Monopoly Tycoon looks set to successfully follow the original Theme Park in the addictive quality of its gameplay. There's little chance of that happening in the version I've been happily playing with for the past week. '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.' 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.

Luckily, Deep Red doesn't want to make you a slave to the bank as you are in the likes of SimCity. 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. When night falls the lampposts start lighting the darkening streets, and business shifts to cinemas, restaurants and pool halls. Of course, once you own a colour set of blocks you can start constructing hotels to attract the city's tourists. 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. You can build on any block as long as it isn't owned by another player with building rights. Auctions are Monopoly Tycoon's way of leasing streets. 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. 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. Risky BusinessД«uilding 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. Developers know what bad losers journalists can be. With his guidance and my opponents' over-confidence at facing a newbie, Thankfully I had creative director Jon Law as my right-hand man, and I'd soon begun building my own empire. 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. This soon became apparent while I was sitting in Deep Red's offices, thrown into a multiplayer match. 'You're under pressure all the time, so there's no time to sit back and relax,' says Clive. 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. 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. It's all about corner shops and small businesses. 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.Д®ach 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. 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. But although it might look like a chunky and colourful version of SimCity, the nature of this particular beast couldn't be more different.ДЇor starters, it's scenario-based rather than free-form. 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.

'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.' Under Pressure 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. 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. Then he lands on your three-hotel Mayfair and all hell breaks loose. You can sit around a table with your whole family, buying streets, erecting houses, watching granddad push the dear old boot around the board.

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