Hotel Giant

It seems gamers the world over are tiring of shooting aliens, saving empires and generally enjoying themselves. What they really want is to be factory managers, airport builders and company chairmen. Or so the endless stream of Tycoon-style game publishers would have us believe. Why go through the boredom of clawing your way through the soulless capitalist ladder in the real world when you can be just as bored on a computer?

Well, here's a news flash: building theme parks is fun, building hotels isn't. Although Hotel Giant is going for more depth than the standard industry sim by stealing as much as it can from The Sims, it will still drive any right-thinking individual to despair. Which is quite apt, since that is what hotels usually do.

To become this fabled Giant, you must complete a set of scenarios where you decorate, renovate and design every aspect of your hotel and keep the customers happy. This is all done through a pretty awful engine that lets you switch from the traditional isometric view to a first-person camera, making the whole thing even more of a voyeur simulator than usual. Not that the people here ever do anything interesting. Don't expect to emulate William Baldwin in the equally dire film Sliver. You won't find Sharon Stone fiddling with herself in any of your hotel's bathtubs. What you will find though, is a dreadful interface and a dull, pointless experience.