Rail Simulator Review

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(More customer reviews)The other review on here was written by someone who isn't a big fan of simulators, so here's one from someone who is. I bought this game after seeing that Train Simulator 2 will be coming out next year, and in all honesty, I'm tired of waiting. I had been following this game months before it came out, and was surprised to see that they had already released it a few days ago. I have played it for a few days now, and here are its aspects:
Graphics: Now, the graphics of this game are much better than they are in MSTS. In all honesty, they should be; MSTS was released seven years ago when video cards weren't that powerful. Of course today, we have nice Nvidia 8800's and ATI 2900's (and so on). However, the graphics aren't as good as they could be. In fact, I hate to say it, but some of the photograps of renders in the game look better than they actually do in-game. Also, the resolution cannot be changed in the in-game menu itself; this must be done before you begin playing. But, surprisingly, this game supports HD resolutions, so maybe that's why the photos look good. I am using a monitor that only goes up to 1280x1024, so I couldn't tell you how that looks. I also do not like the fact that there are no anti-aliasing controls. I'm using an Nvidia 8800GT to power this game, and I want these games to take advantage of the hardware I own. But, in the end, the graphics are good; I have seen much worse. I do like the fact that people can be seen and that there is an engineer in the cab.
Sound: The sound in this game is again an improvement over MSTS. The natural sound effects are much more realistic (IE; the birds chirping, cars going by, etc.), but I don't understand why you can still hear these sounds clearly even when your train is going at a high speed. When was the last time you heard a bird whistling while your car was going 65? Exactly. Lol, but the locomotive sounds are nice, but I didn't like the fact that the two North American locomotive's horns were both the same; I like variety when it comes to the horns and whistles. The British horns on the diesels make me laugh; they sound like the horns those really old cars used to have (In my opinion, North American diesels have the nicest, prettiest sounding horns around)
Gameplay: The controls for this game are very similar to those of MSTS, so making a transition to this game should you buy it won't be hard. The only thing I had to get used to was the fact that the A key increased the throttle and the D key decreases it (vice-versa to the layout of MSTS; It was funny when I first played this game as I kept trying to slow down my train, only to realize I was speeding it up!) The display Menu's and HUD's are much more helpful, although it doesn't show you the speed limit of the tracks ahead (at least I don't think it does). The scenarios are nice, but I didn't think there were enough of them.
Game Options: This is the part that aggravates me: In MSTS, you could choose the locomotive you wanted for a route, and play from there. There was also a seperate place to make your own consists. In this game, you have to do all of this in a scenario editor, something I don't yet understand. I may be good with computers, but I'm not this good. I have downloaded content for it, but I haven't been able to use most of it. I'll have to learn more about this process.
Overall: I am glad I bought this game. I am enjoying it, but all the while I feel as though there could have been more potential to it. Perhaps the company will release patches for it that fiz up minor areas and add more options. They already give away official content for it for free (you just have to make an account with the site, which is also free) I will continue to play this game until MSTS 2 comes out, which will probably be one of the best Train-Sims out there. It will be using DirectX10, so it will definitely be using my hardware to is potential. Lol, by the time this game is out, Nvidia will most likely have there 9000 series out, so this card won't be one of the greatest anymore. Oh well. Overall, I give this game three stars. I hope this review has helped some of you.

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Ultimate Trainz Collection Review

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(More customer reviews)Trainz is a railway simulator that owes much to the internet. I've only had the product for a short time and it's a very rich product so the review will not cover everything in detail.
Trainz has many faces and features. I get the impression the product has evolved over time. Out of the box it has scenarios much the same as Microsoft Train Simulator. However it also has a model railway heritage and as such you can use a model railway type controller to control the train rather than learn the precise cab controls that Microsoft makes you use, dual cab control. This mode has point scoring speed limits etc. a conventional game.
It shows it's Australian heritage by including a number of Australian routes, engines and rolling stock. In one scenario you take over a train part way through it's route. The driver handing over very definitely has an Australian accent.
Besides the scenarios it also let's you use virtual model railway layouts. There are a number of layouts included with the product. This mode is known as Driver. You can select the engine and the rolling stock you want to use. You can build the layouts with the surveyor tool.
The simulator is very open and flexible and that's it's great advantage. Railway track can be selected with wooden or concrete sleepers etc. Objects can run on tracks, either visible or not. Objects can have sound files attached. Objects can be imported or exported. The product comes with a copy of Gmax to let you build and add objects. What does this mean? Well if you want to run a different engine or rolling stock than those supplied you can either build your own or download one someone else has built. Want to repaint it? The product comes with Paint Shed included. Want animals to populate your fields? Simply download them and add them to your layout, with sound of course. There are a number of houses, churches, skyscrapers etc. available, some English, some European, some North American to populate your layout.

These objects can be items such as ships, boats, trams, buses, cars etc. Theoretically if you don't like trains you can build a layout with just buses and cars. I'm hoping someone builds a layout with canals and I can run a narrow boat or two. Currently there doesn't seem to be a lot of steam locomotives but there does seem to be a number of web sites that are either single or group enthusiasts who are building some very specific and detailed models.
In many ways the Internet communities that exist remind one of the model railway societies that exist. With different people getting involved in building models. The difference is these models can be shared electronically.
Finally a comment on hardware. Trainz pushes Directx to the limit. You'll almost certainly need to download the latest video card drivers before it will run. If you have a limited computer you can adjust the display to take less cycles. Got the latest or want an excuse to buy the latest hottest machine Trainz will take full advantage. You might like to check the supported video cards though before you buy.

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Trainz: Railroad Simulator 2006 Review

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(More customer reviews)Reading some of the other reviews, I can see that we have a very mixed opinion on TRS2006.
I have owned the original Trainz, then TRS2004, and finally TRS2006.
I have never had the 'issues' that some people are complaining about. The S/N may be in one of several places, including the box or the manual.
All that aside, this is simply the most enjoyable, mesmerizing game I have ever played. I have spent most of my time in Surveyor, creating the terrain for my 'dream' layout. I don't know if I will ever be finished with it.
While the locomotive controls and physics may not be as realistic as those in MS Train Simulator, it is creating my layout that gives me the most enjoyment from Trainz. I find it very relaxing 'playing God' in creating my world.
I have to admit that there are some aspects of the game that could use improvement. For example, you cannot zoom out far enough in Surveyor to get a good picture of what you are working on. The Mini Map helps, but it is not enough.
I would also like a better paint feature. It is difficult to get realistic looking landscaping with some of the textures.
Considering that all computer games have some flaws, I still rate TRS2006 five stars because it has provided so much entertainment for a program that cost me only about $50 (for the special edition DVD)
I would advise to download and install Service Pack 1 for TRS2006. It fixes some of the bugs, mainly with the Content Manager.


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Trainz Railroad Simulator 2006 sets new standards of realism and immersion in operating a virtual railroad. Run long haul freight services, high-speed passenger runs or challenging yard operations as you service a huge variety of interactive stations and industries. You'll manage every aspect of a train line and discover the joys of riding the rails. In-game tutorial shows players how to be a real railroad engineer -Drive diesel and steam trains, assign commodities to wagons, transfer drivers between trains, issue orders to drivers, couple and decouple wagons and much more New rules for session makers, for tighter control over player interactions Support for TrackIR Pro 3 - move your head and your view responds independently of the mouse Give your trains schedules with set tasks -- realistic operations like coupling and de-coupling

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Railroad Tycoon II: Platinum Edition Review

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(More customer reviews)The Platinum Edition lumps the original game with several add-on packages.
Let's start off with a few things:
Yes, this is an old game. And, yes, you can probably pick it up for $20 (or less). And, yes, there is a newer version of RailRoad Tycoon out.
But I personally don't find the newer version to be as much fun as this one.
The graphics aren't striking. There's no whiz-bang 3-D animation. There's only strategy.
The scenarios seem easy enough:
"Create a railroad company, and lay track from Baltimore to Washington DC. Make 10 journeys with a train full of people in 10 years and win this scenario."
Or
"Connect New York to Chicago, carry 10 trainloads of passengers between these cities and have a company book value of $10 million. You have 20 years."
Okay, these may not be the exact scenarios, but they're close.
This game isn't just laying track and putting trains on them. You've got to create trains to do specific tasks. Start at a Iron mine with 2 cars full or iron, run to a Coal mine and pick up 2 additional cars, run to a steel mill and wait for the steel to be made, then off to a Tool and Die company for goods, now deliver those goods to a city and start it over again.
The scenarios are challenging, and fun. Sometimes it's not about running trains, but how well you run a company--or how well you play the stock market.
In RRT2 you get:
===North America===
The Iron Seed: Mid-Atlantic states
Handle on The Breadbasket: Eastern USA
Bridging a Nation: Western USA
Silver Booms and the Market Busts: Southwestern USA
Whistle Stop and Promises: Northwestern USA
Crossing the Great Divide: Canada
===Europe===
Birth of the Iron Horse: Britain
Excess on the Orient Express: Europe
Knitting with Iron: Germany
Next Stop the 20th Century: France
Through The Brenner Pass: Alps
When Walls Come Down: Eastern Europe
===World===
Croissants vs Crumpets: India
Which Way to the Coast?: Australia
The Samurai Rides an Iron Horse: Japan
The People's Train: China
Dilemma Down Under: Australia
Cape to Cairo: Africa
as well as the Second Century Expansion pack which takes you into the 20th century with new challenges and newer trains.
Including getting supplies to ports in America to be delivered to Europe for World War 2, running trains in the Eastern Block and Moscow during the Cold War, running commuter trains in the Northwest and a few science-fiction 'future' scenarios centering around a geo-thermal plant in Spain. I found this game very addictive, fun and still enjoyable years after my initial purchase.
Well worth the money. And you can find online guides to help you if you get stuck.


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Railroad Tycoon 3 Review

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(More customer reviews)After anxiously waiting for a Mac release of Railroad Tycoon 3, I find that it's a much-needed upgrade of Railroad Tycoon 2. However, that's really all it is -- I'd be tempted to call it Railroad Tycoon 2.5 rather than 3. There are probably enough changes to track building and industries to warrant a new version number, but other than that and a few interface changes, RT3 is essentially the same game as RT2.
The most obvious difference is in the graphics. The new 3-D engine is fantastic. You can actually watch the side rods of most of the steam engines go round and round. Tracks are a bit high off the ground, which is a little distracting at first, but overall the graphics are a huge improvement.
Track laying is substantially improved from the previous version of the game, as well. Most significant is the return of tunnels, one of the most maligned omissions in RT2. You can also build a bridge over another railroad or duck under an existing bridge, a feature fans of this game series have long wished for.
Gone is the grid with its limitations of tracks at only eight angles. You can now create smooth, sweeping curves at any angle you please. That said, the gradients could use some tweaking. Particularly annoying are the ramps leading to bridges. It's silly to have a 3% grade just because you're crossing a river. Likewise, I found it very difficult to create a railroad in even slightly hilly terrain that didn't resemble a roller coaster. And don't think this is a model layout design aid, either. It's impossible to force tracks to go where you want them.
Maintenance shops and service towers are now separate elements. You can't place a service tower at a depot and have a locomotive serviced while it's making its station stop. This hurts the game's realism a bit and can be annoying if, like me, you're used to the old style station expansions. The good news is that such facilities can be placed anywhere, even where there's no station, and you can demolish them to save money when they are no longer useful.
The construction and demolition tools aren't all that intuitive. To bulldoze a building, for example, you have to enter the track building interface and select the bulldozer. And industry construction is done from the station building interface. No doubt this was done to minimize the number of tool buttons in the main interface, but it feels klunky -- especially if you're used to the old RT2 interface.
While access to the controls has changed somewhat, most of the core game controls will look extremely familiar to anyone who's played RT2. Building and changing train consists works essentially the same way as in RT2, with a few excellent additions. One major change is the "auto manage" option which autmatically sets the train's consist depending on what loads are available at the station. You can select the minimum and maximum number of cars on each train, and select whether the train will carry any kind of car, just freight cargoes, or just express cargoes. You can also manually control the trains' consists. For more realism it would be nice if passenger cars were always placed together in the consist, but I'll admit that's picking a very small nit.
A couple of very handy shortcuts have also been added to train building, including the ability to copy trains. Mac users will find this process rather klunky and very un-Mac-like, but at least it's there and works. One new feature I really like is the ability to replace locomotives based on their class or age. This comes in very handy for keeping your locomotive fleet current. There's also a checkbox which will make the consist the same at all stations in the train's route. Beware, though -- the change happens as soon as you check the box and isn't undoable by unchecking the box!
The economy and stock market works essentially the same as it did in RT2. You can buy and sell shares of your railroad or your competitors, set your company's dividend, sell bonds, and sell stock. Selling stock is just as useless for raising money as it was in the previous version, even though you're now allowed two sales of stock per year instead of just one. You also still have to have a good credit rating to sell a bond.
I haven't gotten into the map editor yet, but from reading the manual, RT3 seems to have the one limitation I was afraid it would have -- you can't use maps from RT2. With the huge number of user-built maps from RT2, this is probably the biggest disappointment in the entire game. It's understandable, however, given the number of changes made to the industries and track building. Still, some sort of conversion utility would be nice for map developers so we don't have to start from scratch.
All in all, this is a fair upgrade over the previous version of the game. I'm not all that sure that this version was worth either the wait for the Mac port or the $45 price tag, but now that I have it I certainly won't be getting rid of it!

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Railroad Tycoon 2 Platinum Edition Review

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(More customer reviews)If you have Railroad Tycoon Gold, there is no need to buy this one. There isn't anything new except for a few new maps. That was disapointing to me. But if you have neither of the previous Railroad Tycoons, this game is by far the most entertaining game I own.
If you like economic type games, one that tests your skills in owning your own business, then this is the game for you.
Also, the stock market effect in this game is awesome. Very good game and one that is addictive.
The graphics are excellent and the levels of difficulty are fairly easy to down right impossible.
If you do not have this game, I highly reccomend it!

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Establish yourself as a mogul to be reckoned with as you work your way up the ranks of the railroad industry!

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