The game fines you 50 euros for running a red light, but if you drive up on the sidewalk and go around the intersection without touching anything it doesn’t notice and you aren’t fined. Plus, yellow lights count as red, so even green lights can’t be trusted not to suddenly turn yellow and fine you, so the game basically encourages you to drive on the sidewalk all the time.

That actually makes it pretty damn fun – you can’t cause property damage or it’s also a 50 euro fine, but if you can careen from one bus stop to another without stopping for a single light you can arrive at each stop a full minute ahead of time.

I was actually pretty disappointed the demo only had one bus and one level. :(

Yeah, but at least Flight Simulator has pretty decent graphics, and you can fly. Flying is inherently fun, and has lots of opportunities for creative play. Driving a train is not particularly fun and does not allow for much in the way of variety or creativity.

Well, the quality of graphics between flight simulators and ground simulators released at similar time is quite comparable (ground simulators have much harder task here given the camera is much closer to objects that can be simulated with just good texture in flight simulator most of the time). I’ll disagree on the train driving not being fun — it’s very different from flying or driving a car, but it can be equally challenging due to involved momentum. Plus like mentioned, it’s something even more exotic for average human than flying a plane.

As far as creativity/variety goes… the DLC for train simulators and community involved in creation of extra content is huge, to the point where it’s literally “serious business” with multiple commercial expansion packs released each year.

Now the bus simulation thing i don’t know (my only experience with that kind of games was something on original Playstation that i can’t remember name of) But i think it can have very similar appeal to some that flight and/or train simulators have to others, so not going to act all surprised over it.

Who are the people who buy games like this and Train Simulator or 18 Wheels of Steel? I mean, I can kind of understand the appeal for 10 minutes, but to actually devote time to it seems bizarre.

Same kind of people that’s been buying Flight Simulator games and such since early 80’s… like say, this guy. Especially when it comes to train simulators, since it’s easier to get a RL flying license than opportunity to drive a real train. So for many, that’s the only way to experience it.