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TRANSPORT GIANT
Page 56
Page 57
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If you like your duties as Secretary of State forTransport to be mingled less with those of God himself and more with those of someone running a humble transport business, then Transport Giant, from Jo Wood Productions, is the game for you.
In Transport Giant you play the manager of a transport business.What you transport and how you do it is up to you.
Also up to you is which era to start playing in from 1850 right up to 2099 and you can also decide between various parts of Europe and North America as your favourite gaming zone.
Wherever and whenever you get started, however, the basic challenge remains the same: take a fixed amount of cash and build up your transport empire in competition with up to three other firms.
You can transport three basic categories of load: goods, mail and people. And you can use all manner of modes road, rail, sea and air to do so.
If you're up for a bit of freight transport, for instance, you need to locate the factories that produce certain goods and those that consume them, then build the transport routes between them, buy and schedule any vehicles you need, and establish depots at each end close to the factories in question to handle the deliveries.
We began in just this way with a bit of bulk haulage, taking coal from a mine to a local coal-fired power plant. It seemed a bit unfair that we should have to build the road between the two before we could start earning our living as a haulier, but at least the road was nice and clear once it was completed. As the funds start to build up you can introduce more and more vehicles on the same run and start to expand elsewhere. It's advisable to make the most out of your investment in transport routes by beefing up the number of vehicles operating on each one before taking on the financial burden of fresh investment in another route.
Delivering mail is much the same as delivering goods except that mail flows between cities, rather than factories,so you'll need to set up further depots and transport routes.You'll also need different vehicles passengers don't generally like sitting in the back of a semi-trailer.
Running trucks and coaches is all well and good,but if you're serious about the lucrative passenger transport business, city-to-city rail links are going to be vital. Rail can also be used for carrying mail between cities or goods between factories. Once you've got the cash you might want to invest in other, even more expensive options such as helicopter routes, short sea shipping and air transport.There's even an airship, if you fancy it. One of the nice features of this game is its historical bent. Start in 1850 and all you'll have to play with, initially at least, is the humble horse and cart.As time goes by and technology evolves new vehicles gradually become available, eventually leading to supersonic aircraft and high-speed trains. Similarly, transport requirements fluctuate over time, with new industries springing up and older ones dying out as you progress.
The game also throws you a curve or two with economic fluctuations. Due to overcapacity in the steel industry, for example, you might suddenly find that building rail tracks has become a bit less expensive than usual. Or a declining economy might mean significant downward pressure on freight rates for a few years.
Taking these fluctuations into account might be a good idea, but we were far too busy identifying business opportunities. buying vehicles, building roads and terminals and counting our profits to take much notice.
There's a good variety of vehicles in the game — whichever mode of transport you use, make sure the vehicle is suitable for the task. Among the trucks, for example, there are curtainsiders, bulkers, tankers and even loggers to choose from. And there are often different makes of each too, with various prices, payloads, levels of reliability and servicing costs to consider.Trains, too, come in a variety of guises; some for goods, some for passengers.
Building transport routes involves careful choices. Do you want a simple road that supports only low speeds, or a more expensive, faster route that can handle more traffic? If you need to cross a lake, do you build an expensive bridge or tunnel, or simply go around it?
Building truck. train, air or sea terminals is easy, though once again you have to position them carefully That means making sure they're facing the right way, are close enough to the city or factory you're looking to work with, and that they have sufficient room for expansion.
All terminals can be upgraded to make them faster or more profitable.A truck terminal, for example. can he extended with additional loading bays, a crane, a cold store, a storage depot — even a kiosk serving light refreshments.
If you want to engage in a bit of bimodal freight transport, stand-alone warehouses can be bought which, when positioned between two of your terminals, let you transfer goods between them. No such transfer mechanism exists for passengers who, somewhat unrealistically, are only ever prepared to go direct from A to B.
You can also set up a company headquarters, if you fancy it.Although there is initially no benefit to this, you can extend the HQ to incorporate things like central departments for logistics, quality management, marketing and purchasing, all of which translates into cheaper vehicles, faster road or rail route building, and higher revenue from customers. As the game progresses your funds should be growing; in the latter stages you can even take over one or more of your competitors, should they become available for sale. Although this gives you a whole new set of inherited problems to manage, it also provides you with a huge and sudden boost to your revenues and it's certainly satisfying to see the company that's been a thorn in your side turned into a major expansion of your evergrowing empire.
In addition to the main challenge of the open-ended, continuous game, there's a series of 'campaign missions' for you to tinker with if you wish.These drop you into scenarios with a specific challenge.
Overall ,Transport Giant is much more business-oriented than SimCity 4 and takes itself more seriously. But it's still a highly engaging game and every bit as addictive.
There are some clunky elements to the controls and one or two bugs still floating around which can prove annoying (as can the poorly written manual) but if you can put up with these quirks — and we certainly could — you'll find this a highly satisfying and entertaining game. I
liansport Giant
Publisher Jo Wood Productions Price Around £27 Web site smny.transportgiard.com Mininmum spec Windows 95/98/2000/ME/XP, 500M Hz processor, 64Mb RAM, 900Mb hard disk, 32Mb Direct 3D graphics card 16Mb Direc0(8.x compatible graphics card CMrating 8/10. Not quite as polished as SimCity 4 — but every bit as addictive and just as entertaining.