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!


An ok help to the practical   August 17, 2004
 6 out of 6 found this review helpful

At first i found it quite fustrating as you cant skip the bits you already know, after the boring bits its quite a good help, ive got my practical test in a few weeks and i think that this will help me a great deal in terms of remembering all the things you have been taught by your instructor. Lets you record your progress which is cool!

I would recommend it to those just starting out as well as those who are quite confident as it makes you think about your attitude and gives you some extra tips. As well as giving you how ever many extra lessons you need free of charge.

Good Luck With your test!!!!


I put it back up for sale after 1 DAY!!   May 4, 2004
 8 out of 14 found this review helpful

I am near to taking my practical now and so bought this disk thinking it would help me just as much as the Hazard Perception disk. How wrong could I be?

The disk is a good idea in theory it goes through the basics and the complicated bits of driving in detail but, me, taking my practical in just over a week couldnt jump straight to the bits where you want to know what you REALLY need to remember so as not to make those silly mistakes, I had to start from the beginning: - this is forwards, this is an indicator, this is a steering wheel and found the whole thing rather silly.

It isn't realistic either and I just lost all patience with the thing and decided to forget about it.

So, if your a beginner and just setting out, fine go for it, it might help you a great deal, but considering the majority of people take their theory whilst they are taking driving lessons they already know the basics of a car how to drive forward and turn the steering wheel! Therefore I think most people will find this disk patronising and tedious.


Confidence Booster   December 5, 2003
 15 out of 16 found this review helpful

I bought this CD-ROM as my boyfriend has been nagging me to learn to drive for years. I'd put it off as I'm nervous about the whole thing - didn't know what to expect or what I would have to do/know for my first lesson. This CD has really helped me find out what it is like and I particularly like the videos as I get to see driving lessons and lots routines - as many times as I like. The bit at the begining of the CD helped me to know what forms I needed to get started and also how to find a good instructor.
One of my favourite things about this CD is that if my instructor mentions to me what we might cover in my next lesson I can have a look at the CD-ROM and even have a trial run. This really helps me to remeber what I actucally have to do when I'm in the car and driving for real. I know it won't teach me to drive - I wouldn't expect it to (it's good - but not a miracle worker!!) My mum just bought me a computer steering wheel for my birthday so I had a go with it with this CD and it's great - really good fun! I was using my brother's joystick before but I like using the steering wheel better.
Now I use it to go over the things that I've learnt in my lessons so that I can be on top of them for when I next meet up with my instructor. All in all I reckon it might save me some money as my lessons are costing 20 a time and believe me any help that I can get is well worth it!!! Fingers crossed I'll pass in March when I take my test.


Good Idea But Wait For The Next Version   November 29, 2003
 28 out of 30 found this review helpful

I had been wondering for ages why no one had ever written a practical driving test simulator. There is loads of help for the theory test around but no help with the practical part of the test. In fact I thought that this was a big gap in the market and was considering developing a program like this as a shareware or opensource effort (being that I am currently learning to drive and am a software developer). Conincidentally it was while I was in the process of looking around for suitable development tools I came across this. Great I thought! Someone's done all the work for me and I immediately bought a copy. Unfortunately it wasn't what I was hoping for.

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).