It was day two when I finally contracted transport fever, with the classic symptoms: the aching posterior, the swelling of the pride. I d built a circular railway, like the kind you see in children s sets, to connect the mines and factories along the shore of Lake Baikal in Siberia. Then I d asked my drivers to load their gondolas only halfway with coal, leaving space for iron on top, a glorious layer cake of raw materials. When the train showed up with both goods for the blast furnace, the yield of steel from the previous loop would already be waiting on the platform, ready to be taken down a branch line. There it would be used in the construction of the mother railway: the Trans-Siberian.

This isn t the kind of gaming anecdote that ends in comedy chaos or unexpected consequences. The railway simply worked. The very best moments in Transport Fever 2 unfold exactly as you plan them to. It s the satisfaction of yelling into a cave and hearing a perfect echo bounce back.

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You’re up to date on your transport vaccinations, right? Always get the jab for Reclining Arthritis before catching a plane? Won’t head into London unless you’re protected against Carpal Underground Syndrome, Ticks Please, Handrail Herpes, and Mind The Gap Crack? Good. But be warned: a mighty new infection is coming and there may be no protection. Following experiments infecting people with a love of micromanaging rails and roads in Train Fever and Transport Fever, Urban Games today announced their deadliest creation yet: Transport Fever 2. When it arrives around the end of this year, will we even survive?

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