Simutrans is a transport and economic simulation game. Simutrans has not yet reached production state, but it is quite possible to build big transport networks between the industries and cities.

The player can create bus and rail connections and transport passengers, mail and goods in and between cities and industries. Even passenger ferries and oil tankers are included in the game. Goods are produced by industries from raw materials, sometimes over many steps of intermediate products. i.e. coal and iron ore are needed to produce steel in a steel mill. Oil may be transformed to plastics in a refinery. Plastics and steel are used to build cars by the car industry. Finally the cars are sold in the cities which need gas to run, which will also be produced at the refinery.

All goods need to be transported which is the ultimate aim. Transport the goods and allow industry to thrive but be careful not to destroy the environment!

Download SimuTrans 112.1 in Softonic

Starting European Bus Simulator 2012, you'll walk to the bus depot, choose your bus then check out the controls. There's a tutorial that takes you through all the controls and shortcuts. Freyfurt has 450 stops dotted around its streets, over six town areas, with tasks such as school runs to perform. You can create custom routes in an integrated editor.

Driving is what you'd expect. Buses are big and ungainly to drive, and keeping out of the way of other traffic is always a big concern. If you enjoy Bus driving, you'll enjoy European Bus Simulator 2012, but despite improved graphics, this is still a game that lacks character. There's no reason a simulator has to be this dry and humorless.

There's a lot of bus-detail in European Bus Simulator 2012, right down to adjusting air conditioning, so it's a treat if you're into that sort of thing. More casual bus fans may find Bus Simulator 2012 overwhelming, and lacking in fun.

Download European Bus Simulator 2012 64-Bit 1.3.2 in Softonic

Starting European Bus Simulator 2012, you'll walk to the bus depot, choose your bus then check out the controls. There's a tutorial that takes you through all the controls and shortcuts. Freyfurt has 450 stops dotted around its streets, over six town areas, with tasks such as school runs to perform. You can create custom routes in an integrated editor.

Driving is what you'd expect. Buses are big and ungainly to drive, and keeping out of the way of other traffic is always a big concern. If you enjoy Bus driving, you'll enjoy European Bus Simulator 2012, but despite improved graphics, this is still a game that lacks character. There's no reason a simulator has to be this dry and humorless.

There's a lot of bus-detail in European Bus Simulator 2012, right down to adjusting air conditioning, so it's a treat if you're into that sort of thing. More casual bus fans may find Bus Simulator 2012 overwhelming, and lacking in fun.

Download European Bus Simulator 2012 32-Bit 1.3.1 in Softonic

Bus Driver is a surprisingly fun simulator where your job is to transport passengers around an urban environment. Your mission is to stick to a timetable while obeying traffic rules and making sure you don't upset or injure passengers. Bus Driver is supposed to be all about realism. However, there's no game as such, although there are five different levels of ability, and you get bonuses for obeying rules of the road and sticking to your timetable etc.

There are five buses to drive in a huge city environment with various districts, 30 routes, and varying weather conditions set at differing times of day. There are different bus types that go along with Bus Driver such as school bus, tourist bus, sight-seeing tour bus and even a prisoner transportation bus. The entire driving environment in Bus Driver is made even more realistic courtesy of an AI system which 'learns' from your driving habits.

The vector graphics are a bit blocky and basic and the gameplay can get quite dull at times but for anyone who is a fan buses or just driving sims in general, Bus Driver is a lot of fun.

Download Bus Driver 1.5.2 in Softonic

The developers say that, 'there aren't cool graphics, and reality isn't so great,' which is a good description of VirtualBus! Buses and towns are modeled by the community, and while the work involved is impressive, it looks basic by today's standards. There are complex and comprehensive keyboard controls, allowing you to do everything from changing gear and steering, to opening the doors and tilting the bus for passengers.

VirtualBus is definitely only for Bus enthusiasts. The 3D environments are so basic you can actually drive straight through anything, be it a building or a hill! Vehicle handling is uncomplicated, and driving a bus is surprisingly easy in VirtualBus. The fan community allows for plenty of maps and buses to be imported into the game, but despite this, VirtualBus should be filed under 'nice try'.

Made entirely for free by enthusiasts, VirtualBus is very much an amateur simulation. The graphics are outdated, the physics are as basic as can be and the game can't really be described as fun to play.

Download VirtualBus A6C RC3 in Softonic

Continental Truckers

This driving simulator puts you behind the wheel of a powerful truck and entrusts you with several different missions. Euro Truck Simulator's activities consist on taking cargo from one place to another and getting paid for the delivery. Saving enough money you will eventually be able to buy better and faster trucks to be able to work more and earn more money.

I find the main idea in Euro Truck Simulator is quite original. We're used to car, motorbike and even airplane driving simulators, but not that much to trucks. Also, the game features excellent, highly realistic graphics.

Need for sleep?

So far, so good. The problem is that Euro Truck Simulator becomes a boring game quite easily. I don't know if it was due to the repetitive sound of the engine, the slowness of my driving or the lack of real action, I started feeling sleepy shortly after starting to play. Maybe if you could play your own music on the truck's radio, or get into some more action by delivering illegal stuff and occasionally being chased by the cops, Euro Truck Simulator would be more exciting. Also, I didn't like the fact that I can't choose the UK as the starting country for my career as truck driver! It is extremely similar to German Truck Simulator and UK Truck Simulator

Euro Truck Simulator is a pretty original game, with especially outstanding graphics, but which gets boring quite easily.

Download Euro Truck Simulator 1.3 in Softonic

Bus Simulator puts you behind the steering wheel of a traditional urban bus and challenges you to complete "missions", that is, complete any of the city routes that bus must follow. But Bus Simulator is not only a driving simulator, meaning you'll have to take care of the business by deciding the price of tickets or renting the vehicle's ad spaces to make them more profitable.

Driving in Bus Simulator not as easy as it seems at first sight: not only you have to find your way in an unknown city (note you can open the map with the M key) but you also have to stop at every single bus stop in your route, open and close the doors and follow your way to the next one. Also, don't forget to respect road signs: I didn't stop for any red lights (too much GTA IV is seriously affecting my driving style, luckily only the virtual one) and got fired in about 5 minutes.

Graphics in Bus Simulator are just fine; quite realistic, but certainly not the best ones I've seen. Physics is not very elaborate, especially when it comes to crashing against objects or other cars (hey, don't laugh at me: I'm not that bad at driving, I just have to test everything!). Other than that, Bus Simulator just an original game that seems as exciting as driving a bus in real life.

The main feature in Bus Simulator is undoubtedly its originality; apart from that, it's just a standard driving simulator with some business management tools that may entertain you for a short while.

Download Bus Simulator 2008 Demo in Softonic

The game of Sudoku seems to have replaced the humble crossword as the king of bus travel pursuits.

What's more, the way people are playing the game is changing too, and more and more people are using digital incarnations of the game. When you first load Impossible Sudoku you'll probably fall out of your chair when you see the game board.

Unlike the games you get in puzzle books this one has loads and loads of little numbers as well as bigger numbers filled in every square on the grid. It's a little daunting at first but don't worry because these are here to help you. They are actually 'auto marks' that indicate the numbers that are available to enter in a particular square based on the current state of the grid. Don't worry if it's too confusing for you because you can switch the feature off (you can't toggle auto marks, unfortunately and the change will come into effect in the next game).

There are lots of other things you can customize in Impossible Sudoku, and it's actually one of the most impressive number games I've seen in terms of its options. You can undo, redo, mark, check moves, solve the puzzle, and access all manner of statistics. There are five levels of difficulty, and you can even create your own puzzles from scratch.

The presentation of the game is pretty impressive - there's a choice of nine bright, colorful skins and the sound effects that play when you enter numbers are quite cool without being annoying.

In fact, the only thing that really lets the game down is its feeble help system. All you get is a one-paragraph description of the rules and there's nothing in the way of tips and tactics that might help beginners.

Overall though, this is a wonderful simulation of Sudoku.

Download Impossible Sudoku 1.05 in Softonic

It’s not often that Microsoft gets it exactly right but this is one product which has received almost unanimous praise from developers and game players. Simulator X is Microsoft’s much improved follow-up to Flight Simulator 2004. Compared to X-Plane, it’s certainly got far more graphical detail, presentation and playability and gets very close to the real thing.

Firstly, be warned that this is a big download – 636.2MB to be exact. Once the five minute installation is complete, you’re presented with three choices – dropping flour on targets, introductory test flight or Caribbean landing. The first involves a simple bit of target practice whilst the others involve getting to grips with the basic controls and mastering landings.

Whichever you choose, you can take control of anything from ultra-lights to Cessnas, commercial airliners and even helicopters. However, to make it more interesting, Simulator X also features 50 different missions to stop you falling asleep at the controls. The missions come as an urgent update from Air Traffic Control and can be fun or serious. Due to a runway closure, you may be asked to land the plane on top of a moving bus or, due to an explosion, you might get asked to rescue workers on an oil ring before they burn alive. Other missions include search and rescue, “Area 51” missions and even one where you have to pick-up film-stars.

In the full version, there are 24,000 airports from around the world to choose from and chances are you’ll be able to fly from your local airport. The realism is impressive, including fuel trucks, luggage belts and walkways being extended from the craft to the airport. If you should get too close to the ground (i.e. crash land), you’re treated to the sight of wildlife running around the fields and amongst the wreckage, proving that Microsoft really have gone to extremes in trying to recreate a virtual world. They even claim to have mapped the accurate positions of the stars according to location and time of year. You can also fly according to the current weather conditions in certain zones by connecting to an online server. Otherwise, you can set the weather according to your wishes to see how the plane handles in a storm or blizzard.

For those that want the real deal, options include a full pre-flight briefing where you discuss the flight conditions, weather predictions and other factors that might affect your flight. If you want a bit of drama, you can also pre-program the plane to malfunction during the flight. See how your co-pilot reacts when he realises that the undercarriage is either jammed or dropped off somewhere over Denver.

Another unique feature in the full version is the possibility to add another person to the cockpit. If you have a friend connected to the net, they can log on and come along for the ride or guide you down as Air Traffic Control.

In comparison to many other simulators such as X-Plane, this simulator is a joy because of many fun additions and the option to choose the difficulty of the flight mode. The only major problem is that its very heavy on resources and I had trouble running this alongside various other apps. This can be solved by reducing the frame-rate in the options menu but the game doesn’t run quite as seamlessly as a result.

Download Microsoft Flight Simulator X in Softonic