Best city building game of all time. Although Cities Skylines has better road construction and water simulation, Simcity 4 has the better simulation regarding zone usage and land values. It also has a better difficulty curve, as you are constantly challenged regardless of your city size by a multitude of interesting problems (e.g. low land values in new cities, lack of education/tax base when transitioning to high tech industry or insufficient low wealth workers in rich suburbs) while cities in Cities Skylines always devolve into solving traffic issues as the main gameplay loop.

The game was developed in 2003 and visually still looks fantastic. Buildings are consistently scaled and themed when compared to the inconsistent buildings of Cities Skylines. The game can be temperamental on modern systems however. It's a good idea to look at various guides to configure the game prior to running it and remembering to save often.

This game is so wildly ambitious that it shouldn’t function in our world, yet somehow it does. It's alien technology.

An atlas in video game form, it simulates all 400 million people alive on Earth in 1337, from the 1,085 settlers in Greenland to the 92 million people of China, following them hour by hour over 500 years of history while remaining fun and performant. It’s the foundation of a genuine masterpiece, complete with the Black Death rendered as an early game boss.

If you’ve enjoyed any Paradox Studios game in the past, play this one too. Don't skip the tutorials though.