best city building games

Lego blocks

stronghold :)

I like Cities XL.

I hear SimCity 4 is one of the good ones. I've personally never played it though (only played SimCity 3000).

Cities XL is really interesting.

Children Of the Nile

Simcity 4. Pretty much everything thats come out since then is pretty watered down.

Tropico 4 :)

No game can beat SimCity 2000 Deluxe.

Stil playable trough DosBox

Knights and Merchants Remake, Emperor Rise of Middle Kingdom

Hmmmm. How does Tropico 4 compare to SimCity 4?

Pharaoh

I've enjoyed Caesar III back in the days - there may be newer versions out, though :P

Wait 1.5 week and get Banished

Depends on how in-depth and complicated you want it. I've played and enjoyed a number of the suggestions so far including SimCity 4, Cities XL, Tropico 4, and the oldie-but-goodie Caesar III but they vary in difficulty and learning curve. So give us a little more detail as to what you are looking for and we (as the SG community) will try to help you out.

PS. FORZA ROMA.

SimCity 4 Deluxe + Network Addon Mod is easily my favorite city-building game. If you want to go medieval, I suggest CivCity: Rome, Stronghold (decent freeplay building and supply chains) or try some older games like Caesar III or Zeus: Master of Olympus.

Zeus: Master of olympus

Modern cities(kinda):CitiesXL Platinum, SimCity 4, Tropico 4.
Medieval/Antic cities: CivCity Rome, Caesar 4, Immortal Cities:Children of the Nile, The Settlers 7.
Also, check out Cities in Motion 2.It's not a city builder but you can impact very much the way your city will develop by building transport lines and roads.

um lets see if you are looking for strictly city builder nothing else, I would have to agree with cities xl it is the most city builder like of the games list ive seen.
The new SimCity is pretty much cities xl with a higher price tag so I wouldn't really recommend going that route unless you honestly and truly have your heart set on being a "sim" game.
Tropico 4 is by far the most fun in my opinion, but its kinda a hybrid city builder time management game as opposed to just being a city builder exclusively, there's a bit different balancing involved but it is easily the most fun.
Anno 2070 is pretty decent its the exact same copycat as 1503 ad. So if you want to test it out snag the cheap one and decide if you dig it, pretty much the newer more expensive version is the exact same clone just set in the future.
There is cities in motion that just focuses on the transportation aspect of city management, to me it felt very slow and forced but I know some people dug it.
Do not bother with city life its just not worth it on so many levels, everything you do in there has been done before and its lack luster at best.
If you are going for simple; patrician (and its sequels) can be exciting for the basic features, however similar to port royal the focus tends to be very economics heavy and a little less actually building and developing.
If your looking for more small scale city building you can be brave and go into like stronghold where you are designing and managing a little fortress thing. That one you only run one city and its kinda a real time strategy city builder mix. But it does encompass a lot of the same thought processes and planning generic city builders have but on a smaller scale.
That being said if you are already venturing a bit from simple city builders I would also recommend reus. Even though in that game the focus is more you playing god then designing and manipulating a little city. I have found that most city builder fans tend to like god games as well so they kinda blend... kinda sorta idk?
Oh yeah and if your down to go a bit old school Id pick up black and white 2, yeah its mad outdated but it has city builder, quests, god play, and real time strategy fights and such all in one.

Zeus is my favourite one.

Dwarf Fortress kinda.

Startopia is great, its not 100% a city builder, but it encompasses many of the elements of a traditional city builder. From maintaining infrastructure, supplying needs for your residents, creating goods and trading them, expanding and conquering competitors, researching and upgrading technology. oh and of course you build structures.

other than that, pretty much what everyone else has said.

SimCity 4 Deluxe and Grand ages : rome

Anno series. Also Zeus.

Stronghold Crusader takes the cake for me.