PC users have had to wait a bit for Burnout Paradise to make the move from consoles, and possibly to compensate Criterion are offering this demo which gives you total access to the imaginary city, albeit for only half an hour.

The half an hour limit is an issue, as this is a huge download, coming in at 3 gigabytes! If you have a slow internet connection, you could easily be downloading for longer than you can play. The second issue is the format of introducing you to the game - which pauses your driving to explain something - can be irritating if you really just want to drive, see the city, and crash into stuff.

These criticisms can't detract from what is an absolutely fantastic arcade racing game. If you demand realistic handling and simulation from your racing games, Burnout Paradise is not for you. The physics are convincing while the handling of the cars is forgiving enough to permit long drifts and ridiculous jumps and crashes. Crashes, as fans of Burnout will tell you, are not done better anywhere else, and they are well integrated into races (after a big crash you have a running start!). This is all about adrenalin fueled, over the top, and psychotically dangerous racing.

There are numerous challenges from straight races to Road Rage, where the objectives is to takedown a number of other racers before you destroy your vehicle and Marked Man, where you have to reach a destination before pursuers destroy you. Alternatively, you can just drive around the enormous open world of Paradise City. Some people may find the lack of defined structure a pain - you are never told to do anything, just enter competitions at your leisure, but you soon get into the rhythm of the game.

Visually, the cars look great, the damage modeling is just what you would want, and the city is wonderful to look at, at night or day. The advantage of this fictional city is that it's been custom built to drive in, and the corners, ramps, short cuts and so on that are littered liberally around mean it's always a fun place to be.

As long as realism isn't your thing, Burnout Paradise City is the perfect driving playground.

Download Burnout Paradise The Ultimate Box 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