Recent reviews by jo3do88y

£24.99? No...

Please don't get me wrong, this game has so much potential. It's very pretty to look at, and the physics are decent, much like we've seen from previous ViewApp Tramsim titles. I like the idea of the route planning and despite this being a fictional city it does feel like it could be a real place.

"Early Access" should describe a beta at least. I feel this product is still very much an Alpha, as it's choc full of bugs which render the game unplayable. If this game was early access for £9.99, then I'd perhaps look a lot more favourably on it, but at this stage (21/06/24) you're asking £24.99 for something that just does not work.

Lot's of potential as I say, but it's a no from me at this stage.

Well as per usual we're finding ourselves looking at some absolutely gorgeous pictures, yet the sounds and performance are abhorrent.

For £29.99 I am expecting a really good addon, and to be fair the artwork is absolutely amazing. The best part of this is moving the train into various places and taking pretty screenshots. There's a lot of nice features such as the announcements (which are manual instead of automatic... awww shame!), working lifts at Edinburgh Waverley WOOOW! (Not sarcasm either, it's genuinely a cool feature), and the TMS screen.

But unfortunately the positives stop there.

The sounds are ghastly, the run sound in particular is a looping sound, that after about 10 minutes of driving (maybe not even that if you're easily triggered) makes you want to throw yourself out of the nearest window. The horn echoes both in the cab and outside the train which is just weird, the door sounds are just doing their own thing all together such as the hustle alarms playing for ages after the doors have closed...

There's a lack of smooth animations, such as putting the drivers key in, it doesn't turn, it's just either on or off, same for opening the cab door from the outside of the unit. In the passenger saloon the passenger door buttons are permanently lit up, and all the door buttons have the opening arrows <>, they genuinely either couldn't be bothered, or just didn't notice there were no door close >< on the buttons...

The external textures are lovely, but inside the cab, the textures are really low resolution... so much so if the resolution was any lower it'd be radio! When you go in tunnels half the cab lights up in this weird greeny-grey scabby colour, similar to that of Linda Blair's facial complexion!

After the Cross City Line (which was awesome!) I genuinely thought the standards had been raised, and we were entering a new era of quality with this game... alas Rivet Games, you have shown this is not the case.

Steam sale? Go for it, there's a few nice little scenarios to keep you occupied, but £29.99?! Nope!

I can only really echo what has already been said by other people.

This product costs the same as the Masterswitch & Studio Polygon packs on Steam, so I am expecting the same quality, which we're just not getting here.

It's not terrible by any stretch of the imagination, but if you have £13.55 to spend on an OMSI bus, there's much better alternatives available to you, such as: Masterswitch Gen 3, Masterswitch Veiling, Studio Polygon Lite, and the Studio Polygon 400MMC.

If this was £8-odd like the DigiBus Phantom, then I would recommend it as the quality is reflected in the price. Alas for £13.55 it's a no from me.

This route had so much potential, and yet is such a disappointment.

I downloaded the route asap and found the Class 158 and the Class 47 had not been packaged. This has since been fixed but has rendered the quick drives around Leeds far too laggy and undriveable on my RTX 3080 TI and Intel I9 12900K...

I have done a full drive from Manchester to Leeds which will be available to view on my YouTube channel and it's essentially 50 minutes of me poking holes in the route for factual inaccuracies and flaws. The Hope Valley line from Just Trains puts this to shame.

I also think Pennine Pacer's route which has been available for quite some time now between Huddersfield, Manchester Victoria AND Manchester Piccadilly is arguably a much higher quality route, featuring custom assets, and is FREE!!! Saddleworth Viaduct and station building are completely wrong!

Huddersfield station is so long it can accommodate 7 coaches on platform 8 which is not true to life, only 6 coaches and a smidge can be accommodated.

Overall it's a massive no from me, I think I'd advise people to wait for alternative routes rather than spending £24.99 on this very poor quality product.

Disappointing, though not unexpected.

I purchased this the day it came out (today) and was quite excited. Though I dislike IVECO buses intensely, sometimes that can be the best way of determining the quality of a simulator product, by seeing if driving the bus in game stirs up a deep down burning hatred.

This sadly, does not.

The models are absolutely fantastic. Like most of the buses in Bus Simulator 21 they look great, and the modelling department should be really proud of their work. The buses feature a brilliantly detailed exterior and interior which really do look good in the game.

Unfortunately like one of the popular train simulator developers, this is where my praise ends.

The physics are just garbage, though to give Bus Simulator 21 credit, it's consistent across the games range of vehicles. I do not feel like I am "simulating" driving a bus at all, rather playing a game, which is okay if that's what you're looking for.

But then we come to... the sounds...

Unless i've missed something, they're ALL recycled off current buses! This is a new DLC for crying out loud. It's an absolute smack in the face to paying customers, the people who support your game that you cannot be bothered to go out and record some real sounds of the buses you're selling to us.

All in all, unless you really can't live without the IVECO bus pack in your game, I wouldn't bother. Maybe on a Steam sale perhaps?

Check out my YouTube first look if you're wanting more information, and thanks for reading!

https://youtu.be/d8n9GVG3yWQ

£31.59 is outrageous for what, in its release state, is a very buggy game. I have played Tramsim Vienna for the past year and have seen it develop into a really fun little simulator, and the Munich release appears to be Vienna, but at stage one.

The ai vehicles are what spoil this game the most. Trams get stuck because of other trams on the adjacent line which they believe to be in each others way. AI cars frequently block junctions, drive through each other, and despawn randomly.

In it's current state, I wouldn't bother... Maybe in future in a Steam Sale!

I've been super hyped since the announcement that the Cross City line was coming to Train Simulator 2021... but not as hyped as I was when I saw it would bring a Class 323 also! Finally we'll have this amazing EMU in Train Simulator!

The route will set you back £24.99, the standard price for Dovetail routes, and to be fair to the route it isn't half bad. I'd have liked to have seen a little bit more London Midland on the stations but other than that it's a decent recreation of the line...

Then I got to drive the Class 323... I should have seen it coming... this is a DTG creation after all... The physics when driving are lousy... but they're not half the problem. The sounds are just not up to scratch for this modern time we play in. Looking at what Armstrong Powerhouse are able to do with their sounds there is simply no excuse for this product sounding as bad as it does... It lacks a lot of features that are considered basic such as a working GSM-R, and just isn't that fun to drive...

So to summarise...

£24.99?! Pffft no! Steam Sale...? Maybe I will if there's an accompanying Armstrong Powerhouse Enhancement Pack to make it driveable...

I personally think £31.59 is extortionate for what is essentially one tram on one route. However I went via the CD Keys website and got it for £18.99 and I recommend you do the same.

The game itself is very good. The tram is fairly detailed in both model and physics, operationally it's fairly simple and needs very little training. The graphics are fantastic and the scenery clearly has taken a lot of effort. I think this base game forms an amazing platform for future expansions to build on and we could end up with a really sensational product.

Would I recommend the game? Hell yeah! But certainly NOT for £31.59! CD Keys or Steam sale is where it's at!

Wow... Just wow...

Dovetail Games have taken their lack of detail and attention to the next level with the Class 150/1...

As per usual with DTG releases I can comment on an absolutely fabulous model. The attention to detail is brilliant, along with the passenger view which again is 10/10.

Now the driving however... It uses the Class 158 sounds from when the 158 was released well over 3 years ago (which even then weren't right!!!) The physics don't seem to ever have existed which is a real shame because I was almost looking forward to this release (I work enough of them with Northern Rail and can tell you this is nothing like a 150!)

Real shame! Like others have said it's a rushed release which like almost every DTG release will be absolutely terrible until Armstrong Powerhouse release an enhancement pack to bring it up to the standard it should already be at...

The game itself is fantastic! Incredibly realistic, the developers have done an excellent job!