Now, however, things are about to change. As the first game in the series, CSX Heavy Haul then became a kind of "base game", with Dovetail Games releasing several expansions over the coming months, each of which required Heavy Haul to work.
On the PC, you may remember that Train Sim World began with Train Sim World: CSX Heavy Haul, a game based around shunting goods trains along the Sand Patch Grade through the Allegheny Mountains in Pennsylvania and Maryland. This may take a little bit of explaining. In terms of what there is of substance to do in the game, along with a number of challenging "scenarios" for you to try your hand at (effectively a list of missions), which see you having to deal with broken down trains, maintenance work on the lines, and increasingly challenging timetables, there's also a full 24 hour "day-in-the-life" mode, which provides a whole day of timetabled trains for you to try your hand at running. We're very happy with the final result, and many of the developers now use controllers when playing in their free time." We had already spent considerable time designing the PC game to be fully compatible with the game controller, but we still identified a few areas where we were relying on keyboard controls without necessarily realising it, and had to spend a little time carefully reviewing the game and how people play it on the console. "It's definitely challenge with consoles to not have access to a keyboard and mouse. Even better, the team have put a lot of work into making sure the game's complex controls distil down almost perfectly onto a controller, so everyone can find their footing with ease: Thankfully, the game comes complete with a steady, step-by-step tutorial to help take novices through the basics of running each of the trains, making Train Sim World a lot easier to get into than you might expect.