Do You Enjoy Simulators?

[Techno Squidgy]

I've been putting a fair amount of time into War Thunder realistic lately. Once I have the funds I'll be purchasing a HOTAS set up and a track-IR doodad so I can begin my venture into sim battles. Then I guess I'll finally get around to playing IL-2 which I bought in a steam sale oh so long ago. Might even pick up some other flight sims.

I do have a lot of time on the various Ace Combat games, but the arcade flight style has been appealing to me less recently. I still love the games, they were a big part of my life for quite some time, but I don't get quite the same rush out of them that I used to.

 

[lacktheknack]

I tend to like them, actually, warts and all. The more painfully obvious ones lose me pretty fast (like Farming Simulator), but Kerbal Space Program is as addictive as it is educational.

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/orbital_mechanics.png

 

[EyeReaper]

Umm... I like life simulators, Like Princess Maker, Long live the Queen, and Magical Diary. Do those count?

Cuz those are fun. Especially Magical Diary. Would totally recommend to anyone who wants to be a Harry Potter

 

[NuclearKangaroo]

http://store.steampowered.com/app/263280/

Euro Russian Truck Simulator?
The reason my I-16 is stalling again because back then planes didn't use to have fuel injection?
Stuff like that? Realistic simulations of technical stuffs?
Count me in!

Realistic simulations of mundane, no-brainer tasks like using a backback (hello, ARMA!)?
Not so much.

yeah it looks great, i think theres a part in every mans brain that finds huge trucks amazing

i find annoying that the game has been out for days and theres still no reviews for it on metacritic, what are professional reviewers good for then?

oh but when a new call of duty game releases, theres atleast 50 reviews out BEFORE the game launches, all saying pretty much the exact same thing

im starting to get sick of how professional reviewers cant keep up with PC releases at all, they seem to be more worried about being the 1000th site to cover E3 more than anything else, enemy front barely has any reviews as well, and im also worried for xenonauts which releases today, and i really want to try it out, but i dont want to risk my money too much

 

[purf]

http://store.steampowered.com/app/263280/

Euro Russian Truck Simulator?

yeah it looks great, i think theres a part in every mans brain that finds huge trucks amazing

i find annoying that the game has been out for days and theres still no reviews for it on metacritic, what are professional reviewers good for then?

oh but when a new call of duty game releases, theres atleast 50 reviews out BEFORE the game launches, all saying pretty much the exact same thing

im starting to get sick of how professional reviewers cant keep up with PC releases at all, they seem to be more worried about being the 1000th site to cover E3 more than anything else, enemy front barely has any reviews as well, and im also worried for xenonauts which releases today, and i really want to try it out, but i dont want to risk my money too much

Yeah, but while I couldn't agree more, here are two letters: PR. And: $
Oovee is a bunch of guys, EA Games a market-listed corporation.
Anyways, RockPaperShotgun has an alright review.

Spoiler: My impressions

... from one long evening: let's just say that, when my bruised and battered KRAZ finally got back to the garage with literally 10 damage points to spare, after a good exploration trip during which I had three very close calls including the thing being lost forever in the middle of a river... dem feels It is really strangly, highly engaging.
Cons: the camera's an ass & there's way too complicated mouseclicketyclick for straightforward actions. I don't see why using the winch or looking around has to be a mode that you need to switch to and from. Haven't tried any mission, so no clue how that plays out. Frustatingly, at some point, the game started to lose connection to Steam(?), sending me back to the menu and nullifying any process I had made. Hmpf. Having this is important.
Is it worth $25? Dunno. It is interesting fun? Hellyeah.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

And I've been thinking of picking up Kerbal Space Program during the next round of Steam sales.

just a tip, I HIGHLY recommend looking up youtube tutorials/playthroughs after you first get the game, if you've played crusader kings or europa universalis then you'll understand the initial difficulty curve and how the games tutorials aren't as helpful as the ones people have made on youtube. It'll be good to dabble in the game yourself first but once you get some of the terminology and controls down it'll speed up your learning immensely by watching on youtube.

 

[AmberSword]

There is this simulator about being a space janitor out there that really REALLY piqued my interest, in fact I'm only avoiding it because its in early access, if it does go on sale for 1/2 dollars I might pick it up.

 

[Sarah Kerrigan]

I've really only played Surgeon Simulator and Goat simulator, but yeah I found them fun. I found goat simulator more fun when your on a plane ride and not a fan of planes, wanting to take your mind off of it.

 

[optimusjamie]

I've got some enjoyment out of simulators, but only sims that have something else other than the simulation, like building stuff in KSP, or managing a business in Euro Truck Simulator 2.

Captcha: Laugh at me

 

[srm79]

I've been putting a fair amount of time into War Thunder realistic lately. Once I have the funds I'll be purchasing a HOTAS set up and a track-IR doodad so I can begin my venture into sim battles. Then I guess I'll finally get around to playing IL-2 which I bought in a steam sale oh so long ago. Might even pick up some other flight sims.

If you want a more "sim" type experience, skip War Thunder completely and go straight to IL2. War Thunder is a stripped down (mechanics-wise) "lite" version of IL2. You'll need to set up about a hundred different controls to wring the most out of IL2, and I would recommend grabbing the Dark Blue World mod or HSFX mod for it - just for starters! There are hundreds, if not thousands of fan made skin packs, sound packs, missions and campaigns out there for it as well. I'm currently working through a campaign that follows the air wing aboard USS Enterprise through every combat action it took part in, and another that follows JG52 all the way through from the invasion of the USSR to the fall of Berlin. Literally every air battle that ever took place in WWII has been recreated by now, as well as all the fictional or "semi-historical" missions and campaigns. I even wrote one myself a few years back. It's pretty easy to do, so you will never run out of new battles to fight! Western Europe is pretty poorly represented in terms of maps, but between mod packs and the creativeness of the community that's been overcome to a degree. Also, it has almost as many aircraft nowadays as Gran Turismo has cars. If it was even just doodled on the back of a fag packet in WWII, it's made it into the game. Some of the Luftwaffe "secret weapons" are brilliant fun.

As for the OP's question? Yeah, I love them. The more complicated the better. I have sunk hundreds of pounds into 3rd party addons for MS Flight Simulator down the years. Scenery addons, complex aircraft such as the PMDG jets, the Level D 767, the Wilco Airbuses and oodles more. I have a hard drive stuffed full of airport and enroute charts. I have fuel planning programs for many of them, flight planning software, a 3rd party weather engine, a 3rd party ATC program to replace the default pish for when I don't have the time or inclination to fly online and lots of miscellaneous bits and pieces for it.

I also still play Falcon 4.0 - a sim that first appeared in the very late 90's but continues to receive community support today. It's complex enough that the manual runs to something like 700 pages, and it does a pretty spot on job of replicating every aspect of a Block 50/52 F-16C Falcon. There are two dynamic campaigns, one in the Balkans and one in Korea. The Balkans campaign is very air-ground oriented (the USAF had retasked the F16 as mainly a mud mover by the end of the 90's), and the Korean campaign gives you more opportunity to go hunting for MiGs. Expect to die a lot though.

Silent Hunter III with The Grey Wolves mod is still on my system - it's still far and away the most rounded of the series once modded, even if it looks a little long in the tooth now. The accuracy hasn't been topped yet though. For a more modern take on naval warfare, it's worth trying to track down a copy of Sonalysts' Dangerous Waters. Drive a 688i Los Angeles, Seawolf, Russian Akula and Kilo class submarines, or hunt them down with an FFG-53 Oliver Hazard Perry class frigate, a Lockheed P-3 Orion or a Sea Hawk helicopter. It's pretty focused on sensor based warfare, so expect to spend a lot of time staring at waterfall displays, radar screens and tactical displays, and rarely ever actually seeing whatever it is you're shooting at. If it's close enough for a visual, you're probably already dead. It's a very dry and technical game, but challenging and rewarding in equal measures.

The only problem is I hardly ever have time these days to make it worth firing most sims up, because of the massive amount of time a single session can take!

 

[MysticSlayer]

I enjoy Sim City, Roller Coaster Tycoon, Game Dev Tycoon, and similar games. Do those count?

Really, for me, a lot of simulation games are just boring. I tried Flight Simulator but lost interest very quickly. Some shooters that go for a more realistic approach, like ArmA or America's Army, are sort of enjoyable, but I really don't feel like investing the necessary time in order to play them properly, let alone play them well. Overall, though, simulators just bore me unless they are more along the lines of business and/or building simulator, and even then there's quite a bit of crap to sift through just to find the few good games.

 

[Ushiromiya Battler]

The closest I've ever been to playing a simulator game was trying to find out how the heck the submarine in battlefield 1942 worked.

Kerbal looks interesting though.

 

[Zarkov]

Not at all. I've never found a simulator that has kept my interest for any reasonable amount of time, mostly because I don't have any interest in their subjects (such as car or flight sims). I thought I'd enjoy the Arma games a bit, but I didn't and instead found them to be really boring - maybe it's just my lack of patience.

I guess I just play games to 'escape reality' - I know that sounded really cheesy - so I won't bother playing a 'realistic' game unless it's really very mega awesome super fun...which none have been so far.

I'm not sure if this title counts as a true simulation game or not, but I would highly recommend Crusader Kings II. It basically simulates the historical time period of the dark ages. It's hilariously fun, if you can get past all of the menus. You play as a count, duke or king of a dynasty in any part of Europe, or if you have the expansions, the Middle East into India and Asia.

I would describe this game as "really very mega awesome super fun".

 

[Nimcha]

Does the Sims count?

Otherwise I've played Simcity 4 so much in the last year, and there are still mods coming out for that game every day!

 

[Techno Squidgy]

I've been putting a fair amount of time into War Thunder realistic lately. Once I have the funds I'll be purchasing a HOTAS set up and a track-IR doodad so I can begin my venture into sim battles. Then I guess I'll finally get around to playing IL-2 which I bought in a steam sale oh so long ago. Might even pick up some other flight sims.

If you want a more "sim" type experience, skip War Thunder completely and go straight to IL2. War Thunder is a stripped down (mechanics-wise) "lite" version of IL2.

Which is exactly why I've been enjoying it so much. Being able to take a Spitfire and throw it around the sky with little care for stalls and spins in arcade battles makes flying a less edge of your seat experience and more of an "Oh bloody hell that Yak's just blown my wing off again, best respawn and sort that cheeky fucker out"

My first experiences with IL-2 were: Start > Take-Off (sometimes) > climb > climb some more > climb a bit more > spot enemies > turn towards > spin out or proceed > die horrifically as the entire enemy flight dives on me and I either crash/get shot/lose control.

War Thunder has been treating me gently, allowing me to refine my flying, both in terms of smoother control inputs and better manoeuvring in general, while I teach myself more about the various aircraft, tactics, proper lead angles, etc.

If nothing else, War Thunder has greatly improved my defensive manoeuvring capability, which I'm grateful for. Once I feel confident playing War Thunder's Sim Battles I'll go back to IL-2. Ideally I'd like to be at the point where I could control all the systems as a real pilot would, but I currently lack both the set up and the skill to do so.

Also, do you have any opinion on X-Plane? I hear bits and pieces about it, but I've never tried it.

 

[srm79]

Snippity-snip

I hear you - IL2 can be very unforgiving. To be fair, many of the additional controls that need setting up aren't essential to get up and running - many of them apply only to multi engined, multi crew aircraft (mainly bombers). The only "essential" ones I can think of are the wing fold, tail hook and manual landing gear hand-crank controls, and that's only if you want to fly off carriers.

I'll give you another freebie too - when you start playing IL2, spend time in a Spitfire to begin with. You can even use one in some of the default Russian campaigns because we sold Stalin a load of them. It has no real vices (just remember not to push the nose down too hard on earlier marks - the carburettors don't like negative-G) but more importantly it duplicates one of the lesser known features of the Spit. As you slow towards stall speed, the unique characteristics of the elliptical wing shape cause the airflow to make a sound I can only best describe as like peas on a drum. Learn to recognise how the handling changes as that sound comes in and transfer that knowledge to other types gradually. Granted, some aircraft are way easier to stall than others (German fighters in particular, and some late-war American types don't like being reefed into hard, tight turns) and take the time to learn which aircraft are angle fighters (ie manouverable and agile) and which are energy fighters (hit and run, also known as "boom and zoom").

Something War Thunder is weak on is handling, letting you throw anything around as hard as you like. It also has a pretty simple percentage based damage system, whereas IL2 doesn't. A single hit in the wrong place will end your day in IL2, and conversely (especially in the early war years when rifle-calibre MG's were the most common armament) you can empty everything you have into an enemy with no effect other than to add some ventilation, if you don't hit something vital.

I think there is still a reasonably active online community over on the Hyperlobby as well, and there were always a few old timers around willing to help nuggets to learn the game. Oh, and don't foreget to patch it up - visit mission4today for all the official and community patches. (Note to mods: M4T is a non-commercial community site, but feel free to edit if I've broken a rule here!)

My friend has X-plane, and the differences between it and MSFS are that X-Plane looks better out of the box, does the physics and flight dynamics a bit better, whereas MSFS is streets ahead on the procedural stuff (ie IFR and big jets) and has 100 times more third party support. X-plane has the potential to be the better sim, but with the lack of support and the relatively small user base, I would always advise anyone serious about their simming to go down the MS route with their wallet at the ready to load up on payware. I have no idea how much I've thrown as FS down the years, but my setup is barely recognisable as the same product it was on the day I first installed it.

 

[SteveTR]

Sometimes I like to just sit down and play Euro Truck Simulator 2 for a couple hours. It might seem dull to some, but for me, even the idea alone is kinda charming. I'm not a trucker or anything, but I kinda like the idea of riding around Europe and delivering goods. It's pretty relaxing, but you can't exactly doze off, or you'll crash your truck. I like that about the game, there's a sense of tension. Plus, the game was made by a bunch of Czechs, and I'm Czech. You American folks might be interested in 18 Wheels of Steel, a game series by the same guys. It's essentially the same as ETS, except it takes place in the US. Euro Truck Simulator is in fact a spiritual successor of sorts to that series.

I've tried to get into the more complex simulators like ARMA, or IL-2 Sturmovik, but those games aren't exactly easy to get into. I'm not much of a tactician and I don't like having to remember 100,000 keystrokes just to take off. Besides, I'm not that into military stuff, even though I come from a military family. Also, I really dislike IL-2's tutorials.

I've also tried to get into the really specific simulators. You know, Tractor Simulator, Demolition Simulator, Woodcutter Simulator, that kinda stuff. Those are usually fun for a couple minutes and then they get old. However, I do find the idea of doing something I'm never going to do in my life interesting. That sense of novelty is often what makes me try such games out, but they do get old.

To wrap it up, I do enjoy simulators, although only a select few.

But Germans LOVE their simulators, I guess. Nowhere have I seen aisles full of simulators but in Germany.

 

[Shamanic Rhythm]

I really enjoy Urban Design simulators, so Sim City 4, Cities in Motion, Cities XL (which is sadly too demanding for my laptop), Tropico all keep me entertained.

I'm less of a fan of the driving/flight simulators, although Yahtzee's video of Euro Truck Simulator made it look more fun than I'd probably find it. What I really wish is that developers would be more imaginative with the range of simulators they design. I'd love to see more Architecture/Interior Design simulators or Trading simulators. Or something that comes close to what Sim Earth originally tried to do (although imagine the trolling that game would attract from Creationists).