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Trainz Simulator 12
Released On: Mar 17, 2011
Metascore
Available after 4 critic reviews
5.0
Where to Buy
Where to Buy
All Platforms
Trainz Simulator 12 is dedicated to fans of model railways. More attention in the development phase would have avoided some technical problems that prevent the title from being a product for everyone. However, it can give suggestive moments, it might surprise you.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 11 User Ratings
5.0
55% Positive
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
0% Mixed
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
45% Negative
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 11 User Ratings
5.0
55% Positive
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
0% Mixed
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
45% Negative
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
I'm not usual personal in my reviews, but this game means a lot to me as it was used to create some of the most nostalgic videos from my childhood. I am a Thomas The Tank Engine fan, and this game features a very alive and lovely community of mod makers and route makers that bring the Island of Sodor to life in a 3D space. If it wasn't for this game, I wouldn't be the same.
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PC
It starts. It pretends to run. It crashes sometimes when you try to quit, but that hardly matters at that point.
I bought this as I played the original Trainz waaaaaay back when it came out and trains / model trains are fun, and this is definitively a cheaper alternative to building a proper model railway, but unfortunately, it also turned out way less satisfying, mostly due to really really really bad optimization, and I cannot stress this enough - the game is optimized absolutely terribly, to a point where the framerate is 80% of the time barely passable, and the remaining 20% of the time single-digits slideshow. Ran the game on multiple different PCs to try and figure out the problem, only to conclude it's just the game being crap.
The graphics were okay when Trainz first launched, which was Oct. 2001, but they are really bad for a 2011 game. A lot of scenery is 2D / sprites, not 3D, everything is low poly / low pixel count textured, lighting is very very basic, and there are barely any improvements over the first game in the series, though overall, at least the train vehicles look decent, albeit individually the quality is inconsistent - I will get into that a bit later, though.
Sounds are pretty much the same. They are okay, overall, some of them are low bit-rate or not mixed properly, but there is a bunch of ambient sounds available, and for the most part, the world does actually feel lived in in most scenarios with solid ambience in stations and strewn about the maps/tracks.
The physics - well, there is some, there wasn't almost any in the original game, so that is an improvement, as much as having a slice of apple while starving is an improvement over starving and not having that one slice. It's pretty poor, honestly, and pretty unrealistic even on realistic stability settings.
I suppose, considering the minimum requirements, a lot of sacrifices were made to make it run even on, even at the time, terribly outdated hardware. Then again, from what I heard of the newer games, they are not much better despite having considerably higher listed HW requirements.
The GUI is, pretty bad honestly, very imprecise - both the train controls and the game menus, and do not work well in widescreen. I had to mess around with setting for quite some time to get it to actually recognise where my mouse actually was.
The quality of the scenarios and vehicles present varies greatly. The quality of exteriors mostly varies between good to great, but interiors are quite different, and quite literally varies from fantastic to craptastic, and this is not even consistent - you will have locomotives with great exterior model with interior being literally unfinished mess with missing textures, etc. Again, this applies to sounds as well, the scenery assets, the scenarios themselves (for example, some may have faulty scripting which does not switch signals properly, etc.).
To me, it looks like the devs tried to push the engine way further than it could take, with few - if any - optimizations. The original Trainz ran much better on hardware which is comparable to today's cheap mobile phones. T2012 looks like someone just piled some additional features on it (extensive scenario scripting, much larger maps, physics - basic, but still expanded over original, etc.), but never bothered to test and optimize any of it. Honestly, it's very disappointing. I was very happy when I stumbled upon this series again after such a long time, happy to see what came of the little train game I used to play as a kid - and the game even has very positive rating on Steam for some reason, only to find a pile of trash.
I honestly cannot say this enough: Steer clear of this. Even as a train /model train enthusiast, all you will find here is pain, suffering and depression. The other train sim series are a much better choice. Yes, they are much less of a sandbox where you can build your own traintracks, etc. and they are still buggy, and they have even worse pricing. But they at least work and are playable, for the most part. This thing is not.
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PC
Everything about this game is bad. Ranging from the **** physics engine to low quality sounds which 90% of the trains share. And what what did the developers think when they added the horrible "Jointed Track" sounds?
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PC
How can this game be called a simulator!?
There is no physics in the game att all. If you run into a curve too fast the train does not flip over or derail and not a single sound is accurate and many trains share the same low quality idle and run sound. Several trains have the same cabin.
Almost every train have a very annoying and unrealistic jointed-track sound that never disappears. And when accelerating and braking, the sound is really bad. Just searth for trainz on youtube and hear for yourself.
Do NOT buy this game if you want a "simulator". Buy Railworks´s Train Simulator 2014 instead.
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PC
The worst problem with this isn't the 2003 graphics or that its as interesting as watching paint dry but the fact that every time you want to play you have to let the game rebuild its database files, which takes an hour.
The same thing happens with the tutorial- click 'play' to watch and nothing will happen for an hour. Come out of the game and do the same thing and you have to wait all over again. Dont be fooled by the 'not responding' message, the game hasn't crashed, it is rebuilding its database files.
I'm not sure who coded this but I think they need to change their game engine so people who pay retail get a fair stab at playing it.
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PC
Summary TS12 includes the most exciting new feature in the history of Trainz. The players have asked for it and we have delivered Trainz Multiplayer. Now players from all over the world can build, play and operate railroads together!
Platforms:
- PC
Initial Release Date: Mar 17, 2011
Genres:
