It is unfortunate that the Sim City franchise

It is unfortunate that the Sim City franchise

It is unfortunate that the Sim City franchise has put out a product that is so full of bugs that many users are unable to play the game at all. The Sim City forums are full of reports of technical problems, ranging from system crashes, to memory leaks.

Here are some things to be aware of if you have the game or are considering it:

1. there is already a patch available from EA, however, this patch does NOT resolve any of the reported crashes or memory leaks
2. there are a myriad of bugs, one of which is incredibly silly - if you use a particular type of road (the most common one) the game basically grinds to a halt, but if you always use county roads (a dirt road), the panning/scrolling is as normal
3. there is a mod available which unlocks some features and enhances game play, but again, crashes and memory leaks abound
4. if you have an ATI video card, there is a known issue with the latest THREE versions of the ati catalyst driver and this game - you will have to revert to a version that is approximately 4 versions old in order to maintain any level of game stability

That's enough for the technical issues, let's talk about game play.

The game is beautiful, and highly adaptive. You can finally play in a "free-for-all" mode that gives you unlimited money and basically lets you build the city of your dreams - you had to use a cheat to do this in previous sim games. The graphics are splendid and you can customize the level of detail for just about any aspect of the game, but keep in mind the higher detail, the slower the play, even on a fast computer. Adaptive means that depending upon the type of buildings you most often build, the "environment" will adapt and change, including the music and sim behaviour. This part is VERY cool. Read more