Thomas the Tank Engine steams straight into Hogwarts Legacy

Thomas the Tank Engine in Hogwarts Legacy, tootling about.
(Image credit: Showie)

As is tradition, one of the first mods for Hogwarts Legacy adds Thomas the Tank Engine. Created by Showie, the ThomasBroom mod (opens in new tab) turns the Moon Trimmer broomstick into the cheery blue locomotive, with your avatar visible in the driver's carriage. 

Per Showie this "has some issues with clipping and culling, but decided to release it as-is for now." The only in-game requirement is you'll need to have unlocked a broomstick (opens in new tab). Needless to say the reaction over at NexusMods is exultant but, of all the recurring gaming memes, the Thomas the Tank Engine mods still make me smile. It all began in 2019 with a mod for, of course, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim which replaced a dragon with Thomas as well as adding sound effects from the show

Since then, Thomas has rained fire upon Fallout 4 (opens in new tab), and the little engine that could has roared in Monster Hunter World (opens in new tab). Thomas has been Mr. X in Resident Evil 2 (opens in new tab), and Lady Dimitrescu in Resi Village (opens in new tab). Hell, Thomas has replaced Sekiro's giant snake (opens in new tab), been summoned into Valheim as a Norse god (opens in new tab), was the only good cameo in Kingdom Hearts 3 (opens in new tab), and even found his way into Elden Ring (opens in new tab).

As for Hogwarts Legacy. PCG's review remains a review-in-progress (opens in new tab), but the critical reception (opens in new tab) has so far been largely positive (apart from those suffering from performance issues (opens in new tab)). That of course is happening in the much wider context of an ongoing controversy about the game and its link to Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling (opens in new tab)

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Rich Stanton

Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."