Recent reviews by i am alex

How does one go about writing a review for something like this? To some it feels like DLC for Simcity 3000, for others it's an amazing stand-alone title. So what about me, where do I stand? I reside in the latter category beliveing this is an amazing game on its own. But how amazing? Ladies, gentlemen, and others, my name is Mlobitz and welcome to this review. Today, Simcity 4. Let's jam! And yes I did just quote Arkada, DEAL WITH IT.

When I was still 11 and browsing the Steam Summer Sale of 2013 (roughly a year ago) and a game caught my attention. You see, at the time I was obsessed with what I called them "Retro Games" and all the history they might hold. One of my favorite games from the NES/SNES era was Simcity. Rather simple but very rewarding and interesting, the original Simcity melted away countless hours of 5th Grade (when I was still 10). So when I saw Simcity 4 on Steam for $5.99 I hade to check it out.

Starting out, I had a hard time figuring out what to do, this is no simple game to learn. The in-game tutorials aren't very helpful except for teaching you the bare-basics of the game. I had to watch a large amount of YouTube videos to be remotely successful. Math is also required to make effective grids whether you use unit distace or cost to measure length of roads or avenues. To even get skyscapers in your city and make it look like a city, you need extensive knowledge and mastery of the game's concepts. One example of this was when my technology teacher let us play Simcity 4 on her computers every once in a while (she's an awesome teacher by the way), most of the students ended up skipping the tutorial and spamming disasters on barren terrain. One of my friends who played through the tutorials couldn't sustain a good income and generally didn't know what he was doing. Accessibility gets a below average 4.2 out of 10.

On to the good bits! When I finally got things up and running the game became challenging yet addicting and rewarding, I also felt proud when my city was filled with plenty of houses, shops and factories. The GUI can be hard to learn but once you get used to it it's efficient contains everyhting it needs to and more! It's cool when your perfectly laid-out grid is functioning perfectly while also being pretty.The journey to getting your city to this state is highly enjoyable and satisfying. One of the biggest things that makes this game so much fun to play is region gameplay. This lets you connect your cities and let them share resources such as power and water. This allows certain cities to provide certain things while being kept alive by other cities while keeping them alive. Maybe a city based around power getting water from a city based around water. Being as great as it is, gameplay gets a very good 8.6 out of 10.

In terms of visuals there's not much to cover, for a 2D game in 2003 it's pretty standard fare. Although some 3D models like cars planes, and helicopters are a nice addition. zooming in reveals a lot of little details maxis has included like a giant spinning pizza at the pizza restaurant and clotheslines in houses' backyards. skyscrapers have and other large builings have little details like a pool near the top floor. Visuals gets a strong 7.8 out of 10.

As for the music, I'm gonna come right out and say it, this my favorite video game soundtrack of all time. The music not only fits the game fantastically any track is amazing music to listen to while doing something like schoolwork or.... other schoolwork! Yeah.... Check out the whole soundtrack on YouTube, you owe it to yourself to do so. This soundtrack a masterpiece, so it gets a well deserved 10 out of 10.

After finding the mean of all my scores, SImcity 4 recieves a respectable 7.65 out of 10.

If you either didn't play Age of Empires 2 when it came out or you don't have conquerors expansion (or in my case, had color glitches), then this for you. It's the same glorious AoE2 we all know and love. However if you already have the original version of AoE2, then I would say stick with that, the HD edition is the same thing it just runs better modern monitors. I give it an 8.5 out of 10 for newcomers, and a 7 for vets (because like a stated earlier, it's practically the same thing).

If this cost money I wold say avoid it like the plague. But since it's free, try it out for laughs(especially that highway gamemode). Other than that, this game has no redeeming qualities.

This game has infantry combat (top notch), air combat (top notch) and vechicle combat (again, top notch). It delivers unscripted multiplayer battles like nothing you've ever seen (unless you took part and Planetside 1), dedicated developers (who are huge fans of the game themselves), and great lore. And you want to know the best part? It's absolutely FREE (and it's not pay to win)! So before you blow sixty dollars on the next Black Ops, give this game a try. It's epic.