The high-speed train is screaming - not chugging along, allowing its passengers and crew to leisurely take in the three-dimensional scenery, but screaming - through the English countryside. It zings through stations where little virtual people stand waiting. It flashes past speed-limit signs that are unreadable blurs and past complicated traffic signals that have me reaching, far too late, for the manual for Rail Simulator, a new PC game that pulled into North American stores this week.
That first trip did not end well. I should have done more prep work, but all the talk this month about proposed high-speed rail links across Canada - Calgary to Edmonton and then some place called Fort McMurray, and another connecting Quebec to Windsor - made me impatient. And if there's one thing you need with a computer game like Rail Simulator, it is patience. (It also comes in handy while waiting for a coherent national transportation plan, but that's a whole different story.)
The game was developed by Kuju Entertainment, a British company that partnered with Microsoft to bring out Train Simulator in 2001. When Microsoft pulled the plug on a sequel, Electronic Arts stepped in as publisher. It's an unusual move for a mainstream behemoth such as EA, given how esoteric Rail Simulator seems to be at first glance: The player drives realistically modelled trains along four routes based on lines in the United Kingdom, the United States and Germany. There are scenarios to complete, such as picking up passengers and freight according to rigid schedules, but there is no end goal or charted progression from novice driver to expert engineer.
If you have experience with 3-D design software and even more patience, there are editing tools for making your own routes, perhaps along some of Canada's beautiful and challenging rail lines. But mostly you drive trains for a long time - Rail Simulator has around 1,700 kilometres of virtual track - and the developers have been rather stingy with information or help for people who don't already have, like Bobby (Bacala) Baccalieri on The Sopranos, a train set in the garage. There is a beginner mode that uses two buttons, one to accelerate and one to decelerate, but that makes the player more a passenger or viewer than a driver, and it can lead to out-of-control disasters like my first high-speed experience.
After downloading a longer manual and a tutorial or two, I could start and, usually, stop the diesel and electric trains using the intermediate controls. (The steam locomotives, which require constant attention and a working knowledge of injectors and ejectors, are for experts only.) But it took some help from a neighbour with an engineering background to make me realize that EA might be onto something with Rail Simulator, especially if rail travel gets the revival it deserves: Once you understand how to drive a train, through the correct balance of brakes, throttle, gradient and knowing how to read signals, doing it correctly becomes a satisfying challenge on its own.
When you add the pretty visual backdrops and attention to detail, it evokes words not often found around interactive entertainment: soothing and comforting. I wouldn't say it is exhilarating; if it is, you are doing something very wrong. But if you like trains and digital scenery that hint at real places, then it can be well worth your time and $50.
To be more than that for a wide audience, this new Rail Simulator will need the diehard trainspotters and hobbyists - the folks who own The Station Agent on DVD for its train footage - to embrace the game, to build more international routes and scenarios and then share them online.
That may happen, but would-be tourists need to be patient.
NFL TOUR
For Electronic Arts, it was football, not train simulations, that built its video-game empire. The company has a very expensive lock on video-game properties that incorporate National Football League teams and players, and an annual bestseller in its Madden NFL franchise.
Its latest gridiron game, NFL Tour (rated Everyone, for multiple platforms), was released in time for next week's Super Bowl, but it is so purposefully mediocre that it has more than a few game watchers wondering if it's part of a plan to break a contract or two.
The idea was to reach out to young and casual football gamers who find Madden too involved and difficult. It features seven-on-seven games played on a field with padded walls - and unprotected, helmetless NFL players. The controls are simplified to one or two buttons and the vibe is what marketing execs call "extreme." There are big hits that send shock waves rippling out (but no concussions, somehow), an annoying announcer who repeatedly makes jokes about video-game announcers repeating themselves, and game play that gets old before the smoke from the fireworks dissipates. It is slightly more fun if you play against friends instead of the computer, but only slightly.
EA announced this week that it is developing a free online version of its Battlefield series aimed at casual players, but it should have started with NFL Tour. Asking full price ($50 to $60) for this outdated mini-game is simply begging for trouble.
