The last (as of this writing) installment in the
SimCity series of construction sims by
Maxis. The game suffered an extremely protracted development period, where it was initially reported that the graphics were to be represented in polygonal
3D instead of
isometric sprites. In the end this didn't happen. Instead, the 2D graphics were improved substantially from the previous version (
SimCity 2000). A few new features were added, including waste management and real-life
landmark buildings.
Sadly, as with all post-SimCity 2000 Maxis games, SC3K suffers from an over-complicated, unintuitive and unresponsive interface and fairly mediocre production values. Because there are no new gameplay elements added to what is essentially a decade-old and fairly novelty-based idea, it becomes a chore to play very quickly. In summary then, SimCity 2000 is better than SimCity 3000 in gameplay terms. Transport Tycoon and (if you like) Rollercoaster Tycoon are better than both of them. The Sims is of course far, far worse than all of the games mentioned here.