Right, my turn to give an opinion on Rail Works. There's been some heated debates about this from me even before I got it, and then I had some problems once it landed in my hands, but I've been railway-ing my way with it for the past two days now (bar sleep, work, shopping, dinner, etc) and feel I'm ready to give my verdict.
The first thing I want to do is get my two biggest grumbles with it out of the way; they being the eco-disc and Steam.
I don't like the eco-disc. I think it compromises the discs integrity and for the sake of a few micro-millimeters of plastic, it's a step in the wrong direction. It's eco-friendly!! It may well be but when you consider that most of us here who got the DVD version of Rail Works have now gone and made a backup disc of it because of fear of the eco-disc breaking, it's actually eco-unfriendly. I personally think this has more to do with saving a few pennies then being green. Whatever the reason, I don't think the end justified the means.
After getting the disc free, I then went to install Rail Works and hit my second big hate, Steam!!! After entering my product key and clicking next, a minute later I was presented with a message saying Steam could not connect to the servers. I followed the help link and reluctantly disabled both my anti-virus software and my firewall but still no joy so they were both reinabled. A few hours later I tried again and this time all went well and Steam coonected and activerd the key. This is what I hate about Steam, you have no control of the software you bought. Half-Life 2 was my first introduction to Steam and I swore it'd be my last. Rail Works forced me to dip my toe back into those waters and sure enough, disaster struck again. I HATE STEAM and I'm really disappointed that RSDL chose it as a distribution medium.
Right, that's the big annoyances cleared, let's move on...
Rail Works installed and after the update downloaded the installed, I went offline and started up Rail Works. I have Rail Simulator and the very first route I did on Rail Simulaotor was the Paddington route, Rush Hour scenario, so where better to start with Rail Works then with that same beginning. Once the scenario loaded, I had a quick look around. I was pleased to see passengers on the platform, in Rail Simulator Paddington was deserted. One thing that I was disappointed to see is that the information boxes still auto-disappear. I get about 3/4 of a way through reading it and bang, it's gone. I wish these would stay up till I dismiss them.
Anyway, I got into the cab and seeing the green light ahead, off I went. Although most of my settings are on high, i have to say I didn't really notice much difference between the Rail Works version and the Rail Simulator version. Perhaps it's just that I haven't played Rail Simulator in a while. Still, I quite enjoyed the drive and while the stuttering was still there, it's very slight. Just as I pulling into Reading, the first stop, I had to go so I closed down for there.
Later I came back and decided to look elsewhere and the first thing I wanted to see was the Cojan Pass route that is in the USA Rail Simulator but only available as a paid addon for the UK version. It is now part of Rail Works. But where was it??? LOL!!! I carefully read the route list but I couldn't see it so I clicked on each one in turn and read the description and then noticed it, it's not called Cojan Pass by default.
The second this scenrio loaded (the 15 minute introduction one, can't recall it's name), I WAS IN LOVE!!! This looked like MSTS 1, but looking more up to date. As I pulled out of the yard, another train was pulling in on the opposite track and I loved it! Then, as I moved down the track, I went wild!!!! LOL!!! No, I didn't jump up and tear off my t-shirt and start swinging it over my head! LOL!!! As I drove alone I saw those crazy figure-8 underpass tracks. I remembered them from MSTS 1 and seeing them again was just fantastic! As I continued to drive this route the vast landscape and the rocky terrain was just amazing!! I got all the way to the end where I was suppose to stop on siding 5 but I didn't know this was to be set manually and before I realised it, the train was gone off the route track and the scenario ended. Oh well, I still very happy.
Today, I then drove the Alpin route and WOW! This is a piece of eye candy! The scenary is wonderful. This shows the power of Rail Works and shows a lot of potential for route creation. My only gripe was, when I pulled into a station an information box popped up about how this station was home of Steam entusiasts and again, I got 3/4 of the way through reading it and it suddenly disappeared. These information boxes need to be like the ones in MSTS 1 in that they pause the sim and allow you to read them in your own time.
I then drove the fictional USA route where I took a freight train to a stop further down. Wow, was this a curvy track! Seemed to be s-bending my way around the landscape. Again, I was very impressed with it.
Just before dinner I started to read the Rail Works Creator Manual as I want to get into route creation, but I'd say that's some time off yet.
So that's it so far...
Overall, I love Rail Works. It's a great foundation for future development and I hope we'll see that. Gripes... I hate the eco-disc and I hate Steam. RSDL, when you decide to release a Rail Simualtor 3, Rail Works 2, etc., please avoid both of these. Give us a regular disc and forget Steam.
As for Rail Works, here's what I would like to see implemented down the tracks
...1. Make information message boxes pause the sim and have the user manually close them so we have time to read them in peace.
2. Get the loco lights lighing the track ahead (I haven't played a night mission yet but I know this doesn't happen at the moment).
3. A whistle indicating that it's ok to proceed once passengers have disembarked/embarked would be nice.
4. Auran Trainz has a camera which route builders can place so that when driving the route, if played in mode 2 (can't recall it's name), when the train gets in range of this camera the view jumps to the camera. It's for the creation of sceneic driving views. From what i see, Rail Works has a track side camera and that's the closest to that Auran camrea. I'd love to see the Auran scenic driving view camera in Rail Works.
I'll probably have more suggestions once I get into route building but overall I'm very pleased with it. Let's see where the future goes now...
