My Thoughts and Experience with Transport Giant

[OldTimer]

I played the Demo version on Several occasions and found it difficult, especially as there was nothing to tell me how to play it. However, I managed it in the end (with the help of hawkkiwi of course). But now I’ve bought the Transport Giant Gold Edition. What a disappointment! I had hoped to install it and start playing that afternoon. Alas, it wouldn’t install! It started ok, then stopped to print out what I suspect is a manual. But then I noticed that it was trying to send the file to a printer which I hadn’t got, and yes – you’ve guessed it – I couldn’t find a way to get it to point to the printer that I do have.

After three or four attempts, I gave up. I wasn’t going to be able to install this game the conventional way! So now I started to search disc 1, and found about four files that were all called “install”. I clicked on one of them and away it went. I must have chosen the right one, for now it was installing.

I must say: The graphics are excellent! But to my mind, the game itself needs a lot more development. That stupid map for one, needs to be replaced urgently. My first scenario was the 200 years of the UK. Well, I can see it’s the UK, but that’s all – even with the large version of the map, I’m not much the wiser. Perhaps there could be a keystroke or button that would open a second window that can be maximized and viewed as the size of the screen. It could even have sliders so we could view only part of the map. Another keystroke or button would take us back to the scenario again.

The next thing which annoys me is when I right-click on the background and move the mouse in one direction, only to find the scenario moving in the opposite direction and when I lift my finger, it jumps back to where I was originally – frustration!

In short: Transport Giant could be a really great game. But to do that, it needs a different engine behind it. I just wish that someone with the dosh, could bring back the right members of the team to redevelop this game, to make it easier to access and to play.

Well, that’s what I think anyway.

[stewil]

Well I didn't have any problems installing Transport Giant Gold Edition (Regular game + Australia add-on)

I agree with you on all your other views, but I think the following should be mentioned:

Pros:

Great campaign engine. You can choose from US(easy), UK(medium), Australia(hard) campaigns. The campaign starts around the year 1850 and takes you through to the Y2K. You'll have to complete small missions on the way. (I.E. connect 10 cities within 10 years, get 100,000,000 within 20 years and so on). These missions extends the gameplay in my opinion.

Cons:

When you complete a mission, you start on a new map, and all you ackomplished on the previous mission (money, connections and so on) is gone.

Another big minus: Eventhough your railstation only is say 8 squares long, there is no limit on the length of your trains, as we know it from Chris Sawyers games. Quite unrealistic.

And maybe it's because I'm used to Chris Sawyer games, but I really miss the "follow-a-vehicle-in-a-window"-feature.

However, I'll still give this game a chance. I've had it for a few days now and it is a timerobber

[davidrkw]

I puchased Transport Giant thinking it would be an improvement on TT Deluxe and Locomotion but
after playing it for 2 hours, it is obvious that it is not. The basic graphics (3d models) are better and
the game world is larger but it fails in all other respects. It seems that the 'game' was bolted on to
the graphics engine to enable the 'player' to watch 3d models wizzing around the screen.
The UI and the simulation should be revamped completely, even the earlier versions of TT win hand
down over this game.