EA Bundles Up for The SimCity Box

Late to the party on some of the recent SimCity games? Electronic Arts has got the perfect solution for you: a bundle with five SimCity games for just $40. And what’s that package called? The SimCity Box. It might not be the greatest name, but at least it’s a hell of a lot more telling than The Orange Box.

Included in the package is the following: SimCity Societies, SimCity Societies Destinations, SimCity 4, SimCity 4Rush Hour and The Sims Carnival SnapCity. A lot of people were down on Societies as it wasn’t a true SimCity game, but it was never intended to be. And for only $40, it’s not like you’d be losing out if you didn’t care for those two games out of the five that are included.

“The SimCity Box is the perfect opportunity to discover the fun of city building with SimCity,” said Rod Humble, Head of Studio for The Sims.  “This is the greatest value SimCity has ever offered and players everywhere can get hands-on with a wide range of SimCity products from one box at an amazing price.”

This looks like a great bundle, for sure, and I’ve been wanting to give SimCity another try after I failed miserably at it as a kid. But with my fussiness over PC games these days, the only way I’ll be getting The SimCity Box is if the deal is extended to Steam.

Hit the break for a brief description of what each game that’s included is all about.

SimCity Societies: In SimCity Societies, players construct not only the cities they desire, but mold their cultures, societal tendencies and environments as well.  They can build artistic cities, authoritarian dictatorships, spiritual communities and many more. With this accessible, innovative and versatile city-builder, players can create the city of their dreams, or their nightmares. With more than 500 buildings and decorative objects to place, the possibilities are almost limitless. Since launch, four free game updates have added new strategic modes that will challenge your mayoral skills, three new exotic disasters (UFO invasion, giant robot attack and a massive fire-breathing monster) new crises, new UI functions, new buildings and much more. More free content and features are being planned for future updates.

SimCity Societies Destinations: SimCity Societies Destinations enhances the SimCity Societies experience by providing all the tools players need to create an entire city or town based on attractions and amenities that visitors enjoy.  With an enhanced map generator, players can identify each city’s opportunity for diversion and the city can capitalize on that draw. From sprawling theme parks and tropical beach resorts to country hiking trails, players can control more than 100 new buildings to create their customized destination.

SimCity 4: Right from the start in SimCity 4, players will experience new God-like powers of creation as they lay the groundwork for their cities by molding mountains, carving valleys, seeding forests and laying rivers. With these new landscape creation features, players can now construct the most realistic metropolis imaginable.

SimCity 4 Rush Hour: In SimCity 4 Rush Hour, players take control of their city’s transportation with a wide variety of new options. They can create the elevated train networks of Chicago, the wide-avenues of New York, or the one-way streets of San Francisco. Players can develop a seamless mass-transit system including monorail, subway, or even a scenic ferry service that connects to a greater regional travel network. With all-new problem-solving maps and tracking tools, players can see the pulsing flow of traffic, map out the most efficient routes, and quickly get their Sims from one city to another.

The Sims Carnival SnapCity: The Sims Carnival SnapCity is a unique city-building simulation game with a puzzle twist that is both strategic and accessible. In a fun, open-ended gameplay environment, players are challenged to position falling, colored blocks in just the right places to build the best possible cities. Featuring an array of industrial, commercial and residential neighborhoods, it’s never the same city twice! The fun never stops as you save your city from natural disasters, man-made catastrophes, even out-of-this-world alien attacks!Players can also pick-up-and-play by jumping into 25 unique existing neighborhood levels.