Rail Simulator
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Publisher: Electronic Arts Genre(s): Simulation Home Page: http://www.railsimulator.com/
This isn't Thomas the Tank EngineIn the UK version reviewed, the game offers 4 routes, around 80 to 90 miles in length, set in (roughly) 4 different eras: steam locomotives in the 1950s chuff-chuff their way along the South-West of England, electric and diesel-electrics roam two East Coast routes in the 70s and the present decade, and for some reason, a line in West Germany is included too. Each line sports five or so scenarios that demand various tasks and deadlines to be complete by the player. Not exactly overwhelming in terms of content but given the amount of detail that each route boasts, it's not too surprising. The relative sparseness continues with the variety of trains available (just a handful of each type) but Kuju do provide additional machines for download, from their site.
Although the game's documentation and packaging offers just the merest nod to the beginner, at least one can just jump onboard, hit "go" and watch what happens. Controls even have a difficulty level, ranging from two buttons for stop/go, to a whole host of water, steam and fire controls. The system works well enough, as the basic arrangement allows one to get used to how rail networks operate: there are no "road signs" for train drivers as such, so one needs to pay close attention to signals and maps at all times. Until you're used to the route, one cannot simply switch into "autopilot" mode and therein lies the challenge in Rail Simulator: paying attention to the small details. With everything set to expert mode, managing an old steam train on a busy line, keeping to tight schedules, is a thought-consuming affair. The problem is that I don't have any experience in driving locomotives (although I've been in the cabs of a few during operation), so I lack of sense of knowing whether something is being modelled right or just faked. However, for some intangible reason, one doesn't quite get the feeling that this is really a several hundred ton piece of machinery moving about, but it's close enough though.
It has to be said, though, that the surrounding world feels somewhat dead in places - there's plenty of traffic on the roads, birds wheel around, storm fronts roll by and other trains zoom past you, but it's the stations that really kill the ambience. Scenarios often start in a busy train station, which should be packed full of waiting passengers and other trains, but this is rarely the case. I suppose we should be grateful that at least there are people on the platforms (unlike in the original MST) but they're so poorly animated and modelled, phasing in and out like Star Trek characters, there's little sense of "being there" at all. And where are the tannoy announcements? In the real world, they're completely unintelligible anyway, so some background chatter could have easily been incorporated. Don't like what you see? Then change it... all of itHowever, if one has the time, patience and skill, just about everything in Rail Simulator can be altered. A fully-functional world editor comes shipped with the title, and additional tools can be downloaded (after a simple and free registration) to open up the complete editing packages. Ignoring all of the instructions, I dived in to see how easy it was to create something from scratch...
 Stations are typically fiddly affairs to manage in the editor - setting speed limits, controlling the points network and aligning the platforms with tracks requires patience and planning. ...and it's remarkably pain-free. The basic editor ensures that one cannot create rollercoaster routes, unfortunately, but there's no doubt that the non-enthusiast will spend most of his or her time just trying to make trains crash in the most ludicrous of ways. For the "full-on" geek, one can create new locomotives, landscapes, scenarios, physics, signalling networks and so on. Hypothetically, there's no limit to the size that a route can be, so one could have a go at creating the Trans-Siberian Railway (all five thousand miles of it) if it were not for the fact that the logistics and CPU workload of managing such a signalling and active network as this would be too much for a desktop PC. Sadly, despite the editor's ease of use, realistic train physics and uncanny accuracy of the route modelling, Rail Simulator just lacks the magic ingredient needed to pull in new players to the genre: the wow factor. Flight Simulators can do this with aerial stunts or sun-rises over mountain tops; car sims with frantic action and glorious sound effects. Train simulators, by the very nature of the object they're replicated, are far more limited and linear. Perhaps if the community or Kuju made something like the Hogwarts Express or Thomas the Tank Engine downloads it would be a different matter.
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