Just Trains Tfw Class 142 And 2019 Timetable

There has at least been one YouTube "reviewer" who would review and then refund. The reviews were generally ranty and negative.

 

I will never base a purchase on the review when the content creator has received the product for free, it’s not impartial nor unbiased by the nature of the relationship between the reviewer and the company. Reviewers should be completely impartial, from the world of coffee, James Hofmann is a fantastic example of how reviews should be done as is Sam’s Trains in the model railway world (although he has a tendency to find everything too expensive and moan about the price of 90% he reviews).

That said I do find a number of ambassadors content engaging and follow more than a couple, I would just never trust a product review from any of them even if my life depended on it.

 

While yes, I would count that as getting it for free, its still very different to people who get keys from DTG. Those who refund, could literally say whatever they want and it makes no difference to anything.
At the end of the day, people who get keys, while some are honest and I appreciate them for that, they still have to care somewhat about their relationship with DTG. Then there's some certain ambassadors who will never say any bad about anything because they get free stuff, and I hate that.
Its difficult really, so many 'reviewers' are either way too positive or way too negative, even ones who have paid for the product.

 

I would question why someone buys a product to review and then refund? That doesn't suggest they are an enthusiast and unbiased, and presumably are making money from their channel. I would take their opinion with an even bigger pinch of salt.

What is their motivation?

 

I mean you stopped them being allowed to show off console builds as previews.

In any case I don’t really care for this argument, leave it to this forum to try & tell you that people getting thousands of pounds worth of content for free, aren’t biased.

 

I feel like there's a misunderstanding about what constitutes "not biting the hand", it doesn't mean literally never criticizing the game. I've read some reviews from sites dedicated to certain consoles, or even official magazines like Nintendo Power, it's not like they don't criticize things at all. The issue is that they play "softball", they say "Oh, that's not great, but it's not so bad", both because they're biased, but also certainly because they don't want to annoy the company they're getting goodies from.

A lot of a review (and really a lot of other things related to writing) is prioritization and tone. and frankly pretty much all the one's I've seen I'd describe as lacking teeth in those regards.

 

Going slightly off topic, but I recall years ago magazines like PC Gamer and PC Format gave Frontier First Encounters glowing reviews and 80%+ ratings. Yet the game was a buggy unfinished mess, which eventually got a patch you had to request on disc from the publisher which still didn't fix things.

 

IGN are still at that sort of behaviour today, everything they review seems to score at least 7/10.

It’s to the point where they get games internet famous for scoring below 7.

 

DTG literally stopped an ambassador from reviewing the Athena class 47 mid way through the review on a live stream, so let’s not pretend that there isn’t control over what is shown.

 

No kidding? Like DTG's lawyers called mid-stream?

Is there a link for this?

 

I agree with redrev1917. I occasionally watch an Ambassador stream just to look at the content and see if I like it. Some of them are much more detail- oriented than DTG's own streams. Occasionally, they even show night driving, which DTG almost never does.

However I don't believe that someone who gets content for free can ever be truly objective, so I would never base a purchase decision on such a review. After all, " He who pays the piper calls the tune. "

The best movie and theater critics buy a ticket and go to a performance anonymously. And the consumer magazine I read buys all it's own review products.

Anyway, the word " Ambassador " speaks for itself. It describes someone who represents a particular entity. Maybe DTG should call them " reps " instead. They do perform a useful PR function, after all.

 

It was train simulator driver the Aussie guy, someone in chat asked him to check his discord and he came back and said he’d been asked by DTG not to continue the review. There’s a thread on here somewhere which discussed it in depth at the time.

 

https://www.youtube.com/live/N19c1LafV70?si=BAQDdRl68Z_nl2UM
about 6:50 into it some one calls Richie asks him to check discord and then the review is pulled. He’d just shown the lack of smoke being emitted from the engine as it revved it.

 

Exactly my point thank you!

 

Oh yes, I've had a taste of how it works in the music industry. Having done some freelance writing for magazines, booked bands for festivals and also been a local radio DJ.

I can say with certainty that if you annoy certain record labels with an honest but negative review you will stop receiving products to review from them. Or they'll offer freebies at high profile concerts in return for giving the artists they spent the most money on a positive review. And don't get me started on commercial radio stations playlists and the amount of input record labels have on what plays on our local and national radio stations. I turned down a fairly well known modern band for an event because they took to long to respond to my invitation, the event co-ordinator got a threatening call from the label who said he'd never work with me again.

The film industry has similarly sharp practice around how they expect their talent to be presented to the public. If you won't trust a PC game review, you'd best stop reading and watching all product reviews.

 

Wowwww!! That's pretty shocking tbh!!

And Athena has totally disappeared as in a puff of smoke, correct?

Glad i never bought that one

 

I would say if people find the ambassadors biased, check out TrainSimulatorDriver's video on the Santa Fe pack by High Iron he did not hold back his thoughts.

I have ambassadors I like and some I don't but TSD (Paul) is my personal favourite.

 

Tbf I was surprised by BA's cargo line video as he was quite honest about it not being his thing because of the inaccurate time periods etc which was refreshing to see.

But I do like TrainsimTV and find Toms content quite balanced and fair. Have watched a bit of TSD too who's also good!

 

Yes Paul is probably an exception to the rule and says what he sees (as seen by DTG pulling the plug) and he is one I will watch quite happily even if I don’t always agree with his views.

 

Also worth pointing out that as far as I could see, Paul (Train Simulator Driver) was the only ambassador talking publicly about the Epic Games Store situation back in the beginning of TSW6

And to be fairer still, he's the only ambassador I've seen making videos about the blurry textures on console calling attention to it and trying to (as far as he can at least) figure out if there's a cause.

So while people may want to rubbish other ambassadors, imo Paul's a different breed

 

Going back to the actual add on (lol), anyone got a similar issue to me where occasionally the guard buzzer is sticking on? Recycling the doors seems to sort it mostly.

 

Had pass from me since the basic timetable runs like poop, audio popping every 5-10 secs and the occasional lag spikes that last anywhere between 1-2 seconds.
The route is too short and isn’t worth the price tag. I wish this route wasn’t included in the special edition, I’d happily trade it for another route that I don’t own.
(PS5 Pro)

 

Or maybe honest?
Lets face it recent dlc has been nowhere near the level that Just Trains or TSG release, if they can do it why not others?
It may be an old fashioned concept but day 1 buyers pay the highest going rate possible for dlc so they should get the best quality.

 

Yes and it's pretty obnoxious

 

I've got to be honest, it feels so wrong to drive this timetable, see so many 142s and not a single 143. I hope one day we get a 143, or even a 144 that can be made into a 143.

 

candacedtg FYI - something to log ^ - presumably easy fix in first patch...