Rating: 
Summary: Not as good as I'd hoped
Review: 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...
Rating: 
Summary: MSTS my fav. game of the year
Review: Lets all get this strait,MSTS isn't in your face like alot've games out there. Personnally, I'm a Delta Force2 and Rogue Spear Junkie. But I love Msts. But, I'm also a train enthusiast. The game landscapes are well designed and immersive, as well as the varied routes you can take. For example, you can pilot a Flying Scottsman through Britain, or push a High Speed Amtrak Acela HHP-8 electric locamotive through the busy(and often times challenging) Northeast Corridor. To put it plainly,if your looking for some fast-paced shooter, go buy rogue spear or counter strike(both 5-star games). But train enthusiasts and simulator junkies will appreciate this game and will keep playing it for awhile.
Rating:
Summary: Train Simulator
Review: I love this game.Only casue I love trians they are cool to me but i dont know about you.I play this game every day for abot 1 to 2 hours a day.If u dont have this game you need to get and try the game now.Thanks for reading what I had to say.
Rating:
Summary: Moon, Stars, & falling snow
Review: I purchased the MSTS about a week and a half ago from Amazon.com. I have enjoyed the sim and have really enjoyed the add on loco's, cars, etc. that you can find on web sites like Train-Sim.Com. I had no problems installing the software and once installed you can file the CD's away as back up since the program runs without them. It is a real trip to see the old Milwaukee Road (MR loco was a third party add on) hauling logs through a mountian pass with a full moon and stars in the sky during a soft falling light snow. If you like trains check some reviews like Gamespot.com and this sim my be for you! Spot those three cars on track 9 and set out the crummy on track 1.
Rating:
Summary: Union Pacific Railroad Grow Up!
Review: I'm so mad and angry I could scream. Union Pacific railroad does not want any of their stuff put into Microsoft Train Simulation because they think that if someone operates one of their trains in the simulation, that person will run right out to the nearest Union Pacific railroad yard and try to steal one of their trains. John Bromley, Public Affairs Director for Union Pacific Railroad, said the company will pursue anyone who uses their name or logo. Bromley said Microsoft approach him about helping to develop Train Simulation and he said their was no way in hell he was going to help. He is afraid either a computer gamer or a model railroader will go out and try to steal one of their trains after playing this simulation. He said that he real concern about putting a simulation out like this out in the open market that shows the public how to operate a train locomotive. Bromley saids he knows that their are plane simulations out there already and he doesn't have a problem with that. Bromley saids the US Navy doesn't leave F-16's laying around in remote areas ready to be stolen. My question is how come Union Pacific doesn't have better security and safe guards to prevent their trains and equipment from being stolen? And why does he think all computer gamers and model railroaders are thieves?
Rating:
Summary: The competitor's version has better game play.
Review: The graphics is great and has a lot of good features. However it seems very boring when I compared to another game that I played. The other one is made by a Japanese company and only available in the Japanese language and it's called Densha-de GO! The Japanese one is much more challenging and has real life scenarios. It evaluates you with points on how well you do. There's also speed limit which will not go crazy if you go over by just a few KM or so. The controls on MS can be confusing compared to their competitor's. There are quite a few bugs that I see with the MS version. Even on a Pentim III 733 machine, the game has some delay problem once in awhile. The wipers do not seem to be working until you go outside of the car and see that it's indeed working. The timetable thing is extremely weird. On the competitor one, you would know exactly when you are suppose to depart and arrive. There are times where it's not really clear in the MS version. I would recommend this game if you have never played other ones before. It's a good start but it's boring. Their compatitor one kept me playing non stop. Where as the MS one makes me fall asleep very quickly.
Rating: 
Summary: Be Overly Cautious Before Buying this Sim
Review: For those of you who have been awaiting anxiously this Sim as was I for the last several months, be prepared for the very real possibility of a major disappointment. Check out forums on this product elsewhere; if you are fortunate to be one of the limited instances in which the Sim works fine, consider yourself lucky indeed. If not, be prepared to spend a considerable amount of time trying to recover from the many system crashes you will experience, or looking for that magic setup that may allow you to work the sim for a handful of minutes before it freezes. According to the product information, the system requirements are these: Multimedia PC, Pentium II 266 MHz or faster processor (with 4 MB 3-D video hardware acceleration); Microsoft Windows 95, 98, 2000, or Me; 32 MB RAM for Windows 95, 98, and Me; 64 MB RAM for Windows 2000; 500 MB hard disk space; 4x CD-ROM drive or faster; Microsoft mouse or other pointing device. My own computer far exceeds these minimums, is updated regularly, and yet I've been able to experience little of the sim itself. (This is the same computer on which I use MSFS2K flawlessly at framerates in excess of 30-40fps.) MSTS fails repeatedly, reboots the system, and so on. In forums elsewhere, simmers are being advised to purchase other video cards, sound cards, upgrade drivers, and so on. If a particular video card is required, the product should stipulate this clearly. Software out of the box should not be so mysterious, so complex, so detrimental to a computer system. Technically quite literate, I've never experienced anything like this. My MSTS is being returned today. Be careful when considering this purchase.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Game, But NO Manual
Review: First off let me say this, this game is alot of fun to play. It just takes a while to learn. You would think for close to $50 they would include some sort of paper manual. NOPE! All they give you is a keyboard command reference card and a weak map of the routes you will be running on. There is a manual on disk in Adobe format, if you want to waste 96 pages of your own paper printing it. Over all the game is decent, just wish Microsoft would have thown in a decent manual like they have for thier other games in the past.
Rating:
Summary: microsoft bites
Review: I bought this game and when I try to run it, it says "profiling", it stops profiling and never loads the game. My system exceeds the minimum requirements and I have contacted microsoft and they have given me the run around. I'm very unhappy with microsoft! If a zero was allowed, I'd give the zero to microsoft for their lack of customer support in regards to this game.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome simulation experience!(get the latest video drivers)
Review: I have been waiting for a while for the release of MSTS - have been hearing good things about it - but mainly only from train junkie type sites. The rest of the online world seemed to be oblivious of such a game - especially for a game from Microsoft! That said, I just picked up a copy from EBX. It does consume a whopping 1.8GB as others mentioned. My system is a P4/1.7Mhz, 128MB RDRAM, GeForce2MX with 40GB. With enough of everything to spare, I went for the complete install. I got choppy framerates, and the simulation would pause for a few milliseconds for every couple of seconds. I got a little mad, but a quick visit to nvidia's site got me the latest drivers for my card. This is when the sim really took off - I was running at 1024x768x32bits - with smooth framerates. This was with almost all the graphics options turned on. However switching the anti-aliasing in the card also really slows things down. But I guess this really isnt the game's fault (or is it?) Im writing this review after taking the orient express (with a royalty aboard) thru it's normal course using a flying scotsman - with the automatic fireman turned off - I havent had this much fun in the near past - you got to shovel the coal, keep the boilers all fired up right, the steam production vs. consumption - all the while trying to enjoy the view. And you got to keep looking out for speed limits - it aint good when your train comes to a jolting stop because you were speeding. You lose points when you "exceed passenger comfort levels". Also you want to make sure that you dont accelerate and decelerate too fast, because that'll eat up more coal and water. Keeping the ride smooth is also very important (remember the royalty aboard?). Pretty cool simulation - hope to play it for a long time to come!
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