CSX Heavy Haul - an extensive review.

[sir_lancealittle]

Since the "reviews" department doesn't leave enough space and screws up the formatting, making it all very hard to read, it may be a good idea to outsource this review to here until the Steam folks fix the parsers for reviews.

TL;DR:

Stunning graphics and unprecedented degree of interactability.
But due to bugs, crashes and lacking features: Currently not worth the full price.

Pros:

• Stunning graphics. Almost photorealistic, and that's not just the cabs or trains. It's everything. Wow!
  
• Trains / locomotives details are very interactive. Nice replication of how it all works. When you flip a circuit breaker, it actually does something. Hardly any of the switches and controls are "dummies".
  
• The world is nicely furnished. Okay, "in the middle of the woods" looks a bit dull, but that's how it is in reality, too.
  
• The driver HUD is a big improvement over previous versions. All the relevant information is in there, nicely readable without obscuring the view.
  
• Many small bits'n'bobs that amazed me. For example, snow actually accumulates on the windscreens, making use of the wipers a necessity (as opposed to most other sims I have seen which just fling snowflakes in your face and wipers on or off makes no difference).
  Or, when another train passed me on a parallel track, I could see the reflection of its headlights in my front windscreen as it approached from behind. Yep, this all looks pretty real!

Cons:

• The BIG one: No editor what-so-ever!
  Players cannot even modify existing scenarios. We're left pretty much with what has been delivered with the product, making it a linear game: When you're done, you're done.
  That is WAY sub-par for a product in this price range!
  Various forum posts indicate that DT plan on eventually releasing an editor of sorts. These posts date back to March 2017, so that's 10 months of talk now but no sign of an actual release. Let's see them deliver before re-evaluating this review.
  
• No true free-roam mode.
  Sure, you can shunt around the yards a bit.
  But if you'd like to take a train down the line to one of the mines etc, you'd need the AI dispatcher to flip the track switches for you. They cannot be flipped manually outside the yards.
  Yes, they have a scenario that takes a train to the mine and back. But that's not the point. This is about continuity - being able to continue playing exactly where I left off last time, rather than loading a new scenario which resets the entire world.
  What's the point in having locos that consume fuel and can be refuelled, if loading a new scenario just resets their fuel level? What's the point in shunting like a maniac to build a new consist, if it all just resets when I load a different scenario?
  
• The savegame feature needs massive improvement:
  1. Essentially, there is only one savegame slot.
     
  2. Not all vital aspects of the world are being properly saved.
     For example, loading a saved game seems to void all track warrants. All signals ahead that used to show "green" are now "yellow", making it harder to judge what is going on in the distance downtrack. Another one is the "engine running" status of the locos: here I am, eco-friendly and shut down 2 of my 4 locos because the train is empty and on its way to the mines to pick up coal - but when loading that game from a saved one, all engines are running again. Lack of continuity once more.
     
  3. Checkpoints / scenario goals sometimes fail to load properly.
     Here I am again, just spent an hour and a half hauling coal from the mine and now I'm on the final stretch. Bam! Game crashes to desktop. No big deal, I'm thinking, I save my game often. But alas, after loading my savegame, that next destination marker is missing, making it impossible to complete the scenario. Yay :\
• Many players report frequent crashes to desktop. See below for details. We can't seriously assume it's all due to outdated video drivers, so - game needs crash-proofing.
  
• DTG seem to be focusing on releasing new add-ons rather than fixing this existing product; all these issues have been known for months, yet none of the recent updates address them.

Miscellaneous info:

How often does it crash?
Some say "a lot", others say "not so much", so here are some figures from my playtime:

On my own PC, crash frequency seems to depend on the graphics settings:

• With the factory defaults after a clean install: About every 10 minutes.
  
• After tweaking graphics settings, especially switching Anti-aliasing OFF: About every 30-45 minutes. (On a side note, switching anti-aliasing OFF also massively improved the framerate.)

These times depend on actual activity, of course. But you get the concept.


How hard does it crash?
Pretty hard at times!
In one instance it crashed to a "Bluescreen", which is something I haven't seen in years.
In another instance it even crashed my entire PC, making a cold reboot necessary. Wow, haven't seen that one in decades!
All other crashes were to desktop with no other services going bye-bye.


Little things:

• Slant range vs track distance:
  Objective markers are placed in-world correctly, which is okay - but distance remaining to these markers is line-of-sight ("slant range"), rather than distance along track. On a curvy track like here, distance along track would convey a much better feel for timing.
  
• GP-38: Wiggling windscreen wiper pressure hoses (front/left door). This game needs duct tape.
  Also, the windscreen wiper status does not load properly from savegame, and it sometimes resets when using external views.
  
• SD-40: Has a problem figuring out whether the player is inside or outside the cab. Often plays external sound effect when really on an internal camera. Also, the windscreen wiper status does not load properly from savegame, and it sometimes resets when using external views.
  
• Steam: No workshop. Will be needed if that editor ever comes out.

[Rudolf Jan]

I miss a lot of pro's. The major one is that potentially a lot more variation in instructions for scenario's are possible. It is now possible to make parallel paths in scenarios, to give very detailed instructions, to allow freedom in the order in which to execute instructions. Unfortunately the editor is not yet available, which is dad.

Idisagree with your conclusions. HH and GWE are worth the full price if you cannot wait for the next discount action. RT is definetely not worth the money. I do not own the GP40 but my guess is, that this also is not worth the full price.

[Shukiii]

@Rudolf Jan Pretty much spot on. HH and GWE are worth full price, but they are in sale fairly often, so you don't really have to pay the full price. RT doesn't have enough content to be worth the full price and the GP40-2 DLC is not worth the full price because it still has a lot of bugs which haven't been fixed yet.

[ht-57]

A few things I did not see mentioned that deserve honarble mention
-The lack of actual Real World physics
-Foliage popping into view with view distance set @ ultra
- Track plates popping into view 2 car lenghts infront of moving loco/ turnout trackplates popping into view while you are right on top of them-this is with view distance @ ultra
-Along with @ least 2 CTD per scenario, you will have a bugged save every so often
-when you dpu units somtimes the brakes lock on even tho you have everything set up correctly
making it near impossible to move train
-IMHO engines do look gr8 thtas where it ends, everthing else just ok. the track ballast is horrible from the drivers seat as it is way to uniform giving it a very perfect annoying pattern while in motion combine that with track parts popping into view and the m'iore that is every where while in motion idk
-lack of raildriver support

[cbfirefighter]

Basically what you have here, is the 2017 version, of a 2001 trainsim release. basically, TSW bug and crash wise, IS just as bad as the May 2001 release of MSTS. I know the fanbois will say there is not comparison. But at the bug level, and the support level, they are identical releases. Both buggy as all get out. And a dev team that really doesn't care to fix the bugs. As a matter of fact, one should ask, Is abandoning a trainsim, worse than not abandoning a trainsim, but yet continue to release shoddy, buggy dlc and never fix base game? If you look at DTG history with TS20xx, and now TSW, we are seeing the same lack of attention to detail that they have shown for over a decade now. Personally, I would have to say, DTG and their actions, are far worse than MS abandoning MSTS just before the V2 release. At least with MSTS, the community has been able to fix many of the msts shortcomings over the years. 3rd party devs, with TS20xx were able to fix DTG bugs within their 3rd party releases, and in very few cases, DTG allowed some of those 3rd party fixes to be applied to rolling stock or power units. The lack of care from DTG, and the endless excuses with no true fixes that matter, ever really being applied, may actually prompt me to rather spend my money on the expensive run 8. The graphics may not be as good, but for me, I want to feel the struggle of physics that are much more true to real world specs as opposed to the arcade/console physics of TSW and TS20xx. At this point, I still get far superior enjoyment out of Open Rails, as the physics there are far superior to anything DTG has ever been able to accomplish, and OR is all freeware, and community developed. I now give up the floor to the fanboi assualts!

[The Viking]

Originally posted by sir_lancealittle:

• Stunning graphics. Almost photorealistic, and that's not just the cabs or trains. It's everything. Wow!
  
  
• The world is nicely furnished. Okay, "in the middle of the woods" looks a bit dull, but that's how it is in reality, too.

they downgraded graphics to such an extend that it looks like a third-party TS DLC.
world is being emptied too. An entire piece of GWE is empty of grass for example.

pros seem very light, I don't see DTG's horrible dealing with bugs (1 year, still day 1 issues in it) in the cons, but whatever.

crashes-wise, every 30 minutes??????????????? what? sure, I heavely dislike this game, but that's amazing. I barely get any crashes (1 every 10~20 hours?)

[terra_]

Stunning graphics :DDDDDDDD what joke :DDDD even on 4k ultra it doesnt look good,it's plastic and overbrighten,flashing overhead wires, view distance of sleepers and tracks is horrible and i can continue...and since am not interested in UK and US routes and considering u have to pay 60e to play german route that gets boring after few hours,then its definitely not worth full price.

[ht-57]

"may actually prompt me to rather spend my money on the expensive run 8"
@cbfirefighter,
Base price is $50usd
As a looong time user of run8, if you want a sim with RL Physics and operations, that doesn't ctd,
you can add-delete-save any consist @ any time-anywhere during a session/working hump yards/working distance counters/slack action/operational angle ♥♥♥♥♥/braking knuckles/ ability to fence dpus/operational mfd's/working EOT that is player placed/
operational defect detectors/multi player/programmable industrys/working dispatchers panel accurate signal systems/easy ai/ rail driver native - plug and play/ a virtual sandbox of hauling heavy frieght in the us, with some amtrack passenger ops, then run8 may be for you
I have a sp session that has been going on for four weeks of sim time that has 6500 seperate units with 23 trains running on 3 subdivisions- appox 500 mi of mainline with about 100 industrys that are served between two major humpyards.
Yeah locos aren't as deeply textured but the color pallate of the "world" and its contents is much more natural and the dynamic cloud cover- fog-shadows- day to night cycle are far superior imho

[Noosebrother]

to be honest i saw "dovetail games" and just gave up.

[æterna]

Originally posted by ht-57:

run8

Hmm, I do similar thing with 80 AI trains and 4 connected subdivisions and still achieve 30+ fps.

I wish DTG could only concentrate on EU stuff, as US content is on 'no-way' status for me after playing Run8. With this physics engine, it's just silly and not one bit enjoyable. But I like sincerely GWE commuter/freight content and will probably buy (and support) anything they release in UK (hopefully a line extention as it is currently half-ass long).