Sid Meier's Railroads!

Railroads' big stars are, of course, the lovely, lovely trains. Over 30 chuggers will take to the tracks and seeing them in motion is a beautiful - and strangely hypnotic - thing. Watching them wind through the landscape, pulling their cargo, their little wheels going round and their chimney's merrily puffing smoke... it's enough to make a grown man weep tears of pure happiness.

But it's not all fun and loco-gazing, no siree. Single players who climb aboard Railroads are tasked with the uphill struggle of journeying from lowly hobo to President of American by establishing, maintaining and expanding a successful railroad empire. The stock market must be managed, rival railroaders shutdown, lucrative cargo routes secured and so on. In addition, a cut-throat multiplayer mode will also feature.

Thankfully, if you don't want to be distracted by objective and business headaches, a sand-box mode will let you get on with playing trains at your own leisurely pace.

Above: Service towns and watch them develop into high-rise cities

We're not exactly train mentalists but Sid Meier's Railroads! looks chuffing great and the opportunity to while away the hours overseeing our own rail empire will surely provide welcome respite from the fast lane of sensory assaulting gaming. We've bought our ticket already.