Economic simulation games are easily my favourtite kind of games. I can sink hundred of hours in each of those games and never get bored. Unfortunatedly there are not really lot of titles around so what about recommending me some games?
I have played the Railroad Tycoon series, most of the Simwhatever series, Rollercoaster Tycoon series and some random games like Patrician II.
I have A-Train and A-IV Networks (The sequel) and I'm wondering if I should get A-Train 8. I know that the game is in Japanese but with english menus and I wonder wheter it's playable or not. I'm not worried if I have to use a dictionary for some words. Does someone have any info about those games? Are the new versions worth it?
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If you like Roller Coaster Tycoon then you should try Locomotion. It's another Chris Sawyer game but it's like a cross between Transport Tycoon and RCT. It's much easier to build working transport systems (uses a very similar toolset as RCT for building) but with the depth of TTD.
I love Locomotion, just wish there was a way to play it on my mac without having to boot windows. I'd probably get no work done at all if I had that so it's probably for the best.
I love RCT and it's expansions but I don't like RCT2 just for the fact that it doesn't have a window mode. I loved putting RCT into window mode and have it playing in the background, the incidental music on it and the gurgles and cheers from the punters is quite nice to listen to sometimes. Just waiting for the intercom beep to tell you that your latest attraction has been researched. Ah RCT, how I love thee.
Sid Meier's Railroads is a nice modern take on the railroad franchise but a bit simplistic and lacking the depth of the TTD/RT/RCT series. It's got nice 3d graphics and an intuitive build system (it's quite similar to the one used in Theme Park World).
Does anybody have any suggestions for new or newer (than locomotion and railroads) games in this genre, I LOVE these games and there doesn't seem to be many at all being released these days, all we seem to get on the PC is RTS and FPS games. I want my strategy without the needless combat of RTS games. When I play RTS games all I want to do is build the biggest most impenetrable base and just sit there while the AI/opponent furiously tries to break in. I'm just not interested in the whole combat side of things.
I have played Locomotion, I beated it but I have tosay it's a flawed game. Using the RCT engine is good for building and such but the maps are very small with towns too close to each other as a result. Had Lomo had bigger maps it would had been 1000 times better.
However what turned me off most of the game is the pathfinding system. I tried to make cool networks but then the trains got lost and didn't knew where to go. Nothing too fancy either, just double rail.
Fortunatedly recently I found out that there are quite a lot of mods for Lomo that allow better networking. While I don't fancy playing it now if I see it for cheap I will pick it up again.
I just got Railroads! yesterday and my first grasp of the game was a total turn off. No campaign mode, really small maps and the awesome music from RT3 is lost. I think the game has a lot of potential and quite a good deal of good things (Patent system, signals) but after playing RT3 it feels wrong. I'm going to shelve it for a while and try to beat the Coast to Coast RT3 expansion which is hard as nails. Seriously, 20 years to build a transcontinental route while getting lots of cash and fulffiling other requests is hard.
By the way, have you played OpenTTD? It's, by far, the best incarnation of TTD ever. It even has online play with a lot of people and no lag at all. A must-have if you haven't seen it.
Looking for a cool game? Find it in my blog! Latest post: Often, games must be difficult http://eriktwice.com/
I love econ sims as well. Have you tried Europa 1400: The Guild and/or The Guild 2? I would consider them economic sims (though mixed with life sim elements). Pretty awesome games, actually.
Also, while often mislabeled as a RTS, I firmly believe that Settlers/Settlers 2 is an economic sim. It's all about managing production and the supply chain, and it's awesome. Along the same lines, the Cultures series is quite good.
I've played and enjoyed the original Roller Coaster Tycoon but have grown tired of the numerous sequels and inferior copies. I also think the "tycoon" genre is absolutely littered with shovelware, and that really is unfortunate. As such, I'd be very happy to hear some more suggestions for great economic sim games.
If you want something a little older but with similar ideas, have you ever tried the game Theme Park? Bullfrog followed it up with Theme Hospital a few years later.
Ack wrote:If you want something a little older but with similar ideas, have you ever tried the game Theme Park? Bullfrog followed it up with Theme Hospital a few years later.
Oh yeah--Theme Park is awesome. I still prefer it to all other amusement park sims. The DS has a port that is pretty spot on. Also, Ack--was Theme Hospital actually good? I'm willing to check out just about anything Bullfrog created.
I actually don't know. I haven't played it, I just know of its existence. But hey, considering how awesome Dungeon Keeper and Theme Park were, I figure it's worth checking out.
