Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I don't know what marketing person wrote the description on the box, but their pants are on fire. The greatest railroad building game of all time is back in a vibrant 3D world - well, it is in vibrant 3D. Huzzah. If the greatest railroad building game of all time is "back", it's returned battered, bruised, and totally unrecognizable. It's like the bloody, huddled figure of a long-lost friend collasped on your doorstep. You want to cradle it in your arms and scream "Why? Oh, why?" over and over again while shaking your fist at the sky. delivering exciting multiplayer options, - exciting = existing; options = option. in-game customization tools, - Ha! "Should my locomotive be purple? How about green? So pretty!" That is the extent of these "in-game customization tools". Even your starting city is picked for you! streamlined interface, - Streamlined = Lacking in Content. The so-called interface offers an intriguing variety of useless menus and pointless reports. But they're in vibrant 3-D! and unmatched gameplay, - Unmatched by what? Pushing a boulder up a hill for eternity. "Sid Meier presents: Sisyphus! In vibrant 3-D! With multiplayer- push a boulder up hill for eternity with a friend! And customizable! Well not really; we pick the hill for you- but if you want to push a more colorful boulder, we can do that!" Actually, Sisyphus did it for eternity, and I played Railroads! for about three hours. that's easy to learn yet challenging to master. - Easy to learn... oh my yes. Challenging to master... if you leave your monitor turned off, or if your keyboard is in another room. After my first attempt, I cranked the difficulty all the way up. And then I turned off my monitor and pretended I was playing RT2, or solitaire. Combining the best of real-world and model railroads, - That doesn't even make sense. It is a computer game, not tabletop trains, not Amtrak. It is not like tabletop in that you are expected to earn money. It is not like Amtrak in that you are expected to earn money. It is not like tabletop in that you have no way of "driving" the train. It is not like Amtrak in that your network may span two states. This is not a "I'm an engineer!" sim, and it's not a business game. However, it is like tabletop in that the cities are about four inches apart, and that your train is typically in three stations at once, but I do not know that's the "best" part of model railroads. (It's like Amtrak in that it is highly overpriced.) Sid Meier's Railroads! puts you in charge of building the greatest rail empire in the nation - HA! HA! HA! You can run an astonishing Pittsburgh-to-Chicago route; Washington DC-to-New York City is an exciting, seven minute option. The maps are so small that, perhaps, "greatest rail empire in the state" would be possible. This game would be tolerable if you could at least go from NYC to Chicago, or manage a transcontinental line. Nope. The European maps are even worse. while engaging in all-out corporate warfare against rival tycoons, slick entrepreneuers, and robber barons! - all-out corporate warfare = all-out corporate lie. There are no bonds, no options, no short selling, no stock issuance, no nothing. There is "stock", and there are ten shares of it. No more, no less. They might as well have done away with that aspect entirely, but then we couldn't claim to have all-out corporate warfare. You can't even use another company's tracks or stations. So all-out corporate warfare is a bald-faced lie. So disappointing!