If you've always dreamed of being a municipal street sweeper driver but can't pass the drug test, you're in luck. Street Cleaning Simulator (for PC) has, uh, hit the streets. Gamespot reviewers compared the game's level of detail to classics such as Grand Tourismo.
It's a slow moving game in contrast to race simulators, but SCS is guaranteed to provide hours of entertainment for people who have nothing better to do.
SCS is just like real life. You have to apply for the job, then take your sweeper truck out on the streets of the fictitious German town of Sauberhausen (which, in English, means "clean houses"). The software allows players to adjust mirrors, check the truck's gauges, even cause traffic jams by sweeping too slowly. Players are expected to obey traffic rules and drive slowly.
"I feel like this does capture a lot of the essence of street cleaning," said one Gamespot reviewer as he switched off his cleaner's water to go fill up the tank back at the municipal garage. If you run out of water, you can't do wet cleanings, which are often part of your instructions. Run out of gas and you're done, just like in real street cleaning. Amazing.
What's really amazing is that Gamespot's reviewers spend 17 minutes playing and talking about the game in an online video. They appear to be two of the nothing-better-to-do crowd. Aren't there better games to play out there?
On the plus side, this game could foster social change if embraced by the masses. Imagine, a public with a real understanding of what it's like to be a street sweeper, now seen only as the faceless operators of that nebulous whooshing beast that causes people to have to move their cars once or twice per week. It could also be a good training tool for actual street sweeper drivers. Operating a street cleaner improperly can have disastrous consequences.
Photo credit: Gamespot