Microsoft Train Simulator

Troublesome

I've just installed it again on my computer.

I was wondering is they any good add-ones etc?

Darwin

You've just reminded me I have that game lying around somewhere (I get the feeling there's not too many train simmers on this forum!) - it's certainly a very chilled out game to play. A good place to start is here I guess.

L31mr0d

i've always wondered, where is the joy in train simulators... I mean I understand car, boat and plane sims... but train sims I don't get. Its like playing a scalextric car sim instead of an actual racing game.

Darwin

Train Simulator actually has lots of mini challenges including the sorting of railroad cars using a spur (effectively problem solving using the concept of a stack) and meeting passenger timetables so it can be quite entertaining. Just don't tell anyone that you play train sims though

Feelgood

Have to agree here, train sims are a bit sh1te in fairness. Theres not really a whole pile to do in them..forward, back, stop - game over. Am sure yo can probably pick up good addon's for it though. Like the old steam trains etc.

Manic Moran

I've got the sim. I don't spend much time on it, though it's interesting to drive through places you know.

Dad turned me on to the Irish Enterprise expansion, and there's a second one out now for the line South of Dundalk. I prefer the American ones though.

Father's also gone and created the Tralee and Dingle. His flat in Vienna didn't have room for a traditional model railroad, so he made one for TrainSim.

Have to agree here, train sims are a bit sh1te in fairness. Theres not really a whole pile to do in them..forward, back, stop - game over

You forgot 'blow the horn', 'turn on the wipers'... (Riveting, isn't it?)

I believe the best-selling PC game of all time is still MS Flight Simulator. Why? Compare it to something like Falcon 4. In one, you take off in perfect realism, fly around a bit in perfect realism, then land in perfect realism. In the other, you take off in perfect realism, fly around a bit in perfect realism, blow the crap out of something, then land in perfect realism. Yet the former sells far more. It's evidence that action is not a suitable substitute for imagination combined with familiarity, I guess.

(effectively problem solving using the concept of a stack)

To make model railroads more interesting, they often include something called a 'Timesaver'. It's a relatively complicated setup of switches, spurs and industries in a small area of space, and the challenge is to sort out all the switching of cars using the shortest amounts of moves possible.

http://www.wymann.info/ShuntingPuzzles/sw-timesaver.html

I presume that there are some available for TrainSim as well.

NTM

Canis Lupus

Best selling PC game is The Sims. Wiki has a list but of course I dunno how uptodate or accurate it is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_games#PC

I'd be extremely surprised if MS Flight Sim was a best selling game of all time. Never did see the appeal in them either. I decided to download the previous version of the game. Took off in some boeing type jet and was instantly doing loopdeloops for fun but it didn't seem particularly real to be able to loopdeloop a passenger jet with zero training and it was a bit **** not having the krauts shoot at me when I flew over Germany so I uninstalled it fairly quickly (like within the hour.... and don't get me started on the sickly OTT american tutorials...).

Couldn't even imagine the adrenaline fueled action packed gameplay in Train Simulator. HOOOOOOLD ONTO YOUR SEATS EVERYONE THE TRAIN IS ABOUT TO LEAVE THE STATION!!!

But then.... each to their own I suppose.....

Manic Moran

Canis Lupus wrote: »

Best selling PC game is The Sims. Wiki has a list but of course I dunno how uptodate or accurate it is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_games#PC

Technically accurate, but misleading. It views each release as separate. So The Sims has 16 million, The Sims 2 has 13 million and so on, so the Franchise is at some 30 million.

Flight Sim keeps getting updated every two or three years, and is on its tenth iteration now, and the franchise is now clear over 30 million. It had broken 20 million back in 1999. Why it doesn't appear on the list is beyond me (FS98 supposedly sold 10 million), but it's a big seller, with a large supporting cottage industry of expansions and enhancements.

NTM