For me the new routes are beautiful! The attention to detail on the trains and tracks/locations far exceeds the previous version(specifically sehs) but in general on the whole experience the impact and interactive immersive qualities of the game have been vastly improved. The trade of for now for me at least is a noticeable drop in the frame rate at certain parts of routes. I hope to see further improvements on this front as time goes on. I guess we'll see but overall the game for me is far more enjoyable than two. Onwards and upwards! Keep up the good work!
I'm on a stock (non-Pro) PS4 and have have had the game for a day now. Only tried one TSW3 route, one TSW2 route, and the training centre. My first impressions: Graphics: Graphically it can appear very washed out. Perhaps a result of the new sky dome lighting model in combination with low(er)-res artwork, literally highlighting those more. Maybe, as did TSW2, it looks better during evening/night rides. It feels as if it takes longer for low-res artwork to be replaced by higher-res versions. Especially noticeable with the trees, you're staring at very basic versions for longer than in TSW2, and when they change, it's very obvious. Noticed lightning in a nightly Ruhr DLC scenario. Don't recall it being there before, so probably a TSW3 addition? Nice. New lighting model, e.g. the blinding effect when leaving a dark tunnel, is perhaps more realistic, but I would gladly trade it for fewer frame drops and higher-res textures. The way TSW2 did its lighting never bothered me, except for the useless headlights. Fixes: Getting into the game is a whole lot quicker. When it asks you to press any key during the startup screens, it is far more responsive than TSW2. Kudos. The in-game Store menu is also a lot more responsive and the DLC graphics appear quicker. The main menu is more responsive than TSW2's horizontal spread of routes to choose from. During route selection you can now actually zoom in/out and around a miniature map. TSW2 showed UI elements for doing that, but I never could get that to work. You can now highlight the weather sliders when choosing a scenario, so you can see ahead of time what you're about to change (e.g. precipitation). In TSW2 the sliders remained black even when selected. Confusing: Downloading previously bought DLC's at times gives the choice between two similarly named versions in the PlayStation Store, I think they're both named "Extra". One of them starts two downloads, one for TSW2 and one for TSW3. No telling which does what, annoying. When the dialog comes up asking whether to register a new account or to login using an existing two account, there are two buttons. One button's colors are the inverse of the other, but there's no telling which one is actually selected (DTG, we don't have a mouse pointer on console...). Tried to select a route without it starting a few times, until I noticed I was on the Profile tab by mistake. Not sure what the point is of highlighting a route there, but maybe I'll find out. Certain UI elements are still confusing to get to without a mouse. To spawn on foot you already see the options for changing season and weather, but you cannot interact with them until you've first confirmed the station and time. Not fixed: Fans can still kick in wildly when in certain static menus. Apparently still no frame cap there. Steps back: Apparently DLC that gets installed while the game is running does not automatically show up, as it did in TSW2. Minor annoyance as we all spend time downloading our TSW2020 / TSW2 DLCs initially. Have to quit and restart the game. The community banner at the top right shows a score of -2,147,483,648, seems like an integer overflow to me. Neutral: Test centre is fun to take your time to learn the ropes at your leisure, but I cannot imagine it holding an interest for long. I also do not see all the trains I own being parked there, perhaps a PS4 limitation. Dynamic weather caught me by surprise, as after a bright sunny afternoon, in a matter of minutes (!) the entire world was covered in snow. Maybe that needs dialing down a bit. Hopeful: Haven't tried it yet, but I hope the annoying popup asking me whether I want to give up control of a service after I spent two minutes walking around (hunting down collectibles) will be gone. To sum up, I'm surprised that it runs at all, TBH. Some things got fixed, some things did not, and the extra graphical fidelity takes its toll on the way it looks on PS4, as (sadly) expected. I need to explore some more routes, but at € 30 during the end of year sale it was worth a gamble to me. Edit: It's now a few weeks later. I have had a bit more time with TSW3, and I must say I do like it. I think they struck a good balance between playability and graphical fidelity, and for me there is enough left to let me immerse myself, even on a stock PS4. Dynamic weather is actually more fun than I expected The popup about whether I want to relinquish control is still there, but finally it now defaults to "No", so no more risk of a badly timed popup cancelling your session just as you were about to perform an action such as unlocking train doors...
All the preserved dlc from tsw2 get dynamic weather and therefore the lightning storms. You also get arcing effects on some locomotives and snow kickup even though they wasn't really said was going to happen. The reason you are getting 2 versions is cuz the dlc is tsw2 and tsw3 compatible so you can run the dlc in both which is why you get 2 versions of it.
Another thing you are missing are certain layers on some routes. Example being hma, bml and the most recent bro. You get shorter freight consists, less ai running around, less filled yards. Still glad you are enjoying the game regardless.
