Matrix Games Forums

Well I received my $2.98 copy of SMR yesterday afternoon and after giving it a run through all I can say is it SUCKS royally. After playing it for a bit I had visions of what went on in that executive room during the making of SMR....Sid Walks in and the board of directors say "Well Sid you did a great job creating a hardcore railroad simulation with your first game, but, this time it must be a bit (in executive terms bit means A LOT) more mainstream. We want you to tone it down (tone it down meand dumb it down) make it for EIGHT year olds to play and make it FAST like those other KIDDY (yes Erik I'm saying it lol) CLICKFEST RTS games." Sid is speechless and this game shows it. lol

There is no continental map from coast to coast was the first thing I noticed. The next is there are only TEN stocks total....not millions like before just a mere 10. The cities are too close together and the years go by faster than you can type jack rabbit. I started in 1840 midwestern scenario and built two tracks and bought 3 trains and by the time I had done all that it was 1852. lol I could not believe how fast the years played by. Basically this game is like your HTTR/COTA and you have to PAUSE every TWO SECONDS to do things or the game will pass you by before you know it. I don't recall ANY of the Railroad Tycoons or even Sids first Railroad Tycoons years flying by so fast.

Sorry Sid, but, this one is a DUD and if I had paid full retail price for this crap I would have been unhinged lol.

I read the reviews and well I really knew it wasn't great, but, was hoping most of those were just kids bashing the game to keep the scores down, but, this one deserved scores even the kids didn't give it like ZERO! lol

Now, if you can play the PAUSE game every two seconds it's not as bad as above, but, if it's anything I hate most it's a game I HAVE to use PAUSE to enjoy it or even have half a chance in. Basically everything you do you should be in PAUSE mode. From reading the stock markets to building to buying trains and stations and upgrades...everything...you MUST play in PAUSE mode. Else you'll just miss everything and be so far behind. It looks to me this was they way they made it to make the AI look good since it doesn't require pause or to look at the stockmarket and things like we do. lol

Conclusion don't even waste your $2.98 on it if you happen to see it for that price. It's not even worth .99.

Ravinhood,

ORIGINAL: ravinhood
make it FAST like those other KIDDY (yes Erik I'm saying it lol) CLICKFEST RTS games."

In other words, you don't care about the requests of moderators? This is a road to nowhere, Ravinhood. Best be careful.

Regards,

- Erik

You can get the original for free (legal) right off of Sids Meier's Railroad website. It works fine with Vista, so I'm sure it will work on XP. I agree that the new version is dumbed down. I tried the demo that was about as far as I got with it.

It's not very good, and certainly nowhere near the caliber of the original Railroad Tycoon. But then that's almost always the result when good games are "reimagined"...[8|]

I run a Railroad Tycoon fan site and this appeared one day out of the blue. Not one of us fans nor playtesters of Railroad Tycoon 2 or 3 were invited to test this game. And you can see why. Anyone who loved RRT3 would just hate this game.
I had a section on my forum for SMRR. A few posts about how bad it was and then nothing. I removed the section last year.
Still Railroad Tycoon lives on but SMR died, justifiably quickly.

I'm honestly not sure what's intended, gameplay-wise, with SMR. If you're the sort who just wants to lay some track and run trains around the map all day, it might suit you. I got tired of it, PDQ, after a couple of hours. Ravinhood's Remorse strikes again!

I can't complain too much about Sid, though, because he continued to support SMG for a LONG time. In fact, I believe that he's still making the WinXP patch for the game available at his site. That said, it does appear that he's struggling to come up with effective designs. [:(]

Good luck, next time, Sid!!!

PoE (aka ivanmoe)

Hi Rav,

If you would have asked me I would have told you it's a stinker, I don't even own it, I just heard word of mouth and so on. The user ratings at Gamerankings.com are at 5.7.

http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/932338.asp

That's the URL.

Regards,

Grell

I agree with the basic goal he had though. Too many sims become nothing
but spreadsheets dressed up nicely. People who whine forget what Sid Meier was always
about. GAMEPLAY, not millions of stats and garbage. Game is about leisure and having fun, not
additional work. Flight Sims/Wargames etc doesn't count because they are more about transfering a hobby
to computer rather than normal games.

Ok, this time it failed but I think the general goal to make accessible strategy games is fine.
Remember that games like Settlers of Catan became popular because anyone could pick it up, yet
it is a very deep strategy game.

Sid Meier remains one of the best game designers in existence.

Yeah yeah I know I read a lot of the reviews, but, I'm such a fan of Sid's that I just couldn't believe he could produce such a crappy game like this. It's more of a romper room toy than it is a strategy game. But, like I said if you're willing to sit there and PAUSE every 2 seconds it's not as bad, but, since I'm not willing to sit there and pause it every 2 seconds it SUCKS oodles of noodles.

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 want a serious train strategy game like the origional Sid Meiers Railroad Tycoon, but, with the features this version has. I love that it has RANDOM TERRAIN and RANDOM CITY PLACEMENTS and the industries were always random it says, but, I don't remember that in the first one only II and III. I LOSE in the first Sid Meier Railroad Tycoon game sometimes. That's one excellent hardcore train strategy game. Damn AI buys up my stock before I can and then they overrun me somsssabiatches lol. All I wanted was an upgrade to XP and yeah some graphical improvements would be nice like Tycoon III, it's neat being able to ride INSIDE the train engines, I would have liked more like being able to ride in any of the cars well passenger or dining cars that is. This game is just rotten to the core. I know I said it's made for 8 year olds, but, looking futher into it I don't even think an 8 year old would enjoy it except just playing sandbox and building trains and not playing the strategy game at all. The speed of time is just waaaayyy too fast. I looked all over for slow down buttons like the others have where you can use the +/- buttons to slow or speed them up. This one has one speed....ultra fast...blink and game over. lol

There's bloody conspiracy going on here! [X(]

I just - I mean I JUST - finished reading the rulebook to this game and have the disc openend right beside me to play - and you post this! [8|]

If it kills me I'm going to find a copy of Railroad Tycoon 3 today.

I want choo-choos.

ORIGINAL: ravinhood

I want a serious train strategy game like the origional Sid Meiers Railroad Tycoon, but, with the features this version has. I love that it has RANDOM TERRAIN and RANDOM CITY PLACEMENTS and the industries were always random it says, but, I don't remember that in the first one only II and III. I LOSE in the first Sid Meier Railroad Tycoon game sometimes. That's one excellent hardcore train strategy game. Damn AI buys up my stock before I can and then they overrun me somsssabiatches lol. All I wanted was an upgrade to XP and yeah some graphical improvements would be nice like Tycoon III, it's neat being able to ride INSIDE the train engines, I would have liked more like being able to ride in any of the cars well passenger or dining cars that is. This game is just rotten to the core. I know I said it's made for 8 year olds, but, looking futher into it I don't even think an 8 year old would enjoy it except just playing sandbox and building trains and not playing the strategy game at all. The speed of time is just waaaayyy too fast. I looked all over for slow down buttons like the others have where you can use the +/- buttons to slow or speed them up. This one has one speed....ultra fast...blink and game over. lol

If you're too stupid to find the speed control, then it's not the game's fault. Maybe you should play some Space Invaders or Pong? That's about your intellectual level.

Oh, and BTW, Sid Meier didn't produce this game, he just lent his name to it. In hindsight, that was probably a bad idea, but still...

ORIGINAL: Adam Parker

There's bloody conspiracy going on here! [X(]

I just - I mean I JUST - finished reading the rulebook to this game and have the disc openend right beside me to play - and you post this! [8|]

If it kills me I'm going to find a copy of Railroad Tycoon 3 today.

I want choo-choos.

Trust me you'll enjoy RRT III much better I can tell you that already. It has a Trans Continental scenario from coast to cost and from Mexico to lower Canada..the AI isn't very good though as I had to triple the scenario goals to have a challenging game against it.

ORIGINAL: Terminus
should play some Space Invaders or Pong?

No picking on Pong in a railroad thread!!!

Yea this is definitely the poorest Sid Meir Game I have played. I keep going back and playing RT3 which I still enjoy playing.

One question, does anyone know the last time that Sid Meir produced a totally new game, not a remake of a previous game?

That would have been Sim Golf I believe. He hasn't really made anything NEW in a long time now. He's so rich from the Civilization franchise he really doesn't have to.

I still play Alpha Centauri, hail to SID!!

ORIGINAL: Gem35

I still play Alpha Centauri, hail to SID!!

Oh I'm loading my copy up next. I've just played Civ4 pretty much as fully as it goes, there time flies by too - even at epic speeds. Alpha Centauri and its brilliant expansion Alien Crossfire offer the best structured and featured civ games since Civ2.

And thanks once again Ravin.

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.

Very happy Ravin - thanks for this thread! [:)]

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 !!!!!