Simcity 4 is a great game, with a ton of features, however, the game feels unpolished, and sometimes is buggy.
Gameplay
Simcity 4 is just like the older Simcity games, except with a few new features that are added into the game. This game is extremely difficult, and if you build even a little too much, you will quickly be consumed in debt. You must start small...very small. Once you have started to build your community, it becomes quite addicting, and you will find yourself having a blast making your city. Overall it can take quite a while to build a big city, a few weeks really. Which is great, giving the game a lot of replay value...after all, you can make a city inside a region, and you can build dozens of cities in that region. There are a few real-world regions, with accurately made terrains of cities like San Fran, and many more. Of course, we all know how annoying it was to put in roads when we made large zones, but no longer is this a problem, as roads will automatically be added into it, making transportation possible, and also letting the city building idea become a lot easier.
Of course, as before, you have to keep your city full of power, and water, as well as educational areas such as schools, collages, museums, libraries, etc. Also, you will need to add hospitals, police stations, fire station, and the like pretty much everywhere in your city, to keep your residents safe. Some new special buildings have been added such as the Space Port, and the Tourist Trap (oddly named) and many more to keep your city interesting.
Just like before, you have advisors looking at nearly every aspect of your city, so you don't have to. for example, if you don't have enough parks in your city, expect a mouthful from your environmental advisor.
You can move in a sim to a part of town, and see how he/she likes it there, and watch them get jobs and succeed, (or fail) in life withing your community. This is a great way to find where the "bad spots" are in your city, and so you know what exactly to improve on.
Just as in previous SimCity games, you can add landmarks to your city such as The Alamo, The CN Tower, and The Empire State Building. While they resemble the actual building quite well, it may feel odd having a building in your city that is already somewhere else in the world.
Loading times can be quite long, as well as the time it takes to save. You will definately be noticing this when your city becomes much bigger, and sometimes, you may be waiting a minute or two, which doesn't sound long, but it is.
While the game has improved since Simcity 3000 Unlimited, there are still things that need to be fixed in order to make this game near-perfect in the gameplay department.
Graphics
In Simcity 4 we see a majr improvement in the graphics, however, they can take a long time to load, and often, when you zoom in to an area with buildings, houses, etc. you will find them to be quite pixelated for a good long time, as the load and render. This does not look pretty and can definately ruin a bit of the game for you, but if you have the patience (and the time) to wait, it shouldn't bother you.
For the first time in the SimCity series, we can see a full day/nighttime conversion, which is great, and it's really neat seeing your city light up in the night, it really looks great. However, if you don't like it because you prefer daytime because you can see where you're building, this can be turned off.
The disasters look nice, such as the lightning and volcanos, and even UFO's!?!
While the unpolished look of the game can be ugly, there are some nice touches, once the whole map has been rendered. When it is all loaded, it really is a nice game, you just have to wait a bit.
Sound
The good old strange style of music the Simcity has brought for many titles is back, and it sounds ok. Definately could have used some more variety, and the songs could've been shorter. Often you will hear some of the same songs repeat over and over, which can get a little tiring after a while.
However, it's not that bad, it's just that there could've been more tracks, and a bit of more variety, but if you liked the music from the old games, just as I have, then the new stuff should be pretty good to your ears as well.
The sound of your city is top-notch, and just really makes your city feel alive.
Overall
Overall SimCity 4 is a game that could've used some polish, but it is still an enjoyable experience, and I would definately recommend picking it up. While the game can be very hard, once you get over that (or you use cheats), and really get your city growing, you will have a blast making bridges, houses, even Military Bases and neat things like that.
Simcity 4 is definately the best in the series so far, and is a light into the future of this series. Pick this one up, if you can find it, it's more than worth the money, and will keep you busy for months if you enjoy it enough.