I am very late to this party but I finally bought the game and the Missing Link DLC during the Steam holiday sale and while I've only played about 3 hours so far, I absolutely love it.

I will say though that probably the biggest unrealistic aspect about the game is the fact that it portrays Detroit in 2027 (only 15 years away) as being some major hub for biomedical technology and research. Uh....I don't think so. Also, flying cars in 15 years? Another far fetched prediction.

What is it about Detroit that media set in the future loves? RoboCop was also set in Detroit, remember?

California would be my first choice for representing high-tech future environments, as it is arguably the most high-tech part of the USA even today, what with the computer, electronics, robotics labs, etc.

Yeah it's a great game. Need to get back to playing it so I can do the add-on.

My favorite title of 2011. Bought the add-on, the book and the soundtrack.

Well if you consider that the taylor aerocar was built and licensed for both road and air back all the way samewhere near 1949, it makes you wonder what went wrong.

Look at the advancements in aeronautics since then, and we SHOULD be in flying cars. Unfortunately we have stringent road laws and stingent air laws requiring loads of exams and hours practice. And that unfortunately is the killer, as not many people have the money to do both.

Maybe thats a good thing ?

It is an absolutely great thing considering that in the US there are roughly about 40,000-50,000 traffic related fatalities per year. I'd hate to see what that statistic would be like if air cars were mainstream. The only way I see that concept working is if these air cars were like automated trams which travelled via pre-determined paths and made only pre-determined stops. Either that or make the requirements for using an air car so high that only a smaller percentage of people can do it.

Engineering could do some form of flying car very quickly. However, as James May also found out, the main problem is bureaucracy and law. One would need multiple licenses, and the legal framework for flying and driving things isn't well understood yet. You can engineer your way out of the aeronautic side, but you can't lawyer your way out of the legal side.

Just getting an air car approved past Homeland Security would take herculean efforts.

I'm picturing the "Don't Let Friends Fly Drunk" PSAs of the future.

I think it's plausible. Bio is one of the infrastructures they're 're-tooling' to now that auto is going the way of the dodo there.