First of all, sorry for the very long delay with this review, but I had heart problem and had heart surgery too, finally recovered and doing well. So this is why I didn't made this one yet. Great Western Express is a great expansion for TSW. The scenery is great, the route is not hard, very easy, it's a real sit down and relax route. Paddington station looks truly magnificent, I love it, it really looks great, and you lose yourself just walking around and enjoy the view. The journey not hard but I will explain why impossible to make the gold. The trains enjoyable, it seems the headlights of the trains still more like flashlights, but here is manageable, because we get more light sources(houses, street lamps, the moon too) to see in the dark. but nothing is perfect, and here I found something that's definitely makes impossible to make gold on all of the Class 166 GWG. The timetables. Broken, and not just broken, impossible to keep up. It was made with wrong math, forgot the acceleration and deceleration times on track, and the train start procedure. Still, you can try make in time doing emergency brake (4) for the stations from full speed at around 1km from it, so you won't overrun the stop marker. Still, you will lose it. Because the passenger loading is SLOW. Literally slow, as if I'd wait a snail climbing upstairs. Even already at first stop you will lose 30-35 secs with the loading, no matter if you got there sooner. The minutes will add up. Before the last station you will start the train on the time that's already late from the last station arrival time. The freight and the High Speed Train had no issues. I'm not graphics expert, the graphics is great for me. Except a strange glitch, when the train wheels start to blur, it became looks like a saw blade(?). Also, there is loading operation for the freight train, but the devs lost the chance, as in Dante, so it's only 2 mission had task to load up wagons. Why developers build something that makes the expansion more unique, interesting, and after they just don't include it enough? Yet, this expansion recommended for everyone who want to play casual, but forget to make gold, sometimes even silver with the Class 166 timetables in the journey. Paddington itself already worth it to buy.
The wheel blur on older routes is like that since there's no radial blur in unreal. The headlights on uk units aren't meant for the driver to see, it's for other drivers to see you which is why it's not bright like American units. In terms of the timetable, would need to be rebuilt. They updated the physics of the 166 but not the timetable which would have required months of work.
GWE has stood the test of time as the pioneer UK route in TSW. It's a shame that it didn't go further (Oxford or Thames Valley branches) and also that DTG recently confirmed they have no plans to revisit the route in the future.
Yes in TSC I went to Oxford once or twice and it is boring. the Midland Mainline is better. My opinion. I think WCML/ECML or GEML would be the focus for the next few years. Electrified and huge variety of trains. I guess DTG has chosen the right path not to overburden themselves too much because jumping in the deep end would have been bad.
Scenery wise Reading to Oxford is dud, but you get a bit more 125 MPH running and Didcot Yard is a major freight hub, as is Hinksey at Oxford for engineering trains.
Sorry for late reply I'm still having some... After effects with my health. Also, always forget there is TSW2 too. I play TSW3. I play now the Bakerloo Line, that's my next journey mode. It's very unique thing playing both subway, and train mode too. Sadly the timetables is really impossible to keep so far.
I'm about 3/4 of the way through the GWE journey. I'm finding it just about possibel to stay on time with the 166 if you drive it like you stole it. although I get away without using emergency brake! Touch wood haven't had any silver medals yet and have 10 services left.
Yeeah on Xbox. Not sure if there are certain services that are harder to stay on time with? I'm normally with a minute or two. I just spawn, key on, slam the power on the figure out lights, safety systems as I'm accelerating. Not strictly correct but just about works for me so far.
Its possible to keep time. Consider that the tube isn't driven in the same manner as a train, insomuch as in the underground sections the consist will be travelling at line speed quite often right up to the tunnel portal to the station (eg. 30mph at the station boundary) in real life. Its tighter on the overground sections, especially when going through the train shed, and always remember to start the door close procedure at least 5 seconds before the progress circle finishes so you can leave immediately at the scheduled time
During the July Livestream near the end. It should be timestamped. How the route was built back then compared to now is very different and extending gwe would require rebuilding the whole thing again
Just took this line IRL in June, Paddington->Bath Spa. In game I've only run the Class 166 so far. The HST is definitely a classic train but I admit I would've liked to see a Class 800 as I took.
