By John Walker on September 22nd, 2011 at 3:47 pm.
Back when we told you about Airport Control Simulator, we thought that was as exciting as an airport traffic controller simulator could get. But somehow there is room for MORE EXCITING! See, the problem with Airport Control Simulator is you have to control it with your mouse, like you’re some sort of caveman or something. Because now there is the appropriately excitably named Tower! 2011. And it’s voice controlled.
But if you’re some casual gamer strolling into this post, thinking, “Hey, that sounds fun, I might give it a try!” then BACK OFF. Because developer FeelThere’s producer, Victor Racz, says it’s not for you.
“Tower! is not for casual gamers. First you need to read the manual, and then teach your computer the speech commands. This takes time. But the players who have gone through the learning curve realize what a difference it makes. If you want authentic simulation experience, and love complex and rich simulations, then you might be surprised what our game has to offer.”
You can see it in action here:
Oh my poor tiny brain, that looks complicated. I wonder if it still works if you issue your instructions in panicked screams?
(Who wondered from the headline if this was going to be a game about preventing suicide jumpers?)
22/09/2011 at 15:52 GenBanks says:
I think if my flatmates overheard me playing this game they would be very concerned for my well being.
22/09/2011 at 16:18 konrad_ha says:
I’d be concerned that the FBI/NSA might come and break through your door. “Why are you learning to give air-traffic commands, TERRORIST?”
22/09/2011 at 20:27 yiqifeifei says:
China-made from high quality low price, to protect the credibility of the online mall, I believe you will not miss it!
http://bit.ly/mKuTNF
22/09/2011 at 15:56 MiniMatt says:
Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit drinking…
22/09/2011 at 16:06 Calabi says:
I read week as geek.
22/09/2011 at 16:23 wizzard_8 says:
Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue …
22/09/2011 at 16:25 Ridnarhtim says:
I love a nice big glass of blended geek.
22/09/2011 at 17:04 stele says:
Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit amphetamines.
22/09/2011 at 19:43 The Tupper says:
Surely you’re not serious?
23/09/2011 at 09:47 mongpong says:
I am, and don’t call me Surely
22/09/2011 at 16:04 Vexing Vision says:
How many crashes do I need to win?
22/09/2011 at 16:05 CaspianRoach says:
Will there be boss battles in which you need to prevent 9/11?
22/09/2011 at 16:20 konrad_ha says:
Wow, just wow!
22/09/2011 at 16:05 Keilnoth says:
In fact, it’s a game about commiting suicide… or at least your brain will.
22/09/2011 at 16:10 Groove says:
I assumed it was an airport-based tower defence. That would be (possibly) awesome.
22/09/2011 at 16:17 indigohjones says:
That’s a lot of femcaptains.
22/09/2011 at 16:37 Koozer says:
You can’t go through a learning curve it’s a type of graphhsfhnyumuummgghhh damn you modern world!
22/09/2011 at 16:39 Jonny Stutters says:
I didn’t read the article but I assume this is the new Flight Control?! V. cool! Will it run on my iPhone 4 or do I need an iPhone 5 when they come out? Aloha!
22/09/2011 at 18:09 LordBilisknir says:
Idiot
22/09/2011 at 17:01 SoggySilicon says:
Very cool simulation, I will be looking into this for my flight students…
25/09/2011 at 11:42 feelthere says:
Let us know if you have some additional need to make the software work better for your students. You can contact us anytime by email.
22/09/2011 at 17:20 circadianwolf says:
This was my first thought. Of course that would require intense social systemization.
22/09/2011 at 17:21 Aerothorn says:
I love games that allow me to pay to do things that I really should be being paid to do.
22/09/2011 at 18:06 Dozer says:
I vanted orange! It gave me runway 24L.
22/09/2011 at 18:07 Dozer says:
Surely everyone who’s interested in this game would rather just sign up as a controller on VATSIM or IVAO and direct real human (desktop flight simulator) pilots?
22/09/2011 at 18:17 metalangel says:
Are those communities welcoming? I’m a fairly keen flightsimmer but just reading the rules and protocol for some of those intimidates me.
22/09/2011 at 19:21 Frosty says:
I want to use VATSIM, as I’m looking to become a genuine controller type but I can’t get it to connect to the interwebz. I’m not sure if it’s a proxy issue, or firewall or whatever.
This game does have the advantage of voice control mind.
22/09/2011 at 19:47 The Tupper says:
I’ve been wanting to simply free-fly with folk on FSX for years now, but every single time I’ve found it to be the most unfriendly community one could imagine.
22/09/2011 at 19:20 Frosty says:
Jeez, this is such a rip off of that famous Iphone game. I can’t believe you didn’t mention that John. You are SO RUBBISH.
22/09/2011 at 19:31 Jimbo says:
Does anyone else think this looks a lot like Flight Control on the iPhone?
22/09/2011 at 20:05 Oneironaut says:
I played a game called Sub Commander that allowed you to control your submarine through only voice controls. It was pretty cool saying something like “go to periscope depth” and having the game respond accordingly. It really increases the immersion, so I wouldn’t mind trying this flight control game if it could provide a similar experience.
22/09/2011 at 20:24 vivlo says:
love the Google Earth artstyle
22/09/2011 at 21:26 billyphuz says:
Having flashbacks to playing “Kennedy Approach” for the C-64. It had actual voices! On a C-64! And the speech patterns were actually more believable than Arma 2′s…
22/09/2011 at 22:16 The Tupper says:
Oh I remember that – impossible to finish above level three as I recall. There’s a great freeware version on the web that I’ll link to as soon as I learn how to link things.
23/09/2011 at 01:00 Snuffy the Evil says:
My FARs are ready.
23/09/2011 at 14:44 gamma says:
The real fun is not directing traffic at the tower freq. the FUN is at the Approach part of flight.
25/09/2011 at 11:40 feelthere says:
First of all we would like to thank RPS for noticing our game.
Please check out the videos, while they are edited they still show you how the voice recognition is reliable. We spent lots of times to create a simulator with a usable speech engine. It works around 99% of the times.