Sim City 4, Civ 4: Complete, or Civ 5: Gold?

Civ 5: Gold worths every penny.

I bought Civ5 Gold

I'm gonna have to say Civ 5 Gold as well. I got it earlier in the sale and it was so worth it, and I'm not even into strategy games.

Civ IV complete is much better than Civ 5. If you Google Civ IV vs Civ V, that's primarily what you'll see. That's partly because the game has better rules and is much more interesting/complex, but it'a also because there are such good mods for it. There are other reasons as well, so Google it to see them.

I have to say after playing countless of hours of Civ 4: complete, Civ 5 just feels like barebones of it.
Civ 5 feels very lack luster on features in comparison, and feels unfleshed out. You can also see the simplicity of it after playing civ 4: complete so much. Also Civ 4 has a huge and awesome modding scene that is still rolling on. Civilization 5 won't have the same amount of content in a long time.
However I must say that the single unit per tile is nice change even though AI isn't so "good" at using it. Brave New World has been said to bring nice new features, but sadly Civ 5 Gold doesn't include it. Also Civ 4 might look poorish in comparison to civ 5 and is a bit more complex in nature.
Can't say much about Sim City as I haven't played it. You can't go wrong either way. Both are good to their own merit. Personal favorite is Civ 4 Complete though.

Civ V Gold for sure

Go and play CIV1

Civ 4 is much, much better than Civ 5 in almost all aspects. It's more complete, more complex and offers a much better experience. Having played Civ 4, for me Civ 5 feels stripped. Although, I'd personally go with Sim City 4 plus Rush Hour, for old times sake.

SimCity 4 if you like more builidng and administrative ways of modern city, Civ V if you like making wars and like history.

Go for either Civ 4 or Simcity 4. I'd say Civ 4 is a slightly better choice, because Simcity has some annoying bugs that can't be fixed by modders. Also, with Civ 4 Complete you get two games in one - Beyond the Sword, which is the final version of Civ 4, and Colonization, which is a remake of an older game.

Civ 4 is deffinately better than Civ V. And while your at it pick up the Fall From Heaven 2 mod for it.

Seems like opinions here are about as split as they are elsewhere. I'm currently leaning towards Civ 4 and looking into getting Civ 5 Complete at the Winter sale, but keep the input coming!

Listen. As a new player, I strongly advice you to play Civilization 5 instead.

I myself bought Civ5: Gold, so yeah. I vote for it.

Civ 4 is cheaper than 5, since many people suggest you need either Gods and Kings or Brave New World to have a complete experience with 5.
Edited because TS brings a valid point.

Civ 5 gold includes Gods & Kings, it's all you need to have lots of fun. For a new player 5 is easier, like ThirdSketch has stated.

Simcity 4 is fun but if I was choosing one of those three I'd take Civ 4. The only problem with Civ 4 is the unit stacking but other than that it is a much more rounded and strategic game. I was very disappointed when I bought Civ 5 as it seemed to be missing many features that were in Civ 4. Gods and Kings improved it a bit but not enough to make it as good as Civ 4.

Also there are a lot of Civ 4s up for trade right now. you could probably get it for a Mann Co Key or even a few cards if you find the right person.

Some person doesn't like Civ IV. However some of them don't like Civ 5. I've tried both and i liked Civ 5. I hate when i saw some primitives capturing my soils easily and an archer can take a helicopter in one turn at Civ 4. Otherwise i can say Civ 5 a little bit easy compared to Civ 4.

Civ 5 GOLD( I haven't played with gods and kings yet, but this game is super fun!)

And play with your friends

civ 4 complete -> fall from heaven 2 and or one of its modmodmods -> profit

also wait for the true civ 5 gold/ platinum in the future which would have brave new world with it

Civ V Gold.