Rail Simulator
by Electronic Arts
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Category: Video Games
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Product Summary
Brand: Electronic ArtsFormat: CD-ROM
Release Date: 2008-01-15
Platform: Windows Vista, Windows XP
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Product features:
- Drive 8 great trains of today and yesteryear in this customizable railway simulation
- Travel over 1900 km of track on faithfully reproduced UK and continental routes
- Create and share new content with powerful, user-friendly editors
- Expand your rail world with a range of professional add-ons
- Simple, family-friendly interface delivers an authentic railway experience
Video Game Reviews of Rail Simulator
Customer Review: So much promise, so many times being delayed, but it's light on the wow factor and is a disappointment
Summary: 2 Stars
When I heard about Rail Simulator I was happy to see a railroad simulator back in the market since Train Simulator 2 was cancelled (but restarted for a 2009 release). Train Simulator was a good foundation and the sequel had so much promise. Also, Train Simulators minor expansions were a waist. I found the Trainz franchise too model like and not heavy on the simulation. I love both however. I grew up with Lionel trains and building a decent size layout with my father but our space was limited. Even after 17 years when we first laid out our own track, we miss it but don't have the space to rebuid (obviously I've since moved out). I am a lover of the tycoon and buisness games and while I'm not a huge technofile, I will knitpick at every little detail of a computer game. So I do love both model trains and a deep simulation. What hurt Trainz is it's download content manager. It is a pain in the neck to manage and download content (even to this day). The speed of the downloading depended on the "ticket" you bought. If you didn't by the ticket your downloading time was at a snails pace. If you bought a first-class ticket, the speed was way faster. Another problem was that you had to search the for the content and the parts to go with it. If you didnt find it all, it wouldn't work which would prove ot be very frustrating. It was annoying and involved too much work and sometimes upon loading Trainz to play, it acted screwy more times after you started to download content. The manual wasn't a help either.
Now comes Rail Simulator. The newest simulation game using the trains theme. The graphics are very vice; not stunning, but very nice (about 2 notches from being stunning). Much better than Train Simulator and the Trainz Franchise (created by Auran). The people and cars are more realistic in Rail Simulator. Unfortunatley the game fails some major aspects. Shipped in the North American version, 99% of the routes were European. Only one route is from North America (California) and it wasn't even a passenger route. For people who love to drive passanger trains or complete or build passenger routes this was disheartning and unbelievable. What were they thinking? Even in a PC-DVD you would expect a little more passenger routes. The European routes also were mostly non-passenger. The one I played in Britain was soooo boring, I didn't even get to the first station (it was 34 miles away). I quit the program feeling very depressed because I was looking foward to the game and with all it's hype; it left me with a question: When will anyone create a great buisness/simulator/modeling train simulator. Don't get me started with Sid Meier's Railroads! I read a few articles that although this is a European game, the North American publishers were going to include mostly North American routes and passenger routes as well. This wasn't the case, as I was very disappointed. (How many times have you counted the word disappointed in my review, can you guess if I was disappointed :-) I was also looking at the website where you can register and download content. Not much is available which is ok, since the game was just released. In Trainz: Railroad Simulator 2006, you can go on the download manager and get NYC subway cars and platforms as well as near look-a-like Long Island Railroad cars. None on Rail Simulators. I was shocked to see no Amtrak both as a route included in the game as well as in the download section of the website. When is any train game going to include the NYC subway system, the trollies, the monorail in the Disney area complete with passenger routes, Amtrak's route from NYC to Orlando (AutoTrain), or how about all routes and trains across all of the United States.
Part of me is wondering, for $39.99, seems like they spent most of the money on the graphics because there is hardly any content. Since it is a PC-DVD, I was expecting a lot. Sadly, I was wrong. You click on 3-4 main scenarious and it gives you at most about 4-5 "jobs". The original Train Simulator had many more routes.
From startup the installer was perfect and it didn't take long to install. After the initial install, the game worked perfectly, no crashes and no error messages. I hope people will realize that you can't get away with running a computer with 64-512mb of RAM and a video card with 64-128mb of RAM. Onboard graphics is a no-no. If you have any questions about this or need help, don't hesitate to email me.
I hope more routes will be added as I enjoy passenger routes the most. It would be nice for Railroad Simulator to appeal to everyone; ones who like passenger scenarios and industrial scenarios as well. Sadly on this PC-DVD, the passenger scenarios are lacking; as in there are none in North America! The passenger scenarios in Germany can all be done in one day (not totally but you can get drift) and the same goes for Britain as well. I gave the game 2 stars because of the lack of content but with nice graphics/scenery and the fact that people don't look like blocks (they did in Trainz if you were able to see any). One thing that was puzzling was when I was approaching road crossings, the cars never stopped. Some disappeared when they reached the gates. In MSTS, you heard the bells go off and the whistle along with the gate going down. The cars also stopped and formed a line in real life. If it weren't for the graphics, then it would of gotten 1 star. I'm still disappointed and hope more passenger scenarios are added (in North America). It would be nice to drive the Maglev and high speed bullet trains in Japan and in Germany. What about the monorail in Florida (from the transportation and ticket center to all the parks and hotels that it stops at which would make a great passenger scenario). I wish I can drive the NYC subway lines dropping off passengers and picking them up. What about Amtrak/Acela (auto train also), the Long Island Railroad, and New Jersey Transit? Train Simulator had Amtrak's Acela high speed train.
It would of also been nice to see some speaking on the station platforms to announce the inbound and outbound trains and the fact that you see people entering and exiting your train yet you see no movement when you are in passenger mode inside one of the passenger cars. Also it would be nice to see some announcements in the trains to let passengers know what the next stop is as well as the trains route. Wouldn't it be funny if you announce the trains stops and see some passengers quickly get off with a sad look on their face. How about adding licensing, to become an engineer you have to learns about speed limits, traveling at high speeds, braking correctly at station platforms, honking the horn at road crossings, and emergencies and if you fail one of these while on the job, you can get fired. In other words, follow the rules or else you would have to find work at another railroad company. If you did such a poor job or killed someone you wouldn't be able to find another job and the game ends. Incorportating a business sim would be interesting. I know this isn't a tycoon game but it certainly would keep you entertained. You could buy locomotives and additional passenger cars and get and increase ridership. You can raise fairs (multiple types), have to pay your workers (ticket agents, cleaning crew and mechanics), and maintain stations and their platforms as well as maintaining your railyard to make it efficient. You can build/create routes in all cities in the United States and Canada (subway or above gound).
Did the developers do their homework? Did they purposely leave out most of North America? The California scenarios are non-passenger ones and this is it in the United States. Did they purposley concentrate on mostly non-passenger scenarious for a future expansion? Will there be future expansions for North America?
Concerning the manual. These days most games don't come with manuals or they have it as a pdf file on the disc. For people who jump right into the game and learn as they go (like me), it doesn't bother me that there was no manual in the box. For people who do read the manuals, the pdf file is easy to access. The minor issue you might have is printing it out and using up your paper supply. Maybe the company was thinking that most people don't pay attention to the manual and jump right in....perhaps to cut costs. Who knows. There's a small pamphlet explaining the controls which is pretty straight foward in understanding. There is a very small "guide" in the box but you would think since there is no manual inside this "guide" would be a lot thicker. As for me, I'm waiting for Train Simulator 2 but I haven't given up hope for this one. This game needs and I hope it gets more content! Disappointed; Yes. Given up on it; No! Hopeful; Yes.
Description of Rail Simulator
The next evolution in railway simulation - enter the most authentic, customizable railway simulation, from the pioneering team that shaped the world of train simulation.Accurately re-created routes and rolling stock - travel over 1900km of track on faithfully reproduced UK and continental routes, driving eight great trains of today and yesteryear.
Your imagination is your only buffer - create and share new content with powerful, user-friendly editors; expand your rail world with a range of professional add-ons.
Developed by enthusiasts for every simulation user - simple, family-friend interface delivers an authentic railway experience. You'll drive and design in Rail Simulator for years to come.
System Requirements:
- Windows XP, Vista
- 1.7 GHz or faster processor
- 512 MB RAM
- 6 GB free hard drive space
- 8x DVD-ROM drive
- 64 MB with Pixel Shader 2.0 (AGP/PCLe only) video card
- DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card
- DirectX 9.0c (included)
- Keyboard
- Mouse
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