Articles - Sim City 4 Rush Hour - PreLaunch First Looks

"The much expected first expansion pack to Sim City 4 - The latest city simulation game from EA / Maxis. Focusing on the transport infrastructure adds more in-depth gameplay"

The latest and first* expansion pack for our beloved SimCity4. As you can probably tell my the name this one focuses on traffic, or possibly the situation in stores on the day of its release. For a more detailed look at the Rush Hour expansion look at our dedicated section

We've been expecting the expansion packs to come rolling out of the maxis-machine ever since SC4 hit the shelves and this is their first go (expect many more over the next year or two).

Our initial guesses were somewhat correct; the small add-on pack for those US customers who pre-ordered focused on adding some new traffic and transportation ideas has been taken to a much greater level here. However something that first startled me was when I read that not only would this be an expansion pack adding new buildings and options, but it would also be a game within a game.

Regrettably this made me cringe and I couldn't help but think of such maxis games-in-games as Streets of SimCity and SimCopter - and who would blame me after finding out that you can "chase down bank robbers" and the likes.

Not that a game-in-game is a bad idea, it certainly provides you with something new to do and will most probably represent good value for money (est. UK retail price £19.99). And unlike the thousands of new expansion packs already launched for The Sims this forms a good ground for micro-management of your city.

At this early stage of the development of the expansion we are still left wondering just how exactly the new features will work. It is most likely that there will be options to turn the law-enforcement missions on and off. Solely because dispatching emergency vehicles is enough bother when building a city anyway - You don't want to be forced to rescue a cat from a tree as well.

As mentioned the expansion will most likely have 'missions' and levels in which you can progress through, and these will earn you special reward buildings, which at least does tie up with your city planning. However this does bring us back to weather you will be interrupted during city construction to embark on such a mission. Somehow I cannot see Maxis allowing for a user to complete all 50-or-so missions in a few hours and be done with that.

Back to the actual enhancements of the game itself, these seem to be a lot more worthwhile spending your money on buying. The inclusion of many more actual transportation types is highly welcome.

Just remember how horrified you were when you realised that in SC4 you couldn't build avenues whit their pretty little trees in the middle! - Well Rush Hour is bringing this back along with a new feature of one-way roads; heaven forbid next they'll allow you to chose weather you want grass on the pavements and what type of street-lights you would prefer! - That last bit was a joke, but I have to question Maxis' motives on a few of these 'new' features…

It may just be my cynicism but very basic functions that one would expect to be in the original SC4 are not. Surprise Surprise they appear in the first expansion! And excuse me if you are a Maxis programmer but adding the feature to name a region was present in SC2K, while SC3K featured far more types of bridges than SC4.

It would seem that these little features that they know you went and need may have been left out on purpose to encourage more sales of the expansion. But for those of you who aren't conspiracy theorists lets continue…

Maxis also say that they will be adding totally new forms of transport i.e. helicopters, zeppelins and ferries to the game. Okay granted this will be fun and before you think it - NO you probably wont be able to blow up the air-ships and watch them sink into the sea. These little things make me laugh and anything as such that brings a higher level of intricacy to the game is most welcome by anybody.

Granted I have always been against region-play but with Rush Hour you can interlink your regions to spread the ease and cost for example of building a large international airport in one city and link it to all the others. Mind you the cost of laying down a brilliant infrastructure is always high and I'm guessing we're all going to have to spend some long nights in front of our monitors to be able to afford them…

As mentioned you cant destroy zeppelins (but oh, wouldn't it be fun!) but Rush Hour does include new disasters such as the car crash (witch one must question as to the frequency of these - being a real city this would bean a good handful every day in the game) and train derailments.

Finally Rush Hour adds some new building to the game - 100+ in-fact, hurrah! And with some of these being of a European style this is most likely to be the follow up of the next expansion pack--you heard it here first! The 2nd expansion will most likely add far more building sets from all over the world (after the major success of SC3K's World Expansion)

So in conclusion, what should you expect from Sim City 4's Rush Hour expansion pack (judging that information is likely to change and features added/removed)… Well two fronts really; a game-in-a-game which will be linked to the city building aspects of SC4, but to what extent we do not yet know… The other is a handful of tools that will enable you to micro-manage the transport infrastructure of your city, which should be really good fun. If you bought the SC4 then you should really consider buying Rush Hour - for the expected price and the features that you will be likely to receive, its well worth your money…