Tower! Simulator 3

**EDITED FOR POST "VOICES" UPDATE** Thought I'd structure this better after the most recent major update. Disclaimer: I like this series, I used to play T!3D Pro all the time years ago. It definitely had past issues, some fixed, some stayed the same unfortunately. I'd love to recommend it as well, and probably would if it were priced better. But alas, here we are. Big issue 1: Pricing The base game itself is way too much, however I do know the team is small. I don't know what financial situation they are in, it isn't my business either, but it should not be this price. (I will be using CAD because I am Canadian) The base game is ~$70 plus taxes, and real airlines (which are pretty much necessary) will run you the game price, making the whole experience ~$140 before taxes. Save your money please. DLC airports as well. I know they add "free airports" and think it makes a difference, it does not. Without sales most of them are close to $30. The worst part is most of them are partner airports, and there's quite honestly little to no quality control. Unfinished scenery, lazy texturing, each one has issues that probably wont be fixed because they don't have to. Shameful. The developers will never admit pricing is an issue. They claim time and time again that nobody has issues with it. Some extremely biased lenses they're looking through with those claims, almost laughably bad. Big Issue 2: The actual game The game itself is playable, I would hope. You can get enjoyment for sure. I've gotten enthralled before for a few hours and only got up because I had to use the bathroom, so it's fun. However, the game has issues still that have persisted through the time since release. Little bugs here and there, stuff that should honestly have been fixed but still aren't. I'd like to talk about the settings as well. They're VERY limited, expecially graphically (will get to later.) There's honestly little positive about specifically the game besides it can be fun. But everything else is mid to bad. Frustrating. Graphically the game is meh. For the price I would expect much better. Nobody needs MSFS quality but the performance to visuals ratio is horrid. I'm sure you can see my specs, they look good. But would you expect my system would only run this (pre Voices update) at little better than 70 fps consistently. Look at the screenshots and videos, how is optimization this bad? Big Issue 3: Post Voices update Voices were improved, some bugs were fixed. Yay. But for every bug fixed, 2 more sprouted up. Lot's of the commands have ceased to work, especially in multiplayer. But that's the least of my concerns, as now the game is hardly playable. My framerate has dropped from all already impressively bad 75 fps to below 30. This will probably make me put away the game for good unfortunately. Please just optimize the game already. I would expect there was testing of course but clearly not enough. Steam has a built in beta tester feature, if you care so much about the community as you claim to, it should be utilised. Listen to your players and stop shrugging them off. Using this feature would definitely improve the quality of updates, I've seen it with other games. Positive: The Discord community specifically is acually pretty okay. How its run is another story but I think you can see it for yourself. The community creates a lot of valuable tools to improve the playability. As well as free airports and more. If you own the game or do buy it, check some of these addons out. Conclusion: I mean like 90% of this is explained in other reviews but I don't think any of it will actually be taken to heart, but if I can't make them change the game, I can prevent you from emptying your wallet on this. Please save your money. We desperately need competition in the ground ATC game genre. Thanks for reading.

I love this game. It's just as the title says, an airport tower simulator that has a great concept, fidelity to realism, and incredible gameplay loop. Here are the things the game does well: [list] [*]This game makes you feel like an airport controller. When playing by yourself, you control ground and tower, so at busy airports, you feel like an absolute boss when you've got your flow down and guide giant planes around without incident. [*]Unlike other reviewers, I don't feel like I'm fighting the voice recognition system. Once I learned the commands and their quirks (like using "on" instead of "upon", or "pushback approved" instead of "push and start approved"), the voice recognition picked up 9 out of every 10 commands I gave. The game forces you to speak fast to get everyone moving safely, and I have no issues with it picking up my instructions. There may be one to two instances where it messes up, but by and large it's seamless. With the exceptions noted below.[/list] Here are some things I think need improvement: [list] [*]The commands can feel clunky to say because the wording is so specific and sometimes unnatural sounding compared to what I typically hear in real world ATC or VATSIM. For example, to tell landing aircraft to exit either left or right, I want to say, "[callsign] exit [right/left] when able." Instead I have to say "[callsign] take next available exit on [right/left]." Another example is giving take off clearance and handoff instructions together. Thankfully there is a command that allows you to do both, but it feels very unnatural and rigid. I want to say, "[callsign] cleared for take off on runway #. [i]Upon reaching # feet[/i], contact departure." Instead I have to say, "[callsign] cleared for take off runway #. [i]On reaching altitude #[/i], contact departure". These aren't game breaking, just a little difficult to get used to, and I understand it's hard to capture every variation of one command. And the developer has definitely tried to capture variations of multiple commands. [*]Career mode does a good job of easing you in to the chaos the game eventually becomes, but I think the points needed to move up levels should be scaled up way higher; and points from quick play should not go towards career mode. This is just a personal preference, but it's way too easy to unlock higher difficulty career missions. There's little sense of accomplishment in earning enough points to unlock the next harder tier. [*]The graphics aren't anything to write home about, but I honestly don't spend much time looking out of the tower as I'm paying attention to the radars. You don't need the beefiest computer to play, though I do think there could probably be some optimization in places, e.g. free cam and follow plane cam do drop frames on my 5070ti when snapping to view. [*]There is no good native functionality to customize traffic density. You have to go get third-party add-ons that lets you customize traffic schedules and volume. Sure, there's a slider for "traffic density," but without add-ons, and without digging into the game files to find the arrival and departure schedules, you have no way of knowing how busy the airport is going to be. You may pick 50% traffic density at peak rush hour wanting something chill, but unbeknownst to you, that's still busier than 100% traffic density two hours later. Improving the native tool to specifically choose the number of departures and arrivals would be nice. [/list] Despite those, the game is still fun... however, I can't recommend the game in the current state. Here are my reasons that I can't and won't play the game until these issues are resolved: [list] [*]The price. Oh my... I paid full $60 for a buggy game that looks okay. Never mind the base game, if you want real world airlines and callsigns, you have to pay another $45 for that add-on. Oh, do you want to play at a specific airport not in the base game? That's another $20, $25, or even a whopping $30 dollars depending on the airport. Or you could a bundle of 12 of the most popular airports at 60% off each airport...for $106. How generous... I understand that developers have to find a way to monetize their games after the initial price to stay in business these days, but come on. This feels insulting. There's got to be a better way to fund the developer without paying insane DLC prices. I don't have any ideas, but that's not my job. I haven't paid for any add-on nor will I until the gamer is respected with a better business model. [*]The bugs suck. The first ~2 to ~5 hours, there were some annoying voice recognition issues. The system felt like it wasn't understanding me, but after learning it and working with it, it got much better. There are still instances where I have to repeat myself. The worst case is using the "hold short of taxiway or runway" command. It often thinks "hold short" is "H H (or taxiway hotel hotel)." This command being misunderstood is incredibly frustrating because it's often accompanied with very long, complex taxi instructions, and having to repeat it once or twice breaks immersion and ruins your gameplay and ability to manage effectively. [*]Some commands just don't work. I have never gotten the "follow company" command to work. They don't follow company traffic, and they get stuck even after I try giving them new taxi instructions. [*]After hour ~19, a new bug appeared. Planes would be holding short of a runway and when asked to line up and wait, or given takeoff clearance, they would repeatedly ask for permission to cross the runway they were holding short of and never move. In some cases, there's not even a taxiway on the other side to cross to. You have to just delete the plane to solve the issue, which of course deleting planes is a penalty. This is so incredibly frustrating that I'm not playing the game again until these bugs are fixed and the game is polished. [*]The last kick in the nuts is bug reporting. Tower! Similator 3, like most other games, has an in game bug reporting feature. Well, not quite. When you try to report a bug, you fill out all the requested information, but at that point, it tells you you have to go into the game's folders, find a zip file that contains your bug report, and then go to their website to actually submit it. The last thing I want to do is do extra work to report a problem when I'm already frustrated with a bug. I'm not sure why this can't be all done within the game automatically.[/list] I love this game and want to support the developers because they have a potentially stellar product here. Again, I can live with some of the clunky commands, or the mediocre graphics, but I can't stand to play a game that does not work as intended with planes stuck and confused on the ground, and commands that are acknowledged but broken. Until the pricing model is fixed, the bugs are fixed, and the game is fleshed out a little more, I cannot recommend the game. It does scratch that itch, so if you're dying to play it, buy it while it's on sale, but expect both a fun time and an even more frustrating experience. I hope to change this review to a positive one in the future.

**Title: Terrible voice recognition ruins the entire game** Tower Simulator 3 sounded like a game I would really enjoy, but the voice recognition is so bad that it completely ruins the experience. A game like this depends on commands being understood clearly and consistently, and this one fails at that basic job. I spent more time fighting with the voice system than actually playing the game. Commands that should be simple either do not register, get misunderstood, or require repeating over and over. That turns what should be a fun air traffic control simulator into frustration. For a simulator built around speaking commands, the voice recognition should be one of the strongest parts of the game. Instead, it feels broken and unreliable. Because of that, I honestly feel like Tower Simulator 3 is a waste of both time and money. I cannot recommend this game unless the voice recognition is seriously improved.

I have bought this game in the Steam Summer Sale for half off, which came to 25 euros. Like many of the reviews posted before me, I feel like this should be the base price for this game. The AI is fine, but the listening part is terrible. If you have the fake names, make sure the system can listen to these names. I have come into really bad situations because they didn't listen. This is basically the base functionality for this game, and it doesn't work properly. The extra DLCs are incredibly expensive as well. For what is basically just AI map plotting.

ya know for me its a mix review i cant recommend but i also could they need a better ai listening something kinda like BATC uses in this you have to use perfect phraseology and if your even slightly off it doesn't work the absolute worst part about this game is everything is locked behind a paywall want IRL carriers yea you can go into the files and do it that way if not 45 more dollars for that each airport is 15+ thank god i got this game on discount or i would have say its the biggest waste of money on a game I've ever spent with the massive pay wall i would expect this game to be significantly better than it is $60 for this game is not worth it at all only buy if its on sale

It's good and enjoyable but very buggy. You can spend a really long time building a career only to have an aircraft freeze so it won't line and up wait or take off and then you go from zero errors to unplayable in a moment.

The new AI Voice recognizer is soooo good. If you search one thing AI made better, there is your answer. I can finally say stuff, that never worked with the old recognizer.

You need the patience to get the mic working just right, then the patience to learn the tempo of the game and speaking. Once you get that all sorted, and learn 80% of the commands, the game comes into it's own. Depending on the airport or how busy you make the airport it can be played as something really challenging or slow enough to be a spectator and watch the planes come and go. There are a lot of DLCs but there are also a lot of free community airports as well which can be found on discord. Very good community and plenty of people to help with any questions you have. Again though, you really need to sort out your mic and then find your tempo for the commands and then the game really comes alive. Be patient with it!

I found female voice as ATC seems not recognized well any ways to make it better ?

Bought the game expecting an air traffic control. What I got was: - Air traffic control - Workload management training - Situational awareness training - A lesson in how quickly tunnel vision develops - A surprisingly effective way to observe my own decision-making under pressure the game is far from perfect: Speech recognition can be frustrating and occasionally seems determined to have a conversation with a tractor instead of the controller. There are bugs and some odd aircraft behaviours. The DLC pricing is difficult to justify at full price. However, after 30 hours I keep coming back. The airports feel genuinely different. The game rewards good workflow and punishes overload, which makes eveery session feel like a challenge rather than a routine. If you are looking for a casual and easy airport game, this may not be for you. If you enjoy aviation, ATC, complex systems, optimisation, and discovering exaclty when your brain starts saying "I'll do this later", Tower! Simulator 3 is surprisingly engaging. Highly recommended!