Driving Test Success Practical

The tutorial videos were great and were just like a real driving lesson and it was fun to control the virtual car, especially in all the different weathers. It was good that if you did somethin worng you had to go back and do it again you cant just skip it. This is what it is like in the real world when you are driving as well - if you do soemthing wrong you cant just skip it so it was very lifelike.

I would recommend this to EVERYONE!

I'm coming towards the end of my driving lessons and am about to take a test. I was hoping for something that would help with complex junctions, which are one of my problem areas. Alas there are no complex junctions that I could find on the CD. For example the only roundabout scenario is a two lane roundabout with exits at the four points of the compass. This is pretty straightforward to understand and is the same example that is used in all driving books/manuals. I don't need help with this. Nothing more complicated is considered. No three-lane roundabouts, roundabouts with more than four exits, roudabouts with traffic lights, spiral lane roundabouts, double/multiple roundabouts or any other remotely confusing scenario that you might want practice at in a simulation.

The controls of the car are difficult to use. It seems to be a bit like driving through treacle. The car steering is very unresponsive compared with a real car. Most of the times I failed to complete a drving section it was due to the car controls causing me to be unable to turn in time and I collided with something. The car controls would probably be a lot better if it allowed you to use an analogue input device for the steeting such as a joystick. Similarly the observation is awkward, you have to use the keyboard or click a button to look around. It would be better if it let you look around to any point by moving the mouse like many 3D games let you do.

Whenever you make a mistake, it stops you and takes you back to the beginning of the current section. This is annoying if you make a mistake towards the end of the section, as you have to repeat it all over and over again. It would be better if it simply told you what you got wrong when you reached the end rather than stopping you continuously.

There's very little traffic around on the roads. It would be useful if it let you select how much traffic was around. Also other traffic seems to obey the road laws perfectly. No-one overtakes you in stupid places or pulls out right in front of you as usually happens to a learner in real life. It would be better if other traffic behaved in a more realistic way (or if you had the option to select this).

There are also unfortunately a number of minor bugs. When I first started the program I had to fiddle with the ini file to set the resolution and tell it to start in a window as my graphics card or monitor didn't seem to like it unless it was running in a window. This might be a bit awkward for people who don't know where to look for these settings. I couldn't figure out how to finish the right hand turn on the roundabouts section because it keeps complaining about me switching the signal off too early or too late and I cannot find out where the medium is. The motorway section seems to have a graphical problem with rendering a truck right at the beginnning. It also doesn't pick up the left-handed setting of my mouse buttons.

Overall I'd say it's a good attempt and the price is certainly unbeatable. I'm really pleased someone has attempted to produce a practical test simulator. However I didn't find it a useful aid for my specific circumstances. The situations dealt with are not complex enough to be a useful learning experience and the controls are too frsutrating to use. However I sincerely hope focus multimedia produce another version where these problems are addressed. I'll have a look at it if they do (even if I've passed by then).