Wow Sid Meiers Railroads SUCKS! ;)

[Marauders]

Sounds like a nice game for my kids.
 
Where do you get these $3 games?
 

[marcusm]

No. Actually RRT3 sucked too. Only good RRT was number 1(and the deluxe version). The rest sucked, they lacked soul.

Btw, whether Sid Meier personally is involved in anything doesn't matter. It's his vision that counts. For reference
check his comments on Civ Revolutions which follows the same premises I explained.

[Adam Parker]

ORIGINAL: marcusm

No. Actually RRT3 sucked too. Only good RRT was number 1(and the deluxe version). The rest sucked, they lacked soul.

RRTC2 was a nearly perfect game for me albeit for 2 big things:

1. The AI could beat you on the stockmarket without running a competitive rail network in any form.
2. You constantly had to micromanage each and every train at each and every station to maximise profitability - with a large empire this became a click fest chore.

Otherwise in terms of map, UI and brilliant music RRTC 2 rocked imo.

As for SM "Railroads" yes, it's a kids game so I've now seen, yet, without a kid's interface.

Sid Meier once held high esteem with me. His Gettysburg and Alpha Centauri were ground breaking designs. They were proud games, boasting proud design notes and setting high expectations for innovation in the future. What's come of it but Civ 3 and now Civ 4 in which the Second Millenium AD follows the Iron Age in a flash?

[Mobius]

ORIGINAL: Adam Parker
I bought a brand new copy of Railroad Tycoon 3 just now, have already loaded it and it looks great! Much more intuitive to use than "Railroads" and with brilliant right-click ease of screen rotatation. It comes with a thick manual and a superb player aid reference chart to boot. Most importantly, the map really zooms out and its cities are given a spatial relationship that makes sense. What were they thinking of in Railroads? [8|]

I'm downloading the Coast to Coast expansion now. At a painfully slow speed I must add - but at least its there.

Check out HawkDawgs RRT site here for more maps and things:
http://hawkdawg.com/
My RRT3 Analysis site (all my maps are at HawkDawgs site nowdays)
http://www.exdx.net/RT3/

[ravinhood]

ORIGINAL: apathetic lurker

Ravinhood

Theres a reason you only paid less then 3 bucks for it.What did you expect?Pretty much anything under 5 bucks is going to be "iffy". stop complaining so much. You sound like George Halas. Throwing nickels around like they are manhole covers. yeesh......

IT'S THREE BUCKS FOR GOODNESS SAKES !!!!!

Ummm I got Halflife Platinum for under $5 bucks and Call of Duty Gold and lets see Space Colony and Startopia and Rails Across America (this is fun railroad strategy game too). I got Combat Mission Barbarossa and Combat Mission Afrika Corps both for $7 each Warlords III (Dark Lords Rising) and Warlords IV both were under $5 each. SId Meiers Civil War collection under $5, Take Commands 2nd Manassas $6 Silent Storm Gold, The Guild 1400 and Restaurant Empire, Crusader Kings and that's just naming a FEW lol. So don't go giving me the song and dance that games under $5 suck anyways, no they don't in fact Sid's Railroads is the worst one I've ever gotten under $5 so far. I didn't stick to reading the forums and taking other players word for it cause I just couldn't believe Sid could be associated with a BAD sorry game like this. But, I was wrong, but, at least it didn't cost me $40 to find out. But, evenso I expect a $5 game to be as good as a $40 game because it once was $40. Some even $50. But, don't be jealous now cause I get all these fine games from $5 and under. I still have paid for some that are below $20 that I didn't care for like AGEODS Birth of America that game suks too, HTTR was another an another that suks to me also, don't care for historical simulations since they really have no replay value after a couple of rounds I prefer RANDOM features in games even wargames. Knights of Honor is merely ok I didn't like the system of only having so many leaders one could use for everything required. Imperial Glory is pretty good since I'm not a big nut about historical accuracy as long as the game is challenging and it is. Good AI in IG. EU III it's meh, I prefer Crusader Kings over it any day, M2TW really crappy AI as usual so bad I just resold it on ebay paid $15 and some change for it and resold it for the same, I paid above $10 for those, but, under $20.

Games I'll probably pay full retail for? ......Kharkov.....I'm interested in EU:ROME but I can wait on that as I expect the usual patch city for yet another Paradox mess out of the box. EUIII went down to $14 pretty quickly and I expect the same for EU:ROME.

Sounds like a nice game for my kids.

Where do you get these $3 games?

Ebay and Amazon.com mostly. And truthfully you're kids will like Railroad Tycoon III better than Sid's Railroads.

No. Actually RRT3 sucked too. Only good RRT was number 1(and the deluxe version). The rest sucked, they lacked soul.

The only thing about RRTIII that I found that sucked was the AI play. They didn't buy up industries like I did and didn't really expand out like I did either. But, at least this could be made a bit more challenging by just adjusting the scenario goals. As far as TIME elements it ran along smoothly on slow settings and the continental coast to coast map was great and the fact you can ride inside the engine compartment made it quite fun for the kids, hell I even liked it the first couple of times. The land/terrain graphics were what was meh about it, not many features and if you've seen one tree and mountain you've seen em all. lol No it wasn't Sid Meiers Railroad Tycoon, but, it is better than Sid's Railroads by a long shot. lol RRTII isn't bad either, has some randomness to it and the AI is fair, yet, still not as strong as the origional ones. The evolution of most games seems to be to dumb them down so 8 year olds can play them an win so they can get all gleeful and happy like they are on a sugar rush.

[Sarge]

All this for a game that cost $2.98 ? [:D]

[Grell]

LOL! No one ever said Rav took things in stride! Hehe.[:D]

Regards,

Grell

[Mobius]

Besides the AI in RRT3 being weak the multiplayer didn't work well. We used to have unbelievably great multiplayer games in RRT2.  Shortselling your opponents stock.  Or someone offering a lot per share to take over your company then you use the cash to buy him out.
This didn't happen in RRT3

[marcusm]

It's easy to forget that Sid Meier had a track record long before Civ. He made superb wargames for one.
Plus. My all time favourite Sid Meier game is in fact Covert Ops. I really would have liked a modern
version of that one.

I don't deny that the other railroad tycoons were technically ok but I simply couldn't get into any of those
the way I did with the first game. Just an example, why would you make a sequel and actually remove
vital game elements? Like tunnels and signals.

[Gem35]

ORIGINAL: apathetic lurker

Ravinhood

Theres a reason you only paid less then 3 bucks for it.What did you expect?Pretty much anything under 5 bucks is going to be "iffy". stop complaining so much. You sound like George Halas. Throwing nickels around like they are manhole covers. yeesh......

IT'S THREE BUCKS FOR GOODNESS SAKES !!!!!

Hey!, why pick on George Halas!!, He has done so much for the NFL and the city of Chicago. He was a great , legendary pioneer for the game. Back then you had to throw those nickels around like manhole covers to folks like Dick Butkus. There was no money back then.[:-]

[Valkyrie]

ORIGINAL: marcusm

If you want a serious Train sim then I would recommend TRS2004(cheaper than 2006 and better imo).
Tons of stuff for it too.

I agree with your preference for Trainz Railroad Simulator 2004 over TRS2006. In fact, I recently uninstaled 2006 and went back to 2004 because my favorite routes weren't being supported for 2006. The older version also ran better as it isn't as loaded with animations.

However, when comparing the straight sim to something like Railroad Tycoon, I would voice my opinion that TRS 2006 is far more comparable. TRS 2006 added a lot of capabilities for servicing interconnected businesses i.e. deliver coal to a PowerPlant that needs to keep running to support the furniture factory that needs supply inputs and pickup for finished products etc etc. You could think of this as Railroad Tycoon where you actually sit in the locomotive and throw the switches in a very immediate mode. The 2006 version also features rather complex scenarios and a high level of automoation and programmability to make the experience more realistic.

Now, I'm not a rail buff, I just love to run old steam locomotives over scenic routes through the mountains. Yea, very shallow interest... I'm in it for the scenery and fun of "riding" trains.. and really don't want to perform realistic switching operations and train routing or signal programming (which is why I took 2006 off my PC and went back to simpler times). However, the whole series is fantastic and is well worth checking out. It is an amazing graphics accomplishment and you would all probably enjoy it a lot at whatever level of challenge you desire.

[nelmsm1]

Nice going guys!  You had to start this thread which made me dig my RRT2 out of the closet and load it and now I've just spent the last 2 hours laying track and building trains and here it is 1am and I've got to get up and fix breakfast for everyone.  Just what I needed was another game to get immersed in.  I'd forgotten how easily it was to get engrossed in connecting cities and moving freight.

[marcusm]

I didn't know that Valkyrie.

It seems the bankruptcy of Auran didn't affect the actual Trains game so there will be more.

[Phatguy]

Ravinhood,


Please dust of your spectacles and reread my post..You misunderstood what I wrote.i never said all games under 5 suck like you assume I said.I said that most games under 5 bucks are iffy. Iffy does not infer to its suckage.It means just that, "iffy". Could be good could be bad but as a general rule they tend to slide towards bad. I bought some wonderful games for 5 or less, but on that same note I could outfit a whole restaurant chain with nice shiny coasters for thier glasses and cups....

Best 5 dollars ever spent: Uncommon Valor and EHM2005.Brand new.Bought both for 5 each in EB in Austin, TX  about 2 years ago.

[Vyshka]

ORIGINAL: nelmsm

Nice going guys! You had to start this thread which made me dig my RRT2 out of the closet and load it and now I've just spent the last 2 hours laying track and building trains and here it is 1am and I've got to get up and fix breakfast for everyone. Just what I needed was another game to get immersed in. I'd forgotten how easily it was to get engrossed in connecting cities and moving freight.

Good thing you don't have Master of Orion or X-COM in that pile of games. You would never get any sleep.

[Grell]

Hi Valkyrie,

I adored Trainz, it was really a great game, I didn't know they made a second version.

Regards,

Grell

[ravinhood]

ORIGINAL: apathetic lurker

Ravinhood,


Please dust of your spectacles and reread my post..You misunderstood what I wrote.i never said all games under 5 suck like you assume I said.I said that most games under 5 bucks are iffy. Iffy does not infer to its suckage.It means just that, "iffy". Could be good could be bad but as a general rule they tend to slide towards bad. I bought some wonderful games for 5 or less, but on that same note I could outfit a whole restaurant chain with nice shiny coasters for thier glasses and cups....

Best 5 dollars ever spent: Uncommon Valor and EHM2005.Brand new.Bought both for 5 each in EB in Austin, TX  about 2 years ago.

You also asked me "What Do You Expect" for under $3.00? and I told you. And then you even went futher to "TRY to TELL" me what to do...."stop complaining so much". I'll complain as much as I want you ain't my mother boy. So, I'll tell you "Stop Trying to TELL OTHERS what to do when it concerns complaining". This is a complaint thread...what did YOU expect? lol

[Krasny]

I paid £5 for it, and I feel cheated.

When is someone going to bring out a decent version of the original RRT?

Ok, it had flaws, but it had balls.

The mission based gameplay of the two sequels was what really let them down, not any flaws in the AI. Build a railroad, achieve goals, start over. Interesting but not satisfying.

And as for Sid's Abomination: Sid should hang his head in shame, but he's laughing all the way to the bank.

[Phatguy]

ORIGINAL: ravinhood

ORIGINAL: apathetic lurker

Ravinhood,


Please dust of your spectacles and reread my post..You misunderstood what I wrote.i never said all games under 5 suck like you assume I said.I said that most games under 5 bucks are iffy. Iffy does not infer to its suckage.It means just that, "iffy". Could be good could be bad but as a general rule they tend to slide towards bad. I bought some wonderful games for 5 or less, but on that same note I could outfit a whole restaurant chain with nice shiny coasters for thier glasses and cups....

Best 5 dollars ever spent: Uncommon Valor and EHM2005.Brand new.Bought both for 5 each in EB in Austin, TX about 2 years ago.

You also asked me "What Do You Expect" for under $3.00? and I told you. And then you even went futher to "TRY to TELL" me what to do...."stop complaining so much". I'll complain as much as I want you ain't my mother boy. So, I'll tell you "Stop Trying to TELL OTHERS what to do when it concerns complaining". This is a complaint thread...what did YOU expect? lol

Good thing I ain't your mother, or i'd wash your mouth out with soap boy [;)]!
You do compain alot though. Well what do you expect for a three dollar product?The second coming of Railroad Tycoon?If a product drops in price so far so fast chances are it isn't great. Most good to great games keep their price points for a while and when they do drop it goes in smaller increments. I believe SMRRT dropped something like 60 or so percent within 6 months. Why would that be? I surmise that it wasn't so Ravinhood could get his game freak on cheaply...

I haven't been called boy since the 70's. Thanks formaking me feel young again[:)]

[Valkyrie]

ORIGINAL: Grell

Hi Valkyrie,

I adored Trainz, it was really a great game, I didn't know they made a second version.

Regards,

Grell

Actually, there are about five different versions available. They started fairly simply and kept adding stuff on until it started getting too complex to run well. Trainz 2006 had a lot of detractors. Their latest is something called "Trainz Classics" I believe which was a bit of a step backwards in complexity.

Someone said Auran was in bankruptcy.. I hadn't heard that, but just checked out their forums and it seems that "Auran Development" (that was producing a ton of non-TRAINZ titles) went under but the core TRAINZ group remains in operation (though with a smaller staff) and development on their next product continues. It looks like they tried to do this massive expansion beyond Train simulation and that is what blew up on them.

Anyway, they have a collection pack that includes the orginal TRAINZ, Ultimate TRAINZ, TRAINZ 2004 and TRAINZ 2006 in one affordable package.