Sim City is without a doubt the king of simulations, and EA is well aware of this. I can remember playing the original Sim City several years ago on the computers at school, than as time progressed playing the newer versions. Since their city simulation games proved to be a hit, Maxis decided to try many other avenues that range from theme packs, to farms, to the mighty Sims franchise. Last year Maxis released Sim City 4, the next evolution of their city building empire, and it was received with good reviews. This year they released an expansion pack that revolves around traffic problems that people run into everyday. Does Sim City 4: Rush Hour enough new things to warrant the purchase, or is it something that should have been included in the main game, read on to find out!

Like every Sim City game before it, Sim City 4 revolves around players taking on the role of a mayor and trying to build a metropolis from scratch. Rush Hour takes many ideas from other Sim games and adds it to this one. As the title explains this expansion revolves anything relating to transportation, from land, sea, and air. In this expansion, players will find better transportation items to build ranging from superhighways to subways, docks, and other things.

A new feature in this is game is the “U-DRIVE-IT” mode. This allows players to get into the cars that are on the city and drive them around. While in this mode at times certain missions will appear depending on what type of car you are in. As an example, if you are in a fire engine, the first mission can either be rescue a cat (get mayor approval points), or spray the cat with water (lose mayor approval but you will get cash for it from an evil mobster who hates cats); the choice is up to you. This is one of the best modes in the game; it is fun tearing up the streets throughout the city. Thoughout the game, players will get many different vehicles to drive, one of the funniest is the getaway car, as the guy will make sarcastic remarks that is extremely funny.

What does any politician do to find out how they are fairing with the public. At times they talk to a board of advisors, check different charts, and reposts; but if they really want to know how their people feel they can get up and actually talk to them. This is a huge improvement to the game! Players will now be able to go face to face with the Sims, and they will be able to find out how the citizens really feel about you and all of your policies.

To reward customer loyalty to the Sims Brand, players can import their Sims from The Sims to live in your city. If players don’t have any characters the game provides players with a couple default ones. Players will be able to lead and track the characters as they go about their daily lives and routines. You will be able to define them which are the best routes to go to work and school for them, helping them to avoid the traffic that is on the street. Just like in real life, the Sims do not like it when players raise taxes, and they will voice their extreme dissatisfaction with it. Depending on the living conditions the Sims will get sick, lose their jobs, and if you are doing a horrid job, they will even move out of your city! It is very interesting to watch the Sims lives as they go from day to day, and than watch it from generation to generation!

Sim City 4: Rush Hour is rated E for everyone and requires Sim City 4 to play.

The system requirements are:
500 MHz or better Processor
128 MB of RAM
Windows 98/ME/2000/XP
8X CD-ROM
Direct X 8.1
Direct X compliant video card with 32 MB of VRAM
Keyboard and Mouse.
Sim City 4

Gameplay: 8.9
The game plays exactly like Sim City 4, which is a good thing. The only thing that is puzzling about the entire expansion is that it feels like this should have been included with the original game. The U-DRIVE-IT feature is one of the best things included with this expansion; it really adds a whole new flavor to the entire game!

Graphics: 8.7
As this game is an expansion upon the previous game, it still uses the same engine as the original. This is not a bad thing at all because the game looks really nice! The different building styles and landscapes really look nice all throughout the game.

Sound: 8.4
The music in the game is really relaxing and helps sets the mood for building and trying to create the perfect city. The dialog that some of the citizens have is really good, and at times extremely funny!

Difficulty: Medium
The game can be really hard or easy depending on many different factors, and how you play the game personally. While one person might have trouble getting the town to expand others might have crime or lack of money problems. This makes the game different for everyone and gives it a lot of replay value.

Concept: 8.5
The U-DRIVE-IT mode and talking to the citizens up close really add a lot of value to this game, and give it a lot of new diversity.

Overall: 8.6
The only thing that is puzzling about the entire expansion is that it feels like this should have been included with the original game. Sim City 4: Rush Hour is something that players who own the original should purchase to maximize Sim City 4’s true potential.