (as were the other SimCity games before it),; however, it's a terrible port by Aspyr. On PowerPC Macs (dual G4 and a dual G5), the performance is slow and laggy when cities grow to a moderate size. On my MacBook, the game is almost unplayable, since it's not Universal.

117 of 203 people found this useful

SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition by Aspyr

Couldn't get this Game Up and Running!

Written by JP from Palo Alto

Dec 6, 2007

To make a long story short I have a iBook G4 1.2 Ghz, once the game loaded it got slower and slower and slower until it froze up. Aspyr customer service was unable to shed any light on the problem. It is a Darn shame a great game won't run on computers it is supposed to.

Hope you have better luck than I did!

82 of 111 people found this useful

SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition by Aspyr

Like it!

Written by JS from regina

Nov 12, 2007

I bought this game for my old windows and it was slow so when I found out it was made for macs I was so exited. I have a black Macbook and it works really good on it. It is my favorite game

75 of 116 people found this useful

SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition by Aspyr

Could have been great if it worked...

Written by KW from Kitchener

Nov 10, 2007

I had this game for my pc (pentium 4 2.3 GHz 512MB ram) and it worked great and was a blast to play. I love building cities and trying out different terrains and strategies. However I just got a new MacBook (the 2.0GHz version) and SimCity 4 does not work. It loads but is painfully slow. The mouse cursor won't even move smoothly across the screen.

I have been all over the internets looking for patches, solutions and help. All that I can find is that the Intel-Core Duo Macs don't run a bunch of Aspyr ported games. This is brutal, its not being advertised at all. I have the Aspyr Game Agent program which should say, don't buy this game because it won't work.

I called Aspyr, and EA tech support and they just say that it is a well known glitch and with the game being so old they are not likely to fix it. Yet if you go to any Apple Store or use the Aspyr Game agent you'll be lied to and told that it will work. I like Apple, I LOVE my new macbook but this has to change.

71 of 88 people found this useful

SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition by Aspyr

Poor performance

Written by BL from Brooklyn

Oct 11, 2007

I grew up on the SimCity games and I've spent countless hours building cities in previous versions. SimCity 4 was my first experience with a Mac port, and I must say it was terribly disappointing. I have seen this game played on three separate machines (ibook G4, macbook, and a macbook pro) and they all have had laggy results.

I'm sure the game would be much more enjoyable if it actually played at a decent speed.

That being said, I found myself quite annoyed with some of the new features. The city advisory overreact constantly. Having to manage the budget of every single school, hospital, fire station, and police station is tedious. I thought the idea of a region was cool in theory, but I always liked making one humongous city as opposed to 3 dozen little ones. And am I the only one annoyed by the automatic roads placed when you zone an area?

I think I'll just go back to my PC version of SC3000.

74 of 108 people found this useful

SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition by Aspyr

Does not run

Written by JS from hauppauge

Aug 24, 2007

I have a 6 month old Macbook 1.8Ghz with 1 Gig of ram. The game simply doesnt run and is impossible to play. Once you have more then one building up the game slows down to a snails pace. 1 year in the game at full speed mode takes about 10 minutes in real time. Zooming in or out is tedious and annoying as it takes so long for the graphics to render. It is simply unplayable. Aspyr does not even address this issue on their website. How Aspyr can put this game on the shelves for years without fixing it is unbelievable. How apple, can sell this game in their store at a price of $60 is even more of an outrage.

69 of 94 people found this useful

SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition by Aspyr

worst

Written by GC from Oklahoma City

Jul 19, 2007

it is bad and that is all i can say about this HORRID game

19 of 95 people found this useful

SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition by Aspyr

Sim City 4 is great, but Aspyrs support is horrible

Written by PZ from Playa Del Rey

Jun 21, 2007

I recently purchased a new Macbook Pro (2.4GHz, 2GB RAM, GeForce 8600M GT, etc.) along with it I purchased Sim City 4. I spoke to the genius bar and multiple reps assured me that even though this game lacks the Universal logo the shear power of this machine will make no difference in game play itself.

After spending countless hours trying to find the solution, and receiving nothing but "we think there is a problem with our games and the new video card on macbook pros" from Aspyr, I'm heading back to Windows where the game actually runs normally.

I get nothing but horrible performance, every object in the game that is supposed to be animated "blinks", of course now I can't return the game because the box has been opened. Good news is that my macbook pro was not purchased over 2 weeks ago - so I might be heading to return this "it just works" machine.

The game itself is amazing, you will find yourself controlling absolutely anything that has to do with a life in the city from the managerial point of view (of course there is room for improvement, but you take what you can get). Big improvement from the previous game - regions... try this game if you have a PPC or a Windows machine. Aspyr needs to get their act together on supporting this as well as other titles that just don't work on the new macbook pros.

56 of 86 people found this useful

SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition by Aspyr

Awesome!!!

Written by GT from Vienna

Jun 14, 2007

This is an amazing game, with amazing graphics (compared to Sim City 3000.).It's very addictive, considering the fact that I've played it for about 6 months and I still love it.If you like being in charge, building cities, and a nice strategy game, Sim City for is for you!

34 of 56 people found this useful

SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition by Aspyr

Tons of fun and sleepless nights may follow!!

Written by TK from Calgary

Mar 9, 2007

I have always loved SimCity, I can even remember when it first came out for PC back in the 90's and I spent countless hours building and tweaking my city, and I could never seem get enough of this game. SimCity 4 for mac is exactly the same as my pc game, which is very helpful, because I don't have to learn to play it. The difference now is when I play its faster at rendering on my imac (I use a 20'' imac, with 2 GB memory).

It is such a neat game, Sims go to work and say 'ho hum' and talk sim language and you can get into the details as much or as little as you want. I like to start building from scratch and I like to send my Sims on assignment. If you like any of the Sims games, you will really like SimCity 4, the possibilites and scenarios are endless in this game.

Bottom line - it is awesomely fun and addictive. Highly recommend it and worth the price.

47 of 69 people found this useful

SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition by Aspyr

An Excellent Game, But Needs Good Memory

Written by DC

Feb 18, 2007

Sim city is really a great, addicting game. I run it at home on my PC, works very nice there. Then I sync the cities to my Mac Book, It's really nice to have that kind of flexibility. But I'd say if you really want to play this game, your going to need the 2GB of RAM. This game really eats it up.

On the side, there are billions of plug-ins and add-ons for this game, and it's really only half the fun without them.

67 of 102 people found this useful

SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition by Aspyr

One of the great games for grown ups

Written by RO from LONDON

Jan 17, 2007

This game is fantastic. I have played it since SimCity 2000. I recently bought an MacBook Pro and had a great time playing the game till I tried to save and problems started; it would not save and I had to force quit it. So until an updated version is released I have to go back to my 12" PowerBook!

294 of 466 people found this useful