Zoo Tycoon 2

So What's changed with this latest version of the get-rich-quick with exotic animals sim? Well, it's now fully 3D, and you enter a first-person guest' view in order to shovel shit rather than employ some digital dole-muncher to do it. Apart from that though, Zoo Tycoon 2 is the same ethically questionable' game we reviewed a few years ago.

It's a Tycoon game, of course, only instead of roller coasters to build there are animals to fence off, and the aim is to bind them in such a way as to be aesthetically appeasing to the general public and thus earn cash with which to increase your stock of endangered species, ad infinitum.

Now, I don't have a problem with the theme - it's the gameplay I find distasteful. The experience is rather mundane and not very rewarding, unless you're destined for a secondary education and have a vague interest in zoology.

A campaign game is there if you prefer a more financial challenge, but if you just want to play about or explore the husbandry side of things, you can play with the freeform mode and its unlimited stack of cash.

On the plus-side, the 3D graphics add some much needed pizzazz to the proceedings. However, they're still not exactly bleeding-edge and with hundreds of animals pacing about, the game does slow to a crawl on all but the most powerful systems. But the real problem comes if you're the type who likes to mix it up a bit - by housing penguins with polar bears, for instance. Artificial animal behaviour is less than satisfying, with hunter and hunted co-existing in harmony quite unnaturally. In short then, while the Tycoon aspects work well enough, the developer has failed again to capitalise on the need for gamers to explore the sadistic side of their nature.