Railroad Tycoon 3 Screenshots   The Final Say! Gameplay 8.5 Graphics 8.5 Sound 7.5 Value 8.5 Railroad Tycoon 3 - reviewed by Joshua Wright Review Date: December 2003 Review Score: 8.5 Distributed by Take Two Interactive

Sid Mier’s Railroad Tycoon was a classic. This reviewer played it to death way back when in the early 1990s. Naturally when Tycoon 2 was released I pounced, but I’m sorry, the second instalment just didn’t have the same magic. It seemed simplistic and clunky. I thought maybe Tycoon 1 was just a phase I had gone through, and wondered what I possibly saw in shunting little trains around in the first place. That was until I got a load of Poptop’s new release Railroad Tycoon 3. For all you wannabe moguls out there, it’ll put the steam back in your shorts. For the initiated, Railroad Tycoon 3 is a railroad company simulation game (well, duh!) The game features a sharp 3D engine with accurately modelled trains, buildings, and landscape. You establish rail lines, haul cargo and try to amass your fortune. You must carve out routes using tunnels, overpasses, bridges and negotiate tricky real world maps and terrains. You manipulate the stock market, compete financially against rival companies to gain your monopoly and become the ultimate baron. You can buy and sell industries in the fluid economy and make sure cities are getting the goods they desire. Naturally there’s a multiplayer option via LAN or internet for all you hardcore rail geeks too. The amount of detail is very impressive, too much to spill out here, but there are so many stats and figures to tweak and examine, you’ll always have something more to build or tweak until you realise you should have gone to bed 3 hours ago! Provided your PC can handle it, the graphics are very impressive. Tycoon 3 features a fully realised game world scaling from eye-in-the-sky views of entire continents zooming right down to crisp close ups of the locos in action. The soaring scrolling will take some getting used to though. There’s also plenty of chugga-chugga sounds to give steam freaks a woody and overall the sound atmosphere created is excellent – there’s even little birds cheeping in the trees! The bluesy background music is atmospheric without being obtrusive.