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PAGES HomeMessageboards- coming soon! FAQ coming soon! Number of visitors to this site since September 2004:
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NEWS 15th February 2005 Disregard After yesterdays hack attack, the old messageboards were lost. Or so I thought, so I spent a long time setting up YABB2 Beta (still unstable) and I recovered only part of the data, alot was lost... but I've got the boards at Yabb1 working now, so until YABB2 is working properly, we can continue at YABB1 (which was the original plan). So go here for the boards 9th February 2005 Messageboards Back The Messageboards were down for about 24 hours due to an issue related to scripting on the server. The host of expressworldforum.com has now successfully addressed the issue and the boards are back as normal. Sorry for the unscheduled downtime, but the issue was out of our control! 6h February 2005 February Challenge The new February challenge is now up and running over at the Messageboards. Click here for details Thanks to all those who took part in the January challenge. Good luck everyone this month! Site News Everything is now settled in following the move. Also, we have a new site logo, and a fantastic new look for the boards, curtsey of board member Saed! Thanks alot... Also the links on this page to certain areas of the board have been fixed. Also, you can now post your bug reports here. The Wishlists: Today's Best! What do you want to see in Locomotion's sequel, expansion pack or patch update? Well, we are collecting all the ideas together, and they will regularly be sent of to a representative of Chris Sawyer and to Atari! Click here to add your voice Here is the best idea for this
update: (From Garp) 25th January 2005 Messageboards Moved! New Address... As promised, the new Locomotion UK Forums have been launched at their new address. Its been along time coming, we've
finally broken free and set up our own show. 20th January 2005 Welcome! A welcome to all readers new and old. Locomotion UK has opened its doors at its new home, the Strategyplanet Network! Enjoy the site! Theres lots more to come as we will be adding new content very soon. As side note, the Messageboard has not yet moved. That will hopefully be occurring within the next few days. Watch this space for information. 14th January 2005 Locomotion UK To Join Gamespy Its my pleasure to finally inform you
of a major development for the Locomotion UK website. 31st December 2004 Happy New Year A happy new year to all our readers, may you have a a night of fun! As a side note, please support the Tsunami disaster relief fund set up by the British Red Cross. Details can be found here 26th December 2004 (Boxing Day) Merry Christmas A belated Merry Christmas to all our readers out there, hope you all had a fun day no matter how you spend the day! I hope you like the new look for the site. It still needs some improvements in places, which should be implemented soon! And a little announcement, that Messageboard moderator Chris (aka timthebadger) has now been promoted to Co-Administrator, and will be focusing on the operation of the messageboards! Congratulations! Challenge Messageboard member Severous has launched a challenge! For more details click here The Wishlists: Today's Best! What do you want to see in Locomotion's sequel, expansion pack or patch update? Well, we are collecting all the ideas together, and they will regularly be sent of to a representative of Chris Sawyer and to Atari! Click here to add your voice Here is the best idea for this
update: (From BaknBlack) 14th December 2004 Vehicle Database V2 Version 2 of the Vehicle Database has just gone live! The new version includes printable .pdf files, and an easy to navigate structure amongst the improvements. To access the Vehicle Database, click here. Again, many thanks to Tim Decker for this! The Wishlists: Today's Best! What do you want to see in Locomotion's sequel, expansion pack or patch update? Well, we are collecting all the ideas together, and they will regularly be sent of to a representative of Chris Sawyer and to Atari! Click here to add your voice Here is the best idea for this
update: (From TransportQueen) 30th November 2004 Vehicle Database A new, and vast database concerning all the vehicles in the game has been added to the site today. To access the Vehicle Database, click here. The Vehicle Database was created by LocoUK reader Tim Decker. Many thanks go out to him for this info. The Wishlists: Today's Best! What do you want to see in Locomotion's sequel, expansion pack or patch update? Well, we are collecting all the ideas together, and they will regularly be sent of to a representative of Chris Sawyer and to Atari! Click here to add your voice Here is the best idea for this update: (From AdmiralGT) (i) Bridges being
able to have a gradient when in the diagonal direction 14th November 2004 Patched Released: V1.76 A long awaited event occurred today, Atari USA has issued a patch for Chris Sawyer's Locomotion. The patch brings the game to V1.76, and is 2mb in size. To download Chris Sawyer's Locomotion v1.76 Patch, click here The patch will update any version of the game apparently! Here are the changes made:
13th November 2004 Progress Good news on the front of the Scenario Centre... the new user upload/download service should be entering the full testing phase any time now. To use the service, you must be a registered member of our Messageboard. Although the Messageboard allows guest posting (at this time), only registered users will be able to use this service. To begin the signup service, click here As of the moment, there isn't a great deal of news, but the new scenario service should help things! The Wishlists: Today's Best! What do you want to see in Locomotion's sequel, expansion pack or patch update? Well, we are collecting all the ideas together, and they will regularly be sent of to a representative of Chris Sawyer and to Atari! Click here to add your voice Here is the best idea for this update: (from Punar) Another thing that
could make the passenger service a bit more realistic would be if the
station rating depended on the distance to the stopping vehicle's
destinations. There could be 4 rating variables instead of 1. One for
local traffic (less than 15 squares, perfect for buses, value of this
would be 0-60%), one for medium distance traffic (15-50 squares, this
one would be 0-30%), one for long distance (more than 50 squares, this
could be 0-10%), and one that just adds those three up. The latter one
is the one shown when you look at the stations rating. So when a
vehicle stops on a station, the game engine would look at the
vehicle's other destinations. If the vehicle also stops at a station
less than 15 squares away, the local rating would increase. If it has
a stop 100 squares away, the long distance rating would increase.
Got an idea? add your voice 28th October 2004 New Scenarios The scenario centre is still in development, but very soon you will be able to upload your own scenarios here. For now you can email them to expressworld@hotmail.com and I iwll host them here for free. So, here are is a new scenario for you: Greater Choice Land (480kb) The Wishlists What do you want to see in Locomotion's sequel, expansion pack or patch update? Well, we are collecting all the ideas together, and they will regularly be sent of to a representative of Chris Sawyer and to Atari! Click here to add your voice Also, soon we will begin show casing the best ideas on a regular feature on the site. 19th October 2004 Messageboards This is just a quick update for everyone really, you may or may not know I have been seriously ill this last week, and I'm on the mend but not quite there. Proper updates resume in a day or two. But for now, head over to the Messageboard, where we're looking for your thoughts on our forthcoming scenario upload service. Also, why not fill in our bug report! Anyways, I'll cya all on the other side of this illness! (will be back up to speed in a day or so I promise) 14th October 2004 FAQ A new feature running on the messageboards, that has proven to be popular. To view it click here More Reviews Got numerous review links today, so here goes: ... Enjoy! 6th October 2004 Delays Sorry for the delays to updates these last few days. I've been seriously ill (still got a way to go to recover) and I've also had to attend university around this. Things are settling down now, so hopefully everything should be back to a new normal now. Just want to say thanks to dotbob and timthebadger for keeping an eye on the site and messageboards during my absence! I have recieved several new scenarios, they will go up in the next update. And we hope to launch our personal upload service in the near future Avault Review The AVAULT site has issues their review, grab it here (it gets 3 out of 5 stars) And the extract: There are five levels of difficulty in the single-player mode - beginner, easy, medium, challenger, and expert - with pre-made scenarios clustered in each category. On one end of the difficulty scale, you might just have to connect a few towns on flat open land, while on the other end of the scale you might have to run a highly complex transport network among multiple cities through uneven and rugged topography. The in-game tutorial helps a lot in getting newcomers used to the management required. An unexpectedly professionally produced full size manual, both highly detailed and well illustrated, also helps out quite a bit. The artificial intelligence of your computer-controlled opponents is a lot more sophisticated than that in the original Transport Tycoon, but it is still far from perfect. The biggest problem revolves around pathfinding: many of the other companies' vehicles, especially ships, can go astray and even get stuck if they have the slightest corner-turning deviation from a straight-line path.
29th September 2004 Messageboard Hits 500! Great news: In the month since Locomotion UK launched, we have had over 500 posts on our messageboard! I'd just like to say a great big thanks to everyone who has posted, and helped create a small community for Locomotion fans! We could not have done it with out you. Also, a big thanks to our two staff moderators Timthebadger (creator of our strategy guides) & Dotbob (currently developing a new upload/download service for map files). Gamespot Review Gamespot has finally issued their review of Locomotion, giving the game a 6.8 Fair rating. To read the review, click here. Here is an extract: Locomotion also has some of the same path finding issues that plagued Transportation Tycoon--it's possible to watch a vehicle go in circles because it can't find a path to its destination or there's a slight break in the roadway that you didn't notice. It also shares one of the annoying aspects of Transport Tycoon in that your trains and airplanes can use only your own facilities. So instead of municipalities building airports that all competitors can use or numerous companies using the same rail lines, each company has to build its own, exclusive airports and rail lines. Since real estate is at a premium in the game, it's almost silly to see the transportation infrastructure overshadow the actual cities at times. As noted earlier, Locomotion uses an enhanced version of the graphics engine that was used in Transport Tycoon a decade earlier. It's a bit more colorful, and there are a few more building styles, but you have to look hard at times to tell the difference between the two. Admittedly, the focus in Chris Sawyer games is less on graphical style and more on gameplay, but Locomotion feels very much like an anachronism. The only good news is that the game is playable on a very wide range of systems, and even older systems shouldn't have much trouble with it. The sound and music are also throwbacks to an earlier age--while enthusiastic, there's no masking their synthesizer-like nature. 27th September 2004 Company Owner Editor Atari has issued a file allowing allowing modification of the transportation-based management strategy game with 3D terrain by the eponymous developer. To download the file, click here (312 kb) The file allows you to edit the properties of company managers within the game, and to add new ones! Site Developments Locomotion UK has been open for almost a month, and we've almost had 15,000 visitors in this short space of time! I'd just like to say a quick thanks to all our visitors for supporting the site. A new look for the site is in development, and will hopefully be implemented soon. The new look will include the new Scenario Centre, where it will be possible for you to upload and download your own Scenarios as and when you wish. Review Another update, another review! To read this one, click here and here is the usual extract: Just like TTDX, Locomotion is a transport simulation. You play as the owner of a transport company and it's up to you to build your empire of cargo in a generally tycoonish way. To do so, you have trains, busses, planes, and ships at your disposal to purchase. You will build complex rail and road networks to move the goods. You will build stations, passenger terminals, docks and airports. Every time you deliver a load of cargo or passengers, you get paid. The more you get paid, the more you can augment your vehicle fleet. Simple as that. But it's not that easy. As mundane as it looks, there's an art to the whole thing behind the seemingly simple appearances. For example, you could choose to specialize your company in a particular type of vehicle. Or you can play jack of all trades, using the right vehicle for the right job. Each type of vehicle has its own virtues and defects which you'll have to learn and master. Take trains, for example (incidentally, my favorite). Trains allow you to move potentially vast amounts of cargo, safely and at a speed second only to airplanes. Which means big bucks. That's what makes them attractive. However, it's definitely the hardest specialization to choose, because it's not simply a matter of laying track and that's it. You will have to negotiate steep or difficult terrain, while having to pay for every single piece of track that you lay. Normal rail on flat terrain being the cheapest, angled curves over mountainous or sloped terrain being the most expensive. Track laying can quickly become a very expensive proposition without proper terrain surveying and route planning. There's also the matter of building stations to load/unload the cargo, buying the engines and wagons themselves and possibly installing signals along the track. Everything costs just a little bit and, if you're careless, you may end up having to wait a long time for that route to recoup the initial investment. Or worse, you may find yourself without enough cash to buy the actual train after laying a route. Ouch. 26th September 2004 Gamespy Review Another review of Locomotion is out. It is not exactly a glowing review of the game, but it has an interesting argument as to why the low score is justified. To read it click here Here is an extract: Or, it would
be the game's greatest fun, if the graphics weren't so astonishingly
ugly. I'm not a graphics junkie, and I've always believed that
gameplay trumps graphics every time, but even if you could set aside
the circa-1996 graphics technology, Locomotion is a remarkably
unattractive game even from an art design perspective. (thanks to messageboard user Koen) There is a discussion of this review located on the messageboard. To add your comments click here New Scenario We have a new fan made scenario for downloading today. Click here to download. Its called greenvanta islands challenge. I'm exploring ideas to allow direct user upload, and download of map files, but I know little about this particular device, so if anyone has any ideas drop me and email to expressworld@hotmail.com For now, we will host all scenarios that you send us. Simply attach them to an email and direct them to expressworld@hotmail.com or kingjambo@gmail.com. 22nd September 2004 The Newbie Guide - Part 1 [Exclusive] Following on from our recent strategy guide, we begin the first of a new series today aimed at the new player. The guide is based around the use of buses. To read the guide head to the Strategy Guide - Anyone who wishes to create a strategy guide, we will gladly host them free of charge, the same applies to scenarios... We will have a new scenario up for download tomorrow. Send them to expressworld@hotmail.com Chris Sawyer Interview HomeLanFed has published a very interesting interview with Locomotion creator Chris Sawyer. To read it all, click here Here is an extract: HomeLAN - The game has now been out for a little while now. What has the reaction been like so far? Chris Sawyer - I think it’s been quite a quiet start for the game, but I always expected that – Locomotion doesn’t have the flashy 3D graphics of most modern games and it’s much easier to advertise and promote something good looking rather than something which plays well. I expect interest in the game will build as time goes by and people appreciate the depth and richness of the gameplay – Remember that RollerCoaster Tycoon also had a quiet start and look how successful that became. HomeLAN - Are there any plans for you to create add-ons for Locomotion at some point? Chris Sawyer - There are all sorts of possibilities and the game was designed to be expandable, but it really depends on the success of the game and whether we can come up with an add-on design which players would really appreciate and enjoy. HomeLAN
- For your next stand alone game, what plans do you currently have? Chris Sawyer - At the moment I’m still ‘winding down’ after finishing Locomotion, and in fact there are still some exciting developments spinning off from the Locomotion project which may or may not come to fruition. As for another new stand-alone game, we’ll have to see – Games are getting so large and so complex nowadays that I’m not sure I’ll be able to create another game virtually single-handedly like I’ve done with all my games so far. But then again if I find a new subject which really inspires me as much as roller coasters and transport have, I might create something completely new. 14th September 2004 Watch [Revised 14/9/04] - Slight revision to inform you that PLAY UK do apparently ship internationally, however free postage and packing only applies to UK Mainland orders, and custom duties may apply for packages sent overseas. Locomotion hits the stores in the UK this Friday (10th September). I will be running an occasional item keeping you up to date on the prices at various online stores for the game. Here is the first round up: Play.com £14.99 BEST DEAL! (I've ordered my copy here, also includes free delivery, 3-5 days, and note, its not out till Friday, but they have already dispatched the game) Amazon UK £24.99 (a tad expensive since the games R.R.P is £20 - also free delivery 3-5 days) Gameplay - £17.99 (Reasonable price, and a very reputable company) Out of the above, only Amazon UK & PLAY UK will ship internationally. - In addition to the price watch article from yesterday, I now have information that the game will receive a simultaneous release in the USA and Europe this Friday. The USA RRP is $29.99. Please note Atari has yet to confirm any of this information. ARS Review Another review today is to be found at the ARS site. To read it click here (thanks to Bart Kost for this one) - if you spot a review we haven't posted, email us to tell us so and it will go up here! Here is an extract Another one of these moments, for me and for a whole bunch of other crazies, was playing Transport Tycoon Deluxe (TTDX), way back in those distant and foggy DOS days. It wasn't a perfect game by any stretch of the imagination, but it was a game that got most things right. It just clicked. You felt at home immediately. The fact that it came out in 1995 and I still fire it up every now and then today should say something. So, naturally, when I heard that almost ten years later we were going to have a sequel for TTDX — also made by Chris Sawyer and not just any clown that happened to buy the rights or something — I was ecstatic. I stripped naked, put on a pirate hat and began to run laps around our apartment complex at 3 a.m., yelling "En Taro Adun!" with my fists crisped in the air. Then my wife gently reminded me of the possible benefits of divorce (benefits for her, mostly), which served to calm me down a little. 12th September 2004 Trainer For those of you who like to cheat, or are struggling with the game a little, I've found a trainer program that allows infinite money to be used. Please note I have not test it to see if it works. Click here to download Locomotion Money Trainer Messageboards Though there isn't a great deal of news today, I thought I'd just post a invitation for all our visitors to post on our Messageboard (which is hosted by our parent site Express World). TrainSim Review Found another independent review from the TrainSim website. The game scored 94% in a very favorable review. Click here to read it Here is an extract: There can be little doubt that with Locomotion, Chris Sawyer and his small team have succeeded in pulling off a worthy sequel to Transport Tycoon. The game is very addictive and just has so many nuances and nice little touches it seems almost churlish to find any faults. Tremendous entertainment value and with a recommended retail price in the mid-range easy on the pocket too. The only issues I would like to see addressed via any add pack that might come out are:
11th September 2004 Review A very quick review of the game can be found at ServerSpy. Click here to read Strategy Guide A new section of the site has launched today, which will feature stratgy guides for the game. Click here to enter the strategy guide section This section launches with the following guide (written by Tim The Badger) Extending Stations - A tutorial to aid the construction of stations in Locomotion! If you have written a tutorial / got strategy tips email them to me at expressworld@hotmail.com 9th September Got The Game Despite not being officially released until tomorrow, I received my copy of Locomotion through the post today courtesy of Play.com. Here are a few first impressions I posted on the Messageboard: Just played one of
the beginner scenarios - weather Ville I believe... enjoyed it alot!
Just played to get to grips with the control system. Downloads: 2 New Scenarios I believe this may be a worlds first, but here are two new downloads for Locomotion, scenarios. One is an adapted version of the UK challange that comes with the games, with an added city, extra industries and modified goals. The other is another map I put together quickly called "The First Locomotion UK Challange" Simply extract the .SC5 file included into the Scenarios folder of the directory where you installed Locomotion Click here to download The UK 100 Year Challenge Click here to download Locomotion UK Challenge Map 8th September Messageboards Though there isn't a great deal of news today, I thought I'd just post a invitation for all our visitors to post on our Messageboard (which is hosted by our parent site Express World). Price Watch [UPDATE] - In addition to the price watch article from yesterday, I now have information that the game will receive a simultaneous release in the USA and Europe this Friday. The USA RRP is $29.99. Please note Atari has yet to confirm any of this information. Locomotion hits the stores in the UK this Friday (10th September). I will be running an occasional item keeping you up to date on the prices at various online stores for the game. Here is the first round up: Play.com £14.99 BEST DEAL! (I've ordered my copy here, also includes free delivery, 3-5 days, and note, its not out till Friday, but they have already dispatched the game) Amazon UK £24.99 (a tad expensive since the games R.R.P is £20 - also free delivery 3-5 days) Gameplay - £17.99 (Reasonable price, and a very reputable company) Out of the above, only Amazon UK will ship internationally. 7th September 1000 I was surprised to visit the site today to see we have already had over 1000 visitors to the site in such a short amount of time! Its great to see there is big interest in this game. The game is out Friday, so we shall be adding scenario downloads as soon as they are available. Price Watch Locomotion hits the stores in the UK this Friday (10th September). I will be running an occasional item keeping you up to date on the prices at various online stores for the game. Here is the first round up: Play.com £14.99 BEST DEAL! (I've ordered my copy here, also includes free delivery, 3-5 days, and note, its not out till Friday, but they have already dispatched the game) Amazon UK £24.99 (a tad expensive since the games R.R.P is £20 - also free delivery 3-5 days) Gameplay - £17.99 (Reasonable price, and a very reputable company) Out of the above, only Amazon UK will ship internationally. 5th September Demo Released! I wasn't going to bother updating this weekend, given my birthday, but they went and released the Demo yesterday, so here we are with an update! The demo is available in two forms, with or without music. The no music version can be downloaded directly from this site, the version including music can be downloaded from 3D Gamers. (we may host the +music version here very soon) Click here to download Chris Sawyer's Locomotion Demo [No Music] (29.9mb) - Locomotion UK Click here to download Chris Sawyer's Locomotion Demo [With Music] (124mb) 3D Gamers - Next update will be September 7th as previously planned! 2nd September Reaching 21 There will be no updates after today, until 7th September, as it is my 21st Birthday on Saturday, so I've got a hell of alot of partying to do, starting tonight! I'll see you all on the other side of my 5 day hang over!! System Requirements Atari has released these minimum system requirements to operate the game: Operating System:
Windows® 98/Me/2000/XP Game Features Page Added A new page has been added to the site, the Game Features page! More content will be added soon. And just to note, the game is only a week away from it's UK release. Gamespy Hands-On GameSpy has released a hands-on preview of Locomotion! To read it, click here Here is an extract: The biggest difference between running an amusement park and a transportation conglomerate, though, is that in Locomotion, the world isn't your sandbox anymore. Now, you're not only struggling to keep the red ink out of your company's bottom line, you're also competing against up to 14 other simulated transport companies. These other companies will attempt to beat you out of profitable routes, undercut you in valuable markets, and generally drive you into the poorhouse. If that's not enough, the game also sports a two-player mode that will allow players over the 'Net to attempt to financially disembowel each other.
After playing the
title for several hours, it certainly seems like Sawyer's penchant
for addictive gameplay is back in full force in Locomotion.
The game sports 40 pre-designed scenarios ranging in difficulty from
the easy task of connecting three small cities on a tiny island to
the gargantuan challenge of running railroads and highways through
the Swiss Alps. Should that not prove challenging enough, the game
also allows players to try an unlimited number of randomly generated
scenarios. Locomotion's playfield represents three different
areas of the world, North America, Britain, and Alpine regions, each
with their own attendant difficulties, challenges, and advantages.
29th August 2004 Game Trailer A trailer has also been released for Locomotion. Click here for a link at the 3D Gamers site. Gamespot Hands-on Gamespot have put out another preview of Locomotion! This time its a hands on preview, click here for a read! Here is an extract: Many of the gameplay mechanics remain virtually unchanged from Transport Tycoon. For instance, all vehicles that you purchase are going to age over time. The older the vehicle, the less reliable it becomes; the less reliable it is, the more often it breaks down. If you have a complex and interconnected transportation network, even the slightest breakdown can cause a chain reaction to ripple through the network and create delays. Eventually you'll need to replace an obsolete vehicle, preferably with a newer model with more speed, capacity, and reliability. While you could repair and maintain vehicles in Transport Tycoon, it appears that Sawyer removed this functionality in Locomotion, probably in an attempt to reduce micromanagement. The good news is that for those of you who remember the constant airplane crashes in Transport Tycoon, planes no longer crash in Locomotion. Or, if they do happen to crash, it's nowhere near the frequency with which they used to. While Locomotion feels similar to Transport Tycoon, it does have some differences. Locomotion uses the familiar, two-dimensional RollerCoaster Tycoon graphics engine. Though not cutting edge in any sense of the word, the engine does an adequate job. Besides, Sawyer's games have always emphasized gameplay over eye candy. More importantly, Locomotion should run well on a wide range of machines, including those on the low end of the spectrum. 28th August 2004 Welcome Welcome to Locomotion UK, a brand new fan site for Chris Sawyer's Locomotion, the forthcoming transport management game, based on Sawyers huge hit Transport Tycoon of the mid 1990s. Here we aim to cover everything about the game, from now until beyond its release. The site is still under construction and more content will be added in the near future. There will be news, reviews, articles, downloads and more! So enjoy Locomotion UK! And keep coming back for more! Like the site? Why not post on our Messageboard GameSpot Interview Gamespot have scored an exclusive interview with Chris Sawyer about his forthcoming game Locomotion. To read the interview click here GS: After the considerable success of the RollerCoaster Tycoon series, why did you decide to revisit Transport Tycoon? CS: Ever since the original, I've wanted to create a new version of Transport Tycoon. In fact, I've been working on new versions on and off since 1996. However, these projects were either abandoned or postponed while I concentrated on RollerCoaster Tycoon and RollerCoaster Tycoon 2. In fact, both [of these games] grew out of code written specifically for a new version of Transport Tycoon. Once RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 was finished, I decided to concentrate fully on creating a new transport game, using all the ideas and experience from the previous attempts and from the original game. GS: Obviously, things have changed a bit since 1994, when Transport Tycoon was first released. There's more advanced technology available to craft graphics, sound, and additional features like online support. We've seen that RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 will attempt to take advantage of some of these new developments. How are you approaching the development of Locomotion, and what are you doing differently than you did with Transport Tycoon? CS: To me, the most useful advance in technology since Transport Tycoon is the amount of processing power and memory available to the new game. I was never happy with the AI of competing transport companies in Transport Tycoon, but with around a hundredfold increase in processor power, I've been able to create much more effective and challenging opponents for players in the new game. It also meant [the new game] could handle many more transport vehicles, larger maps, and multiple-level bridges and tunnels instead of just land-based construction. |
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