Rail Simulator (PC Games)

I received the Rail Simulator and was impressed with the feeling of being in the drivers seat of a real modern locomotive. The sounds, the feel, of being in the drivers seat. I can see now why it takes a lot of training to be a locomotive engineer. I bought this dvd to see how it felt to operate a real train. Sitting in the drivers seat looking out the windshield and knowing there are tons of railroad cars behind you, [and it will take a long time to stop if you have to at speed], incredable feeling. You have to keep watch for the signals, [make sure you have a green one], know what to do if it is red/yellow ,keeping a steady hand on the throttle while making sure the air pressure is up, blowing the horn at crossing, many things to do at the same time. I have Lionel trains and this gives me more insite to operating train. Have not tried the steam as yet. In looking over the instructions for operating a steem locomotive there are a even more things to learn about steam locomotive operation. Hats off to all those locomotive operators out there..

Long story short, save your money and don't waste your time with this game!

In all honesty this would have been a below average game if the graphics weren't so good. The graphics and the dynamic scenery are really what saved it from being a lower graded game for me. The trains look awesome and the moving engineer and working windshield wipers are all nice touches, but the controls are very close to Microsoft's Train Simulator, with a few frustrating changes. Its like they wanted to copy Microsoft but not completely, so the reversed some of the controls for added confusion. The "easy" controls are more difficult to understand so do the advanced controls. Plus many of the actual missions lack important tips, like where you need to back up. They tell you to do it at milepost ... but there is no milepost to be seen! Also, they only used one horn recording for all of the American Diesel loco's, not very much time put in there!

All in all I prefer Microsoft's Train Simulator (MSTS) over this particular game. If you are a true rail fan, get MSTS and then join Railserve or TrainSim (dot com) and download any of the countless trains or missions they offer on their websites. If you are a graphics person and not really into trains and their horns and actual operations, but want to get a general idea of what kind of railroad graphics are provided, this game might be worth it. But then again, Microsoft is supposed to be releasing Train Simulator 2 in 2009, so you might be better served waiting for that one!