Railroad Tycoon 3 (PC)

By PETER ELEY

Herald rating: * * * *

Computer games have become a cornerstone of the entertainment market, and it's not only teenagers who play them. There's a strong lobby of 40 to 50-something PC game-players who want more than the vicarious delights of games such as the huge Vice City.

Which may well be why Railroad Tycoon is into its third release. It made its debut in 1990 and was designed by Civilization maestro Sid Meier, the guru of intelligent games, and Bruce Shelley, who went on to develop Age of Empires for Microsoft.

Not a bad pedigree, and the original game was highly regarded but, like the Steam Age, it faded into history. It took another eight years for the follow-up Railroad Tycoon 2 to be released.

Again, that game developed a wide following, but it has taken five years for another follow-up.

Railroad Tycoon 3 is easily the pick of the games to date, which isn't surprising given the huge leap forward in PC technology. It has excellent graphics and a complex economic model, which could just about serve as the basis for a PhD.

The game is set during the formative years of America as an industrial nation, and gives you the opportunity to build a fortune, as many did during those tumultuous years, which saw a virtually undeveloped continent become the world's economic powerhouse.


As the name implies, its aim is to build a railroad network and reap the rewards. But you can also build peripheral industries, such as breweries and timber mills, and earn more money from them.

Of course, it wasn't that simple back then. Many entrepreneurs had an eye for a quick buck, and Railroad Tycoon pits you against other would-be millionaires.

This sets it apart from many other sim games, where you get to meander along, building things at your leisure, without having to worry about the real world of competition.

You need to think your economic strategy through quite carefully. It's no use putting tracks in places where there are no passengers or cargo, and even well-placed lines take a while to come into profit. You also need a good head for figures when it comes to trading in stocks and bonds, and trying to corner various markets.

The economic aspect is what makes the game stand out, and it's not a bad idea to read the quite enormous manual.

But if the need to bone up on economics isn't your idea of a good time, you can use the auto manage feature and just watch the trains.

(Take2 Interactive, G)

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