This was a pretty disappointing entry in the series. It was really hamstrung by the requirement (at first at least) for an Internet connection. Even without that fatal flaw, there was another fatal flaw in that the map size of the game was ridiculously small.
One thing pretty unique about this game is that I remember playing it with Brandon for at least a little while on Origin (before EA rebranded their game client). It was kind of interesting seeing his approach to building a city — where I went a pretty typical route, he made a heavily industrialized city.