The city building genre, while small, has a very dedicated fanbase, which is why so many people were angered when the newest SimCity game launched in such a poor state. While a lot of the original issues with the game are fixed, many fans had already jumped ship to Cities: Skylines, a new franchise with a similar layout. To determine which one is the better buy for fans, here's a comprehensive look at the two titles.
SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition includes the bestselling SimCity 4 and the all-new SimCity 4 Rush Hour Expansion Pack. Create the most massive region of cities ever, with a farming town, bedroom community, high-tech commercial center, and industrial backbone. SimCity 2000 was awesome for its time, but it isn't that time anymore. It's still a simple, fun game, but the awful (by today's standards) graphics and sound are a turn-off, to me at least. SimCity 4 is the opposite.
Please note that, while SimCity's launch was a disaster, this comparison will focus on the current states of both games.
Round 1: City Size
In a game focused on city building, size definitely matters. While it's not the only thing, as games such as this thrive on the amount of detail you're able to put into your city, the size of your sandbox does a lot to limit or expand your vision. In this category, Skylines wins, hands down, with a map of 36 square kilometers, or nine times the size of SimCity.
SimCity: 0,Skylines: 1
Round 2: Customization
Both games support the modding community, so customization is a big part of each game. They both offer a huge amount of customization, and SimCity has an expansion pack that offers even more.
However, this one goes to Skylines, due to its advanced map editor, the ability to construct damns for hydroelectric power, and the need to build powerlines and pipes to keep the city running. If you're getting into city building and want to manage all the little details down to a T, Skylines is the one that will let you do it.
SimCity: 0, Skylines: 2
Round 3: Events/Gameplay
One of the signature features of the SimCity series is the disasters that force you to adapt and rebuild, and those return in the most recent game. Skylines has no such feature, instead you just keep building. While that's still fun enough, it keeps the game somewhat predictable, so SimCity wins this one.
SimCity: 1, Skylines: 2
Round 4: Systems/Options
Each game also has an offline mode -- as much of SimCity's disaster of a launch was linked to its poor implementation of forced online connectivity. In terms of platforms, both play on PC and Mac, but only Skylines is available on Linux. While that's no huge loss, if you want to download SimCity, you'll have to use Origin, which means that this one goes to Skylines, as it's available through Steam.
Final Score: SimCity: 1, Skylines: 3
While SimCity isn't without its merits, it's no match for Skylines, the new champion of the genre. Still, it's close enough that the real winner is just a matter of preference.
Do you agree with our decision? Let us know in the comments!
SimCity and Cities: Skylines are two very similar games, but with many differences as well. So, which one should you buy?
SimCity was first released in 1989 and has since had a few more iterations, with the most recent release of the title in 2014. Cities: Skylines is a new game, released in 2015. Both games offer city building, potential disasters, and control of your city. Do the games really compare with each other? Which one is better?
Simcity Vs Simcity 4 Download
SimCity: Cities of Tomorrow is a simple game compared to Cities: Skylines. It’s cookie cutter, cut-and-dry, plop your water tower here type stuff. With my ADHD, complexity is something I tend to stay away from. I’m the World of Warcraft player who uses a basic healing add-on instead of keybinding, as I find it overwhelming to try to remember all the keybinds across 10+ toons. I tend to prefer simpler games, but I’m not afraid to admit another good game when I see one.
In SimCity, you need to provide water for your residents. This is as easy as choosing your water source. You’ll want to make sure you’re putting the water tower over the best source of water in your city. You just place your water source and you are done—it’s that simple.
In Cities: Skylines, you have to place the water pump and then place the water drain pump, not to mention having to connect the water pipes to every single house in order to pump water through them. It’s really just too much work, and I always screw up on placing the pipes, so it’s very time-consuming. Don’t get me wrong, this could be a good thing if I had a brain or mind that could handle this type of complexity.
Every city obviously needs electricity. In Cities: Skylines, you place your power plant, which is usually a coal plant to start with. If you need to extend your power, you have to place power lines and make sure they are blinking blue, which shows that the power is working; if they are black, they aren’t working and you have to figure out why and fix it. Taking too long to fix an issue could result in abandoned buildings and your city going bankrupt. In one of my cities, I went bankrupt within 20 minutes because it was too confusing to figure out how to fix the power issues so I could continue building my city.
Both games offer a tutorial, but SimCity offers a more detailed tutorial, while Cities: Skylines gives more information that is not needed in a tutorial. It tells you about things, but not necessarily how to do them. The tutorial didn’t tell me how to connect the water pipes, just that I needed to, but it doesn’t explain that you have to do it through each home and make sure to have a water drain pipe. While in some cases it’s better to figure things out on your own, it’s also useful to have a helping hand. With so many different learning styles, it’d be useful for tutorials to be geared toward people who don’t learn in the same way as others.
The graphics are good in both games, but I feel that SimCity‘s graphics are on a higher-end scale. Personally, I find both games to be pleasing to the eye; one is a little more cartoonish, while another is more realistic. I’m not really sure how else to describe it, just that Cities: Skylines is not as cartoon-looking as SimCity.
Here are the requirements to run SimCity: Cities of Tomorrow:
- CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 4000+ or better or Intel Core 2 Duo Processor 2.0GHz or better
- CPU SPEED: Info
- RAM: 2 GB
- OS: Windows XP/Vista/7
- VIDEO CARD: ATI Radeon HD 2600 or better, NVIDIA 7800 or better, Intel HD Graphics or better. 256 Dedicated VRAM
- SOUND CARD: Yes
- FREE DISK SPACE: 12 GB
Simcity Or Simcity 4
Cities: Skylines system requirements:
- OS: Microsoft Windows XP/Vista/7/8/8.1 (64-bit)
- PROCESSOR: Intel Core 2 Duo, 3.0GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+, 3.2GHz
- MEMORY: 4 GB RAM
- GRAPHICS: Nvidia GeForce GTX 260, 512 MB or ATI Radeon HD 5670, 512 MB (Does not support Intel Integrated Graphics Cards)
- DirectX: Version 9.0c
- NETWORK: Broadband Internet connection
- STORAGE: 4 GB available space
Simcity Vs Simcity 4 Deluxe
Personally, I prefer SimCity. It’s simple and there is less to do when building the city. I’m not saying that so I can be lazy in a video game—if that was the case I wouldn’t play World of Warcraft--but I just prefer the simplicity of SimCity. The question “Which is better?” is best answered with “Whichever you like best”. Do you want something simple and not so complex? Then SimCity is your best bet. If you don’t mind the complexity and prefer more details, Cities: Skylines might bebetter for you.”
Simcity Vs Simcity 4 Torrent
Have you played these city management games? Which do you prefer? Let us know, join us on Discord, on our Facebook page, or Twitter.