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It was worth the wait!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 25 / 27
Date: June 15, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I picked up Microsoft Train Simulator this week not knowing if it would work on my computer or not. Guess what, it works!!!! Not that I've seen all of the other train games out there but this one is awesome. I installed it last night and within minutes I was "driving" two BNSF GP-38's down the Northeast Corridor at 87 miles and hour. The possibilities for this game seem endless with 600 miles of track and updates and skins becoming available every day. There are more that 25 views, which is pretty cool. You can look at your train from just about any angle and you can customize your view by just using the arrow keys - you can even stick your head out the cab window. Although I've only played the game for about an hour I have to give it 2 thumbs just for superior graphics and sound alone. I can't imagine any another simulation that could be more realisitc that this one. Another positive is that Microsoft made it user friendly. I had no problems installing the game, customizing the settings, and getting my engines on the move. I highly recommend this game especially for those who like trains. I would also recommend that you make sure that your computer meets the system requirments before you buy. I have an HP Pavillion 6830 with 700mhz Intel Processor,64 mb memory, 20 gb Hard Drive and it looks, runs and sounds great. Enjoy!

Deeper and more challenging than you might think

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 20 / 20
Date: June 14, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Train Simulator is NOT just about starting and stopping a train. OK, it can be if you want it to be. It can be an interactive screen saver, if you really want. But just as a real engineer doesn't get to relax for a single second while on the job, neither does the player of MSTS who really delves into the goods. Operating the trains included in MSTS can range from fairly straightforward (the modern electric locomotives) to downright difficult (the incredibly complicated steam locomotives, especially if you choose to handle the firing duties as well!).

While some people have complained that there isn't anything "interesting" to do, the meat of the game shows when you have to combine the task of operating the locomotive with goal-oriented activities. Safely navigating a 50-car freight train---and its cargo---over the showcase route of the sim, the Marias Pass line through the Rocky Mountains in Montana, not only will be a feast for your eyes, but has got to be one of the most challenging tasks of any simulation, ever. On the whole, the included activites are well-varied and quite time-consuming; I promise this game does NOT bore easily.

Beyond this, Train Simulator's greatest strength is probably its open architecture. Once you've exhausted the game's initial offerings, you can create your own routes, activities, and even trains (granted, you'd need 3D modeling software for this last task), and there's already a sizable Internet community for sharing these add-ons. While the included utilities aren't supported by Microsoft, with a little aid from the online help system I was able to create some quite enjoyable activities on my own.

MSTS is quite graphics-intensive, but on my P-II 333, 128 MB RAM with a Voodoo3 16MB graphics card, I can get frame rates between 10 and 20 with the detail settings averaging half-on. Not bad.

Certainly, if you enjoy trains, this is a must-have. But if you're on the fence, questioning the re-playability of a "sightseeing" game, I urge you to try it out and see that the game's depth takes it well beyond mere eye-candy.

Another fine Microsoft Simulator!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 20 / 20
Date: June 14, 2001
Author: Amazon User

First off, to those of you looking for a game, look elsewhere. This is a SIMULATOR, not a game. It says so right on the box. And as far as train simulators go, this is pretty much the only sim in town. And while it's true that there's nothing very 'exciting' to do here, some of us actually like that! Starting up your train and 'feeling' the power of your engines pulling the massive weight and slowly build speed as you travel down a 100-mile long track is a zen-like experience more than anything. A very fun and realistic escape from the pressures of everyday life. There are plenty of realism and graphic options to choose from. My computer is a two and a half year old PII 450 with 256 mb ram and a lowly 16 mb NVidia TNT 1 video card and I get 30+ frames per second at 640x480. The scenery is great, and the variety of 6 different tracks combined with weather effects will keep me coming back for more for a long time to come. Here's hoping for add-on packs with more tracks and trains! Oh, and it comes with a track editor so you can build your own tracks. I haven't tried the editor yet, but I can't wait! About the only complaint I have is its lack of a paper manual. There's a lot to learn here, and having the manual on the disk is inexcusable as far as I'm concerned. Get with it, Microsoft! We want paper manuals! However, it does come with a very nice keyboard reference and symbol reference fold-out chart, and a quick-start guide. Overall, I highly recommend this one to anyone who can be happy just sitting quietly and experiencing the subtle thrill of driving a train.

All Train Lovers Go Out And Buy This

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 21 / 22
Date: June 12, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I bought Train Simulator last weekend and I installed the Marias Pass Train Route through Montana. You do not, and I'm going to repeat this, you do not have to install the whole simulation like other reviewers have said. That means your not going to use up 1.8 GB on your hard drive in your computer but only a fraction of that. Their different train routes in the game and you only need to install one train route at a time to make the game work. Now I've got just a IBM 475, 64 MB RAM, computer with a 8 MB ATI PRO video card and the simulation worked just fine for me. The scenery and mountains through Montana are beautiful and breath taking. It's really neat to see animals like cattle and even deer next to the tracks. When I saw some deer next to the railroad tracks, I blew my train whistle and the deer actually jumped away and bounced off into some nearby trees. You come to railroad crossings and you hear the sounds of the bells and whistles at the railroad crossings and see the crossing gates come down to stop traffic. You actually see vehicles traveling down roads stop for trains at the railroad crossings just like you do in real life. There are only two things missing from Train Simulation which is people (It would been so cool to see railroad workers working the switches in the railroad yards and flagging trains through the yards.) and 1800's and early 1900's American train engines and railroad cars. I know over time these things will be added because of the editor included with the game and upcoming patches and add-ons expansion sets that will come in the future. If you ever wondered what it was like to be a train engineer driving a train, go out and buy Train Simulation and you'll feel like your almost doing the real thing.

Relaxing simulator with terrific graphics!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 21 / 22
Date: December 11, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Most simulators invite you to be constantly involved with the action in the game. In fact, these games can often self-distruct if you don't interact with them enough (planes might crash, cities become abandoned, characters die).

This simulator is different. This is one for the laid-back among us.

Here's a game where you can choose to do an activity where you have to pay attention and accomplish a goal (some of which can be quite challenging). If you want, however, you can just sit back and travel down the hundreds of miles of rail lines on three different continents. You're not forced to go certain paths. I had a great time last night cruising away from Philadelphia, switching tracks whenever I felt like it (at 150 mph!).

On the down side, the number of activities provided in the 1.7GB of installed data is relatively limited. I enjoyed the passenger-commuting activites, but it's a bit disappointing to pull up to the station and there's no one there. While the game does feature moving vehicles that are driving along the roads or across bridges, and many other trains that you may pass in your travels, there are no people getting on or off your train.

All in all, I've found hours to have passed while I'm enjoying the beautiful scenery through the windows of my virtual train.

A Bargain

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 26 / 30
Date: October 10, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I purchased Microsoft Train Simulator when it first was released (for around $40) and it is one game which will never leave my hard drive. At $9 it is a steal.

Great game for train lovers!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 18 / 18
Date: December 24, 2004
Author: Amazon User

If your a train lover you will probally like it alot! IT allows you to be right up with the controls of many locomotives, it has superb graphics and great sound. If you are looking for realism this is the game for you. The sounds of the trains are exact and there is doppler effect. For those who don't know how to drive a train there is tutorials that teach you how to operate steam, electric and diesel locomotives. If you don't feel like driving you can take a train ride and be the passenger. The scenery is fantastic it looks just like it would in real life. The passenger trains are very fun to drive, beacause you on a tight shcedule and there are many hazards along the way such as animals on the track, wheather, damaged track, broken signals and more. It also provides the challenge of freight trains. Also there are hundreds of downloads and add-ons for it! So if you like trains and realism I highly recomend this game.

Not as good as I'd hoped

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 23 / 27
Date: June 30, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I bought Train Simulator because my 4 year old boy is a train nut, and I thought he would enjoy it. Unfortunately the experience of using Train simulator is not all that compelling, although various visual aspects of the game are impressive.

I had a lot of trouble installing the game -- you'll need a newish graphics card in your machine. My two year old graphics card couldn't run the game, even with updated drivers, and the troubleshooter was of little help telling me what the problem

was.

Operating the trains is quite simple, and kind of fun for a while, although the train has a habit of stopping if you exceed the speed limit etc, (I gather this is realistic), but once it does so, it won't start up again for a couple of minutes, which is kind of frustrating.

The visuals are sort of interesting, but somewhat short of "you are there". The landscape is all static, i.e. you don't see anything moving (like cars, people, etc.) When you stop at a station there are no people on the platform and nobody gets on or off, so it feels kind of ghost town-y.

The audio portion was rather a dissapointment -- the train engine sounds are on a very short loop and quite boring. No clickety clack, screeching of wheels, etc., doppler effect when trains pass, or different sounds when you are in a tunnel.

Some of the 3D rendering is quite nice, you can view the train moving from a number a different viewpoints and zoom in and out as if you were in a helicopter above the train or sitting next to the tracks, but this is also not tied into the audio at all so the effect is kind of limited although technically impressive.

Suffice it to say, that after an initial 15 minute session with my son, he has yet to ask to play it again.

On the other hand, it doesn't cost much...

For real train buffs only..

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 18 / 19
Date: August 18, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Train Simulator is an extremely realistic game, the graphics are excellent, sounds extremely believable, and game play probably as close to real life as it could ever get. The only problem is after playing the game for a while, it gets extremely boring.

The program comes with an add on program which allows for the user to create new routes, new maps, and new activities (activities are the basis of the game - you have to get x cargo to x place in x time, etc), but it is extremely EXTREMELY rudimentry, and very hard to use/understand its almost like using a CAD program, complete with x and y axis. But according to Microsoft's website, the version which is included with the game is more powerful, and easier to use than what was used to create the actual routes and activites which are included in the game. Hopefully there will be free downloadable updates to the Editor, as well as additional activites, since the game only comes with approximatly 10 for each route.

The game also requires an installation onto the hard drive, it cannot be played from a CD, so depending on how many routes you choose to install, it can take up to 1.6 gigabytes of space.

Over all its a great game, and I love playing it, but there just comes a time when you get bored playing the same activities over and over again, and sitting there dealing with speed restrictions for an hour at a time is very annoying.

Warning - this game is addictive!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 18 / 19
Date: September 22, 2001
Author: Amazon User

My son gave me this game for Father's day, and ever since, it's been hard for me to pry myself away from my computer. This is a first version of this sim, and anything this complicated is sure to have bugs (for those of you who remember Microsoft's first version of Flight Sim, you'll be happy to know that this product is as good as the third version of FS right out of the box). Nevertheless, there are some bugs, but I haven't yet found anything I can't work around.
Ever since I was a kid, I loved trains. What this product does is give you the ability to operate a variety of trains on six accurately modelled routes (from GPS data on real train routes). Two routes are in the US, two are in Europe (one of these is the Orient Express) and two are in Japan. There are a number of pre-packaged activities (challenges) ranging in difficulty, and with a little time, one can even develop one's own custom activities. It is also possible to repaint some fo the locomotives and rolling stock using programs like Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop. Imagine seeing a locomotive with your name/logo on it. Sounds are great. There were modelled using state of the art digital audio techniques, and make the game truely engaging. While the game comes with a nice assortment of Deisel, Steam and Electric locomotives and lots of associated rolling stock (freight and passenger), there's a large community of interet that regularly uploads new locos and rolling stock to a File Library for *free* downloading at www.train-sim.com. There are currently hundreds of locomotives and many more freight and passenger cars of all kinds available for free! Imagine the ability to have an almost unlimited rosted of locos and rolling stock as part fo your railroad! There's also a widely subscribed (free) forum at this site with useful FAQs, and the members are always willing to help a newcomer with whatever advice might be needed.
Train Sim gives you a six virtual railroads where you're the boss. In addition to having full contol over the trains, you can contol weather conditions, time of day, the kind of trains you want to run, and whether or not you'll allow derailments. If you like Trains, you'll like Train Simulator... but be careful, it has been known to be addictive.

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