What a lovely game Monopoly is. You can sit around a table with your whole family, buying streets, erecting houses, watching granddad push the dear old boot around the board. Then he lands on your three-hotel Mayfair and all hell breaks loose. You snatch every last penny from his withering hands, the bank confiscates all his property and the whole table erupts into a maelstrom of abuse. Monopoly has been breeding cutthroat capitalists for more than 70 years, and it's this aspect of the board game Milton Keynes-based Deep Red is concentrating on this time round. 'We've done two versions of Monopoly already while at Hasbro Interactive,' says Deep Red director Clive Robert, 'and we wanted to take it to the next level.'
Megapolitan bonus scenario. Finish all scenarios with any character. After the ending sequence, you be given a new scenario to build a Megapolitan. You will have $200,000,000 to build it, with no rival leaving you free to build your own city.
Under Pressure
The next level sees Monopoly transformed into a sophisticated 3D strategy game that concentrates on real-time multiplayer action and the sort of non-stop fun you'd never expect to see in a business title. But although it might look like a chunky and colourful version of SimCity, the nature of this particular beast couldn't be more different.
For starters, it's scenario-based rather than free-form. The bustling city is already there when you start a game, so you don't have to mess around laying down roads and sewage systems. The core of the game, no matter what the objective of each scenario, is to build shops according to demand and try and outsell your rivals.
Alone in the darkness. Each single-player scenario and multiplayer game starts off in 1930, which is when the board game first appeared, so the game has a refreshingly old-fashioned style to begin with. It's all about corner shops and small businesses. As the years roll by (five per game day) different shops become available, so you can start replacing ballrooms and bars with nightclubs and pool halls, eventually progressing to today's amusement arcades and video stores.
Monopoly is, of course, a turn-based game, but Deep Red was determined to make this a more intense experience and one which wouldn't allow anyone to go off and make a cuppa while thinking of their next move. 'You're under pressure all the time, so there's no time to sit back and relax,' says Clive. This soon became apparent while I was sitting in Deep Red's offices, thrown into a multiplayer match. I was still experimenting with the camera and asking probing questions such as 'What does this button do?' when my more experienced opponents had already built a five-storey apartment block, a bakery and a butchers. Thankfully I had creative director Jon Law as my right-hand man, and I'd soon begun building my own empire. With his guidance and my opponents' over-confidence at facing a newbie,I actually managed to win. Developers know what bad losers journalists can be.
Risky Business
Building shops might not sound that exciting, but as anyone who has played their brilliant Risk II will know, Deep Red knows a thing or two about gameplay. Checking up on each of your stores to see how many products they're selling becomes much more compelling when you have to start a price war with a neighbouring shop. The sound of money chinging into your bank account is incredibly satisfying and there are a load of features and details to keep you occupied. Auctions are Monopoly Tycoon's way of leasing streets. You can build on any block as long as it isn't owned by another player with building rights. If you buy a street that your opponents have shops on you can stop them from building any more, as well as collecting a nice rent at the start of each day. Of course, once you own a colour set of blocks you can start constructing hotels to attract the city's tourists.
When night falls the lampposts start lighting the darkening streets, and business shifts to cinemas, restaurants and pool halls. It takes all your self-discipline not to go build-crazy just to see what happens if you open a nightclub next to your rival's bar. Luckily, Deep Red doesn't want to make you a slave to the bank as you are in the likes of SimCity. Going into the red is allowed (as long as you manage to bounce back into credit within 24 hours) and you can usually get away with spending large amounts of cash and still win as long as your investments are sound. 'We started off making it so that your bank balance was one of the most important elements for winning,' says Clive 'but it just meant that nobody ever spent anything and the game got boring.'
There's little chance of that happening in the version I've been happily playing with for the past week. Monopoly Tycoon looks set to successfully follow the original Theme Park in the addictive quality of its gameplay. You can forget all the Theme, Tycoon and Sim games from the last few years. There are already plans afoot to create a couple of addon packs, one of which will include a game editor. Deep Red has also got a load of new scenarios up its sleeve and wants to do something with the criminal side of the game which isn't touched upon here. The jail was always a big part of the original, and the developers are keen to incorporate that element into it. Whether this includes hiring a bunch of goons to smash up your rival's shops or pick up protection money from small businesses remains to be seen, but you can see the potential for it already. I would put money on this being a huge game - it certainly deserves to be.
Recently, there've been a bunch of different tycoon series of games. This isn't from any of them.Monopoly Tycoon, like the name suggests, is based on the classic board game 'Monopoly'. It has all of the classic locations, as well as a set of docklands properties which may or may not be from some international version of the game I've never seen.Unlike the board game, which took a completely abstracted approach to running your business empire, this game throws you into the daily affairs of organising a business empire.In this game, you can run day stores (which fall broadly into two categories, food and goods), and night stores (which sell entertainment services), as well as setting up apartments and hotels. The citizens quickly learn which blocks provide which services, so organising your blocks into sets of each of these three areas is a must. Stock is bought in the morning, and maximum levels are dictated by the base size and number of floors of the business. You can set prices for the goods sold in the stores, too, and you have to keep an eye on the opposition to make sure they're not undercutting you and stealing away our business.Businesses can be of high, medium or low quality, depending on the block you're building them on. You must keep track of what you're building because a low-quality shack on either of the indigo blocks won't attract business from the wealthy residents, and won't bring in business from the people living in low-quality blocks either.The AI of the city's inhabitants is good, they learn where they'll get the best deals, and they will ignore you if you're not it.
Two worlds 2 spell combinations. For Two Worlds II on the Xbox 360, a GameFAQs message board topic titled 'Strong Spell combinations'. 2 x FIRE - Effect Cards (the more the better) 4 x Missile - Carrier Cards (the more the better) 1 x Damage - Modifier Card (the more the better) 2 x Ricochet - Modifier Card (the more the better) 2 x Spray - Modifier Card (the more the better). Distinguished spells. Air (effect) + Enchant (carrier) + Time (modifier) Action: Makes you invisible to your enemies, lasts 31,5 s. Life (effect) + Enchant (carrier) Action: Heals 61 HP. Lightning (effect) + Area Effect (carrier) + Damage (modifier) Action. For Two Worlds II on the PC, a GameFAQs message board topic titled 'Spell combinations'. This chapter contain combinations of spells with the use of Area Effect Card (carrier). In the first column you will find Effect Card, next three columns are the usage of additional modifiers: Damage, Time, Protection (other modifiers are impossible to use). Note that not all combinations are possible.
The class system of the townspeople is basic, but effective, the poorer people are, the less concerned they are about image and location, and more about price. The rich people don't care how much they pay, so long as they don't have to walk too far to get it, or hang around with the plebs of the city.It is possible to lease city blocks for 25-year periods, which can bring you rental income from opponents' properties, or simply prevent you from having to pay it.There are also city services, such as the Railways, Waterworks and Electric Company, as well as the new Telecoms and Gasworks utilities. Building up a monopoly of either of these aspects of city services is just as devastating as it is in the board game.
Opponents' AI is variable, opponents tend to change radically when they're in trouble, but all are consistent with the way they're described by the game. Not too nice for the couple of AI players the design team decided to brand 'moron', though.
You'll find that a player will usually follow the same tactics, game after game. Some want property, some want lots of businesses, some want the utilities, and it's possible to learn these patterns and exploit them, but they really do feel as if you're playing and exploiting the weaknesses of a personality, rather than just a bot.Overall, Monopoly Tycoon is one of the best 'modern conversions' of popular board games you'll ever find. The underlying economic model is top-notch, the gameplay is fun and innovative, and the nostalgia is intact.
The game moves at a frantic pace which may just prove too much for some, but which is ultimately true to the spirit of the board game. Highly recommended, and an induction into the Hall of Belated Fame.Review By HOTUD External links. Marty 2020-03-27 5 pointsThis is absolutely great.
I'm running this on Windows 10 and even the multiplayer mode works, at least I can connect to my Win 10 virtual machine which also runs this game:-)OK, here is what you do (Win 10 only):1st: Download the ISO and the patch. Don't bother with the other stuff for now.2nd: If you want to play the multiplayer activate Direct Play via Control Panel - Programs and Features - Turn Windows Features on or off - Activate Direct Play in Legacy Components. If you don't want to play against your friends in the multiplayer don't bother.3rd: Unzip all the files you just downloaded and find the ISO. Mount the ISO via right click on the ISO file.4th: Install the game on your computer. Don't start the game after the install.5th: Apply the patch next. Don't start the game after installing the patch.6th: Unmount the ISO by going to This PC and do a right click on the virtual CD Rom and click eject.7th: Copy or move the ISO file in a folder where you'll always find it because you'll need to mount it every time you want to play.Now you could delete all the files you've downloaded, or save them for later:-)8th: Mount the ISO and start the game as administrator. No need to select a compatibility mode.
A little window should appear. Click on Configuration and flag No Music. Select the highest settings in Bit Depth and Screen resolution. If your max screen resolution is not listen you have to set it manually.
Click on done.9th: Click on start game and it should run. It even runs on my virtual machine.10th: If yo want to play in the multiplayer and you have activated direct play you need to hop back on the desktop a few time with tab + alt and approve the firewall settings for this game.
(I had to do this 3 times)11th: Have fun:-)Manual screen setting: Find the config.cfg in your games folder and open it with the notepad. Replace SysSetup width and SysSetup height with you settings. If the game doesn't start, try something else. Michael 2020-02-22 0 pointDownloaded the game. Played the game for a couple hours.Came back three days later, and it requires a CD.I've learned that the game has to be 'mounted.'
Downloading magicISO and Gizmo brought no resolution. Of course, I'm a million times outside of my sphere of knowledge, but it seems you may need a computer science degree to navigate these things.I got two fun hours out of it when I actually never thought I'd be able to play this game again, so I'll leave with my head high.