Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1046 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Electronic Arts
• Released on: 2007-10-12
• Rating: Universal, suitable for all
• Platform: Windows Vista

Customer Reviews

Feels like a railway - NOT a simulation
As veterans of various earlier train simulators (Eisenbahn, Microsoft Train Simulator & TrainZ), both my son & I have found Rail Simulator very clearly ahead of the rest.

The game installed & ran immediately without problem on a fairly low-spec XP desktop. It IS a realistic simulator as well as a game, so some careful driving is required - but not to any unreasonable or awkward extent.

The quality of both graphics and sound offers very significant improvements over the other simulators. This looks close to being a railway video, rather than a PC game. Both landscapes and rolling stock have a high degree of convincing realism, rather than the "cartoon" character of the earlier simulators. The trackwork, whilst being finely detailed, has convincing slight irregularities and mucky patches. Buildings and landscapes (e.g. fields) likewise. Rolling stock is convincingly weathered and extra instances of the same item (e.g. the Black Five loco) are not carbon copies but subtely varied as well as being differently numbered. Carriage interior views are similarly good and realitically peopled as well.

The overall "driving" experience is enjoyably convincing - to the extent that the player feels immersed in the simulated railway and inclined to remain so.

Route modelling, though not quite as easy as TrainZ is none-the-less an inviting - and more rewarding - activity in its own right. A good inventory of resources and materials seems to have been included - so there is plenty of scope to construct your routes and to make them varied and interesting.

Train Simulator It Is NOT!! But it IS enjoyable!!
Having been a avid fan of the Microsoft Train Simulator, I was very pleased to hear that Kuju were designing a new Train Simulation program. After a very long wait and regular checking of the website, my pre-ordered version hit my doorstep today (Saturday).

Having installed it and in keeping with most EA products, you have to keep the DVD installed to play the simulator. I'm not a fan of this process as one scratch on the DVD, and you're stuffed!! Still, I stuck with it and have spent most of the day getting the grips with it.

The first point I would like to make is if you are a regular user of MSTS, Rail Simulator takes a little getting used to. Accelerating/Braking is the biggest issue. In MSTS you use D to accelarate and A to decelerate/brake depending upon the engine. In Rail Simulator they are reversed which takes some remembering. I haven't checked to see if you can change this in the options. However, graphically it is excellent and way beyond anything MSTS is capable of. All the routes are very detailed and, contray to other reviews, I haven't experienced any issues at all regarding the quality of the package and certainly would not consider it a beta version. Admitedly, there are only 3-4 scenario for each route (4 of them) so there isn't alot to keep you occupied. This will no doubt improve when they release the add-on development tools promised and the user community gets to work on it.

Overall, this is a very enjoyable piece of software, which has been developed with the user community in mind. Given the success of MSTS, I hope this simulator gets the support it richly deserves.

If this gets support It'll be good, out of the box not good
This Game was eagerly awaited by me for 2 years or so since it was first announced and has a lot of plusses in its favour but the bad parts are very bad, For someone who has used MS Train Simulator since 2002 I found it hard to pick up and play, for someone who hasn't used this type of software before I imagine its baffling. I will list its good and bads but my main conclusion is that if (and its a big if) its supported by its developers with patches and such like this will be excellent but the word over on forums is that if nothing is done then it will stagnate and no-one will be interested in developing add-ons for it. I advise waiting to see if these patches and tools are released before buying to avoid total annoyance and frustration.

Good points
+ Excellent (but not world beating) graphics
+ Well realised routes ( The York - Newcastle route looks sublime)
+ Good looking Locomotives and rolling stock
+ Large community available to help with niggles and support
+ Decent frame rates on most machines
+ game engine appears to be quite stable (which I think most of the effort has gone for this game)
+ community has done as much as they possibly can to fix minor niggles

Negatives
- Idiotic signalling which does not seem to work properly at all, it also renders some of the few Scenarios to be un-completable
- The diesel locomotives sound like their sounds were sampled from a knackered transit van
- Deltic cab is set rediculously high meaning nothing much can be seen outside the cab
- The track wavers from side to side which means in outside views the wheels of the trains leave the railhead briefly and looks plain dopey to say the least, indside the cabs the track visibly sways side to side.
- Horns sound like they were recorded from a keyboard in saxophone mode and a really horrificly awful
- Couplings on the front of at least one locomotive dosen't work
- Coupling up causes wagons to fly around in the air for no apparent reason.
- Turntables a hard to get your loco off of safely
- The biggest one is one activity whilst approaching Paddington you go from Green signals straight to red without any warning causing a SPAD which results in a collision remeniscent to the Ladbroke grove disaster a few years back... this is very very poor and needs addressing post haste.
- Scenario briefings are far too vague meaning you have to be a detective to figure out what you should be doing.
- This software seems to be unfinished and this is a beta version???

I was disapointed with this game but am willing to wait for promised patches and tools before making my decision about whether or not to keep this software on my machine. I hope this has helped out in the decision making process, but its really a case of hang tight and see what happens over the next month or two.