"We had the opportunity to meet with Auran at this year's ECTS and were very impressed with their latest project," says Steve Wall, V.P., Business Development for Strategy First. "TRAINZ is a dream come true for any Train and Railroad enthusiast. You can design and build your very own virtual world and then put on your engineer cap and ride the rails in the most spectacular environments imaginable."
"Our publishing deal with Strategy First is very much a partnership," says Greg Lane, CEO of Auran. "Because Trainz is a unique product with appeal beyond traditional games boundaries, we were looking for a flexible relationship that would allow us to reach both gamers and model railroaders. Strategy First will promote Trainz through the normal retail channels, and allow us to continue developing our online community as well as conducting online sales of the many add-on modules and regional packs that we have planned. We have currently modeled trains from over 20 countries and we are sure that Trainz communities will flourish in these countries and many more."
For the thousands of train lovers around the world, talk of a new train simulator is a welcome addition and is sure to please players of all ages. Replicating many aspects of a virtual model railroad, TRAINZ immerses players into the driver's seat of their favorite locomotives and allows them to create a huge variety of layouts using hundreds of textures and objects from around the world.
While riding the tracks and listening to the realistic sounds of engines starting up, the clickety-clack of the rails and a large variety of other ambient sounds, players will be able to build their own stunningly realistic routes from a variety of locations, from the busy US East Coast, the picturesque English countryside to the endless plains of the Australian Outback - all using the intuitive and powerful TRAINZ SURVEYOR editor. Players will also be able to choose from the engineer's view and use 3D in-cab controls, or choose the train spotter view and use the virtual "DC" controller. They can even download a variety of fan-designed locomotives and trackside objects from the virtualtrainz.com web site.
Scheduled for a Q1 2002 release, TRAINZ will be distributed by Infogrames throughout the US and Canada and by Strategy First's other distribution partners throughout Europe, Australia and Asia. TRAINZ will also be available for pre-order from the Auran website.
