The game comes on two CDS, a Play CD and an Installation CD. Insert the Installation CD, run the installer, and your will be set to play.

Railroad Tycoon 3 starts off with you starting a rail company with some of your own money, and some money from rich investors. Place a couple train stations, lay some rail between them, and buy a train. Your train will automatically start hauling cargo, and hopefully making your company money. Of course, the fun doesn't stop there. All Aboard!

The first thing you will notice upon playing this game is the incredible graphics. The low system requirements seem to indicate that the visuals will be blocky or 2D. But that is certainly not the case. The camera allows you to rotate, zoom, and pan around a fully 3D environment. Everything looks great from the trains, to the trees, and even the buildings. Bodies of water will reflect their surrounds, storms will brew up complete with lightning, and geese will honk while flying over head. All of this combines to create a game that is extremely pleasing to look at.

Once the initial awe wears off, you can get to actually playing the game. There are three main methods of play: scenario, campaign, and sandbox. The campaign mode is simply playing all the built in scenarios under the same name, so it's not really any different the scenario mode. In sandbox games, all the economics are turned off, allowing you to build extravagant railroads without having to worry about your pockets. Sandbox also provides terra-forming tools so you can morph the landscape into your wildest dreams.

To me, the sandbox it neat to play once or twice, but there is no challenge, so I almost always play scenarios. Each scenario puts you in a different time/place, with various milestones to achieve bronze, silver, and gold medals. Furthermore, scenarios can have different rulesets, including only laying connected track, or only starting one business at a time. One thing I don't like about the scenarios is how long they are. They all took at least 3 hours, which is often too long for one sitting. I would have liked if some of the scenarios were built to last only an hour or two.

Railroad Tycoon 3 provides you with a variety of materials for learning how to succeed in the scenarios. There is the tutorial, a beginner's guide (which is basically the same as the tutorial in written form), a reference guide, and a table of locomotives/industries. That's a far stretch from most games which barely provide a manual. Unfortunately, not all of these resources are very helpful. The industry side of the table is hard to understand, and the beginner's guide/tutorial are a little too basic. At least the reference guide is very in depth and will be of use throughout the game.

Once you have learned how to play, and become a little more experienced, you will begin to appreciate all that this game has to offer. For instance, there are 55 different train types. Sometimes you have to choose what kind (steam, diesel, electric) you want to use, taking a penalty for the wrong choice. Plus, there are over 40 different cargo types to keep track of (connect the correct stations to haul the most profitable cargo). What's really nice is that the computer automatically takes control of what cargo is the best for that particular route. Of course, you can tell it to pick only certain types, but why would you want to mess with "perfection?"

Besides hauling lumber, coal, toys, and passengers from city to city, you also get to purchase stocks, build hotels, and start up factories. Furthermore, you can buy farms and other automatically built industrial buildings to try to help bolster your bottom line. Be careful though, if you build in the wrong spot or buy the wrong building, your overall profits can drop sharply.

Another unexpected aspect to Railroad Tycoon 3 is the stock market. Your company, and the other railroad companies are put on the stock market for investors. You can buy and sell stocks with the wages you make from running your company, to try and build your personal wealth to unprecedented levels. You can even perform such maneuvers as buying on margin or short selling to try to put your competitors out of business.

Speaking of competitors, you are not the only railroad entrepreneur in the game. You can play against the computer AI or against your friends on a LAN or over the Internet. This is very different from most simulation games, where you are the only player, just trying to keep your underlings happy. It can be extremely fun playing against other people, and a good challenge playing against the artificial intelligence.

Another nice contribution to the game is a map/scenario editor. When you get sick of the 16 included scenarios, you can break out this tool to build your own world complete with mountains, rivers, cities, farms, and your favorite cargos. If you aren't inclined to make your own maps, you may be able to find maps created by others available on the Internet. In fact, MacSoft did just that, and included the Coast-To-Coast set of maps free with the game (so you don't have to download it).

Unfortunately, the most glaring problem with this game is the relatively confusing interface. The buttons all look alike, so I often find myself hovering over a button to wait for the tooltip to appear before using it. Also, if there is a scroll bar on the right edge, good luck using it without panning the map. Moreover, sometimes the cost of something is shown in regular dollars, and sometimes it is shown in thousands of dollars. It would be nice to have consistency. But most of all, it took me a long time to find the "query" tool used to select buildings and see information about things on the map. To get the query tool, you must un-select all of the middle nine buttons, so the cursor turns into a railroad spike. It would be nice if there were a specific query tool button. Thankfully the game is good, or these kind of inadequacies could have ruined it.

I did encounter two problems with the game. Sometimes the mouse cursor would "stick." That is, if you were panning the map, and a pop up message appeared, the scrolling mouse pointer would still be used. It usually took clicking on a couple different places to get rid of it.

The other issue I had was with one of my mouse buttons. I have this particular button set to Exposè's Show Desktop feature. If I click it, I can no longer hold down the right mouse button to rotate the camera. I have to quit the game and relaunch to gain back this control. If you have any mouse buttons set to an Exposè command, be wary that they may interfere with in game controls.

Railroad Tycoon 3 is much more fun than I was expecting. Although there is a relatively low number of scenarios, you can play a single scenario multiple times and have a different experience each time. A good game for all simulation gamers, not just those that like railroads.

Pros	Cons
Spectacular graphics Campaign and Scenario mode let you play the same game with different rules and objectives Sandbox mode brings you back to your model train days Two printed manuals, a tutorial, and a locomotive/industry reference table Many different locomotive/cargo/financial options You can have complete control, or let the computer decide the best cargo to transport Play against computer opponents all vying for the title of supreme railroad manager Multiplayer allows for games against others on a LAN or over the Internet Stock market adds an extra layer of game-play Economic conditions and technological advances will have a major effect on the games Map/Scenario editor included	Scenarios are all at least 3 hours long (no quick games) Tutorial is kind of lacking Interface can be somewhat confusing Only 16 included scenarios
8/10 stars