EVER felt like you could do a better job than the Government, but don't have ten million friends all willing to vote for you? Well here's the next best thing from Maxis.

SimCity 4 takes the previous versions of the game and builds upon their game play and improves the graphics tremendously.

Anyone who's played one of the previous versions of this game will notice a few changes.

Firstly, you are no longer restricted to playing one city in isolation but have a whole region to build separate yet interconnecting cities on, or one huge city with lots of suburbs.

Secondly, you can shape landscape raising mountains and gouging valleys like some demented deity.

Finally, you can move in a Sim, so you can get the lowdown on the city.

Don't worry if you don't have the Sims game as the makers give you some Sims to import or, if you do have The Sims then you can import one of your own.

The game opens in the "region view", that shows your vast expanse of land, broken down into manageable chunks.

You can select any of the chunks and then start to shape its landscape.

The "God" Mode is really easy to use you just select the relevant icon to, say, create a mountain, move your mouse over the map, hold the button down and hey presto: Mount Everest.

Once you've finished with your creation you then enter the Mayor Mode and this follows previous versions of the game.

Basically, you start by "zoning neighbourhoods" into residential, commercial or industrial.

Once zoned you then need to add a basic infrastructure to your fledgling city, so you add a power plant and the city lights up and then water pipes for your thirsty Sims and then start the simulation.

Slowly the whole place will start to come to life as building work begins all over the city and people choose to live in the city you've started.

These little Sims won't be happy for long though so you'll need to add other services to ensure a good Mayor Rating.

The game's interface is exceptionally easy to use, which means anyone can pick this game up and create their own metropolis within an hour of careful play.

You have complete control over the tax your residents pay and over how much of your restricted budget each part of the city gets.

To help you with these decisions you are provided with some advisors from different areas like the fire department, utilities and health, who'll help you spend your money more quickly.

The setting of your budget is a difficult business: spend money like water and soon you'll be bankrupt but your residents will be happy; spend too little and your city will turn into something resembling Britain in the late seventies, for those who can remember, with strikes galore and one bunch of unhappy people.

The music in the game isn't particularly annoying which is a big plus but adds little to the gameplay.

However, the disaster mode adds tons of fun.

If you so wish, you can wreak havoc within your city and watching the results.

You can choose to erupt a volcano in downtown or have a meteor attack on a posh suburb, if nothing else you can watch as your Sims run in terror.

It's a wonderful world.

Another new element is the ability to import your Sims into the game and then listen to what they have to say about your city so you can improve it for all your residents.

As with previous versions you can easily get carried away by the gameplay, lost in your own little world of managing funds, building hospitals and dealing with strikes.

Many developers have made their own, inferior, versions of this type of game, but SimCity 4 has raised the stakes again.

This will undoubtedly be a big hit with seasoned players and newcomers alike; even average players will get hours of entertainment watching their city grow.

An excellent game all round.

Rating: 4.5/5