I third (or fourth, or whatever) the vote for the Impressions City Building series. I think the Zeus/Poseidon version is the most polished and has the least glitches. There are campaigns that are strung together (ie develop colony X to the point where it can export marble to the main city), and then you go back to the main city with the goal of constructing a shrine to Someone, etc. But the sandbox mode is what you’ll keep coming back for - lots of resources available, lots of land, lots of fun.
Tropico is fun as well. You can choose your personal characterisitcs (flatulant, kleptomaniac alcoholic “put in place” by the KGB, for example) and then choose how to run your country. If you run your country the same way the game gets tiresome after a few tries - once you’ve found the recipe for, say economic success, it’s easy to repeat. IMHO the game is too slow in the early stages as well - it takes FOREVER to construct things, while precious years are ticking away. That being said, it’s very fun to go in and run the country like a madman - work harder! Faster I say!
IIRC, I had Caesar II and it got pretty boring. Every new region I had to colonize went exactly the same–except for a few incursions. I found a (local?) optimum plan that I just repeated again and again and could never find anything better. But the plan didn’t create a city in any meaningful sense of the word. I don’t know how much better III is, and I can’t compare it with SimCity, since I’ve never played it.
This is one of my wifes favorite games and she loves The Sims games as well. Be aware there is an expansion pack that we have not played and you should be able to get them both for a reasonable price very soon.
Iam a HUGE fan of the genre and find myself looking for the very points the OP mentioned in the games I purchase.
Currently My wife and I are playing the hell out of SimCity 4. Greatly dissapointed in the promised multiplayer on the box that is NOT ready yet… i.e. Simscape (again cringe at the OP computer specs but may be ok if you run at low res, and low detail etc.)
Settlers is a highly detailed, artistic, and city building focused game line (currently at Settlers: Fourth Edition)
Another one that I like alot is Cultures I picked up Cultures at Wal Mart for 10 bucks and because of this reply remembered that Cultures 2 is out now and Ill be picking that up as well!
Ok, so far I’ve gotten a really good price on Tropico and some game called Sacrifice (I don’t know what it is, but the two games together are about as cheap as Tropico alone…if I don’t like it I’ll give it away.) on ebay today. And I do own Theme Hospital and both Roller Coaster Tycoon games.
More suggestions are still welcome though, since I’ll probably end up getting more than one - especially if I can find new games on the cheap like I have these two Thanks for those who have made suggestions so far!
I would strongly recommend the newest game in the Impressions City Building series, Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom. It’s quite polished, very rich with content, and very pretty, IMHO. It’s the first “city building” game I’ve played since Sim City 2000, and I really enjoyed it quite a bit.
Are you kidding?! I tried that SimCountry game site and I couldn’t get my country back in the black, even when I nationalized all the industry and played with my taxes.
Add to that the fact that I couldn’t get my education back on track either, and I just gave up.
A vote each for Caesar III and Tropico… the aims may remain the same but at least you can improve on your city planning and the economic aspects…and that’s a lot of fun!
Civilisation III is fun but it gets quite tiring quickly. The units and cities look alike, and the colour-coding is straining on the eyes. However I got around that by setting myself extremely short time limits eg conquering the world by the middle-ages – that’s much more challenging and fun.
I played SimCity II but eventually I got bored of it; I am not a great fan of aimless city expansion and building.
Emperor is a lot of eye-candy but when compared to Caesar III it is not as good in terms of gameplay. In Emperor the missions get very short and too often you find yourself having to plan housing and industry again as you move on to a new map. That’s pretty frustrating and routine.
Pharaoh is pretty cool, add my vote to that and also Tropico.
Startopia was made by a lot of the people that did the origional Dungeon Keeper and Theme Hospital if that helps. Very silly space building game and has a sandbox option for the goalless seekers.
Thanks for those who have made suggestions so far!