After seeing the new poll about KRS on these forums, I have decided to post my thoughts here.
KRS sure has a lot of bugs. That's something I don't really need to elaborate on, as I think we've heard a good share about them.
Unfortunately, just about any game published by EA will be pushed out early to get the Christmas rush sales.
After playing KRS however, I have certainly never had a more immersive experience in a train simulator.
The sounds of the steam locomotives is an absolute delight, all the way from zero to eighty miles per hour. The steam sounds really help you feel how fast you're actually going.
Rather unlike TRS, the physics were also highly enjoyable, and can be quite challenging. It was impossible to simply set the regulator and reverser and make myself a cup of coffee, like what I would do on one of my rare drives in TRS.
During a scantly prototypical run from Newcastle to York in a Black 5, with expert mode and manual firing, it was rare that I would even get the chance to while away the time watching things go by in the external cameras. All my efforts were spent keeping the fire burning nicely, the boiler's thirst for water quenched, and frequently fine tuning the regulator and reverser.
All that while frequently ducking my head out of the window to check for speed limits!
Being able to see the lovely procedural foliage rushing past certainly added to the feeling of speed.
It was an absolute joy to experience. About twenty miles out of York, the clouds grew dark and the visibility lessened from a storm.
Wonderful.
The bugs are numerous, but they certainly don't take away from enjoying the sim. There are far too many people getting hung up on silly things, without letting themselves actually have fun with it.
My enjoyment of the Trainz series has always been the notion of being able to make whatever I want for it, with relative ease. It is rare that I will actually enjoy a drive in TRS, as it gets very dull for me. There's no struggle or challenge, so I get bored and exit. So for this reason, I try to create content for TRS with the artistic side of things in strong consideration, hoping to get at least some sort of visual immersion to compensate.
For those reasons I am enthusiastically looking forward to being able to try creating content for KRS. There are many new features which I will be able to manipulate in the pursuit of making things look as realistic as possible, but it will also be enjoyable to actually use my creations.
Whether KRS is going to come even remotely close to the ease of Trainz for content creation is yet to be seen.
It certainly wouldn't be original for me to say that KRS and Trainz serve completely different purposes, and it is silly to compare them in a linear fashion. This is true.
What it comes down to though, is what you enjoy and have fun with, and which one serves your purposes the closest.
I hope that many more people will try to enjoy KRS for what it is. With bug fixes, it'll be great. It certainly isn't Trainz though, and I'll definitely stick with Auran's series as well.