Traffic Giant (preview from the demo)

                         by Sue

At the time of writing, Traffic Giant hasn't been released but I
heard about it through a Net site. It took me 90 minutes to
download the 25 meg demo ... my biggest download so far. I was
pretty miffed to get an error when I tried to run it but all
became clear when I tried to run another demo and was told I
needed DirectX 7. Ah ha, maybe this was also the problem with
Traffic Giant. I installed DirectX 7, tried Traffic Giant again
and lo and behold, it worked. 10 points to me, minus 20 to JoWood
for not saying why the darn thing wouldn't run in the first place.

This could have been enough to put me off the game before I
started, but I had been looking forward to playing it so decided
to try to concentrate on being pleased that the game was now
working. Instructions were non existent and the JoWood site isn't
finished yet so I couldn't get any info there. All I knew was

Traffic Giant sounded like a superior version of Transport Tycoon,
which I had thoroughly enjoyed.

In the full game you can have a choice of the coloured livery for
your empire but in the demo it's red and like it. The only
resolution permitted is 800 by 600 - again the final version also
allows 1024 by 736 and 1280 by 1024. Sound can be on or off.

Several options on the main menu - including campaign and
multiplayer were disabled - so I selected Endless Game. There are
several difficulty levels - real model or simple model, beginner,
normal or professional, and entrepreneur or traffic
representative.  Any of these combinations are permitted. I
started with real model, beginner and entrepreneur. I was given a
choice of three opponents and selected the one with average
skills. However, the opponent never seemed to appear in the demo
so I guess this hasn't been implemented.

The map provided is of a small town called Finchville, population
4,864. It is described as a simple town with few traffic problems.
Evidently towns in the full game can contain up to 40,000
inhabitants. Selecting Play loads first the buildings then the
inhabitants are 'born'. I liked it already! Though the final game
has buses, trams and trains, you can only control buses and trams
in the demo. And there's no save in the demo either. There are
various criteria to meet according to the level you set - company
value, coverage, company image and traffic reduction. I tried
building a bus route, clicking on various icons, but nothing
seemed to happen.

Suddenly it dawned on me how the game worked. Selecting New Line,
you click on the road where you want the new route to start, then
mark out the route by clicking on the road along the path you want
the bus to take. Having closed the route by clicking on the start
point again, you check the OK button.

Next buy your buses. Several are available from small capacity
cheaper models to ones which take more passengers but cost more
money. I found it hard to remember which route my bus was going to
take (maybe there's a button I missed?) so I then set one bus
running, selected the icon for adding a bus stop and followed the
bus round its route, adding stops where I thought they were
needed. If two buses go past the same stop, then they share the
stop. People can also change routes at these points.  Can't decide
where to put a new route? Use the Information button to click on
an office block, for instance, and it will highlight in green.
Other buildings will go red showing where the workers come from.
The text box shows how they get there ... at first, all will
travel by car as there's no alternative. you'll know you're doing
well when more people use public transport.

Stops are identified by a tag showing the route number, the number
of people waiting and a smiley face which indicates the happiness
rating of the passengers. Buses are identified by tags showing
their route number and how full they are.  Tram routes are laid
out similarly but cost a lot more! œ200K for a tram compared to
œ15K for the cheapest bus and that's on top of the cost of laying
the tram lines. On the other hand, trams are cool because they
seem to take partial priority over cars so don't get so held
up by traffic.

I was enthralled by the amount of detail in Traffic Giant. Adding
to what I mentioned earlier, selecting any building tells you how
many people live there, their age groups, how they travel and so
on. It also shows what buildings they travel to for work,
shopping, school etc. All the people are shown visually, as are
all the cars, regardless of magnification, unlike SimCity which
only shows them at the highest magnification. You can run
advertising campaigns to increase your company's popularity should
that seem to wane.

I'd assumed that the demo would run until you exited, because it
is called an 'endless' demo. Not so. In fact it only runs for four
game years, though the actual scenario would last for more
depending on the difficulty levels you set. When the demo ends, it
throws up a screen about "The full game contains" ... etc, which
is evidently 30 endless games, 15 missions and over 25 vehicles. 
I'll be off to PC World to buy it as soon as it comes out. 
Personally, I can't wait it's great fun and v-e-r-y addictive.
                              - o -