Game:

Train Sim World 5 (2024)

Duration: 0:00

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Released by Dovetail Games on the 17th of September 2024, primarily for Windows 11, but also for Playstation 5 and XBox X/S, Train Sim World 5 was an incremental improvement on version 4. The main improvements, other than three new routes, were the addition of a conductor mode for working on passenger trains, a route-hopping feature allowing the use of overlapping routes simultaneously, a "Fast Travel" feature, and some updates to the live map.

The three new routes were the British West Coast Mainline from London Euston to Milton Keynes (featuring the Avanti, formerly Virgin, Pendolino service, at least in the Deluxe and Special Editions), the Kinzigtalbahn (on Deutsche Bahn) from Frankfurt to Fulda, and the Metrolink Los Angeles-San Bernardino route. The Deluxe and Special Editions also included an update of the Cajon Pass route, in addition to more rolling stock such as the Avanti Pendolino and the FlixTrains version of the Siemens Vectron. The Special Edition also adds updated versions of the London Underground Bakerloo Line, the Deutsche Bahn Kassel-Wurzberg and Bremen-Oldenburg lines, the Northeast Corridor from New York Penn to Trenton, and finally a new simulation of the London Overground Suffragette line. The Suffragette Line was released about a month before Train SIm World 5, so this would imply that it was originally supposed to be a DLC for Train Sim World 4, but it was so new in September of 2024 that it might has well have been released with TSW 5.

As with past updates of Train Sim World, most older DLC's, and content from previously-purchased versions, were either compatible with, or updated for, the new version, so there were few or no losses associated with upgrading. Although Train Sim World was somewhat expensive at release with a list price as high as 119.99 Euros for the Special Edition, it went on sale very soon afterward, so I managed to get it for under 60 Euros, still not cheap, but I have a soft spot for train simulators. I did, however, buy very few of the DLC's initially, as most of them start at 29.99 Euros, as much as many entire games, and they rarely go on sale (I bought the few that were on sale when I bought TSW 5).

It could be said that the cost of TSW 5 is its main disadvantage. The editors available for it are also somewhat limited. I’m assuming that this is because Dovetail consider TSW 5 too complex to mod easily (and just as importantly, difficult to mod without creating bugs). Otherwise, I don't see any clear weak spots. It's basically as good as it is because it's built on the previous versions, which were also excellent, and in the beginning more revolutionary than they appeared at the time.

This playthrough gives a brief background of the game, and follows this up with an excerpted run from Los Angeles Union Station to El Monte on Metrolink using an MPI MP36PH-3C diesel-electric locomotive and Metrolink bi-level coaches (both ROTAM and Bombardier).