Main Reviews & Features

Rail Simulation
Densha de Go
Loksim
Microsoft Train Sim
Railworks
Trainz
World of Subways Volume 1
Zusi

Transport Strategy
A Train Series
Transport Tycoon & Locomotion
Sundry Other Strategy Titles

Archive Reviews
(Reviews of older programmes retained for posterity)

Train Driver 3
Trainmaster

Other Pages:

Route Building Diary (note this page may occasionally contain franker comments than the rest of the site or mild expletives and youngsters should view with parental supervision)
My Sulitjelma Route for TRS2006
News Archives 2010
News Archives 2009
News Archives 2008
News Archive 2007
Download Page
Links Page (under construction)
About/Contact Webmaster

The following are links to message boards which may be useful:

Auran Trainz Forum - the official board to discuss Auran's train sim products.

Densha de Go Board - English language forum for users of Japanese console train driving games.

Train-sim.com - US orientated discussion site.

Transport Tycoon Forum - For TT etc. & Locomotion discussion.

Truck Pol Forum - C'mon good buddy, 10-4, rubber duck (plastic chicken) discuss all those road transport driving games out there!

UK Trainsim - Download site and discussion forum.

UK Trainz Forum - Independent UK site, primarily Trainz.

Zusi - Official board of the German sim. English language section available.

7th May 2010

I've just posted an updated review of Trainz to replace the rather outdated reviews of TRS2006 and Trainz Classics 3.

29th April 2010

If you're still putting off buying Railworks for some reason then think again as there's never been a better time to purchase the sim! For customers in the UK most on line retailers are selling Railworks at a mid-range price, the cheapest I've seen is Amazon UK where it's going for £13.98!! In addition there's a major FREE content update due in the next day or two adding several items of German traction and rolling stock to bring the core programme up to date with a forthcoming re-release on the German market.

(Previous rant self moderated and removed!)

27th April 2010

A new and long awaited truck driving simulation comes out soon - Rig 'n' Roll has been in the virtual workshops for what seems like ages but following a download only release in the Russian market it gets a DVD-ROM release in early May. Rig 'n' Roll is the sequel to Hard Trucks and unlike its rival 18 Wheels of Steel series, is said to feature a near scale map of California as the gameplay area (18 WOS and its European sequel use a cut down game world with small towns representing large cities). I've just been over to the Rig 'n' Roll Official Website and come away very impressed after viewing screenshots and a couple of the video clips. In fact I've taken a chance and ordered the game on spec from Amazon UK, who strangely seem to be the only on line retailer carrying it at the moment. A full review will hopefully follow.

12th April 2010

For a change, some non train sim related news. On my Strategy page I make a very brief reference to the Airline 6 business management game which, as the name suggests, simulates the running of a commercial airline company. A quick visit to the AirlineSimulation page, reveals that a new version - Airline 7 - is in preparation. You have to hunt around the site for information but this looks fairly interesting and many added features from the original. Note this is not a game in the glitzy Tycoon or even the old Air Havoc Controller (who remembers that!?) style, it is largely spreadsheet based but very absorbing nonetheless - particularly if you want to write actual timetables and fleet diagrams/cycles. At the moment the only downside seems to be cost - at $AUS 69.99 comes in at the higher end of the cost bracket particularly at current exchange rates of well under AUS$ 2.00 to the GBP £ - but that seems to be an interim pricing which buys you Airline 6 and later on the upgrade to Airline 7. Maybe the price will drop in time...

10th March 2010

Auran Removing Support For Older TRS Versions

Visit the above link for information that has crept in through the backdoor, with quite significant implications for anyone developing in or for older versions of Trainz - even the still fairly recent TRS2006. Note particularly that "support" is not just in the sense of technical support but also denial of access to upload/download from the DLS to varying levels of degree. Now I'm still mulling over the decision and what it means in terms of my own plans to build routes for Trainz. I'm on record as saying that TS2010 is a good incarnation of the software but even in my own case, the laptop I use for route building cannot run Surveyor in TS2010, though TRS2006 and indeed the more recent Railworks are fine. Probably more on the specifics in the route building log at some point, but the essential message from Auran seems to be - from September 2010 if you wanted to upload a TRS2006 (or earlier) route to the DLS or use TRS2006 (or earlier) to download content, you're stuffed...

The decision is, not surprisingly, generating a fair amount of heated debate on the Auran boards with opinions divided over whether this is a good move to clear out the deadwood or a business decision with the potential to alienate thousands of perfectly content TRS2004/TRS2006 etc. owners.

28 February 2010

Further to today's musings on the Route Building Diary, just thought I would post some useful links...

Minomachi Line for BVE - route and tram downloads.

Joetsu Border Line for BVE - route download.

And last but not least, the Tanigumi Line for BVE - route and tram downloads.

All the above routes run well under OpenBVE, the advantage of OpenBVE also being you can "mix and match" the train type, you're not tied to the traction specified in the route csv file.

NB: The BVE Route Wiki for Japan contains links to most Japanese routes available for BVE/OpenBVE, I'm sure there's many more hidden gems waiting to be found.

(Older 2010 News Here)

(2009 Archived News is here).