SimCity 3000 - World Edition

Megalomaniacs everywhere will rejoice in this upgraded version of SimCity 3000. Despite the undoubted brilliance of the original (it scored 84 per cent in review), there was always that nagging thought: 'Yeah, OK, but once my city's up and running, what else can I do?'

Now the answer is: plenty. For starters, there's the Building Architect, where you have free rein to design anything from a bungalow to a ziggurat for use in the game. In addition, Maxis has provided different city styles - at the press of a button, you can convert your city into an Oriental paradise, or a European stadt complete with windmills and extra landmarks, such as Helsinki Cathedral. Also, terrain can be freely edited before you build your city, and there are landscape options (such as desert or arctic) with different trees.

There's a choice of mission-based scenarios (such as recovering from a nuclear disaster), and even the option to write your own scripts with the Scenario Creator (be warned, though, it's complicated) and share them with friends over the Net. For those despots - sorry, Mayors - with a nihilistic streak there are four new disasters: Toxic Cloud, Whirlpool, Plague of Locusts and Space Junk (my favourite). There's even a Snapshot option so that you can commemorate the destruction of your Sims in a photo album.

If all this sounds like heaven, here's the bad news: if you already own SimCity 3000, you're going to have to buy the game again to enjoy all the new features (although the Building Architect is downloadable from the official website). At present, there is no sign of an upgrade pack for existing users, and World Edition appears to be aimed principally at new players. But who wants to shell out twice for the same game? It leaves me with a sour taste, and many other loyal fans will probably feel the same.