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Railroad Tycoon 3

2 stars (The developers confused "family friendly" with "childlike") - I was addicted to Railroad Tycoon 2, but unfortunately it wouldn't play under my new operating system. I was thrilled to find RT3 and eagerly awaited its delivery. Unfortunately, RT3 has lost much of the complexity and the underhandedness that made RT2 so much fun. For example: - in RT2, only industries or resources inside your station's field of influence would be serviced by your trains. In RT3, each station has a vague, undefined "area of influence" that goes beyond the size of your station's shown field. Is that feedlot, grain farm, or mine close enough to your station so you don't have to build another closer station? Good luck figuring it out. - in RT2, one could designate different loads for cars in the same manifest. This can't be done now. This makes it very difficult to produce goods manufactured from more than one type of raw material. - the graphics are very comic-book like, and would more appeal to children around the age of three than they would adults. Very unattractive and simplistic. I would have even preferred a 2-D model with more sophistication. - the business models have been vastly oversimplified, and the AI companies are not one thousandth as cutthroat as in RT2. This is a bad thing. Historically, rail companies were not paragons of industry; for a historical sim to be realistic, it has to reflect the true conditions of the industry. The rail business in RT3 appears to have been emasculated, perhaps to appeal to young naive children, but it's lost much of its interest for adults. - creating new maps and new scenarios is much more complicated in RT3 than it was in RT2. - the weather is a useless, worthless feature that eats memory. Yes, you can turn it off, but it still takes up a lot of space in storage memory. I did not much enjoy RT3. It appears to have lost much of the detail that made RT2 so enjoyable (wasn't it great to finally get iron *and* coal, send one tr...
Jack of All Games :: World Building (Builders) :: Simulations :: Strategy (Strategic) :: Simulators (Simulation) :: Action :: Computer Games :: :: Railroad Tycoon 3

 

Railroad Tycoon 3 Mac

4 stars (Big price problem) - I would have ordered this game, but since the Macsoft store (U.S. only) sells it for 20 bucks there is no way you should be paying the price thay want here. Something is out of whack! 4 stars (Better than before) - After anxiously waiting for a Mac release of Railroad Tycoon 3, I find that it's a much-needed upgrade of Railroad Tycoon 2. However, that's really all it is -- I'd be tempted to call it Railroad Tycoon 2.5 rather than 3. There are probably enough changes to track building and industries to warrant a new version number, but other than that and a few interface changes, RT3 is essentially the same game as RT2. The most obvious difference is in the graphics. The new 3-D engine is fantastic. You can actually watch the side rods of most of the steam engines go round and round. Tracks are a bit high off the ground, which is a little distracting at first, but overall the graphics are a huge improvement. Track laying is substantially improved from the previous version of the game, as well. Most significant is the return of tunnels, one of the most maligned omissions in RT2. You can also build a bridge over another railroad or duck under an existing bridge, a feature fans of this game series have long wished for. Gone is the grid with its limitations of tracks at only eight angles. You can now create smooth, sweeping curves at any angle you please. That said, the gradients could use some tweaking. Particularly annoying are the ramps leading to bridges. It's silly to have a 3% grade just because you're crossing a river. Likewise, I found it very difficult to create a railroad in even slightly hilly terrain that didn't resemble a roller coaster. And don't think this is a model layout design aid, either. It's impossible to force tracks to go where you want them. Maintenance shops and service towers are now separate elements. You can't place a service tower at a depot and have a locomotive serviced while it's making its station stop. ...
MacSoft :: Strategy (Strategic) :: Computer Role Playing Games (Game :: crpg :: crpgs :: rpg :: rpgs) :: Adventure :: Apple :: Mac :: Macintosh (Machintosh) :: Action :: Computer Game :: Railroad Tycoon 3 (Mac)