*cue movie guy voice* This Spring...the wheels on the bus...go round and round. Finally a game for those hopelessly drawn to the glamorous, high-risk world of public transportation. Bus Driver is a PC game coming in May from SCS Software, the folks behind Deer Hunter II & III and the 18 Wheels of Steel series. It features 12 different buses, 30 different routes, and many different bus-centric tasks, such as sightseeing tours and prisoner transport. It is a completely ridiculous concept...with so many different video game escapes available, who the hell would want to drive a bus? Me, apparently. I have no clue why, but the prospect of driving a large bus around town just appeals to me. Maybe it's because I am a 6'6" guy who drives a tiny Nissan Sentra. Legroom envy, perhaps?
You Are The Bus Driver
7:00 PM on Tue Mar 25 2008
By Mike Fahey
3,293 views
94 comments



















Comments
I hope Penn and Teller get royalties
do you think the dev's seriously think we'll be trying not to crash and kill people in this game -.- btw there better be people in this game.
It's like Tokyo Bus Driver!
GOTY 2008. I'm calling it.
Maybe I'm mis-reading the pictures, but it looks like a game for five year olds.
And bah on 6'6'' people.
They make us 6'0'' people look tiny.
GTA called, it wants its concept back.
Who sat down and decided that this world of ours needed a bus game?
i am...bus driver...
Finally the opportunity to be a prick and drive past a bus stop full of people!
Otto: Hey bart dude dont worry, I failed the fourth grade too. And look at me, now I drive the school bus"!
@Hion:
Probably the same set of people who sat down and thought the world needs an eating game.
I like sim games, but to be honest, it appears they put about one working day into the interface and put it on the shelf. There's nothing immersing or exciting about it.
@Polywhirl:
It is definitely a simple vertex lighting, which is the same type that UT2004 uses, minus the exception of the baked on lighting, which makes UT2004 acceptable.
"It's like Speed 2...
but on a bus!"
Do you find something comical about my appearance when I'm driving my automobile?
Everyone needs to drive a vehicle, even the very tall. This was the largest auto that I could afford. Am I therefore to be made the subject of fun?
Its just like that movie!! I think it was called "the bus that could never slow down"
Will this also be released on N64?
Seems like a fine idea to me. I think that games that educate about reality ought to be encouraged. I mean, there's nothing wrong with driving a bus. Most people don't get to do it. It's better than senseless violence and all that. Bravo to the guys making it, why not?
I'm curious about more games that are set in the natural world, that don't involve crime and war.
I hope I can customize my bus driver to look like Chris Farley.
Sweet! I can't believe somebody is making a new N64 game!
@Archetype: I'm so glad that I'm not the only one who remembers that game. I seem to recall that you get points for things like using your turn signal properly. Sometimes random information like that, floating around in my head, is indistinguishable from nonsense I come up with to confuse/annoy my friends.
On a different note, this game definitely needs a Desert Bus level.
I'd like to see a steering wheel adapter shipped with the game that's the size of a coffee table.
welcome to japan circa 1999.
[www.gamespot.com]
@Archetype:
OH MAN... TOOK THE WORDS RIGHT OUT OF MY MOUTH! Next-Gen Tokyo Bus Guide FTW.
@excel_excel: Oh man! I loved that movie! But, just like you, I forgot what it was really called....damn, I feel like watching it now...
Has anyone else driven around town in GTA for about half an hour using perfect driving, no speeding, running red lights, or going the wrong way down the road? No, that's only me?
Who would have thought that this article was going to become a Simpsons quote thread?
@YOBNAFgniliec: I did that too, I felt....good actually.
Then some random taxi cab crashes near me all the time and I go road rage all over again.
@Archetype: I'v been wanting to play Tokyo Bus driver since ODCM Previewed it back in 1999...sadly this looks like a saturn prototype. boo.
@scotty: Same here. Saints Row is a little better for safe driving, if for no other reason than you don't suffer from massive gridlock because one car won't go forward. (Cars in Stilwater will eventually back up and drive around.)
All this game needs is a pretty cool sounding contest involving finishing the game that mysteriously never happens. Then it can be a complete Desert Bus ripoff.
Game's been out a while, actually. I know a guy who plays it. I make fun of him alot. He slammed a chair into a wall and made three holes once.
is it me or has pc games gotten really really really crappy its like they shit on a plate and mold it into the dumbest concept they can render
@scotty: My rides would eventually end when I inadvertently drive into the wrong part of town and start getting shot at by random gang members.
Well it's a PC game, so SOMEONE will enjoy it. Not better than that Dreamcast bus game through.
That is one beautiful and well-designed HUD.
I don't understand all this criticism. What do you guys think about Microsoft Train Simulator? It's a game where you drive a train, for god's sake. You can't even turn! You just go faster or slower.
There's also another game coming out where you drive boats. Just boats. And ships. In the open water. No bad guys or anything, just steering your ships and boats.
This basically looks like the same thing.
This game has already been out for a year. It was released on March 22, 2007.
[www.gamefaqs.com]
I have it installed on my hard drive right now, and I've beaten all of the missions already. It's pretty good, actually. Here's the Wikipedia article (but it's pretty crappy): [en.wikipedia.org])
@Gunhaver: Ya, I had a fried that played Microsft Train simulator...it was amazing you could speed up your train and slow it down... He got made fun of alot...and he paid like $60 for the game.
@vicmasterinc: PC gameing have alwas had it's share of lame games, because anyone can create a game...The Wii on the otherhand has alot of crappy games that Ninendo should have stopped in thier tracks...
It makes me sad that whenever someone sees a game that looks like it belongs on a system from the generation before last, they reference the N64.
Are the Saturn's and Playstation's graphics not dated enough for you people?
Show some love!
@Essonse: this game is more Saturn/Ps1 like...the N64 was way to blury....better 3D, but it had some funky blurr effect that totaly destroyed alot of games for me.
I always wanted to try Tokyo Bus Driver, but I think I'm more drawn to Densha De Go because the controller for on e the the systems (dreamcast I thin) has a cup holder built into it.
sounds like crazy taxi meets the bus system? Sign me up, I want to try.
will it be free? because i would not pay anything over nothing for that.
but if it were free, i would be all over it.
Don't fret i feel for ya Fahey as i too am quite tall (about 6'3") and i too have had to ride in very small cars before and let me tell you it was not pretty.
PS: Ironically though i would LOVE to own a Mini Cooper.
This reminds me of ms train sim. Another tense, riveting transport adventure. And another game where I just wondered why. Still, if you've seen Dirty Harry, you know how much fun school buses are.
@glaeven: Torrent's are free.....
I am contractually obligating to post this:
Hail to the bus driver, bus driver, bus driver!
Hail to the bus driver, bus driver man!
He yells and he cusses,
and smells up the busses,
Hail to the bus driver, bus driver man!
He steps on the clutch
and the toilet goes flu-ush,
Hail to the bus driver, bus driver man!
It's much more fun in GTA.
Did the GUI artist even bother to change the default values of some of the Photoshop layer effects? I mean, Christ, at least make it look like you cared... oh... I get it... nevermind.
"The driver on the bus... says move along please... for the last time..."
I've seen this several times in my local game store and have been tempted to buy and then pan it on YouTube.
cue "songs to enrage bus drivers"
"i don't know why i bought this stupid tape!"
And... here is Germany's contribution to the genre: [www.bussimulatorgame.com]
It scares me that there is enough of a market to support multiple localized bus driving games.
I'm really glad others have mentioned Tokyo Bus Guide. I can't speak for this game, but to those hoping for something like Crazy Taxi, TBG couldn't have been farther from it - it was just as ridiculous, but in the exact opposite direction. It was a public transport simulation, of the most self-flagellating kind.
If you didn't signal your lane changes well in advance, or exceeded the speed limit by even 1mph, or stopped to fast, or didn't open the bus doors for long enough, or were too far from the curb, or you disobeyed any number of other minute little driving/bus operating rules, you lost points. I don't remember the gaining of points even being involved.
To this day I can't figure out why it was so much fun, lol.
*cue movie guy voice* Will you have what it takes to get the job done?
My friends dad would love this game, he is a bus driver.