Ack, you had to bring up SimCity?
Still mourning the recent murder of Maxis by EA (along with Pandemic and what little remained of Westwood). What made a ton of bucks for EA? The Sims. Who made it? Maxis (though EA even removed their name from the boxart and opening sequences

). But nevermind... corporate BS.
Yeah, SC4 is alright. Had fun playing, though I never got any expansions for it, so can't comment on that.
* still, imho Societes is a no-no, simply because it wasn't developed by Maxis.

As a result, it's just not a SimCity game as you know it.