Railfan - PS3

[buster_broon]

the only thing that it should have is a 90 degree left/right driver view like the densha games, as on long runs you can look all over the place, which this looks like its missing sadly

[cavalcade]

I sound like a n00b, but basically does this use streamed video to simulate the journey? I imagine it must slow down and speed up the video to simulate going faster or slower? Does this look weird at times?

[hudson]

that's exactly how it works. The only time it looks strange is when you slowdown into a station with many people on the platform, as they slowdown with you I find it charming.

[buster_broon]

couple of mistakes in the game

if you watch the aerial view, on the small screen in the right hand corner a train will pass you, about 1 minute later that train actually passes you

looks strange

[hudson]

couple of mistakes in the game

if you watch the aerial view, on the small screen in the right hand corner a train will pass you, about 1 minute later that train actually passes you

looks strange

eh? Everytime you go into aerial view?

[buster_broon]

eh? Everytime you go into aerial view?

you have an aerial view which is filmed from a helicopter (yopu can hear the rotor blades) and in that view top right there is a small screen (picture in picture) which is taken from the view from the front of the train

in that view when a train passes you, it doesnt actually pass you in the aerial view, then about a minute later it comes into the view of teh aerial view - its quite strange

Push r1 for the 3 views you have

[cavalcade]

that's exactly how it works. The only time it looks strange is when you slowdown into a station with many people on the platform, as they slowdown with you I find it charming.

Ooh, I found a video on Youtube. Totally weird. But looks cool as well.

I think my four year old who is totally OBSESSED with trains would love this. He sat in a train simulator in a museum in Derby for about 90 minutes open mouthed in wonder.

It's also some slight justification for the ?425 machine sat doing very little at the moment.... hmm.

One last thing - what happens if you crash? Or can you crash? I take it this just can't happen?

[buster_broon]

One last thing - what happens if you crash? Or can you crash? I take it this just can't happen?

you get sacked if you overrun the platform or run a red light

then get to try it again

[hudson]

you have an aerial view which is filmed from a helicopter (yopu can hear the rotor blades) and in that view top right there is a small screen (picture in picture) which is taken from the view from the front of the train

in that view when a train passes you, it doesnt actually pass you in the aerial view, then about a minute later it comes into the view of teh aerial view - its quite strange

Push r1 for the 3 views you have

Weird. I just checked this out. Went on Tokyo and after the first station, 2 trains will pass you...I checked the small picture to see if they were shown in there too and they were right on time. This is why I asked you does it happen everytime. Maybe it occurs on another line?

By the way, that's the first time I've tried Tour mode... I didn't know you can stop at each station and choose to look at some nice photos and have a japanese lady tell you about places to see in that station area. Cool.

[JP]

It does happen on one of the tracks but I'm not sure which one.

I noticed straight away and tried a few times to work out how these mysterious orange trains were caught in some sort of warp?? I don't think they were traveling faster than light???

[buster_broon]

Weird. I just checked this out. Went on Tokyo and after the first station, 2 trains will pass you...I checked the small picture to see if they were shown in there too and they were right on time. This is why I asked you does it happen everytime. Maybe it occurs on another line?

By the way, that's the first time I've tried Tour mode... I didn't know you can stop at each station and choose to look at some nice photos and have a japanese lady tell you about places to see in that station area. Cool.

i've only played on the chicago mission's and thats where i noticed it

[buster_broon]

I've had a few goes on this now and I'm starting to struggle on the mission thingies! I think it's mainly as I have no idea what the hell I'm supposed to be doing, how fast I should be doing it and on which part of the track it should be done on???

i think i probably know where you got stuck

its about level 4 or 5 on one of the Japanese missions

basically i know its too late now since you've probably traded it, but you have to stop within 50 metres of the red light (keeping within all the speed limits) and apply the emergency break, the ATC will let you pull off again, slowly and once you cross the light - thats the level over, took me a few attempts to pass that one on the Tokyo line as its quite tight unless you hammer it down the line

[JP]

To be honest...the game just didn't do anything for me at all.

I do have it up for trade at the moment though so if anybody is interested to try it, just let me know!

[englishbob]

<slightly OT> but does anyone know of a site (other than Play-Asia) that is taking pre-orders for the Railfan:Taiwan version?

[buster_broon]

okay just finished all the missions including lets go by train and each place does have its own difficulty factor, Osaka is by far the hardest with tight times, loads of speed limits and stopping at red lights

this is how i would sum up each part of railfan

Chicago - easy level
just driving around and stopping, not that many changing speed limits, just nice to drive around a different train track - you can sit in neutral with no points deduction

Tokyo - medium level
Hardest thing about this is that there is plenty of time on the open tracks, which means you have to judge your speed because if you are too quick and pass a checkpoint more than 20 seconds early you will lose 20 points and there isnt really alot of points made up on this level, so do this on 2 checkpoints and you will fail (i was 1 minute ahead at one point), points are for accuracy and time keeping and they have to be spot on - i got 2 gold stars for this level, very proud moment, with this level you cannot sit in neutral whilst at a station, you need the brake applied, if you sit in neutral you will lose 1 point for every second

Osaka - Hard level
This is the one i had most do difficulty with, loads of stops, very tight limits and the ATC is a pain, you even have to stop on turntables until the light goes green to take off again, and this happens between the last few stops, so keeping an eye on the limits is essential especially when you're only driving at 5kph which raises and drops alot. even keeping within the speeds has its downfalls as if you're trying to push for more time and break quite heavily on a track the ATC will remove all power from the train and you will stop only to start again, this happens on 2 places of the track that are at a fast speed, so slowing to zero just to start again can delay you by 30 seconds which means game over. there is no option to sit at neutral as you can only move the gears when the conductor says so.

got all the movies, just need to play the train tour to buy some trains now, its certainly not as good as the densha games, but still enjoyable all the same