Driving Simulator 2011

long while ago, back on a console called the Dreamcast, a friend introduced me to a little game that was apparently used to train Japanese bus drivers. It was called Tokyo Bus, and though I never found out if the driver training claims of my buddy were true, there was something about the ultra-realistic simulation in the game that really grabbed my interest. It was for those reasons that when I saw Driving Simulator 2011, offering not only bus simulation but also cop cars and ambulances, I just had to check it out.

Driving Simulator 2011 is the latest simulation title from Excalibur Publishing, who have a vast list of simulators to their name. Where some offer gardening or digging as the main objective, this one’s all about the driving – so I jumped straight behind the wheel of my virtual bus and prepared to go pick up my first passengers. I was somewhat pleased that the very first mission involved bus driving, and despite the lack of any in-depth tutorial it was far easier to understand than the slews of Japanese text that greeted me all those years ago in Tokyo Bus.

There’s a nice variety of missions included in Driving Simulator 2011, as well as a free-play mode which allows you to drive around doing as you please. Personally, I found the objective-based missions to be a much more interesting way of playing. Although, they are rather tricky to complete at times. Perhaps it was my previous virtual bus driving experience that meant I finished the first mission on my first attempt. But I then had to deliver a parcel in a big truck, which was a little less successful – I was repeatedly told that I’d damaged the package in transit –and to this day the poor recipient is still waiting, I just couldn’t do it.

So, I ditched the delivery truck and hopped into a police car. It was a matter of seconds before I was radioed with reports of a speeding driver. Time to flick the switch on the blues and twos and give chase. It was much more successful and much more exciting, though I did get it in the ear from the other half, apparently the constant sound of sirens was irritating. However, I was loving my new found traffic-splitting button. I was having fun.

There were a few niggles, though. The first being the control system, particularly the steering – I found the constant left and right keyboard tapping a little frustrating so thought I plug in my Xbox 360 pad for some analogue goodness, but it wasn’t to be. The game seems designed for keys, and while it was simple to assign the gamepad’s buttons in the menu screens, the lack of any analogue sensitivity settings meant that even the weight of the thumbstick itself saw me careering off the road. This would lead me to believe that using a steering wheel would have the same problem, so simulator connoisseurs may be a little disappointed there.

Another issue was the lack of road signs. Wherever the game is set – which I believe is somewhere in Europe – they use these strange kilometre things to measure a vehicle’s speed. While I know the speed limit in a built up area is thirty miles per hour here in the UK, I’ve no idea how many kilometres I’m allowed to drive at on a European highway. The only way to find out seems to be breaking the speed limit and getting a ‘you are driving too fast’ warning on-screen, which also counts as a driving mistake (understandably). You’re only allowed a certain number of mistakes in each mission, though, so the aforementioned speed-testing method can cause a little trouble. It would have been nice to see the developers consider this and add a few sign posts, or even better some sort of road markings every mile or so that inform you just how fast you can go on a particular route.

Screens  Driving Simulator 2011

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