Upgrade to patch 2 ASAP! The game was crap before patch 2!
Patch 2 does not fix everything, but it is a great start. Patch 2 introduces the upkeep system. Meaning almost every structure now costs money every day. Something to help offset the cost of your soon to be enormous income. Not only that but in the patch it introduces three new dificulty modes, each one with different challenges. In Basic you can only get one award per city. Since you must earn the "Jack of all" award to unlock hardcore mode, this can be tricky. Not going over 200 of any societial value while getting a city up to 25,000 population AND keeping them all happy is hard enough as is. But Basic also introduces a tougher system to keep your sims happy. They spend more time at work and at venues (much more realistic than the previous 2-6 hour work days).
The rest of the game is still not quite a "Sim City" game, but it is a city builder. If you are a fan of the sim city series without being a fan of the sim city economics, this is a wonderful game for you! As it is for me ^_^!