There's a SimRail thread in Off Topic... However I doubt the PC version has dented TSW nor will the XBox version be likely to. The single player game is still in a very poor state and apart from the Polish servers, multiplayer is very quiet too. The eagerly announced US and German content seems to have become vapourware. Yes SimRail can be enjoyable, particularly the sounds of the traditional electric locos and units, but no substitute for the spread of content we have in TSW.
Trainz is also on Xbox, but in both I don't see a replacement for TSW at moment. The lack of content is the most important reason, as both do not have German, Austrian or Swiss routes. But we will see what both can do in the feature. But with Microsoft/Xbox switching to some hybride PC box, it does not matter that much anymore, at least not for me. Most likely I have to switch to PC gaming anyway, with Xbox as we know is ending. I will try to stay as far away as possible from Microsoft as I lost all my trust in this company. So if I switch to PC, it will be something with SteamOS or Linux, even if this mean I have to rebuy games and DLC.
Yep, I'm actually quite impressed with Trainz at the moment, took the plunge and had go at Trainz Plus for a month. Coal Country is jaw droppingly good, the detail level is insane (which you really need for a slow speed route). Physics feel nice as well. The living railroad feature is a good step forward for automatically scheduling tasks, and taking over AI if you want. Very enjoyable.
SimRail has been going for years now and it’s still yet to make a dent. I don’t see that changing to be perfectly honest.
Consoles will bring them more money. This will help the developers continue to work on the game. They can offer more than blurry textures.
SimRail can be quite juddery and occasionally blurry on the PC version, on potato hardware so I wouldn’t get your hopes up wit regard to a console version.
yes, all that "now that will kill tsw" talk is leading nowhere again. Simrail is nice, but even on PC it didnt pose a serious threat to TSW but rather a nice addition with its different gameplay styles (multiplayer, signaller etc). It solely focusses on polish content, so does not have the variety TSW offers with diferent countries.There was a partly german route announced i think more than a year ago, but that was never heard of or seen again. even if often criticised the pace in which TSW gets new content (and re releases) keeps it alive as theres always something new coming and to talk about as it was with TSC, whereas similar games like tramsim or even simrail seem to loose their shiny new factior after a while. (even if simrail got a some updates with new content)
The new route for SimRail, while pleasant enough, simply extended the existing one through broadly similar terrain (i.e. flat) and identical operations - double track main line, electrified etc.
Don't see it being a threat to DTG it's another trainsim ,but doesn't have the variety,maybe if a developer comes along and makes brand new Trainsim in unreal five with lots of different countries,locos,etc and it's made to a high standard then maybe
For console owners, this is an alternative to another train simulator. How long do we have to wait for the blurry textures to be fixed? It's been over a year. If the PlayStation version comes out, I'll definitely switch to SimRail and start buying their DLC.
I'd never heard of Simrail before so I decided to Google. The only 'official' sites I could find were covered in spammy adverts for non-related content; relevant content was sparse and usually in Polish, and overall there didn't seem to be much going on - it felt like a rarely updated hobbyist project. Given the little that I could find I'm kind of impressed that they're potentially going to release something on console, but any suggestion that they could somehow compete with TSW in their current state and somehow give DTG a kick up the backside seems utterly fanciful unfortunately.
There was supposed to have been a US route by Searchlight Simulations and a German route by unknown developer, but both seem to have evaporated into vapourware.
Run 8 is really good. Has an online portion that requires you to take a check ride with a real person. Has real dispatchers too.
I have Run 8 but mostly play in SP mode. I found the MP rather cliquey at least the servers I tried. And if you only have 45 or 60 minutes a bit pointless too. In that respect as I already said, the MP on SimRail is slightly better.
Pointed that out when the thread first appeared! There is a perfectly good SimRail thread in the Off Topic section, but it seems the mods either haven’t noticed or don’t care this one is here. Could also be they see the comparison between the two as actually being slightly in favour of TSW so left it alone…
Moved it over - we make sure to do our best with flagging threads and moderating, busy times for us all heading into the final month of the year
To be fair it's kinda niche. Amazing if you like very realistic Polish trains in one small part of Poland. Not so much otherwise. TSW is to an extent, but less so since it has a lot of variety. I'd seriously have thought Trainz would be much more of a rival since it's more tuned into what console players generally go for.
simrail is much more a simulator than tsw but tsw is much more a eyecandy product than simrail, but let's wait for MP reviews when it land.
The biggest problem with SimRail, including its XBox debut, is that if you can't fit your driving within the MP environment, the single player is still very limited and still (AFAIK) doesn't have a viable save function other than the alpha trial which works sporadically and not on every scenario.
Hopefully there will be a PS5 version. TSW on my consoles only offers bugs and blurry textures. I'd recommend switching to SimRail. Maybe this will cause slow consoles to leave TSW and they won't hinder development for owners of powerful PCs.
Maybe, but there's still "almost 500km of track" to drive on....the equivalent of maybe 8+ TSW addons! I personally probably won't be buying it - but that's got nothing to do with what I'd be getting for my £26, it's purely down to the facts that the game uses the woefully inadequate** Unity engine and I'd also have to purchase a gamepass subscription in order to get the most out of it. **Unity may suit higher spec PC's but on XBox it's generally a breeding ground for budget games with poor performance, low quality visuals, insane amounts of pop-in's (in open world environments)....and of course, the 30fps compromise if you want to avoid some of the above.
I'd suggest waiting till it comes out to see. You can't compare an existing game to a potential release which doesn't exist yet. In THEORY TSW works great on consoles too. Simrail could very well run into the same console limitations, having little to no single player and prices rising and needing a subscription means it's far from ideal. I don't have any use for it myself, but we'll see if it gets any support from console users. It's just too early to tell until it releases and people can try it out.
There is also a free to play train sim coming out to steam next week called MaSzyna which has a ton of trains and rolling stock mostly Polish railways. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1033030/MaSzyna/
It seems to me that SR will work better in X-box than TSW just bacause Simrail devs have been putting months & months of effort into their work & it really shows. DTG just seems to be work on stuff as quick as possible then abandon the DLC. I'd take one country with a superior train simulation experience than the round the 'world "garbage that DTG has been peddling with TSW for nearly a decade.
I wouldn't go as far as to say TSW is garbage (I had many a happy hour playing those earlier versions) but i do agree it has certainly gotten considerably worse in terms of quality & value over the past few years for me personally to say "no thanks" when it comes to continued support of the product. Don't get too excited about Simrail just yet though because you're forgetting that even thought it's a mere 2 days from launch, zero X|S footage has been made available......and if the Unity/low budget/plethora of pre-existing bugs thing wasn't already throwing enough potential red flags, those alarm bells should be well and truly screaming in your eardrums when something like that happens.
Well i bet one thing is for sure. It wont have blurry textures like TSW 6 gives. also zero footage released. May i draw your attention to this SimRail - The Railway Simulator | Xbox series X & S - release trailer
The biggest red flag for me continues to be the lack of development to the SP game or getting the alpha save game into a more workable state. And while yes, SR might have this glorious 300+ km route with all the extensions added, but you can’t deny it is very samey. I know we talk about the TSW copy and paste style routes for Germany but there is some variety. Once you’ve been through Zawierce a few times like any route, the novelty starts to wear off. And with the main appeal still being MP, I’m still to be convinced where the huge extra player base on the XB will come from, to justify taking development resources from the main PC game. Again, don’t misunderstand me, I quite enjoy the odd blast of SimRail particularly the older Class 83 based locos or the EN57 EMU but that doesn’t mean to say the devs aren’t making mistakes, just different ones to DTG!
The console version of SimRail will make more money for development. If the PS5 version comes out, I'll gladly switch to another game. TSW is no longer interesting to me. Overpriced DLC full of recurring bugs (PZB magnets) and as a bonus blurry textures.
May I also draw your attention to the fact that on not one occasion does the trailer (which I already knew about) say which platform the footage is captured from....which generally means you're looking at high end PC gameplay. Besides, you should already know by now that where console trailers are concerned, what you see and what you get can be two entirely different things. Just take a look at Heliborne and Heavy Duty Challenge to see for yourself how these trailers can sometimes sell a whopping great lie.
Performance is good in Simrail and it contains a timetable in the cabview so you know what to aspect. After the update earlier this year the game looks very blurry. I don't know if this has anything to do with making the game ready for consoles? But driving feels different then in tsw, because you have change a lot of tracks to reach the destination and therefore their are a lot of signals and speed limits
You get a timetable in TSW too if you press the button. TSW has all the signals and speed limits there in real life.... not sure how they'd add more than real life has.
The interface could be better in TSW. Still not enough to make me want to play Sim Rail though. I didn't care for it when I tried Sim Rail a few times. Do Polish trains even have that? I didn't bother looking.
I never said i knew - I said it **generally** means high quality PC gameplay has been used to sell the game. But hey, you can see for yourself now because 'actual' console footage (not what's posted above...there's more now) isn't displaying those near-flawless high resolution visuals seen in the trailer, it's showing all the issues associated with the Unity engine on lesser performing consoles.
The same can be said about TSW. The DLC demos are in excellent quality. There is no mention of blurry and crumbling textures. There is also no mention of the devices not being readable after five minutes.
