I’ve been playing OMSI, the bus simulator, since it came out, and I’ve really grown to like it, and its unique approach to accurately simulating the task of driving a double decker bus on what sometimes are impossibly narrow side streets or cul-de-sacs that are just the right size to turn around, but no bigger.
Thus, it’s with great anticipation that we tell you about OMSI 2, the first major official updated it’s getting since its 2012 release. It’s not a new game as the two would have you believe, but it does pack a lot of new features, including, but not limited to, support and accurate simulation of articulated buses, something that was not possible before, with the way the physics engine was set up (modders tried to find workarounds, but it never quite worked).
Aside from bus articulation, the coding behind the game engine has been streamlined, the graphics (ever so) slightly improved and there are new lines and a new bus to choose from. If you’re not familiar with it, the setting for the game is 1980s – early 1990s Berlin, where you get to drive painstaking recreations of the real models in service at the time, and operate each and every function of the bus yourself – each and every button on the dashboard is clickable, though you can map important and frequently used functions to the keyboard.
The new articulated bus is the highlight of this so-called sequel, though the game’s (two private) developers should be aware that once the capability has been implemented, the modding community behind it (there is one, and it’s surprisingly active) will fix the vehicle diversity issue right away.
OMSI 2 is supposedly coming out in the fourth quarter of this year (now, theoretically), but since its development team has limited resources at its disposal, don’t get angry and aggravated if that turns into Q1 2014…
It’s the price you pay for not getting your games from a big multinational money-maker – you have to wait for actually passionate people to do the work the way they want to and ensure that the final product matches their vision.
By Andrei Nedelea
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