Transport Tycoon

The Good
This game is magnificent, better even than the original Railroad Tycoon. It is very compelling to play, and it can eat away hours of free time without you really noticing. The graphics are really cool, and you get a great sense of what's going on in your little world. In fact it's just a great game, but there are a few things that really make it stand out.

1. The music is superb, easily the best in any game ever. Okay, so they're only midi files, but the tunes are great. I'm not all into this sort of music myself, but it fits the game perfectly, and always end up humming them for days.

2. The range options for configuring the game are huge. You change the style of the town names, the currency, even what side of the road the vehicles drive on (great for us Brits).

3. It's very cute. Especially if you open a 'watch' window on a train, following it as it goes through tunnels, stops at signals at toots its horn at level crossings. Wonderful!
   
   The Bad
   Three things. Firstly it's very slow. Unlike most sim type games it doesn't have a speed control, which means that when nothing much is happening you can't accelerate time. Sometimes it's nice to kick back, grab a beer and watch the world evolve in front of you, but at other times it can get a little frustrating, and since the game is due to run for 100 years of game time, it can take literally weeks of play time.

Secondally, I find the games AI annoying in the extreme. I'm quite happy to compete with the other companies, but they have a lot to learn about track/road design. They seem set up rail and road routes that have no logic to them at all - tracks that run in circles, over and under each other, figures of 8, etc. This gets annoying because their crap building techniques waste valuable building land around towns, stifling growth and providing an obstacle your building plans.

Lastly, the bloody stupid bus drivers. Why, oh why can't they stop at level crossings?

The Bottom Line
This game is not a sequel to Railroad Tycoon - it really is quite different. With four modes of transport to use (rail, road, air and sea) you can always find the right tool for the job, and as soon as you build up a reasonable empire the money keeps flooding in. It is a very long and time-consuming game and like all sim games, it can get a little dull after a while, especially when there are no new challenges. Making it all the way to the 100 years end point can be a real struggle. But at least the game has an end-point (unlike Sim City). Of course, you don't have to play to the end - I rarely do. Just play long enough to enjoy the building of a transport network, then move on.

The Good
It's Transport Tycoon. Transport Tycoon is good.

The Bad
This one isn't. Let's skirt round the huge hang-ups caused by 2MB RAM and go straight in for the major programming flaws. As soon as you build planes, everything goes to pot - instructions set to any vehicles are randomly changed and you'll frequently find planes and boats circling at the top of the map. But no bother, because if you can get to 1969, the whole game freezes for ever.

The Bottom Line
Appalling. Which is a pity, because PC Transport Tycoon is great.

The Good
First of all as we all see this game is old. Ten years now since its release. That is quite a lot of time and games are so much different now. But does that mean that older games have to be forgotten? Transport Tycoon proves that the release date doesn't mean a thing when it comes to a product of great value. In Transport Tycoon you are an influential industry businessman. To improve your balance you have to construct roads, railroads, build train stations, shipyards, airports etc. The games always takes place on an island so your terrain isn't artificially limited. Player can construct any means of transport, cars, trains, ships, airplanes and it is up to you to pick the one that suits you best. Player can build dozens of different kinds of vehicles, and almost every year new types appear. You can play Transport Tycoon alone or with opponents, either human or computer. The game is often realistic. Lots of graphs, numbers, and competition everywhere. You have to make right decision or you'll be a bankrupt instead of tycoon :)

The Bad
I think that the most annoying thing in Transport Tycoon is lack of direct influence on the cities. Every city is small at the beginning and grow when you connect it with other city or build buses. But you cannot actually build anything apart from things connected with transport. No houses, offices, shops. The city has to develop all these things by itself. Also, when the game is close to an end and you have hundreds of trucks, trains and planes you have to spend a lot of time on replacing the old ones. That is annoying but to say the truth somewhere around the year 1990 (the game starts in 1930) there are no places or cities to connect! And rebuilding old railroads and buying new planes is not enough...

The Bottom Line
Transport Tycoon is a nice economical game. You won't find any armies there, no soldiers, tanks etc. Instead you will find lots of economy, business and management. It isn't as complicated as Pizza Syndicate for example but no one should feel disappointed about its difficulty level.