Flight simulators, war games and racing simulations are the kind of games that let players who wouldn't normally find themselves doing an activity in real-life mastering it virtually. Games are a form of escapism for many people and hardcore simulations have their place in the world of gaming just like shooters, role-playing games and all stops in between. In that context it's easy to see why the third chapter in the Virtual Skipper series, Virtual Skipper 3, is going to appeal to a lot of people that have always wanted to control racing yacht but will never get the chance to do so in real life. If that sounds appealing to you then VS3 is going to be just the ticket to get you out and into the world of yacht racing.

This year's edition is already out in Europe and will soon be making its way to America thanks to Enlight Software. Virtual Skipper 3 offers a series of decent improvements over previous titles like tighter controls, improved boat and water graphics and an easier to handle interface for guiding your boat to victory. Let's get into what VS3 is bringing to the table this time around and what the game is all about..

Virtual Skipper 3 once again lets beginner and expert sail fans alike take to a body of water of their choosing and try their hand at controlling a racing boat. Players who enjoyed Virtual Skipper 2 will feel right at home with this game - it offers many of the same boats and mechanics as its predecessor, with some fine tuning to the overall controls and presentation. Players can try their hand at racing in real world locations like San Francisco, the Isle of Wight, Sydney, Auckland, and La Trinite sur Mer. Both the rules for beginners and experts have been updated in this latest iteration and the game serves up ways to study your races before you begin them (by studying wind and stream patterns) or after you've completed them (via a handy dandy movie-style replay feature). You can choose from a number of different classes to race with, and either battle against AI controlled challengers or against human players online.

Once again you can sail with the racing boats that made Virtual Skipper 2 a success, you have access to more detailed navigation sites, tweaked nautical conditions, improved racing rules, improved boat and crew behavior (tacking, gibing, overturning, etc.), sea physics that do a good job of mimicking the ebb and flow of the open seas, an all new game engine (serving up better models and water physics), weather effects, multiple camera angles, and a whole lot more.

While being an expert sailor, knowing all the terminology and having an intimate knowledge of sailing vessels can't hurt, VS3 is designed to teach both novices and experts alike how to jump in and race with very little mental torment. The single-player portion of the game allows one-to-one races or eight boat races - with the ability to tweak a variety of parameters like wind strength and direction to condition weather and sea conditions. For the beginner the game offers lots of in-game mechanisms for pointing out the important stuff in real-time, as well as a tutorial to get you up to speed on all the important things you'll need to know to win a race.

The game also comes complete with a course editor, allowing players to create sailing venues, choosing the setting, currents, waves, rock formations, obstacles, etc. Finally multiplayer allows players to sail in a variety of online regattas and customized races. The game also serves up improved International Racing Federation rules for the sake of realism.

We should also mention how nicely this game looks. Graphically the game could easily compete with just about any of the first-person action games invading retail in droves these days. Everything in the game seems to be modeled accurately (well keep in mind that my working knowledge of sailboat functionality is pretty weak, so we'll leave a definitive judgment of that to the experts), from the flow of the sails, to boat movement, water, sunlight, sailors, etc. The game looks great no matter how you slice it, but is also functional as a game – something a lot of sims never offer.

Virtual Skipper 3 isn't for everyone just like being a fan of the sport of sailing isn't for everyone. But for those people out there that love sailing but either lack the skills or the cash (or both) to do it in real-life, this game has to be considered the next best thing. If you've ever dreamed of racing in an event like the America's Cup, then this is the game for you. We'll have a full review of the game soon, so be on the look out for that and other features on upcoming Enlight products in the pipeline.