Recent reviews by Trains

Finally, a NEC route that runs out from Washington - albeit a bit short, but a very nice quality route.

Pros:
-High Average Speed! Unlike other NEC routes, this one has a lot of high speed areas, ranging from 120 - 125 MPH! This means you can go pretty fast for longer continuous stretches of track, versus singular high speed sections like in NYNH & the old NEC DLC
-Quite a bit of attention to detail, stations and landmarks are modeled quite well in my opinion
-DLC comes with local Commuter Rail equipment (MARC) for free
-Very nice scenarios
-Bonus P42DC's & long distance stock! This was quite a surprise - it comes with both Superliners and Viewliners, as well as the G-Trax P42 (the one that actually looks good), which is perfect for the DC area where these roam around

Neutral:
-Commuter Rail is unbranded - a bit of a shame, but at least it comes with the route instead of it being a separate DLC like Surfliner & Miami

Cons:
-The route is short, and with high speeds, this means that you can cross the route in under 35 minutes. I feel like this route would be worth a lot more if they had gone all the way to Philadelphia instead of stopping at Baltimore...
-All rolling stock is reused - everything is carried over, from bugs to terrible unrealistic sounds. A very big bummer, I feel like DTG had an opportunity to make some improvements here.
-Numerous signal glitches - if you're playing the scenarios, watch out for random Stop Signals around Baltimore & Washington DC. You'll need to press TAB to get around them, even if you're lined into the stations.

OVERALL:
Despite some lost opportunity, this was a very nice & fun route to run high speed trains on. It's very nice to see this area finally modeled in Train Simulator, but a shame that it's so short. I felt like DTG put in some extra effort into this one.
Overall, I'd say that this route is worth it during a sale if you like high speed or just even the basic commuter rail. Hopefully someday someone will extend this route to Philadelphia so we can have a complete NEC!

PS: If you want to continue running long-distance Amtrak trains south of Washington DC, check out this workshop route that runs from DC to Richmond!
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=501249075&searchtext=RF%26P

If you are a fan of North American trains, this is a must-have DLC - this honestly will blow you away. I'd even go as far as to say this is worth the full price.
These guys have spent 4 years making this locomotive and it is incredible. This blows Smokebox, Reppo, and TSW out of the water, and it is the most advanced & realistic North American locomotive out of all. It's superb all around - you will not regret getting this.

Pros:
-Realistic & Incredible sounds, both in & out. Probably the best in the game.
-Very nice horn & bell, and you can actually hear it from a distance like IRL
-Realistic operations - the cab levers and screens act just as they would with a real locomotives! There's even a small delay when working with the IFD screens - that's how detailed this is
-EXTREMELY detailed cab. there's also a few small easter eggs too, take a look around if you get this ;)
-Nearly EVERYTHING in the cab functions!! (The only exception is that a few of the IFD screens don't work, but honestly, who cares? This is probably the only locomotive that has them working in the first place!)
-Incredible immersion if you wear some headphones & play one of the scenarios - it's honestly amazing
-Everything about this is incredible - I could go all day writing bullet points for this section

Neutral:
-The manual states that there is a separate "AC4400 RailDriver Support Manual" if you wish to use this locomotive with a RailDriver controller - I have not been able to find this, so I was unable to run this with my RailDriver

Cons:
(**CORRECTION**)
-I previously wrote that this wasn't compatible with other locomotives. This is false - page 2 of the manual states that this IS compatible with default locomotives. This would only have issue with 3rd party locomotives - which is a bit niche. In other words, you can mix this with other DTG locomotives to run them in US routes!!

The sounds still might not blend in perfectly (and some of the physics might act a bit odd), but go ahead and combine this with other locomotives - I was wrong!

OVERALL:
Seriously. Buy it. You will not regret it. In fact, you won't even see other Train Simulator locomotives the same again.

Props to the Searchlight Simulations team, and I hope you guys finally get the attention & recognition that you deserve!

If you're looking to get this DLC for the keystone cabcar - Don't bother
The SW is actually pretty nice if you're a fan of switching, although it is limited in Sunnyside. The keystone cabcar though isn't fun to play with a broken route.

It's impossible to do the Keystone Services originating from Sunnyside due to the broken signals in the tunnels. All of them are stuck on "Approach" - limiting your speed (if you're using ATC / ACSES) to 30 MPH all the way.
Edit: The tunnels heading to Newark are stuck at 20 MPH using ATC as well

I can't give this a fair review until the NEC route itself is actually fixed.

Don't bother getting this until it goes on sale or until they fix the NEC route.
The only thing you should do while it's full price is download the manual, since for some reason it has a full signal guide, featuring all signal aspects (Why doesn't the NEC manual have a signal guide?)

HOTD doesn't work, even after following the instructions in the manual.
Get the CSX C30-7 instead, the HOTD on that one works. Refunded this DLC.
(Sorry if this isn't a helpful review, but I wanted to warn people somehow. I hope VRC will fix the scripts for this locomotive - because then I'll give this DLC a fair review)

As a Long Islander I've always wanted a LIRR DLC. I feared that DTG would butcher it, but they actually did a pretty good job. I'm very impressed so far.
Map may look short, but all of the significant parts are included and it gives you a nice look at the LIRR. Unfortunately, my home station of Ronkonkoma wasn't included.

This is what I think of the DLC so far. Note that this is for the initial release - there may be more patches in the future.

Pros:
-Tutorial actually works and has a voiceover
-Real services used; no more fake services like in the Amtrak NEC DLC
-Penn Station lighting is far better
-Tunnels have lighting, no more complete darkness. If you ride as a passenger you can actually see them zoom by like they do IRL
-Trackwork is accurate for the most part
-ASC works great (the boxes with the speeds in them). If you slow down while it yells at you, it doesn't try to punish you, which makes it far less annoying.
-Alerter works great
-Horn works great
-M7 motor sounds are mostly accurate as well as the doors opening and closing
-Stations look great overall
-Accurate door control
-Sequence for setting up the M7; see the manual for how to do this properly.
-Throttle is easy to work with; it allows you to put it into Idle/Cruise easily and also other positions
-Marker lights work, you just have to go to the back and turn them on manually
-You can get up to speeds of 80 MPH on the mainline
-Realistic motor cutout when theres no third rail in certain spots (like grade xings, switches, etc.)
-You can put the wiper at different settings so it's not annoying
-Accurate door control; player can control individual sets of doors for when theres small platforms. Only downside is that it takes a while to walk over to the correct car to do this properly, since you have no conductor to do this for you

Cons & Bugs:
-The beeping when the doors close is too fast
-Station announcements & displays don't work
-All yards are empty in service mode. This includes West Side Yard, Sunnyside and Morris Park.
-ACSES does not function; breaker switch has been disabled
-ATC doesn't appear to be working properly around Harold Jct. and Penn Station
-No signal guide, not even in the manual
-On HUD speedometer differs from ASC display; ASC tells the truth, HUD lies
-Railfanning: AI don't honk their horns at grade crossings
-All grade crossings are stuck in the down position
-Long Island City and Hunterspoint Ave. are modelled, but no services are available for them
-Some services are completely missing if you compare it to actual schedules
-The map looks a bit "too clean", there needs to be some trash here and there
-Minor station details are missing
-At Nostrand Avenue, the roads are completely empty and devoid of traffic. There are a few cars but they don't move. It's as if some kind of apocalypse occured
-The AI aren't smart with the doors when it comes to making stops at small platforms
-In service mode, Ronkonkoma trains come off the Port Jefferson branch from Huntington. I would like to say that it doesn't matter since Hicksville is the end of the map, but it just seems weird seeing it coming off the Port Jefferson branch

-And finally, the biggest Con: The M7 is the only train in the game. There are no M3's, M9's, or diesel trainsets (DE30AC's and DM30AC's with C3's). This makes the mainline look a lot less busy than it is IRL with these missing trains.

OVERALL:
If you're into commuter railroads, get it! I'd recommend getting it during a sale. It's a nice DLC, but just don't pay full price for it.

The only thing I haven't done is finished all of the scenarios, which I'll report back on later.

I wish that service mode were as good as the traffic and population in the scenarios. In the scenario, the yards are filled and more trains running to make it look busy. The scenarios cover West Side Yard and Hunterspoint Ave & Long Island City, but service mode doesn't. I hope they change this in the future. Also, the scenarios aren't narrated - only the tutorial is.
Markers are correctly placed at each location depending on your train (follow the blue signs that say "# MU", they tell you where to stop).

My only criticisms are two things:
In the "Race Day Run" scenario, the ASC made me late due to a random 15 MPH restriction in Floral Park (signal was clear too).
The only other thing is that the "Suburban Sunset" scenario is just completely off. The scenario says you are taking a Ronkonkoma train, yet it's really a train coming from Huntington (via the Port Jefferson branch) and making local stops on the mainline, which Ronkonkoma trains don't do (except for Woodside, Jamaica, and Mineola). Also, the scenario runs against the typical rush hour traffic flow in the evening where people come FROM NYC, not TO NYC.

But overall, I enjoyed this DLC after playing all the scenarios. Just wish service mode were better than the scenarios.

Okay so here's how the game goes:
Spoiler Alert.
First you load up a game of Chess and some random guy joins. Or you invite one of your friends.
You have no idea how to play Chess.
You flip the table.
You win!

And that's the game. There's also DLC that involves dominoes, uno, scrabble, importing custom shịt, and other crazy & fun cràp just for $00.00!
Fun game to pịss around in. I couldve bought train simulator DLC with the money I used to get the 4 pack, but this was worth it.

This game lacks charts.

I mean seriously, why the f88k do they leave out charts? Thats just a load of b8llsh8t. Charts are the most important aspect of the game, and this f88king bulls888 888hole company called 'Galatic Cafe' decides to create this game without CHARTS? CHARTS! YOU NEED. CHARTS. YOU LACK THE CERTAIN FOCAL ATTENTION SPAN TO FOCUS ON CHARTS, FOR F888S SAKE WHY DID YOU F888ING 888HOLE 88NT 888 8 88 8 888888888 88888888 8888888 8 8 88888 8888888888 8 888888888 888 888888 888888 8888 8888888888888 888888888 888888888 88888888888888

In conclusion:
8