Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1264 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Rail Simulator.com
• Released on: 2009-07-03
• Platforms: Windows XP, Windows Vista
• Format: DVD-ROM

Manufacturer's Description
RailSimulator.com presents RailWorks, the most realistic train and railway simulator on the market!

RailWorks allows players to take to the controls of 13 stunningly accurate historic and contemporary locomotives along 8 different lines in the UK, North America and Europe.

Download new tracks, engines and rolling stock or easily create your own designs and share them with friends. Its platform status means that the software will be regularly updated and have new features added as time goes on.

Customer Reviews

Improving Train Simulation
With the cancellation of MSTS2 by Microsoft, RS.com - who now own the rights to the Rail Simulator franchise - have been given an ideal opportunity to become the foremost train sim developer/publisher. Railworks is their first retail release which attempts to tidy up the state of affairs inherited from Kuju and EA. Available either via Steam or the DVD version (point of interest, on an "ecodisc" which is a flimsier version of the conventional DVD) Railworks consolidates the previously seperate UK and US versions, some new content and a few enhancements. As pointed out in earlier reviews, the DVD version also requires Steam to be installed as a kind of copy protection but this is far less insidious than some other forms of copy protection.

Graphically, Railworks is similar to Rail Simulator but there have been enhancements to lighting and other effects. Don't expect Oblivion or Crysis level of detail but the world seems to look more lifelike. Sound is pretty much the same though the traction sound provided for the new locos - Class 37, DB V200 and US F7 are all excellent. AI and signalling has been the subject of heated argument on several of the train sim forums. This is one area of the core simulation which still needs improvement and RS.com are I'm sure quite aware of this from the many comments posted on the matter. One advantage of using the Steam system is that updates can be distributed relatively easily, along of course with any new official content.

Railworks incorporates the Developer Tools which previously had to be applied for and downloaded seperately. It should be noted though that the sandbox process to create new routes and scenarios is still fairly complex and aimed at power users.

With support from the user community I'm hopeful that the rebirth of Rail Simulator into Railworks will keep the train sim genre going for the forseeable future, given that the closest competitors (MSTS & Trainz) are both creaking along on 8 year old code and graphics engines.

Great Simulator but a WARNING to all shoppers before buying this product
Railworks Simulator software is stored on DVD ECO disks. These disks are thinner and lighter than normal DVD's and will not work in some flat laptop drives. In some cases, they may get jammed in the drive.

I am a Dell customer and have recently had to contact Dell Technical Support after a worrying incident where my laptop drive would refuse to eject the installation disk. I was told that they are currently working on a DVD drive that is DVD Eco compatable and will let me know as soon as the drive becomes available.

My laptop is a DELL XPS M1530. Railworks WILL DEFINATELY NOT WORK with the DVD drive on the XPS M1530. I also presume that from the wording I had from the Dell Technician I spoke to that DVD Eco disks may not work on other machines (presumably laptops only) manufactured by Dell - please check your machine's specification BEFORE inserting the disk. If in ANY doubt please contact Dell Technical Support. The same applies if you have a machine that is manufactured by a different manufacturer - check your machine's compatability with DVD Eco disks FIRST.

Should your machine not have a compatiable DVD drive and you still want to buy the Simulator, then it is possible to download a copy of Railworks directly from the Railworks website (Google --> Railworks). This is a very big simulator therefore please be prepared to wait for a couple of hours for the download to complete.

I hope that this prevent's the possibility of damaging DVD drives unnecessarily and I thank you for your attention.

Surprisingly Brilliant
Unsure what to expect, I first started playing RailWorks 9:30am last Sunday and to my wife's considerable annoyance didn't stop playing until 8 that evening.

I don't really know where to start, but the graphics are out of this world, the missions are range in difficulty, so it was easy to get into. The world editor (Track building) was initially difficult, but I soon got the hang of it.

I had a copy of MS Train Sim, and this is a giant leap forward in every respect. I would strongly recommend this to anyone with an interest in Trains.