Berliners drive bus!

[Skybird]

Newly released. Available at Aerosoft. I know the whole route.

Ich finde solche Sachen ja echt spaßig!

Just that currently it is just one 11km track, speaks against it. The rest pretty much looks and sounds almost perfect. Editor is available.

[Penguin]

It's not a realistic Berlin bus sim if you can't get mugged

I also can't remember that the people only drove a Golf 2 or Mercedes W123 in the 80's

No, really, I don't think this looks too bad, much better than other sims like farmer simulator or many other crap from Rondomedia. I like that you can use all elements of the busses. Also it certainly adds an immersion factor if you recognize the streets where you drive.

I, for my part, prefer to drive my busses on Star Junction and get some

[Gerald]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Newly released. Available at Aerosoft. I know the whole route.

Ich finde solche Sachen ja echt spaßig!

Just that currently it is just one 11km track, speaks against it. The rest pretty much looks and sounds almost perfect. Editor is available.

Are you go there every day
long way from,Munster I've been there, a nice little town.

[NeonSamurai]

I found the pedestrians all walking like they have something large stuck up their you know whats amusing.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Vendor

Are you go there every day
long way from,Munster I've been there, a nice little town.

I lived for ten years in West-Berlin - the complete 80s. While we did not live in Spandau but Friedenau, Initially we had a stay in Southern Spandau (or Charlottenburg if you want - Pichelswerder) for some weeks, and my orthodontist resided in the Hochhaus with the Baumarkt in the base floor (in the sim). For four years I needed to take the subway every couple of weeks and then ride that bus down the Heerstraße and Klosterstraße even when we already were in Friedenau.

After leaving Berlin in autumn 89, short before the wall came down, I visited it again several times in the following 20 years.

BTW, Munster and Münster (ü=ue, Münster would be Muenster), are two totally different places in Germany. The first has a famous and huge NATO tank training and gunning area.

[Gerald]

Originally Posted by Skybird

I lived for ten years in West-Berlin - the complete 80s. While we did not live in Spandau but Friedenau, Initially we had a stay in Southern Spandau (or Charlottenburg if you want - Pichelswerder) for some weeks, and my orthodontist resided in the Hochhaus with the Baumarkt in the base floor (in the sim). For four years I needed to take the subway every couple of weeks and then ride that bus down the Heerstraße and Klosterstraße even when we already were in Friedenau.

After leaving Berlin in autumn 89, short before the wall came down, I visited it again several times in the following 20 years.

BTW, Munster and Münster (ü=ue, Münster would be Muenster), are two totally different places in Germany. The first has a famous and huge NATO tank training and gunning area.

Münster is the place,and in -80's I meet people working for Stasi in my work, when I visit

[SgtPotato]

A recreation of the movie, Speed, anyone?

[Skybird]

For sentimental reasons, I got it now that the patched CD-version is out (I lived for ten years in Berlin, my schoolyears, the full 80s). I was not expecting too much, just some intermezzo fun. What I actually got is as best a full public traffic and bus simulation package as the term could go. I was not prepared for this!

IT'S SUPERB, from a simulation and functionality point of view!

From the phasing and looks of the traffic lghts, to the AI of the (many) othger drivers, from the 100% reaslistic bus sounds that do not lack one single detail, itseems, to the feeling of drivi8ng something really big that behaves totally different, yet realistically, in turns, from the nagging guests to the need (if option is used) to calculate the money change correctly and handle the tickets and cash automat - coinsidering the focus and object of this sim, it is an almost perfect sim! Forget all what you have seen in bus simulations before - this is the real deal. Driving this in narrow streets, turning it without touching anything, stopping at the bus-halt without bumping on the rimstone of the pavement, I was caught on cold feet to seem how challenging this actually is.

Like often with good sims, the somewhat inferior looks do not matter. They serve their purpose, and they serve it well. The traffic lights look photorealistic, different weather, time-of-day and viewing conditions change the sim very much, also the driving physics. The cockpits, many of them, are 80-90% functional.

Where you see that this is no studio production, but two people's hobby that turned semiproffessional (thus the addiction and enthusiasm of theirs), is the setting up of the sim, and getting inpout devises and options correctly set up. The interface for that is rough around the edges, and leaves ergonomy and elegance to be desired. However, like the sim itself, it does everything it should - if you invest some time to check it out thoroughly. Actually, it then does incredibly much and quite well.

Do not consider this to be a toy sim - it is not. If it lacks the complex avionics of A-10 or Falcon or FS9, then this is because busses in Berlin neither run war campaigns nor are they as complex (but still more complex than you maybe expect) than A-10s and F-16s and B-747s. Seen from a perspective of checking whether or not a sim does justice to the object and matter it simulates, this title is a winner with fully flying colours. If you ever were looking for a civilian, real city traffic driving simulator - do not look further. If bus-driving ever was interesting for you, prefer this title to any other out there.

Heck, I even passed by the tall building in the Kolonnenstraße where once my orthodontist was residing when I was a teen and we lived the first year in Berlin in Mahnkopfweg at Pichelswerder and Heerstraße (before we moved to Friedenau)...

A positive surprise OMSI is. Now lets wait and see what the community will do with the editor. If there is a shortcoming in this package, then that there is only one line, Linie 92 from Helmstedt Grenzkontrollstelle to final destination Freudstraße Spandau.

Oh, and it is not present time, but the 80s, 1989 to be precise. Expect to give the change in nicely rendered Deutschmarks and DM-notes!

And do not underestimate the specs needed - this sim easily can cionsume your system if you push the options accordngly - especially traffic density, both vehicles and pedestrians. I can run it nicely on my brandnew i5 2500 system, with already somewhat dense traffic conditions at day (it varies over the day and night) - but that density represents the sliders still in the lower third of the scale.

Skybird hereby awards the Great Surprise of the Month-Award!