3D Driving-School belongs to edutainment software. It combines interactive driving training and excitement of a race. 3D Driving-School provides 21 exercises developing driving skills and reaction on city- and country-roads, and preparing for an examination. We drive across Europe to get ready for such a trip, or just to play and get some pleasure.

The countries to drive through are Belgium, Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Great Britain. As you see, we can try both right- and left-side driving. Do you remember the joke about a European Blond, fascinated by London's sightseeing while going by taxi, and suddenly finding herself sitting at the driver's place, moving on the centre strip and not having a wheel to turn away?

Personally I find trips through Paris, London and Berlin especially interesting, though driving on country-roads surely has its fans too.

Though gripping and entertaining, 3D Driving-School, first of all, helps prepare for a driving test. It supports keyboard, joystick and wheel. The latter is advisable to really turn a game into a simulator. There are 3 levels of proficiency: Rookie, Beginner (learning without mirrors and looking around), and Normal (actually preparing for the examination). You can choose a vehicle among some cars and motor cycles.

The Options section allows to set keys for driving actions, test your joystick or wheel, tune engine and driving noise, as well as the sound of instructions, etc. Instructions are available in English, French and German.

During the first 10 exercises we train basic driving skills in a small town Gobesdorf. And here we can choose traffic rules of different countries France, Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

Each exercise has a topic, i.e. specific skills are trained. For example, turning left on traffic lights, mixed priority rules, driving in the night, etc.

Also, for each exercise, there available two driving modes:

1. driving with an instructor providing advice and pointing mistakes. Here you have to follow your instructor's commands
2. free drive when you are on your own and choose a route yourself

3D Driving-School's graphics and sounds produce an excellent impression. To become fully realistic, the atmosphere of driving lacks just one element – nobody except you violates traffic rules. As for the rest, the necessity to simultaneously keep to traffic rules, watch the speed and deal with oncoming traffic and pedestrians develops reaction, grips attention and arouses interest. Country-side roads are picturesque and not that easy to deal with.

The development section gives an evaluation of your present driving skills. I turned out to be a worse driver here than in reality. At least, I hope so…

Pressing the Diploma button, you get a list of possible faults and the amount of penalty points you managed to get at a certain level. If you have passed all exercises at the "normal" level meaning not more then 60 points in total, you are allowed to take a driving test.

On http://www.3d-fahrschule.de/v2_infos_04.htm I found some route plans. They are motorways, country-roads, plans of the parts of Berlin, Paris, and London where you might want to drive. So, they may turn out to be useful.

The trial version of 3D Driving-School allows 30 launches and has some restrictions. The Help section is also available for registered user only. In general, price-quality correlation and 2-in-1 approach make 3D Driving-School an interesting offer on the shareware market.