To Buy Or Not To Buy

[chrisc37]

After thorougly reading everything I can find on the new "Railworks" I am still debating wether to purchase it or not. Of course I would puchase the boxed disc set as this is due to include a substantial mannual, something "rail simulator" lacked.
Five of the routes are ones I already have on rail simulator although graphically they may well look better in Railworks. I find myself looking back at my experience with "Flight Simulator". I had FS2004 then when FSX came out I rushed out to buy it and even upgraded my PC to run it on. But after a while I returned to FS2004 as I had quite a lot of addons for it and now I have even taken FSX off my PC.
Railworks seems to be an upgrade of Rail simulator all be it a large one and no matter how stunning the screenshots look. Of course I will keep a close eye on those who download it and see what their thoughts are on it but the question I keep coming back to is it worth shelling out £30 for.
Just one other thought, the tilting Pendelino I have seen for it, will this be included or will we have to purchase this seperatly.

Chris

[Acorncomputer]

Hi Chris

I think only you can answer your own question.

Whether you want to pay out £30.00 and probably a lot more besides will depend on what you expect to get out of RailWorks.

For me it is a very easy answer. I already know that RailWorks will provide me with many hours of entertainment (probably hundreds of hours) and for the cost of what is effectively half a tank of petrol, the entertainment value is hard to beat. If I spend time using RailWorks and not my car, the program pays for itself

You simply have to assess if RailWorks is going to give you what you personally want or not and your question is then answered.

[g0fthick]

In response to your Pendolino question, to the best of my knowledge it wont be included as it's being produced by a third party.

[overmarze]

Ill be buying it and hopeing for the best.

[AndiS]

Not sure everything was read. RSC clearly said that those who own KRS will pay a "modest price" for the update. They have not mapped this notion to a number yet.

Rolling stock is listed in their press releases, too, thus there is a solid guarantee that the pendolino is not included.

[stephenholmes]

Good morning Chris
As several members have already commented, the decision to buy Railworks is entirely yours.
I can understand your comments about flight simulators...x..y..z.
But at the end of the day only you can make the final decision of whether or not to purchase RW.
I have already decided to make the purchase, this is based on the amount of enjoyment I have derived from Rail Simulator.
My only slight concern is whether everything created in Rail Simulator will transfer across easily to Rail Works.
This is something we won't truly know the answer to until the first users of RW report their findings.
I am hopeful that Rail Works will build upon the foundations of Rail Simulator.
In closing all I can say is I hope I and my fellow members of UKTS have helped you arrive at your decision.
Kind regards Stephen

[bigvern]

If you're waiting for the DVD version (as I am) you will have the opportunity to canvas and read the views/reviews of those brave souls who have opted for the Steam version, which comes out slightly earlier. You never know, Play/Amazon might drop the price by another £5 by then and I'm still waiting to see how much Game are selling for (given I've got around £7 of reward points to spend).

As regards add-ons, Just Trains have said in another thread they are looking at a patcher so that their add-ons designed to install into RS can be installed into RW instead. In truth, there's not really a huge amount of content been produced for RS (most of which will hopefully be importable) that would negate against moving up to RW on the assumption it has significant improvements.

I have a feeling the difference between RS and RW will be more akin to TRS2006 >>>>> TS2009 than FS2004 >>>>> FSX.

[tads1970]

I'm sitting on the fence this time round,give it a few weeks of reading the forums you should get a fair idea of the RW product,details of what has been improved are pretty vague to say the least.Was hoping for a
more comprehensive fix list but doubt any more info will be released.If RW turns out to be the most realistic rail simulation platformto grace the PC then I'm sure lots will be happy,if the same old bugs are still there,I'm sure we'll find out.

[pauls]

Is it me or am I the only one to think that Railworks looks just about identical to Rail Simulator ? - I can't see anything at all in the screenshots that suggests a visual improvement. I don't see anything that looks any better than what we already have - for example better embankments / cuttings - reflective metal, better transparency on windows, better ground texture, better vegetation, better looking steam / clag etc.
Things that I know would benefit from looking a lot better than they do at present - altho' what we have right now is so much better looking than either MSTS or Trainz by a huge margin.

However I'll be very happy to be proved wrong !! - lets hope I am wrong.

Cheers
Paul

[johny]

...
I have a feeling the difference between RS and RW will be more akin to TRS2006 >>>>> TS2009 than FS2004 >>>>> FSX.

Me too.

John

[CaptScarlet]

I'm sitting on the fence this time round,give it a few weeks of reading the forums you should get a fair idea of the RW product,details of what has been improved are pretty vague to say the least.Was hoping for a
more comprehensive fix list but doubt any more info will be released.If RW turns out to be the most realistic rail simulation platformto grace the PC then I'm sure lots will be happy,if the same old bugs are still there,I'm sure we'll find out.

Iam sure some of the bugs will still be there though I hope some of the main idiosyncrasy's will be sorted, but for me given what Paul Jackson has said in his posts, how quickly they are able to keep improving the platform is important as well, especially as that is one of the reasons for going down the Steam route ( pun intended ).

John

[tads1970]

I agree with you John,but this all depends on how frequent patches will come,there is no excuse this time round.The statement could mean patches every 3-6 months or longer,time will surely tell with problems reported vs problems fixed through the automatic patching system,hope they don't run out of steam

[AndyUK]

.....Was hoping for a more comprehensive fix list but doubt any more info will be released.....

I'm waiting for it as well before deciding on whether to buy now or later but we might yet get it. At the end of Paul Jackson's 'RailWorks Feature Update' news item of 29 May he does say "We will have more to say before the twelfth, but hopefully that is a reasonable summation of where we are at today."

Andy L

[CaptScarlet]

I agree with you John,but this all depends on how frequent patches will come,there is no excuse this time round.The statement could mean patches every 3-6 months or longer,time will surely tell with problems reported vs problems fixed through the automatic patching system,hope they don't run out of steam

That's what I meant, though I take it that the improvements should be able to be more frequent than 3 - 6 months as that is what one might expect with the usual methods so in that regard I hope the steam doesn't run out .

John

[tads1970]

That's what I meant, though I take it that the improvements should be able to be more frequent than 3 - 6 months

Hi John,I'm hoping fixes will be small but frequent,more along the lines of as soon as a bug is found fix it and put it out,rather than a lengthy delay and a cumulative patch.Of course this all depends on how
important the folks at RS think a fix is warranted or whatever projects are running side by side with RW.,time is money.