The patches have improved the game quite a bit, but I do agree with the original poster. The games release is much like Pirates! and did not live up to the expectations Sid Meier's name on the cover suggested.
Still, much like Pirates!, even though I am disappointed about some aspects of the game, I still enjoy playing them very much.
I just wish they were runnaway hits so expansion and/or sequels were gauranteed, unfortunately when many first impressions come out mediocre or bad, it kills a games "buzz" which in turn I think hurts sales. I think this happened to both games.
An open letter to Mr Meier and Firaxis
Don't know what the sales numbers look like for SMR yet, but Pirates quietly sold close to a million units and won numerous Game of the Year awards, despite being passed around and re-released between publishers in the midst of Atari's financial problems a year or two back.
Frankly, for SMR to be compared to Pirates is a compliment, at least as far as I'm concerned.
Sales expectations for SMR were not massive, considering the track record of the series and the potentially "niche" nature of the subject matter. That said, I still expect it will be a big Christmas seller.
Frankly, for SMR to be compared to Pirates is a compliment, at least as far as I'm concerned.
Sales expectations for SMR were not massive, considering the track record of the series and the potentially "niche" nature of the subject matter. That said, I still expect it will be a big Christmas seller.
Not sure if I actually meant it as a compliment...lol But I love Railroads, something at first play I could not say.
I am shocked Pirates sold that much, unless that is combo sales between PC and Xbox, I could see that. It is a very accessable game. My only disappointment with is it really did not grab me like the first version I played on a Commodore and then later on my Genesis. And the support for it just dropped because of the publisher problem. It really could use another functional patch. But I still play it, like CIV 4 it remains on my harddrive and gets reinstalled when I redo a Harddrive.
Railroads on the other hand has totally addicted me. I am still not sure why I kept playing when at first I really thought it was lacking. I mean the demo was shallow, but I got it anyway because I just kept wanting to play. After purchasing the full game, I was a bit irritated with performance (my PC is pretty stout, but this thing can still chug), the crashes bothered me some but most of a all I hated the routing. I also thought it was too easy to "win", so there was a real lack of satisfaction in the victory. But it grabbed me for some reason, so I upped the difficulty and kept playing and I started finding the depth that is usually found in Sid games. The patches have really made it more fun too.
I think you made a great game. It will remain a staple on my Hard drive like other Sid games. That is intended as a compliment.
I am shocked Pirates sold that much, unless that is combo sales between PC and Xbox, I could see that. It is a very accessable game. My only disappointment with is it really did not grab me like the first version I played on a Commodore and then later on my Genesis. And the support for it just dropped because of the publisher problem. It really could use another functional patch. But I still play it, like CIV 4 it remains on my harddrive and gets reinstalled when I redo a Harddrive.
Railroads on the other hand has totally addicted me. I am still not sure why I kept playing when at first I really thought it was lacking. I mean the demo was shallow, but I got it anyway because I just kept wanting to play. After purchasing the full game, I was a bit irritated with performance (my PC is pretty stout, but this thing can still chug), the crashes bothered me some but most of a all I hated the routing. I also thought it was too easy to "win", so there was a real lack of satisfaction in the victory. But it grabbed me for some reason, so I upped the difficulty and kept playing and I started finding the depth that is usually found in Sid games. The patches have really made it more fun too.
I think you made a great game. It will remain a staple on my Hard drive like other Sid games. That is intended as a compliment.