Recent reviews by Truthseeker4449

Well. I've spent too much time in this game as is. But I couldn't help picking this up as there's a ton of Union Pacific DLC but really only Sherman Hill to run it on. The route itself feels pretty good, of fair length, and includes some new period accurate rolling stock like livestock cars, though my water textures didn't download properly but that's kinda of a known issue with train sim as a whole. I'm sure what most want to hear about is the locomotives and that's what I want to talk about.

Yes there's been updates to the Challenger and Big Boy, mostly to Big Boy. For the most part Challenger feels unchanged, unfortunately

*Much nicer steam effects, Big Boy especially no longer smokes heavily from just rolling along with the regulator shut
*New sounds, including whistle
*Cab side windows open and are reflected outside as well
*Cab detailing feels different
*Big Boy's gauges actually work now instead of being blank green displays
*Big Boy has new textures, much cleaner textures than the original
*Challenger has white flags on the pilot
*Modeling does not appear to have changed
*Independantly controlled cab lights

Unfortunately there's plenty of bad stuff
*The tender graphics do not appear to be setup correctly and parts will disappear, for example half of the last c in Pacific
*Cab view is set from rear seats in Big Boy
*The regulator disappears from view if you nose down slightly in the view in Big Boy
*No in-cab whistle control for Big Boy
*Forward cab windows do not reflect outside view, all windows shut inside but outside windows are propped open
*No fade out effect on the whistle, it is the same volume at the rear of a 40 car train as at the cab
*No exhaust smoke while reversing
*Smoke immediately turns black upon adding coal, and immediately goes back to pure white upon stopping
*Challenger is very slippy, to where it very difficult to impossible to get started again if you stop on the hill, which doesn't seem right to me and feels like a carry over from the original. Big Boy on the other hand doesn't slip very often if at all.

Then there's a huge issue I found while driving Big Boy. If you use the brakes a little to slow down a little at speed on level track, upon release the train will alarmingly speed back up, past what you were doing before. At one point I doubled my speed from 30 mph to 60 mph with just two quick brake applications. I have not yet observed this in Challenger, but I haven't played it a whole lot aside from quick comparisons.

While the large locos are a disappointment, I look forward to running the FEF-3 over this route and of course Smokebox's Big Boy when it is complete.

This is a fantastic engine to drive once you figure out how to steam her. Just did a run last night on the West Coast Mainline over Shap with eight coaches and averaged 70 mph most of the way, cresting Shap at 48 mph.

Be sure to read the manual, it's found in your Train Simulator installation and will explain how the brakes, reverser, injectors, and other tid bits of how the locomotives operate. The F4 HUD will not work with these locomotives! Also the F5 HUD incorrectly says that the Clans start with the damper and blower on, they do not. I initially had the same problems as Mr. Andrew did, minus the overpressuring, until I realized the damper wasn't open. Firing should be just like in real life, a 3-5 shovel fulls at a time, every few minutes or as often as nessecary to keep the fire mass in the ballpark of 650 lbs. Building the fire up to 700-750lbs will give you maximum heat when you're working the engine hard.

Not mentioned in the description is that the Pack comes with JustTrain's collection of AI locomotives. Included are the A4s, V2s, 5MTs, and 4MTs. Hopefully a few of those models make it to Steam in their drivable form in the near future.

Not sure if my hours will show up in the corner of this, but I have logged what seems to be a very impressive 973.4 hours since purchasing TS2013 back in July. While I do run a below bottom end computer, the game initially lived up all my hopes and dreams despite the horrific framerate (which after disabling TSX and dropping many other graphical settings usually hovers between 14-15, occasionally going higher to 24 or more, which is good enough for me). Though I quickly lost interest in route building after realizing how time consuming it was.

Well my opinion of the game has been changing since then and I feel like I also need to share what I think of the game noow and add to the growing list of negative reviews despite this being my first review ever and my sloppy writing style.

While I don't hate the game, I've become disappointed to the point I no longer recommend it to anyone or scramble for the DLC.

One of my biggest issues isn't the pricing (not saying I don't have issues about it), it's the quality. The routes tend to be very good in my opinion despite the lack of TSX and reduced density in my case, but the same isn't as true with the locomotives and that was the first thing that made me start thinking "Is this really the game I wanted for over two years?"

While driving around on Sherman Hill I noticed the sounds, specifically the horns, weren't consistent enough. One locomotive would have a loud horn, but another may have a horn that was dramatically lower in volume. Vastly different bell sounds and quality also disappointing, like the Challenger having such a bell that sounds much too high pitched.

Lights are another common disappointment. The variation in all the different styles quickly becomes an eyesore when you start mixing and matching units. Especially with the new headlight glare from the upgraded locomotives (though it does look awesome). The Cab Forward takes the lighting issue to another level with not even having the textures for one of the marker lamps in the correct locations.

The best example of lack of quality in my mind is the A4 pack. While the driving programming is decent, the unrealistically quiet whistles kills much of the fun of driving them. Then there's Dominion of Canada. I was highly disappointed that not only did the sound not match the whistle's appearance, but also the bell didn't function (though I recognize that bells aren't usually needed in the UK).

Graphics and sound aside, you then come to functionality. While all the basic functions are simulated, how well they are simulated varies. The brakes aren't realistic across all locomotives (though the Marias units are well simulated with their dynamic braking). I'm told that independent brakes are the best for stopping locomotives running light, but I have yet to see independent braking make a difference at all, in fact I wrecked on my first scenario because of it. Then there's throttle operation on some diesel locomotives where the amps instantly jump to one point and the rpms slowly catch up, I would only find this realistic when reducing power not increasing power. I've discovered that the operation of certain features aren't consistent inside and outside of the locomotive, such as the case of the road locomotive included with Marias Pass where all wipers are moving outside the locomotive, but one of the wipers isn't moving on the inside.

My latest disappointment is also my biggest, how Railsimulator treats its community, trying to keep the bugs in the dark to the point where reviews are targeted. If a company is taking extreme measures to try keeping bugs and glitches in the dark instead of fixing them, then their products aren't worth buying regardless of price.

Until they stop trying to censor and start fixing bugs and issuing the patches free of charge (for everything and I don't mean introducing another version you have to pay for just to get one problem fixed), I don't recommend you invest in this game. No company should ever treat their community like this and expect to get away with it. If they straighten up their act and start fixing this game like the community wants, then I will start recommending this game again and with much more effort than I ever did.