User Reviews (1 - 11 of 50)

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WARNING! Copy Protection Scheme prevents installation

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 34 / 57
Date: November 03, 2003
Author: Amazon User

The copy protection prevents installation on my machine. I am not alone. I have also read that there are problems for people who are able to get the program installed. I understand the problems with Piracy, but to put down big $ for a game that won't install is the worst.

Repeats all the mistakes of version 2 and adds more.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 14 / 18
Date: June 13, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Having logged hundreds of hours playing previous Railroad Tycoon games I couldn't wait to get the latest. Unfortunately I was greatly disappointed on several levels. It fixes none of the problems with RR Tycoon 2 and adds a bunch more. If you want a real railroad feeling or care anything about real trains get the original Railroad Tycoon or Railroad Tycoon 2. They are both better that this version.

1. From a gaming perspective it has been dumbed down greatly so one doesn't even have to think about proper cargo routing. Just throw trains in between the towns and the cargo will ship itself.
2. The track laying routines remove all hope of getting really good routes. The new 3D interface might be great for looking at pictures but not for engineering a railroad. The words that indicate the amount of money a particular segment will cost is always exactly in the way of where one needs to see. Routes will get laid in that don't really connect, which you can't tell until you try to put a train between those two towns. Even double tracking doesn't just overlay the single line but tries to relay it. Then the track removal code is buggy. Remove the wrong piece and the whole game crashes.
4. From a railroad perspective the game is clueless. Even the introduction mixes American style locomotives and track with European style "bumper" cargo cars. Anyone who knows about real locomotives will be disappointed with the performance and beauty characteristics assigned by the game designers.

The only good think I can say about the game is that it has better graphics for people who like looking at cartoons of bogus trains.

Stick with RR Tycoon 2, This Version Sucks.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 12 / 13
Date: May 13, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I'm a BIG fan of the Railroad Tycoon franchise, having played all versions since and including the original RRT. I have spent many hours crafting railroad empires, accumulating vast fortunes and scheming to drive rivals into bankruptcy. It was therefore with much anticipation that I purchased version 3 and man was I ever disappointed! Graphically, it's a beautiful game. But it seems to me that gameplay was sacrificed for the sake of lovely pictures. It simply isn't as much fun to play version 3 as it is version 2.

To be fair, I haven't played it all that much because I find the interface more difficult to use than RRT2. Maybe it will grow on me over time and, if so, I'll be happy to return and modify this review. But for now, I'm sticking with RRT2 as my game of choice over this one.

Not even close to the original

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 11 / 22
Date: January 06, 2005
Author: Amazon User

A Great Disappointment. As a huge fan of all the previous Railroad games I couldn't wait for #3 to come out. Good graphics and nothing else. They took a classic strategy game and made it into a boring sim.

WON'T INSTALL

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 6 / 22
Date: November 04, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This program will not install on either of the two computers I own. Both far exceed the minimum requirements listed on the box. I took it back, obtained a new copy (thinking I had a bad install disk) and it did the exact same thing. I love the railroad tycoon games, but this one just does not work. If you buy it, beware.

Another bad install

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 7 / 33
Date: November 07, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I am an IT professional so I know what I'm doing. I have a high end rig that plays any new game with ease. I have just spent 2 hours trying to get this to run and it doesn't. BEWARE!!!!!

I have just emailed tech support. No 24 hr support. No 800 number. Nothing on their web site about any problems.

I love RR2 and couldn't wait to get this. $50 mistake.

Wait for resolution of the problems.

The game stinks

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 18
Date: July 25, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I loved Railroad Tycoon 2, but I absolutely despise Railroad Tycoon 3. The graphics have been greatly improved, but that is the only positive thing I can say about the game.

Boring!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 27
Date: December 12, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game thinking that this would be better than its DOS counterpart (Transport Tycoon)! I made a terrible mistake! This game is so boring... too rigid...(esp. rules like haul 2 loads of cotton to Miami and Memphis etc) and I would not even think of gifting it to someone! I would rather think about getting this game if I get the entire purchase amount as moneyback! Not worth a penny!

wish i never bought this

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 12
Date: April 01, 2007
Author: Amazon User

really bad game, terrible graphics, played for about 10 minutes.

The developers confused "family friendly" with "childlike"

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 38 / 42
Date: September 01, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I was addicted to Railroad Tycoon 2, but unfortunately it wouldn't play under my new operating system. I was thrilled to find RT3 and eagerly awaited its delivery.

Unfortunately, RT3 has lost much of the complexity and the underhandedness that made RT2 so much fun. For example:

- in RT2, only industries or resources inside your station's field of influence would be serviced by your trains. In RT3, each station has a vague, undefined "area of influence" that goes beyond the size of your station's shown field. Is that feedlot, grain farm, or mine close enough to your station so you don't have to build another closer station? Good luck figuring it out.

- in RT2, one could designate different loads for cars in the same manifest. This can't be done now. This makes it very difficult to produce goods manufactured from more than one type of raw material.

- the graphics are very comic-book like, and would more appeal to children around the age of three than they would adults. Very unattractive and simplistic. I would have even preferred a 2-D model with more sophistication.

- the business models have been vastly oversimplified, and the AI companies are not one thousandth as cutthroat as in RT2. This is a bad thing. Historically, rail companies were not paragons of industry; for a historical sim to be realistic, it has to reflect the true conditions of the industry. The rail business in RT3 appears to have been emasculated, perhaps to appeal to young naive children, but it's lost much of its interest for adults.

- creating new maps and new scenarios is much more complicated in RT3 than it was in RT2.

- the weather is a useless, worthless feature that eats memory. Yes, you can turn it off, but it still takes up a lot of space in storage memory.

I did not much enjoy RT3. It appears to have lost much of the detail that made RT2 so enjoyable (wasn't it great to finally get iron *and* coal, send one train of each to the place with the steel plant, get back two trains of steel, send them to some place with a manufacturing plant, and then send the goods to your largest city? You could do similar feats with produce and steel, with rubber, steel, and oil, etc. hoping all the time that your competitor didn't build a station in the same city and scoop your goods. Great fun. With RT3, you don't get that ability to follow your cargo from raw material to finished goods.

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