Chris Sawyer's Locomotion

Having sold over seven million boxes stamped with the words RollerCoaster Tycoon, Chris Sawyer isone of the most successful names in gaming. What's more, apart from hiring the odd graphical artist or musician, he still prefers to work in solitude.

Locomotion is his latest effort, one that's taken two years to complete, and it's a game that bears an uncanny resemblance to Sawyer's own pre-RollerCoaster classic Transport Tycoon. The aim, if not already evident, is to rake in obscene amounts of cash by constructing and maintaining roads, railways and airports and ensuring that people, raw materials and goods are kept chugging along through 40-odd scenarios contained within a century of Earth history. Graphically, it looks dated.

Yes, it has the same look and an identical user interface to that from RollerCoaster Tycoon, but here the colours appear drab, the maps flatter and some of the tiles don't appear to connect all that well, making some parts of the map look like an Escher illusion. The gameplay is similarly pre-millennial, it being in large parts identical to TT Deluxe (no bad thing), but the sense of dejavu is more unnerving than evocative. Once you have a thriving network running smoothly, there's a great deal of satisfaction to be had, particularly because the maps are so big that the challenge is often in getting your disparate means of transports working as a cohesive whole. If that sounds like fun, go ahead, but for Sawyer's newer Tycoon fans, be warned; Locomotion is more Railroad than RollerCoaster.