As gripping as this may (or may not) sound, MSTS doesn’t have much in the way of raw excitement, but rather meticulous multitasking and a nice hard look at the driver’s manual but, as with most commercial flight simulator games, it also offers a great sense of satisfaction once you’ve mastered the technical know-hows needed to drive your trains. You get to drive a host of locomotives from different periods and do your best to arrive safely to your destination as part of several realistic activities (both passenger and freight) spread across four countries – North America, Great Britain, Austria and Japan.

You don’t need to be an engineer to realize there’s a lot of power tucked away in those machines, but Microsoft’s Train Simulator, or MSTS for short, lets you do just that, placing you behind the controls of one of these intimidating engines. Just about everyone who sees and hears a locomotive roaring up-close for the first time can’t help but be gripped by either a sense of awe or fright, sometimes in equal measure. UK-based Kuju started their own train sim series with Rail Simulator (2009), but before that they were hard at work with Microsoft, creating what would be one of the most lasting non-flight simulators to hit the PC. You’re almost guaranteed the same response if you look at the creative force behind the program – Kuju Entertainment, best known today for their very own line of train simulator games bearing the same name, sans ‘Microsoft’. Microsoft’s Train Simulator is as self-descriptive as their legendary line of civilian flight simulator programs.

Microsoft train simulator demo