If you have seen Steven Soderbergh’s Oscar-worthy epic Traffic, you'd be forgiven to believe that this game is a role-playing saga that let’s you be a Mexican drug lord. However Traffic Giant is in fact, literally, a simulation of…traffic. More to the point, a sim putting you in charge of urban ... Read review
Advantages: Colorful, complex, and intelligent Disadvantages: Inability to sell ad space on your vehicles is a major bummer
...a Mexican drug lord. However Traffic Giant is in fact, literally, a simulation of…traffic. More to the point, a sim putting you in charge of urban mass transit management.
Wait! Don’t stop reading just yet! Actually, Traffic Giant turns out to be surprisingly engrossing. Though shamelessly derivative of earlier classics (namely SimCity and the Railroad Tycoon titles), it’s a good-looking, finely balanced, well-designed management game ... ...include reducing the city’s total traffic problem, expanding mass transit coverage to the widest practical limits, and making a profit.
The most challenging task is persuading the citizens to give up their private cars in favor of your bus, tram, or monorail lines. It’s a gradual and subtle process -- if it takes twice as long to reach a destination by bus as it does by car, the citizens will say "No, thanks" and the streets ... more
If you have seen Steven Soderbergh’s Oscar-worthy epic Traffic, you'd be forgiven to believe that this game is a role-playing saga that let’s you be a Mexican drug lord. However Traffic Giant is in fact, literally, a simulation of…traffic. More to the point, a sim putting you in charge of urban mass transit management.
Wait! Don’t stop reading just yet! Actually, Traffic Giant turns out to be surprisingly engrossing. Though shamelessly derivative of earlier classics (namely SimCity and the Railroad Tycoon titles), it’s a good-looking, finely balanced, well-designed management game with a distinct identity of its own.
Although specific mission parameters change with each new city map, your goals are always variations on the basic challenge: to provide safe, reliable transportation services for your city’s inhabitants, so they can get to and from their schools, offices, shopping centers, and recreational facilities. Corollary objectives include reducing the city’s total traffic problem, expanding mass transit coverage to the widest practical limits, and making a profit.
The most challenging task is persuading the citizens to give up their private cars in favor of your bus, tram, or monorail lines. It’s a gradual and subtle process -- if it takes twice as long to reach a destination by bus as it does by car, the citizens will say "No, thanks" and the streets will remain clogged. So your chief concern is to trim the commute time.
Proper route planning is the key. When you’ve figured out a logical line from residential zones to destinations, start positioning the stops. As you move the cursor in this mode, all the areas that can be served by a given location are highlighted, making it relatively easy to determine how many stops you need for maximum coverage. Next, simply trace the intended route with the cursor, making sure it forms a closed loop (you’ll be able to tell the route is viable when the red planning arrow turns green).
Then you purchase buses, or trams (or mag-grav railroads, if you have the money and the city’s big enough to justify their use), assign them to lines, stagger their timing so there’s a reasonable interval between stops, and you’re in business.
There are many numerous and sometimes ingenious ways for you to fine-tune your network -- and each city has a different dynamic, a different "feel." The cause/effect correlations can be very subtle, but you can always see their impact either on the streets or on your company’s balance sheet.
Speaking of which, there is a column under "Earnings" that’s reserved for advertising revenue (posters on the buses), but unfortunately this didn’t make it into the published game, so your only source of steady income is passenger fares -- making it needlessly hard to achieve a robust bottom line.
That aside, the graphics are colorful and lively (though you may want to shut off the incessant raucous noises as well as the fuzzy, utterly pointless video clips), and the interface is tight and crisp.
There’s still one major problem, of course: it is possible that you will find the subject matter about as appealing as being caught in rush-hour gridlock. But as I said, I found Traffic Giant much more entertaining than I bargained for, and if you have even a glancing interest in the subject of urban mass transit like me, you should certainly give this game a try.
Advantages: Addictive, stunning graphics, plenty of variety Disadvantages: Time consuming, memory hungry
My son bought me "Verkehrsgigant" on a visit to Germany and I haven't been the same since!!!
Tremendous graphics, you start off by developing a small bus route and watching your money carefully and, if your good and the people of the city like what you're doing, you very quickly find money growing out of your ears!!!
From buses, you develop Tram systems and, as the coinage rolls in, you go on to U-Bahn, S-Bahn and monorail systems.
There are so ... ...and the animations in the cities are first-class - YOU CAN'T GET BORED IF YOU'RE A SERIOUS SIMMER!!!
In my sum-up, I said the game was difficult - that's probably 'cos I've got German instructions!!!
If you want a quick shot or to download the demo, go to www.verkehrsgigant.com or www.jowood.com ...
BEALINE 24.08.2000
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Traffic Giant (PC)
Advantages: Graphics,.....EVERYTHING! Disadvantages: Some slow down :-(
...pops out at you, its TRAFFIC GIANT!
The screen on the box look great and the descriptions sound cool too.....(Enought of this crap!)....The game really is that damn good, many games look great on the box but really look crap, this one looks good anyway. I personally love managment sims and like this one the most.
The overall game is just great - great graphics, great gameplay, great cutscenes, great sound and its really addictive!
If you really ... ...the graphics aid its playability a lot! The streets and vehicles look almost real and easy to navigate options make it very addictive. The range of vehicles is average but this is not important when you look at the games other goold points.
The sound is great too and its not annoying which it is on most sim games! The navigation of the game screen is very simple and easy to get going. The game revolves around 'Lines' which you can basically call ...
dmacca 07.02.2001
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Traffic Giant (PC)
Advantages: Graphics, playability Disadvantages: Memory Hungary, get into trouble with my mum for playing it for hours!
...while. With Verkehrs or Traffic Giant as it is known in England, this isn't the case. It is great fun although I am still trying to work everything out as our manual is in German - one of the few disadvantages of buying the game in Germany.
A great Sim which I highly recommend, it does, as my father said, saps your memory but if you have the computer - which sadly we do not... YET - then it is well worth your cash, especially if you like this type ...
fiisch 24.08.2000
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Traffic Giant (PC)
Traffic Giant is a game for the p.c., which is similar to Sim City and Theme Hospital/ Park. The aim is to reduce traffic pollution in a big city. It is quite addictive and it does take a while to complete it but you never get bored of it. The only bad thing is, is that there is a limited choice of vehicles and you do not get a lot of money to start with. The music is a down side to the game as all you hear is a simple sound track and horns beeping. ...
somebodyrandom 21.08.2000
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Traffic Giant (PC)
Advantages: Playability, graphics, sounds realistic Disadvantages: Memory heavy, accidents occur when loading a saved game
Traffic Giant is a product that comes originally from Germany and Austria. And i'm soo glad that they brought out an English version! The basic aim is to operate a transport network, that usually integrates with other transport forms (e.g. bus and tram routes etc.)
Graphics-wise is the game very good. The high-quality graphics are very good to look at and are highly detailed, right down to the pedestrians on the street walking along. But I would ... ...with the quality.
Playing it isn't tough, after you have got into it. I still haven't got the full grasp of the game at the moment, and it is still a learning process. Bus routes are quite easy to create, tram routes a little more strenuous and features such as city railroads and Maglev trains take some working out.
The game can get very fast paced at times, and you must keep looking at every area of the map to establish the most busy routes. At ...
Mattnottm 16.04.2001
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Traffic Giant (PC)
![Back To The Old School (Parental Advisory) [PA] - Just Ice](http://imagesb.ciao.com/iuk/images/icons/no_pic_generic_S.gif){kind=icon}
