Recent reviews by Bad Horse

My secret word was "Chaos"

This game has damaged me emotionally and I was there for every second of it.

I bought this sim primarily for the Western Express route as that was the only way to acquire it.
After reading a lot of reviews I was pleasantly surprised how smooth it runs on my computer, on ultra settings too.
As a long time Train sim 20xx user this was a breath of fresh air, the graphics have finally come to the modern age and it was what I was hoping the original would eventually become. I guess because of their dlc/compaitibility they couldn't change the game engine of the original and that's why it's still running alongside this one.
As my family and I travelled on the Paddington route to Exeter once this really recreates the line and surrounds perfectly.
For a change the sim has decent train and track sounds, I'm glad we're not having to get dlc for this as well as it is with the other game.
Only gripe I have with the sound is it tends to be too quiet looking ahead and only appears to work well when you look side to side for some reason.

The graphics aren't without some glitches, sometimes I get rain in the carriages when walking through them and the railway line tends to be constantly drawing ahead of you. Weather effects are great, from fog to rain and snow but I would have liked to see it changing along the way. The shadows and the lighting is great.
Passengers do weird things at times but this doesn't bother me, I want the details on the track and train more than anything.
The detail is great, you've never seen trains look so good and even the surrounding houses and factories add a lot of atmosphere to the game. The world could be more busy than it is, even if they were to add more stationary carriages/loco's in the sidings to populate the world more, it just needs a little more finesse to make this so great.
I would also like to see more attention given to cab and carriage sway, the barely percepible movement isn't a touch on how rough it can be over the points and switches, and the carriages need to be more alive than they are.

It would be great to see more routes for this, especially the UK, maybe even extending the current line some more but to be honest while Paddington to Reading may seem too short, for a quick travel and trying to nail the start and stop times it's quite good actually. Only the HST makes the route too short but to be honest that's a bit boring with few stations to stop at anyway.

What the game needs fixing most of all is allowing multiple saves, if you want to save where you're at and then go and try another route and save there, that save will become the only one you can resume from, this has to be the weakest link in the chain within the game right now and needs top priority over other things.

I hope they continue to develop the game and not go the same route as their other train sim and just pump out dlc without fixing/improving on it but I won't hold my breath as Dovetail are infamous for this.
I recommend it if you want the most realistic looking train sim and are content with replaying the same route a few dozen times until more (hopefully) routes are made for it.

As there' s not much available in this genre I guess it has to be the best of its kind, but certainly room for improvement though. Others have said it feels like riding a bike more than what's gone before and I agree with that.
Even though the whips and scrubs aren't that great the rest of the handling feels good, especially from the helmet view. I'm not a fan of the outside views and it's from this angle the bike never seems to sit right in the dirt/mud, it doesn't embed its tyres into the ground and gives it a floating effect. Stay on the helmet view, it just gives it that realism you might be seeking.
Not a fan of the engine sounds, some of the 2 strokes aren't bad but the 4 strokes just don't seem to have any resemblance to the real thing. No throaty barks, more like abused lawnmowers.
Probably more wet and muddy tracks than I would like but the amount and detail of the tracks is great, plenty of variety to entertain here.
Bike upgrades need some more, not enough engine tweaking except for different pipes, changing pistons and timing, carby setups and the like would have been awesome. The handling tweaks are good and work well, just remember to save them and reload them each time as the game goes to stock on each track.
I would like some more patches to get the sounds right or maybe some mods from others to do so, it would really elevate the game a lot. Best thing on 2 wheels in the dirt anyhow so highly recommend it, especially on a sale.

Never play online so I won't comment on that but the single player campaign is great fun. Terrific visuals, if you have BF 4 or similar then you will like the graphcs in this. Audio/acting/explosions, all great quality. Not sure why people can this game, maybe the multiplayer isn't what they want or something. Picked this up cheap on a ♥♥♥ sale and not disappointed.
I think people can't smell the wood for the trees nowadays. Grab it and have blast.

Good stuff. From what I've read so far a lot of people are having problems with this game but thankfully my experience is all positive. Might be because I'm using Intel cpu and Nvidia gfx. No slowdowns and everything is maxed out, gtx970, windows 10, intel 2770k, nothing too briliant in the hardware dept.
The game is gorgeous, always loved the water and the scenery in this game and this is no less disappointing.
Got to get to grips with the controls as yet but most things are second nature in using the parachute and jumping around etc. Going to have lots of fun in this one.

Fun story and great graphics. Not much to dislike.
Initially had some crashes here and there and found it's due to an xaudio2_7.dll file being the culprit.
I renamed the system32 one to something else and the 64 bit version in the syswow folder runs it perfectly. I think there was/is a clash between the two files. Something for you to try if you have this problem.
Not interested in online play so can't comment on that, the campaign is what I enjoy the most in games and this doesn't disappoint.

After some buggy issues with the Hobbit and even more so with Pirates of the Carribean, I decided I would give the franchise one last chance. Well so far, so good. I have yet to experience a crash. I was beginning to think Lego games were best played on consoles for a while there.
The levels play well to the movies they're tied to. I have yet to play Jurassic World as I haven't seen that movie as I write this and I don't want to spoil anything. The voices are good in this, even with them being lifted from the movies along with some editing to remove background music/noises.
Being able to use dinosaurs and a whole line of vehicles is great, reminds me of the Star Wars series of gameplay.
Graphically it's top notch, even more of a Lego feel to the objects and world around you, whereas some of the previous games seemed to be going more realistic in their landscapes, they lost their 'plastic' feel if you get what I mean.
Glad to see the series is back on track, I hope future releases can maintain this stability.

Enjoyable, one of the better lego games, until you encounter a crash! So without save points as some of the other lego games have, you will be frustrated to find you have to start the level all over again. Some levels are huge and when you have the characters required to go hunting for all the bottles it can take some time to get through a level. One of the most crash ridden lego games I've played on the pc, next to the hobbit. At least the hobbit has game saves so you can continue on.
Cannot recommend this unless it gets fixed and I can't see that happening now it's been out for some time.

Whether you feel that not including the 3rd film is a travesty as others do is something you'll have to work out after 80 odd or more hours of gameplay. I'm still picking up the final bricks and quests so to me it's good money well spent for the hours I've had out of it. Of course the final installment would have been great and this is the only time they've left one of the films out but to downgrade a review because of this is a bit harsh.
As for the game, it's the same lego goodness we've come to enjoy from the series, good music and voice clips from the movies and that desire to keep searching for the elusive treasure and other collectibles. Fans of middle earth will still appreciate it.
You can do much worse than pick this up and give it a go.

Brilliant. I saw a few videos of this on youtube and felt I wouldn't be too disappointed with it. I was right on that. Also got it at a good price on sale which was a bonus.
If you've played Return of the King on the xbox then this will be familiar to you, lots of hack and slash and a story that advances to new locations. It's an eye candy and aural treat, you can tell the developers put some heart and soul into it.
The city of Rome is just gorgeous and you get a feeling how it must have been like before its decline, loved the attention to detail in this game. The voice acting is great and the art work in some dream scenes is like something out of 300, amazing stuff.
I'm only a couple of hours into it as I write this review but I can tell you it's been worth the purchase so far and I'll bet there's more awesomeness to come. If it's short I won't mind, it will be fun to go through it all again just to watch those fantastic cut scenes, it's like watching a movie.
A big emperor thumbs up.