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(More customer reviews)World of Subways, Volume 1, "The PATH"
This is part overview and part help for getting started with this unique game. Winner of the "2009 Serious Game Award," Aerosoft of Germany has now produced two subway simulations, the PATH and the Berlin U-7, and they are spectacular. Be aware that some quick-overview reviews imply or say outright that WoS is an add-on for Microsoft Train Simulator; this is not so, the simulator is completely stand-alone.
I'm running WoS on a moderately powerful laptop. Written in 2008 and released in 2009, the graphics are about state-of-the-art for the time, but you still need a decent machine. This is the most impressive simulation of any kind I've ever seen, including Railworks, Flight Simulator X or Space Shuttle Mission Simulator. It is, however, likely very different from any other rail-based simulation you're likely to have seen. You have control of only one train at a time, with no switching, consist make-up, scheduling or the like. There are AI trains you can run to enhance the realism, with provisions for waiting for conflicting trains and signals, and equipment failures. You have a choice of three car types, several routes and times, and weather. You also have the choice of running one route, or working an entire shift, for which the simulation rules and scoring differ. For now, there are two add-ons, one of which is included in the current version, a 3-D Manhattan skyline, and one that adds scenarios to the basic game. While PATH is partly a subway system, it's also partly a surface railroad. The scenery is truly amazing for a 2009 game, and to an extent you have the ability to look and move around in it. For example, start a train from Newark and press the "O" key to follow it through the tunnels and across the bridges to New York City. Unless you're engaged in a free roam, you have a schedule to keep, varying numbers of passengers to take on and discharge, and widely varying speed limits. So while some say all you get to do is drive, that's all a real subway driver does, and I expect you will find that sufficiently challenging.
A number of comments in forums and elsewhere suggest that users have had difficulty getting started with WoS. The instructions were originally written in German, and while the English translation is adequate, finding the information you need to get started can be awkward. You will also occasionally encounter a German term in the game that wasn't translated, such as todman switch, the deadman's switch.I've distilled and paraphrased and just plain stolen what I needed from the instructions, and present them here to either help you or pique your curiosity.It would be a shame to miss out on this excellent simulation because of start-up difficulties. Note that you can reconfigure the commands; with a laptop, this was the only way I could make the train and station announcements play.
The simulation runs well under Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7, but you will want a fairly powerful computer. If your system can run Railworks, you can probably run WoS, but you should review the specifications on their website, [...]. For earlier versions of Windows, the launcher program ([...]) works just fine, but for Windows 7 users, an updated launcher is required. Using the original launcher file in Win 7 seems to produce a memory sharing violation error, possibly due to Windows 7 running a 32-bit emulator in a 64-bit system. For some reason Aerosoft has not yet made this file available for direct download from their site, but if you request the access-share-violation version of [...] from the support forum at the maker's site at [...] you can get it in less than 24 hours; technical support is not Aerosoft's fort
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