TSW Great Western Express

[Wivenswold]

For those interested, Dovetail have announced the first UK route for their new platform. It would appear that the Heavy Haul CSX is the base for TSW as you have to purchase that too, but once you've got that you shouldn't need to buy the base game again (like they did with Railworks).

It looks very impressive and I can't wait to get my hands on it. I just hope the developer tools are more intuitive than they were on TS.

 

[StephenHunter]

It's only covering Paddington to Reading, but there should be a lot of detail on it considering I saw in the Heavy Haul demo.

 

[BR60062]

I own TSW and I am looking forward to getting this add-on if the immersion of the CSX Heavy Haul is anything to go by .

 

[Wivenswold]

I pre-ordered it, I missed the start of the Railworks revolution and ended playing a very expensive gave of catch up.

 

[BR60062]

From what I have seen on the DLC page on Steam. It looks pretty good as there is three locomotives/trains included.

Class 43 HST - GWR
Class 166 DMU - GWR
Class 66 Diesel Locomotive - DB Schenker

If they could include the Heathrow line into the route, that would be a good start. But I think it will be interesting to see how the ATP, AWS, DSD etc is going to be like as well as realistic physics and stuff.

But most importantly, I really do that DTG have/will have fixed the issues with the FPS and better optimisation with the processor and the GPU cards .

 

[SamYeager]

I just hope the developer tools are more intuitive than they were on TS.

I hope you realise that said tools have not yet been released. Given DTG required extra time before they can release GWE I'm not expecting the tools anytime soon although I hope I'm being too pessimistic.

 

[E_Reeves]

I hope it'll have DOO

 

[Crossover]

I keep seeing this advertised - what features does TSW have over RW?

I thought that I should have had a demo of TSW by virtue of purchasing something for RW a while ago, but it appears not to have been the case

 

[ModernRailways]

I keep seeing this advertised - what features does TSW have over RW?

I thought that I should have had a demo of TSW by virtue of purchasing something for RW a while ago, but it appears not to have been the case

It has a load of changes. Too many to list.

You got free access to the beta. The beta has been and gone so if you never tried it then you'll need to buy it. My advice, would be for you to buy the game on Steam, and if after 1 hour and a half of playing you don't enjoy it, refund it - you can refund Steam games with less 2 hours of playtime or less than 2 weeks in your library.

 

[GB]

As far as I can see, everyone that has played the game since its official launch has beta tested it.

 

[Crossover]

It has a load of changes. Too many to list.

You got free access to the beta. The beta has been and gone so if you never tried it then you'll need to buy it. My advice, would be for you to buy the game on Steam, and if after 1 hour and a half of playing you don't enjoy it, refund it - you can refund Steam games with less 2 hours of playtime or less than 2 weeks in your library.

Ah, that would explain it. Never got notified of the beta when it came out so never got a chance to give it a go

 

[Iskra]

It looks very good graphically, a step-change since railworks, I'm just concerned about the limited playability of GWR Express until the scenario making tools are released.

I've downloaded the CSX addition, but I have no real interest in US railways, so will wait for the GWR add on is released before I really give it some time.

 

[Crossover]

DTG released a fairly long video the other day to show off the new route and I stayed up far too late watching it!

I have decided to purchase following that and had a bit of a play with the US route last night - I don't have the most powerful graphics card but it seems to cope fairly well with it all in all, though I may not get quite as slick an experience as intended.

Just found out that it is tonight that the Great Western route is released so I may not be getting much done this weekend! The scenario side doesn't concern me too much - there looks to be hours of play just in the "Services" part - not sure I will spend too much time just as a passenger, though!

 

[Iskra]

I've had a quick play on this tonight. Graphically it's pretty impressive (one slight glitch though which I'm sure will be sorted). The route is well modelled and certainly captures the feel of the GWML very nicely. Service mode is indeed fantastic and will keep me busy for a long time. The game feels a lot more engaging/challenging and definitely more realistic than it's predecessors. It doesn't seem to handle the high speeds quite as well as the slower speed CSX though.

Overall, it seems pretty good and I'm looking forward to trying the Networker and class 66. There's a lot more to come from this game.

 

[Crossover]

I had an odd one on the tutorial where it seemed to think I had started the engine on the 166 but, as far as I could tell it wasn't. Also on the HST tutorial the engine wouldn't start at all from what I could tell

I'm finding that the PC can't handle the graphics too well and it's very choppy as a result. I will look further at the settings probably over the weekend - this may be also doing odd things to the sounds too

 

[E_Reeves]

I set all of the graphics settings to medium and it runs pretty smoothly, although technically my CPU is below minimum requirements. One thing I've found is that when a HST is approaching from the opposite direction a line appears on the track in front of you that disappears and reappears as it passes. Apart from that, love it!
Also - has anybody figured out how to get the door hustler sound on the 166. It worked once for me and didn't work again after that.

 

[StephenHunter]

Looks great... although you can't use the toilets on the trains.

 

[superalbs]

Looks great... although you can't use the toilets on the trains.

"Our modeller refuses to model toilets."

-Someone at DTG at OOC.

 

[E_Reeves]

"Our modeller refuses to model toilets."

-Someone at DTG at OOC.

Also you can't access the engine rooms (or the back part of a HST power car), which would be a nice addition

 

[E_Reeves]

Here's a few things I think would improve the sense of 'reality':

• When door close button on class 166 is pressed, exterior warning lights stay illuminated until doors have closed.
• When cab doors on class 166 (or any door) is open without door release, the exterior hazard light flashes on that carriage like it'd do in real life.
• Cab doors on HST are able to be opened whilst moving.
• Door controls (shift key) are available whilst walking around.

Obviously, these are minor things but it's definitely look better with them available.

 

[Crossover]

I suspect part of the reason for not allowing cab doors to be opened on a HST whilst moving is so you can't bail out of a train doing 125mph! On the US railroads, you can open the cab doors to access the walkways and up to a couple of miles per hour can hump off the train - beyond walking pace I think you can go out of the cab but can't jump off the loco