I still consider it a first impression even after playing TSW3 for a week. So how is my first impression? Well it's a mixed bag of feelings. It feels like an edition full of good intent but good intent alone is not enough. There is so much in TSW3 to be joyful about. Finally attention is given to newcomers to TSW. The training centre is a very welcome edition as also the tutorials are way better. I once watched a a video by TSW about LBZ and it sounded so complicated I never even tried to activate. The TSW3 tutorial was so easy I was so surprised why I never used LBZ until I watched that old video again and immediately understood why. It was a powerpoint presentation. So yes attention to newcomers is a very good addition but like I said it is good intent. Tutorials are not fully correct. Probably because I'm not really a new user I got the LZB tutorial to work almost like intended. The training centre itself needs a lot more polish performance wise. Speaking of performance: Performance wise it's a huge improvement because I stopped playing TSW2 when I got a Series S and performance was very frustrating after hearing over and over again that you needed gen 9 hardware only to discover that performance was as bad as on gen8. TSW3 has way better performance but this comes with the drawback that draw distance is so low we still can't speak of a real gen9 version of train sim world The starter pack is personally also a mixed bag of feelings. First of all, congratulations for the vocals again, having a local speak the intros always make me smile. The UK route I already owned on PS4 so there is not much to say about it than that runs smoother than before. Then there is the German route which I think is a good route but not for a starter pack. Being introduced to LZB this is now probably the most boring route I played in TSW. When your screensaver kicks in due to no activity on the controller it's a warning that the game you are playing is boring. But it is also the only route I play as I don't play freight. Tried Cajun but the tutorial in the training centre immediately reminded why I don't do freight (or at least US freight) I hate those loco's. So the starter pack doesn't offer that much to do. But there is still older content to play. I tried some of the journeys I had abandoned but then you get reminded why those journeys were abandoned. Dresden still has the red light problem and most of the issues with older content just carried over to TSW3, it just runs smoother now I like the new UI (still needs minor improvement) but the HUD was also overdue for makeover which now makes the game still look like you are playing TSW2 I'm playing this game on Game Pass and I still can't find a reason why I should buy TSW3. Not saying I will never buy TSW3 but it will need some new commuter DLC before I think it's worth buying the starter pack as well.
