32nd Americas Cup: Virtual Skipper 5 Review (PC)

Life on the open seas does appear to be a bit boring?

Sea sickness tablets at the ready, this is going to get a bit bumpy!
32nd America’s Cup: The Game is the 5th game in the very successful Virtual Skipper 5.

Building on the past, you not only have the previous boats available, you are given the new Class America boats as well. All in all you have over 16 boats to race over 14 real life sea courses. Each boat handles differently and each course is susceptible to differing weather conditions, making for a lot of variation!
There are a multitude of single player campaigns to play, crowned with the 32nd Americas Cup. You also get the chance to take your sailing prowess online and race other gamers across the world. To add to the online fun, you can create custom courses to race through!

Americas Cup looks stunning, with photo realistic environments, highly detailed boats and the best looking sea I have ever seen. The weather effects are great. If it rains you get spots of rain on the camera, a bit like we first saw in Wave Race 64.

The boats all handle the way you would expect, with a multitude of sail configurations to make use of.

There is a very complete tutorial mode, which I suggest you play through, otherwise you stand little chance of getting anywhere! You will be taught how to sail and what the rules are, like 360 degree turns for a foul.

If you have an interest in sailing, then I think you will really love this, so add 2 to the overall score.

Now if that all sounds like a sales pitch, well apologies. You see this is an unusual game. I have never sailed in my life. I really have no great interest in it, so a sailing simulator is never going to rock my world. For me it is a slow and really not that interesting affair. If you don’t understand sailing you will find your self sat at the starting line trying to figure out how to move. Once you get going it is a matter of racing around floating buoys against the other teams. The problem is that it is slow, so never really got my blood pumping.

If you have an interest in sailing, then I think you will really love this, so add 2 to the overall score. It has multiple playing styles, such as arcade or true simulation, so you should find something that will get you going.

3 / 5