Simcity 3000 is the third game (not including different versions of 2000 such as Streets of Simcity and Network Edition) in the Simcity city simulation game series, and perhaps it could be described as being the best. Combining the enjoyability of 2000 with the graphics of 4 and with a certain character of it's own, it certainly deserves 10 stars.
The game involves the player building a city from scratch, as in 2000, and similar to 2000 the first thing done is terraforming, creating the terrain for the city, but in 2000 it was possible, without wasting money, to create your own terrain, whereas here only the random terrain generator based on three variables of tree coverage, water coverage and land coverage is available. However the result, like in 2000, is a nice map, and during the game one can, albeit at a hefty price, alter terrain to ones will. One important change is the terrain itself, which has more possibility of shape than 2000, and also the colour, green instead of brown, which changes in shade as it rises, denoting higher ground. Also, instead of the conifer trees used in 2000, palm trees are used for lower ground and different trees for higher ground, with a few others depending on how densely you plant. Water is much the same as in 2000, and most of what one can do in 2000 one can do here.
City building is also similar, though different, from 2000. Roads and rail are built, but unlike 2000 railways have two tracks, and instead of the old trains we get to see some beautiful steam engines and what appears to be a random generating of either freight or passenger cars (though in one instance or two a passenger car was to be seen with freight). The trains are certainly an impressive change, and the road traffic is also a nice difference. Compared to the blue rectangles that somehow passed as cars before, we now have 3D looking cars, trucks and buses, and to top it all off, pedestrians as well. Sims are visible for the first time excepting riots and football games here, and they add just what was needed in 2000. Highways, bus stops (rather than 2000's depots) and avenues formed by placing a road beside a road parallel for a distance, which automatically forms a tree decorated avenue centre, are all here, as well as subway and rail-sub connections.
Airports and Seaports, as in 2000, form from zoned areas that require certain variables to form properly, but once formed, aid in commerce and industry.
The zones are the same as in 2000, residential, commercial, industrial- but with an addition- landfill- which is part of the previously nonexistent waste disposal system. This also includes waste to energy incinerators, waste incinerators and recycling ordinances and centres. Watching a landfill fill up shows the ingenuity of the game, as do other simulations.
The buildings, as would be expected, look far better than in 2000 (not that 2000's buildings weren't good, but let's face it, one can't deny they have got better). There is now a clear definition between high and low class settlements, although abandoned buildings have to wait until 4 before they will be realistic, here the default abandoned building still exists. Some are animated.
Disasters are here in the form of alien invasions, fire, earthquakes- the usual lot, although floods are, and are in 4 too, unfortunately missing. The dispatch tool works in pretty much the same manner as in 2000.
Altogether a great game.
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