Graphics and Sound

Jaw dropping graphics

As mentioned before, the graphics of SimCity 3000 are gorgeous. You can rotate the city around and view it from 4 different angles. This is important when the taller buildings come in and hide the stuff behind it. If you have a high resolution monitor and a beefy video card, you'll want to run at as high a resolution as you can. SimCity 3000 is not true 3D - the buildings were rendered in 3D but then scaled back to sprites in game play. The odd thing is that you're given the option to have your 3D cards run the game. This isn't recommended however; on my work system, the Matrox Millenium II (2D card) ran the game many times faster than my Obsidian Voodoo 1 card. At home, the graphics on my G200 card were absolutely breathtaking. Colors were vibrant, and buildings and vehicles were rendered in exquisite detail. I also tried rendering on the Voodoo 2, and while the speed was the best out of the 4 cards, nothing compared to the graphic quality of the G200 (Voodoo2 colors looked washed out). At the maximum zoom level, things start to look a bit pixelated, although you can get a better glimpse at all the tiny animation that's going on around your city. The little people running around are just barely visible but the fact that the game can animate so many of them is still amazing.

NY's Empire State Building

Real enough for you?

Another spiffy aspect to the game is the fact that you can add real life landmarks to your cities, such as the Empire State Building, or the Eiffel Tower, or the Sphinx of Giza. Mixing landmarks from many different cultures can give your city a unique flavor. You can download more unique buildings from the official SimCity website at http://www.simcity.com. Right now the Transamerica Tower and the Palace of Fine Arts (San Francisco landmarks) are available for download there. Soon, Maxis will make a building editor tool available so you can design your own buildings!

SF's Transamerica Building

Ear candy

Sound is supposedly in 3D also, but it's a bit hard to tell. The effects were great anyway. Every sound is distinct as you're treated to the hustle and bustle of a living, breathing city. Nothing seems muffled, and the sounds don't run into each other at all. Clicking on the various buildings will give you their distinct noises, like the blare of a fire engine, the wail of a police siren, or kids playing and laughing in the playground. There's also about a dozen good music tracks that cycle randomly while you play. It seems like Maxis spared no effort at making SimCity 3000 a great feast for your ears.