Great, but could be greater...

For those who want a shortened version of what I think, here it goes; I LOVE THIS GAME!! However, it needs a serious overhaul. For those of you who prefer a more detailed opinion, read on, but be forewarned; it may be lengthy.

I’ve only read the reviews for the current version, so I’m not sure what was said for previous versions. I saw some things that were repeated, and I’ll only gloss over them (ghost town; shuttered population centers i.e. hotels, convention centers, etc.; beeped at while stopped at red lights; heavy red light penalties; red light penalty when not even entering intersection; no cab view; turn signal penalty when exiting terminals and signaling properly; school buses without flashing lights; traffic lights changing way too fast). Yes, these things need to be fixed to make this a five-star game, but I also have some suggestions that I sent to SCS months ago, and I never heard from them.

1. Some of the bus routes are pretty ridiculous. One of them, for example, is long, has only five stops, goes through a major part of the city, stops at major stops, and has only few passengers. That’s ridiculous. Buses that go through the busiest parts of the city usually have more than five stops, and if they stop at major tourist attractions, and at City Hall, they’re usually standing room only! And speaking of ridership per route, why do some of the descriptions say something about how it’s usually crowded, but not today? I want it to be crowded! Why else would I play a bus simulation game?

2. Return trips would be nice. It doesn’t make much sense driving a route from one end to the other, and don’t have return trips. That could even be optional, if everyone doesn’t want to do it.

3. The destination signs on the buses read, “SCS Transport,” while the rear of the buses show the route number (of the buses that have a rear display sign). That doesn’t make sense to me. Why can’t the destination signs on the buses show the route number and its destination?

4. The graphics are dated.

5. There are many bus routes that overlap. That’s utterly ridiculous. While the host city is large (so large, in fact, that it’s easy for me to get lost), if the creators ran out of space for more routes, I don’t see why they couldn’t expand the city, especially since there are many large, deserted areas. Furthermore, the bus routes that overlap don’t stop at all stops along the route; they could easily have made just a single route that stopped at every stop for every two or three or more routes that overlap.

6. Every single street share one of two names; Line Street or North Street. Yet, the bus stops that are named for streets differ. What’s up with that?

7. Time and weather randomization would be nice for most of the city bus routes.

8. I don’t know about everyone else, but I for one would like more city bus routes, and less chartered bus service. But maybe that’s just me.

9. The prison bus should be equipped with emergency lights that are activated during transportation of prisoners. Where I come from, the sherriff’s buses that transport prisoners sure have them. Furthermore, the police should also have their emergency lights activated. And, if you want to make it more realistic, which I personally think would behoove gameplay, the bus should have a police escort, not have all those cops lining different parts of the road. I realize that may be difficult, especially since we’re kind of racing for time, but but bus should definitely have emergency lights.

10. The buses should have more sustained power. They lose speed horribly on inclines. But since I only have the keyboard to use while playing, I don’t know if that’s only my experience.

11. I don’t understand why there are transportation centers and/or terminals that have only one or two routes that connect to them. Why, too, are there so many terminals? Transportation centers (once again, where I come from) are major transportation hubs that service many connecting routes. I personally think it’s unnecessary to have so many terminals and so few routes. Furthermore, I am perplexed by Grove Park, which takes up two sides of the street and has routes that terminate on one side and begin on the other (just doesn’t make sense to me) and by the sheer bafflement that is Hounslow. Why does Hounslow even exist? It’s right around the corner from Ewell Central! The buses that terminate at Hounslow should terminate instead at Ewell Central, in my very humble opinion. Also, almost every time I pull into Fullwell Station, I get a wrong way penalty. Go figure.

I don’t know. Maybe I’m taking this game way too seriously. As I said, I love this game. I have played it for years. I have some other ideas, but I think I’ve been long-winded enough, and I don’t know how many people, if any, had the patience to read through all of this. Anyway, I told SCS that I would gladly buy the game again if they did the major overhaul that I requested, but as I said I’ve not heard from them. I won’t stop hoping, though, at least for now. Oh, yeah, I almost forgot…I absolutely recommend this game. You can easily have hours and hours of fun…I know I sure did, and still do. As I said, I’ve played this game for years!

Guardian134 about Bus Driver