RAILROADED! [Author: Lum the Mad]

Microsoft is unveiling a Train Simulator for E3, where you get to… drive a freight train! For most of us, this would be about as exciting as guiding a layabout dolt in going to the bathroom regularly, but it seems to have already sparked some controversy. Apparently, Union Pacific declined to cooperate with Microsoft since it might actually teach people how to, you know, drive a freight train. This would be bad.

“I told them I had some concern about putting something out to the public with details of how to operate a locomotive, and that’s still true,” [John] Bromley[, public relations director for Union Pacific RR] said in an interview. “We’ve had problems with vandals getting on our locomotives and trying them out.

“I know there are a lot of plane simulators out there, but the Navy doesn’t leave F-16s sitting out there in remote areas.”

The ensuing …vigorous discussion took Bromley by surprise.

I think I know rail fans pretty well, but video game people are new to me. They’re something else.

Poor guy. Imagine if Wolfpack Studios wanted to put trains in Shadowbane.