Monotony raised to the Nth power

Above is game play from the City Bus Simulator 2010. If you watch it you'll note that you drive a bus from stop to stop, idle at traffic lights, and let people on and let people off. Oh, and the animations of the people are clunky and their American accents are wonky, possibly because the game is made by a German company.

Along with several missions: picking up people in wheelchairs, driving a route with construction going on, driving in a storm and so forth, they also have a campaign mode where buses are being stolen for some nefarious reason and you, playing the persona of Carlos the Bus Driver, have to unravel the mystery.  

I don't know about you, but I find it hard to imagine anybody sitting in their cubicle at work, impatiently watching the clock and waiting for 5:00 p.m. so's they can rush home to put in several thrilling hours of simulated bus driving. 

However, apparently there are people who play it. Or at least there are enough people who play it for TML Studios, the company that makes the game, to justify creating a new version of it called Bus Simulator 2012. It will be available February 23rd in case you have an urge to pilot a bus hither and yon. 

At least in the new version the animations look a little better, if nothing else the people on the sidewalk move instead of just standing in place like store dummies. If you're a masochist, or just plain bored out of your mind with nothing better to do, you can watch the trailer for it to see all the spiffy new improvements.

It all looks pretty goofy to me. Although, if it were cheap enough, it might just be goofy enough to spend a couple of hours fiddling with.