The idea of an unrealistic simulator is nothing new. Many players still fondly remember gems of the genre like Hard Drivin' and Stuns, which allowed us to perform incredible maneuvers on impossible tracks. However, what we have here today is simpler than that: it's Driving Simulator, a car simulator on Google Maps that basically lets you drive across the entire world, ignoring geographical boundaries, local features, and everything else.
Do you remember SimCity 4? Yes, I mean the last "potable" SimCity that Maxis made. The Rush Hour expansion included the possibility of controlling different vehicles within each city, an interesting addition but inevitably repetitive. Many of its missions featured absurd objectives, forcing the player to do things like driving through an entire forest in a limousine.
Honestly, I can't know if programmer Katsuomi Kobayashi was inspired by Rush Hour to create his Driving Simulator, but it undoubtedly points in the same direction. The big difference is that driving doesn't take place in a game, but through Google Maps. That's right, Driving Simulator is a "simulator" of cars on Google Maps, which without a second thought ignores all physical and geographical limits.
Drive a virtual car on Google Maps with Driving Simulator
The cursor arrows control the vehicle, which can be a car or a bus. The Tilt Up and Tilt Down commands change the map's angle, North Up places north at the top, and Head Up activates a kind of Eagle Eye. If you want to drive in a special region, you can take advantage of the list of available presets, or do a custom search. Want to run in circles around the Sphinx? Not even "Fast and Furious" dared that much. (?)
In short, if you have a few minutes to burn and don't take it too seriously, click the link below to access Driving Simulator. Now, I imagine someone could create a more elaborate simulator in the future. After all, some things started as a joke on Google Maps, and became an absolute success...
Official site: Click here
