Driving Simulator - SIMURIDE for car/bus/truck manual/automatic transmission Review

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(More customer reviews)The three monitor driving simulator is really neat and it isn't even that expensive. For less than $1,000 you can get cool items, but how many people have a driving simulator in their home or at their school? It seems expensive at first glance, but when you consider all the features it offers and the benefits of a driving simulator, it is actually quite affordable. It can be more than just a learning tool-it's actually a lot of fun as well.
The Pros:
*A driving simulator is like a video game, but designed for learning purposes it comes with a lot of cool features. You can pick from a variety of road conditions and even decide on different cars to drive. Some of these features include automatic or manual transmissions, small passenger vehicles, bus, or truck, city driving, country driving, or highway driving, and you can even decide what whether conditions you want to drive in such as in fog, at night, in rain, or on a sunny day.
*With three screens on the driving simulator that semi surround you, it feels like you're actually driving in these conditions. It's designed to help you learn how to drive, and it really works! The driving simulator even displays your mistakes and gives a final report. It records when you don't stop at stop signs, don't wear your seat belt, when you speed, and other mistakes you might make.
*What's so cool about this driving simulator is that the army uses software like this to train pilots and teach their soldiers to drive tanks. It actually feels like you're in that situation and it teaches students muscle memory and puts them in situations they might never be in--simply to prepare them for the road.
*The person using the driving simulator can actually feel that they have control of the car. You can use it as a simple at-home video game, or the driving simulator can be used to teach students the rules of the road, how to control a car, and other aspects of driving before actually driving a real car. Plus, a driving simulator speeds up your training and helps you have an advantage to passing your driving test.
The Cons:
*It is slightly expensive but let's face it paying for time to drive a truck is really costly too.
*It isn't the real road. While this game is great for learning, practicing and getting a feel for how things should be, you will still need some practice in a real vehicle.
Is it worth it?
In short: Yes! It is a great way to practice from your own home or school without paying the hefty rental fees to use a real vehicle. It is a great tool to add into your learning process.


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Need for Speed: Underground Review

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(More customer reviews)Driving fans rejoice! Jumping on the popularity of import street racing, and borrowing heavily from the driving scenes of The Fast and the Furious, NFS Underground is a combination of both beauty and brains that's a must-have for any racing fan; provided you have the hardware to handle it. Best of all, you don't have to endure Paul Walker's lame acting.
Slicked up and glowing with neon, EA's latest release is the most visually stunning NFS game produced to date. You can actually see the reflection of your car and the surroundings off the rain-soaked streets. Even more impressive are how the screen explodes in light and your surroundings shake into a chaotic mess as you approach speeds much higher than your car was originally designed to handle. It's the most visceral feeling of speed in a game yet as you really feel like your computer is doing 150mph. Unfortunately, all this eye candy comes at a price as you'll need some serious hardware to experience it in all its glory. Plan on having at least a Geforce 3 or a Radeon 9000 just for low detail settings. For full detail you'll need at least a Radeon 9600 or a Geforce 5600, not to mention a quick CPU and plenty of RAM.
Many liked EA's previous NFS release, Hot Pursuit, but I was disappointed as the attention to the driving physics seemed to go out the window. I had the same complaint about Midnight Club II; a game that, in a word, sucked. Fortunately, I can say this is not the case in NFS Underground. Each car has a distinctive feel, with individual strengths and weaknesses. It's an arcade racer at heart, but there are enough differences in the cars to make you want to experiment with different cars and find the one that suits your style of driving best.
Sound effects are top-notch. THX enabled, the engines roar to life and cars, buildings, and slow moving objects whoosh past your ears in true surround sound. Those with 4+ speaker setups are in for a real treat with this game. Also included are about 25 tracks ranging from rap to rock to techno, featuring artists like BT, Nate Dogg, Overseer, Fuel, and Static-X. While it's a decent selection, it's still only about 2 hours of music. Perhaps it's just me, but music with vocals gets repetitive and annoying over time as opposed to background music. I never liked that "Get Low" song much to begin with. I've heard it so much now I'm at the point of self-mutilation. Fortunately, EA provides you with the ability to customize the soundtrack so you can eliminate the songs you don't like.
The game isn't perfect. Even with 21st century technology, EA programmers are still unable to create any car damage modeling whatsoever. The cartoonish sight of your car doing triple flips in midair and on the street, only to land without a scratch seriously detracts from the otherwise realistic looking environment you're racing in. And, like all NFS games before it, you're still racing in a tunnel whether it looks like it or not. Just once I'd like to do an out of control jump and actually land in a swimming pool or someone's house instead of simply pinballing off the edge of the screen and back on to the road. The lack of a replay option is also unfortunate.
Customizing your car is a cool (and addicting) feature of NFS Underground, yet EA's method of implementation leaves something to be desired. I can understand that performance options, such as turbo, NOS, and weight reduction kits, are not unlocked until you win key races so the game remains balanced. What I don't understand are why visual upgrades such as paint, vinyl, and even decals are locked up? It's almost laughable to win a race just so you unlock a sticker.
Even with these minor gripes, I would have given it five stars. The "last straw," so to speak, is the A.I. The game gets insanely difficult as you start to climb the ranks. Races are won and lost in mere tenths of a second. What will set you off the deep end is the phenomenon of what I can only describe as the computer "throwing cars at you." As you round a blind corner or jump, you will frequently find yourself directly in the path of the only car on the road. I've been in situations where I have opponents directly to the left and right of me. Guess which lane the slow moving car is in? To some extent, you can use this to your advantage by closely following (drafting) an opponent so they slam into the traffic meant for you. Unfortunately, you still have to compensate for the fact that all of your opponents are psychic. I can't tell you the number of times an opponent managed to slam on the brakes to avoid traffic they couldn't possibly have seen in advance. As much as I love this game, this unfair advantage is too aggravating for me to be able to give it five stars. In the difficult settings, winning becomes less about driving ability and more about dumb luck that you don't slam into something that'll cost you the entire race.
That said, I still recommend this game for racing fans. It's a high-tech thrill that really does fulfill your Need for Speed and it's certainly one of the finest games EA has produced.
Hope the review helped.

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Highly Tuned for Intense SpeedProduct InformationHit the streets in the world's most elite tuner cars and take down the ultimateracers in your own customized machine. To own the streets you'll have to riskit all in a variety of high-styling high-speed events -- including Drift Dragand Circuit. Tune your car to perfection by winning hundreds of upgrade partsthen go underground for the most intense addictive driving experience of yourlife. When it comes to speed no other game comes close to delivering this kindof action. And while the need for speed is what keeps you coming back for morecustom looks are your ticket to scoring big with the crowds. You are what youdrive in Need for Speed Underground.Product FeaturesFeel speed like never before. Graphics that obliterate the envelope andturbocharged physics make this the fastest gameplay experience ever.Choose from 20 elite licensed tuner cars from Mitsubishi Toyota Subaruand more.Fully customize your car with hundreds of aftermarket parts from top-namemanufacturers. Change your car's appearance to fit your personality changeits performance to fit your driving style.Huge highly detailed environments push your gaming hardware to theabsolute limit as you battle to own the streets in your urban streetmachine.Race hard and win upgrades including weight reduction kits turbosuspension kits tires wheels and nitrous.Set the asphalt ablaze in a variety of game modes including Drift Dragand Circuit.Go underground and become the ultimate street racer in the epic Storymode.Build your ideal car take it online and take on the world's fastestcompetition.Windows RequirementsWindows 98 Me 2000 or XP700MHz or faster128MB of RAM for Windows 98 and Me256MB of RAM for Windows 2000 and XPX CD-ROM Drive or faster2.0GB or more free hard drive spaceDirectX 9.0 compatible video card DirectX 9.0 compatible sound cardVideo Card

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GTR Evolution Review

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(More customer reviews)When I saw GTR Evo at Amazon, I jumped at it thinking "Finally. An update to GTR2." I was wrong.
GTR2 is probably the best racing simulation game out there. It has all the detail and depth you might want from a simulation: the physics system is excellent, AI cars are appropriately aggressive and smart, car setup and configuration options are extremely detailed, and there is an excellent tutorial system that will educate you as a simulation racing driver. In short an excellent simulation and a must for any racing simulation fan. However, GTR2 is now several years old, so an update is possibly in order. This, unfortunately, is not it. Still, that's not all bad.
Compared to GTR2, Race and Race 07 were both good racing simulations but not designed to be as realistic as GTR2. GTR Evo is an extension of Simbin's Race and Race 07 game franchise. Like Race 07, GTR Evo takes the existing game and adds some new cars and some new tracks. (So, if you buy GTR Evo, you will have all the Race 07 game features, cars, and tracks.) Anyone who is familiar with the Race franchise will feel right at home with the menus, options, and general look and feel of the game.
The additions to this game are primarily GT-class cars such as Corvette, Aston Martin, Lister Storm, and others. (Conspicuously absent are Porsches and Ferraris, both prominent in GT racing.) The game also includes some "fantasy" cars. For example, the Audi R8 supercar is included, although Audi has not confirmed racing plans for it yet. Also there is a set of WTCC Extreme cars, that give the touring cars from Race 07 600+ horsepower, just in case you wanted to know what a 600 HP front-wheel driver was like.
The game adds some new tracks and combines them with the old ones. However, there is one addition here that, by itself, is worth the price of admission: The Nurburgring. The game includes the 'Ring in all its 16-mile, 8-minutes per lap glory. This is a challenging track; sweeping curves, fast sections that drop to slow corners, the famous Karussel; it's all here. If you think you're as good as Sabine Schmidt, "Queen of the Ring", here's your chance to find out.
Like Race, GTR Evo features car setup that, while not as detailed as GTR2, allows for customizing of your car's handling and performance characteristics. GTR Evo does carry over Race 07's great preconfigured files feature, that provide a good starting setup for each individual car for each track.
Drivability is very good and the physics engine gives good approximations of real-world driving characteristics (like front-wheel drive oversteer). Simbin has improved the sound effects, adding to the realism. The AI drivers are good if not quite as aggressive as you might like.
The traditional multiplayer, championship, and practice/time attack modes are still there, with the addition of a R-Arcade quick race mode.
Bottom line: This is a good simulation for those wanting a realistic racing sim. This is a good extension of the Race franchise and fans will not be disappointed. However, hard-core racing enthusiasts may want to stick to GTR2.

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GTR Evolution will contain 5 new classes containing a total of 30 new car models. First there are 3 classes of GT cars, each class with its own type of GT cars. In these classes you can find famous race cars such as the Corvette C6R, Aston Martin DBR9, BMW M3 GTR, Koenigsegg CCGT and Spyker C8 Spyder GT2R. Next to 3 GT classes there will be the WTCC Extreme cars. These are fictional designs of the vision of SimBin together with the WTCC Manufacturers on how the ultimate WTCC car could look. To finish it off there will be the Production Car Class, featuring the road going versions of the Audi R8, Dodge Viper SRT/10, Koenigsegg CCX and Gumpert Apollo.

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