Actually sponge is mostly right. I just bought it today and been playing it for a couple hours.
Lets start off with the gameplay. This is actually the most challenging version of Simcity ive played (and I played all of em

). I actually had to tweak my fundings for education, health, etc. low enough to actually pick up income pace. In 3000, I could just pump all the funding and ordinances up and rely on those special money making promo buildings to provide income for me to catch up. The fundings also mess with the coverage radius of the police dept., etc. Once you figure out the balance, its pretty easy though. Then the new disasters came. They totally f*ed up my city because I didn't expect them to do that much damage
You can also throw in your Sims characters into houses and they tell you whats wrong with your city. Didn't really help me all too much, but I love throwing meteors and robot destroyers on his house
The graphics made me drool a little bit
Other than that, it is the standard fare. Only get it if you enjoy Simcity.