Sid Meier's Railroads! | Railroads is a lot of fun...

Sid Meier's Railroads! | Less than hoped for.

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Sid Meier's Railro...

	Sid Meier's Railroads! Windows \| 2K Games, 2006 average customer review:based on 52 reviews view larger image
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Railroads is a lot of fun...

Since I have not cut my teeth on the previous Railroad games, and was disappointed in Railroad Tycoon, and read the not so good reviews, I had some reservations about this game. But after playing the demo I had to have it because it was a lot of fun. All the observations made by the other reviewers are basically true, and there are a lot of things I would change about the game, but the fact remains that it is a lot of FUN! I enjoy it very much and feel like I got way more than my money's worth with this one.

Less than hoped for.

The single player version of the game is fairly solid, and only crashes near the end of long games. Fortunately the autosave feature is good and allows resuming of the game. Twice though, the game has actually crashed WindowsXP Pro to the BSOD.
The multiplayer version has crashed in every use so far, quietly changing my opponents to "Computer" without any notification. This occurs on Lan and internet games, using a dsl connection, and despite trying hosting on different machines, or on a distant friends machine.
The game play is straight forward and fun. The sound track is good for the game, but consists mostly of short snippets of music and not full length songs like RT3. RT3 by contrast was worth buying just for the music, but don't buy Railroads! for that reason. I have to say that I am still enjoying the Single player version of the game after a month, but I have given up even trying the multiplayer until we see a patch. (by the way, my router and firewall are perfectly well configured for the game, and work fine for all my other multiplayer games- including RT3- and I AM using the latest patch).
The complexity level and track laying/routing are fun once you overcome the learning curve. The buying and selling of stock is simpler than RT3, but easier to learn and still effective. Its still fun to run your enemies into the ground, but perhaps because it is simpler, there are fewer dirty tricks to play.
If your graphics are anemic you will not be able to play or at least not enjoy the game. It is possible to turn the graphics way down, but that takes away the fun. I have a Windows VISTA machine with an old ATI card that will barely run the game, but the game does run on VISTA and would be fine with more RAM on the Graphics and PC.

Overall I think this game is fun and worth considering, but I might be inclined to wait for the bargain bin, or, at least for the next patch after 1.10 to see if the multiplayer play is enhanced(stabilized). I agree with the reviewers who say the game feels unfinished.

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