Product Details
 | Railroad Tycoon 3 |
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Product Description
The official sequel to the highly acclaimed gameRailroad Tycoon 2 Product InformationThe long awaited sequel to the king of the "tycoon" games is here!Railroad Tycoon 3 realizes your dream of establishing and running a railroadempire. Build rail lines purchase trains and start hauling cargo to beginbuilding your railroad. Expand your business into major cities acquire anddominate industries manipulate the stock market and force your competitorsinto bankruptcy to become the ultimate Railroad Tycoon. Make your fortune theold fashioned way - take it from someone else!Railroad Tycoon 3 challenges players to create andexpand their own railroad empire. It features 25 scenarioschallenging players to recreate magnificent feats of railroading history fromaround the world. Players are able to lay track (with tunnels andoverpasses) pick from over 40 locomotives from early steams to modern bulletschoose to haul over 35 types of cargo in a dynamic economy and participate inan advanced stock market.Railroad Tycoon 3 utilizes an all new revolutionary 3-Dengine. The new engine takes the franchise to the next level and is ableto smoothly scale from an 'eye in the sky' view of an entire continent down tosuper detailed close-up of a beautifully modeled train building or just thelandscape. It also includes more multiplayer support than its predecessorintegrating in an on-line chat and matchmaking service. To top everythingoff the game's soundtrack will feature another installment of some of the bestauthentic blues bluegrass and Americana music around.New Features All new cutting edge 3D graphics engine with massive scalability (from eye in the sky views down to close-up train detail). 25 scenarios featuring locations and challenges from around the world. Extensive track building features including bridges tunnels and overpasses. Over 40 featured locomotives from the infants of steam power to modern day electrProduct Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #2683 in Video Games
- Brand: Global Star
- Released on: 2003-10-28
- ESRB Rating: Everyone
- Platforms: Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows Me, Windows XP
- Format: CD-ROM
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 1.25" h x 5.50" w x 8.00" l, .65 pounds
Features
- Create a booming railroad industry, exploit the stock market
- 25 challenging scenarios with improved, streamlined UI
- 3D graphics
- Modify landscapes with World Editor
- For 1 player
Editorial Reviews
From
the Manufacturer
The original Railroad Tycoon,
released in 1990, quickly became a tremendous critical and commercial
success, and at the same time created the Tycoon genre of game play.
The
sequel, Railroad Tycoon 2, released in 1998, marked the rebirth
of Tycoon games and was the first Tycoon game of the modern era, with
great graphics, dozens of scenarios and Internet multi-player.
The
Railroad Tycoon series has received critical acclaim and won
numerous awards, including the coveted 'Game Of The Year' from numerous
publications. This successful franchise has sold in excess of two
million copies and established a massive and passionate worldwide fan
base.
Now, the King and creator of the Tycoon genre is returning
to reclaim its throne!
The original Railroad Tycoon was
created by world-renowned developer, Sid Meier. It was the first Tycoon
game ever made, and successfully merged a well-crafted business model
with a player friendly graphical presentation. Railroad Tycoon was a
critical success, winning 'Game of the Year' from the major magazines of
the day, and became a worldwide bestseller.
In 1997, Phil
Steinmeyer, CEO of PopTop and a huge fan of the original Railroad
Tycoon game, began work on a new railroad game, designed to be the
spiritual successor to Railroad Tycoon. A year and a half later Railroad
Tycoon 2 (published by Gathering), was released, and like it
predecessor became a massive critical and commercial success, garnering
many 'Strategy Game of the Year' and 'Game of the Year' type awards.
With sales of over 1.5 million copies it was clear that Phil Steinmyer
had accomplished his goal, in fact the game is still selling today five
years later.
Six months after Railroad Tycoon 2 launched,
the game Rollercoaster Tycoon was released and proved to be a
huge success, holding the #1 slot in the PC sales charts for many weeks.
The tycoon craze was on - dozens of games have launched over the years
since, attempting to duplicate the formula that made the Railroad
Tycoon series resonate so soundly within the gaming community
Now,
in 2003, PopTop and Gathering stand ready to release Railroad Tycoon
3, a big budget, gorgeous 3D transformation of the classic and the
game that will usher in the third era of Tycoon games.
Customer Reviews
Good but Disappointing
RT2 is one of my favorite
games--it's one of only a handful of computer games that has been on my
computer continuously since I first loaded it. A game I have always been
able to get pleasure from. The wonderful music, the fabulous gameplay,
the fun & detailed graphics--Railroad Tycoon 2 is everything a great
computer game should be. When I found out that there would be yet
another edition of Railroad Tycoon I was delighted. 3D graphics? Great!
New gameplay options? Bring 'em on! And over & above my anticipation
of a new Railroad Tycoon was a steadfast faith in the game's creators
that the game would be everything it should be.
My first
impression was very favorable. The first scenario in the campaign, in
which you have to build track from Boston to Buffalo, begins with the
camera showing the Atlantic Ocean washing ashore on the east coast of
Massachusetts. The sound of the waves hitting the beach, the gentle wash
of the ocean, the colorful leaves on the trees combined to create one
of those gaming moments that you remember for a long time. In short, the
sound & graphics are great & it's a joy to play a game in such
an ambience. And, of course, the music is back just as enjoyable as it
has always been.
New features include other modes of
transportation (such as trucks, boats, & planes) competing with your
rail line to deliver cargo. In RT2, nothing moved unless you or one of
the AI companies moved it. In RT3, sometimes those cattle will get to
the packing plant on their own. This feature has promise but it's hard
to tell what effect it's having on the game since it's hard to see the
immediate effects of this movement. You can also set AI to manage your
consists for you--i.e. decide what types of cargo your trains will
carry. You can, of course, still do that on your own--more on that
below. You can also build tunnels & large suspension bridges
although those things are hugely expensive.
As you may have
suspected there's a "but" coming in this review. That "but" is the
gameplay, which I feel is inferior to the gameplay in RT2. My biggest
enjoyment in RT2 comes from searching out profitable routes to
build--finding places where cattle can be brought to a packing plant or
grain brought to a bakery or even longer cargo chains (i.e. chemicals to
a fertilizer plant, fertilizer to a grain field, grain to a cattle
ranch, cattle to a packing plant, food to a city). Creating &
managing these routes is, in my opinion, the most enjoyable part of the
game. This is one reason why RT2 was so superior to Tropico, a game from
the same company that uses the same engine. When you run out of cash in
RT2, you can spend all your time managing cargo & connections while
in Tropico when you run out of money you can do nothing but sit &
look. In RT3, despite the wonderful graphics, the structures are almost
impossible to pick out of the surrounding terrain. The icons are small
& many of them are very similar. Likwise, the icons representing the
freight cars are often completely indistinguishable from each other. Is
that brown freight car filled with clothing or toys? You can't tell
unless you mouseover it which is darned annoying & makes managing
your trains needlessly difficult. In RT2 I would build stuff till I was
out of money & then sit & play with the trains until I could
spend more cash. In RT3, I find myself turning on the auto-consist
manager & spending my time planning where to build track. This is
more fun than many computer games, but it's a *lot* less fun than the
previous edition of the game.
Another issue is the stability of
the game. RT2 was a rock, but RT3 has already crashed to the desktop
three times in the short time I've been playing it. Extremely annoying
when you've spent a half an hour building an intricate set of track only
to lose it to a crash. The game also sometimes gets stuttery after I
create a save game.
My verdict? I'll give it a few more days &
try to tease some fun out of the game. And if I change my mind I'll
certainly post a changed opinion. But right now, the likelihood is that
I'll be back playing RT2 very soon.
Best
of the series and that's very good, indeed.
Real rating would be 4 1/2
stars.
As a piece of software, RT3 is not perfect, but it is
better than 90% of what's out there. It's rock-solid stable on my
computer but there are those who have experienced a lot of problems,
almost all related to issues with graphics cards. There are few bugs
with the code and none that detract from my enjoyment of the game.
PopTop's support for their products has been top notch in the past and
RT3 is proving that again. New maps and code updates have already been
provided and more are coming.
Now, as a game... is it fun? You
bet! If you liked either of its predecessor's then I really think you'll
enjoy this one. The 3D engine incorporated is the first thing you'll
notice right away. Then as you start to play you're going to really
start to see how different this game/simulation is from RT1 & 2. In
fact, that has to be said as a warning: RT3 is NOT just RT2 with 3D
graphics. If that's what you want, this isn't it. For me, that's not the
bad news, it's a major part of the good news. RT3 now has a whole new
economic model underneath it that literally makes the entire game new.
The world's farms and factories won't sit idle waiting for your railroad
to haul the goods for them. If you don't move them, the 'invisible'
transportation network (overland and by water) will move them
instead--oh, and don't bother trying to compete with the canal and river
transport in most eras.
As others have said the micromanagement
aspects of the game have been greatly reduced. Some may not like that
but I do--I feel much more in the role of the tycoon controlling a
financial empire with a railroad as its centerpiece. You can manage
every train and every carload but you're better off letting the game do
that and concentrating on the strategic business of figuring out which
industrial segments to go after and which cities will benefit you most
if you lay track to them. On the other hand, I often find myself simply
taking the 3D camera right down to the locomotive and going along for
the (often spectacular) ride.
Yes, there are things I would have
done differently. And there are things I don't like (the way maint.
facilities are handled was better in RT2) but on balance RT3 is an
excellent product and worthy follow-up to RT1&2.
Pro:
--
Still the addictive builder-sim gameplay as always.
-- 3D engine is
very good; great "ride along" views.
-- Economic model is much more
realistic, particularly for the golden era timeframe (late 1800's thru
about 1920).
-- Most of the micromanagement is gone.
-- Excellent
editor lets you modify current maps and make new ones.
-- Excellent
support by the vendor and an active fan base.
Con:
-- The
computer players (AI) are poor to awful. Don't expect them to be any
real competition. However, improvements are promised in an update.
--
Too few maps come with it. (Fans and vendor updates are fixing this,
tho')
-- Track laying and map scale issues result in unrealistic
track grades that detract from the appearance (but have little effect on
gameplay).
Bottom line:
If you like the builder simulation
kind of game, this one is likely to appeal to you. If you like trains or
railroad history then I'm confident you'll find RT3 worth the purchase
price and then some. PopTop has another winner here and with a few
changes it may be a superstar in the genre.
The best tycoon series around
Back in 1998, Railroad Tycoon
2 basically kicked off the tycoon-game frenzy. Now RRT3 is here and it
has gone fully 3D. PopTop software is using a very powerful 3D engine
with an easy-to-use camera system, and the results are beautiful. Hills
and valleys look realistic, lakes and oceans look gorgeous, and the game
has a new night-and-day cycle as well as weather effects. Even on lower
end systems, the game effortlessly zooms from a satellite view to a
close-up look at the buildings in a town.
Players of Railroad
Tycoon 2 will notice that managing cargo and routes is easier than ever
before. The game features a campaign as well as standalone missions and
maps. And the map editor is extremely powerful and easier-to-use than
ever before. PopTop also listened to fans of RRT2 and has added the most
requested features: bridges and tunnels. Your trains can also carry
more cars than before.
The heart of the game, of course, is
building your rail network and managing your empire. Laying track
requires that you pay careful attention to the terrain to avoid steep
hills, as you make profits based on how fast you deliver passengers and
cargo. You have dozens of engines to choose from, all rendered in
exceptional detail. The economic model has been strengthened and is now
much more realistic -- passengers only want to go to certain cities now,
and cities need to be supplied with goods to grow and prosper.
Of
course, computer opponents will compete with you for lucrative routes,
and other modes of transportation like rivers will also serve cities
independently of the railroads, so careful planning will be rewarded.
Fortunately the game gives you lots of overlays and data views to help
you manage your empire, so you can spend more time watching your trains
haul logs through dense forests or speed passengers along the plains to
distant cities. PopTop has always been incredibly good at taking
complicated games and making them accessible for everyone, even novice
players, and Railroad Tycoon 3 appears to be no exception. This is a
fantastic game that is only going to get better as the series' countless
fans begin creating and uploading user maps, thereby making the replay
value almost infinite. If you like strategy games, you really shouldn't
miss this one.
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