SimCity 3000, which was released last year, was one of the top ten selling games of 1999. SC3K had many new aspects including city garbage disposals, newer rewards, special landmarks (famous buildings from the real world like the Great Pyramids of Giza), newer ordinances, and more interaction with the sims. Unfortunately, SC3K lacked the explosive disasters that SC2K had. What ever happened to the classic flood disaster? The exploding volcanoes? The rampaging hurricanes? The colossal arcologies used in SC2K were removed in SC3K. Scenarios were also removed.

SimCity 3000 Unlimited, which is like a special edition of SC3K, was created perhaps to fill in these holes. SC3K Unlimited has many new features. SC3K Unlimited now has two unique building sets - Asian and European. There are over 95 different landmarks including Asian landmarks like the Himeji Castle of Japan or the buildings of the ancient Korean Chosun Dynasty. SC3K Unlimited has several different terrain types that include deserts and tundra. The building sets can be changed any time in the game. The Building Architect Tool, a program that allows the player to create his or her own buildings, has been enhanced as well. Decorations like cars and trees can now be placed on the buildings.

There are several new occurrences and disasters in SC3K. The player can now hold seasonal events like parades (only when the sims propose it) in the city. Who wouldn't want to unleash their own Armageddon upon their own city? Four unique new disasters can now be selected to ravage your cities. The new disasters are toxic clouds, whirlpools, falling space junk, and a plague of locusts. Unfortunately there are still no floods, no hurricanes, no volcanoes, etc. Whirlpools don't do very much except destroy marinas, seaports, bridges, or boats. The fallings space junk disaster is quite interesting. You can think of it as a recreation of the scenes of the falling asteroid pieces in the movie Armageddon. The locusts basically affect farms (farms can be developed from industrial zones) and can only be countered by crop dusters. The toxic clouds disaster occurs when pollution levels are too high. Sims abandon any building that is affected by toxic clouds.

Some of the major new additions of SC3K Unlimited are the 13 new scenarios or the scenario creator. You can either play a Maxis-designed scenario or create one yourself with the scenario creator. In one of the Maxis-designed scenarios, your objectives are to take down the Berlin Wall and to unify both East and West Berlin.

Interaction with the sims of the cities have been enhanced. Your advisors are a lot more useful in SC3K Unlimited. In SC2K, advisors were practically useless. Advisors can give advice in city planning, give advice about making deals with other cities, and explain the effects of certain ordinances. Your sims also make proposals. Some of the things the sims propose include parades and buildings like a country club or a university.

SimCity 3000 Unlimited has some weaknesses. In my opinion, one of the major weaknesses of SC3K Unlimited is that it lacks disasters like floods and hurricanes. The new disasters don't really do colossal damage. Interaction with the sims can sometimes be annoying because they often complain about taxes even if the taxes are low. Then there's the music of the game. The game's music isn't very good. Personally, I think it's a little lame. The news ticker is also ridiculous. It gives ridiculous messages like "the original Magna Charta found on a stalk of Broccoli". The ticker may be humorous to some people, but to me, I think it's kind of lame.

SimCity 3000 Unlimited is one of the best games out on the market. It offers a unique experience. SC3K Unlimited is the ultimate power trip in games of its type. SC3K Unlimited has many new aspects that make it bigger and better than the original and cause it to have many more strengths than weaknesses. If you like playing games of this type, I would strongly recommend SimCity 3000 Unlimited.

· · · Kane