If you get your kicks playing driving-themed video games you’re probably currently counting down the hours until the release of Gran Turismo 7 and Forza Horizon 5.
But there’s a whole world of video game driving experiences available beyond those titles, and we don’t just mean Dirt Rally 4. Some people get off negotiating muddy woodland trails in huge trucks in Snow Runner. And some enjoy nothing more than driving around a rainy Munich in a bus.
The Bus is an incredibly detailed simulation game currently available on Steam for the PC. Set in a 1:1 scale version of the German city it tasks you with transporting passengers across Munich on different routes using a variety of different buses. You can manage your own bus company, edit routes, team up with other players online, and, of course, take the wheel yourself.
Most of us who’ve played Grand Theft Auto have at some point put the Uzi down on the passenger seat and enjoyed simply cruising around, even obeying traffic lights and being courteous for other traffic, at least for a couple of minutes.
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But The Bus seems to take this to the next level. I haven’t personally had the chance to play the game so I’ve no idea what happens if you go rogue and try to mow down a load of waiting pedestrians, but you do seem to be able to ram police cars without getting shot at and filling the sky with angry helicopters as in GTA.
Never having driven a bus, or ever felt much of an urge to, I wouldn’t be able to comment on the realism of the handling physics. But the graphics are impressively realistic, whether there’s rain lashing the windshield or later afternoon sun streaking through the trees. And most of the reviews on Steam for the early Beta version of the game that launched this spring seem positive.
A few mention the occasional dropped frames and suggest it could be improved with details like the sound of passenger chatter in the background, but most seem to find the driving experience weirdly relaxing. Maybe they’re right, though it’s probably not a game you’d boost to friends about playing, and it does make you wonder about exactly who is playing. As one YouTube commenter put it: “Imagine being unemployed living with mom and dad pretending all day to be an employed bus driver.”
Have you played The Bus or any other extreme driving simulator? Let us know why you find them appealing.
