Simulation games are a subgenre of video games that focus on recreating real-life scenarios. These games allow you to place yourself in different positions and carry out tasks like: controlling a jet plane and shooting down enemy jets; killing zombies as a SWAT team member; or stoically surviving hunger, thirst, and cold nights out in the wild as a castaway.
Simulation games offer gamers a glimpse into life experiences that they might not get to experience in real life.
Like all types of games, more and more simulation games have been launched on the market each year. Computer gamers, game console owners and smartphone users have turned to simulation games in great numbers. Simulation game is a sub-genre of multiple genres that fuses game play, artificial intelligence and rules-based strategy in a challenging interactive environment.
This genre comes with the game play lifelike and replicating the real life at a high level of details.
The most common themes are business, economics, and healthcare, but many other fields are also used. The levels of interactivity in simulation games varies from just tracking the changes over time in the simulated environment and observing the effects, via reacting to events as they occur by clicking buttons to fully interactive realtime simulations requiring active control over the game character.
Most Simulation games can be challenging and stressful, despite taking place in a virtual space. For example, let’s take Europa Universalis III, the acclaimed historical strategy game where all you do is build an empire through the act of conquest and trade. Now, if you actually feel stresed from these activities (or even from writing this intro), don’t worry! Wouldn’t it be great to relax by playing some of the best simulation games for Mac?
1 Besiege
Besiege is a game about engineering medieval siege weapons, and I think of it as a metaphor for the creative process. With that, you grab your virtual hammer and set about erecting your ridiculous death contraption, fuelled by the thrill of early creation.
You’ll hammer out the frame, align the wheels, affix the steering block, and prepare to line up your cannons. This is it, your masterwork. History will remember you for this.
You control a variety of medieval siege engines with the goal of destroying walls and other structures. Each level has its own unique charm, and the visuals range from cute to downright funny.
The concept is simple, yet deceptively complex. You place building blocks on a physics-based construction site with the goal of providing a “path” to your war machine, while adjusting the trajectory and velocity of your weapon to meet pre-determined objectives.
There are no pick-ups or resources, just the tools at your disposal (plus weight and length restrictions on your creation), and an array of building materials that can be organised in any fashion you wish.
Besiege isn’t going to set the world on fire. Whereas Minecraft has a huge potential for creating things out of nothing at all, Besiege is about destruction. The fact it allows you to use physics to do this makes it unique, but it’s still a game which revels in destruction. That may or not appeal to you, I’m not sure. The good news is that while the core gameplay loop is simple, there’s a large amount of content lying off the beaten track and it’s easy to see how this could have legs.
Besiege’s greatest achievement is its wonderfully imaginative system, which takes the almost universally familiar parts of medieval siege devices and repurposes them for a wide array of creative solutions.
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The game also encourages experimentation by rewarding failed attempts: it doesn’t matter how badly you fail at building a catapult, just that you attempt to do so. Besiege is a great example of how satisfying violence can be in the right hands, and evidence that physics toys can provide more than just simple entertainment.
In the end, there’s something slightly cynical about Besiege. The game doesn’t really care about you, only your ability to destroy things.
That may turn away players who are hoping for a narrative, but it does let the game concentrate on creating better and more interesting ways for you to blow things up. If you’re looking for a less explosive alternative to Rocket League or similar games, Besiege might be for you.
Initial release date: 28 January 2015 Developer: Spiderling Studios Mode: Multiplayer video game (PC) Engine: Unity Publisher: Spiderling Studios Platforms: Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S, macOS, Microsoft Windows, Linux, Macintosh operating systems Genres: Puzzle Video Game, Simulation Video Game, Indie game, Action game, Strategy Video Game, Simulation
2. Euro Truck Simulator 2
Step forward then Euro Truck Simulator 2, a game that places you at the helm of any one of a choice of beautifully realised 18-wheel European leviathans. You are the driver, you are the master of your destiny, and you can make Bratislava before lunch if you really have to.
There’s nothing quite like the crunch of stiff suspension as a new DLC pack rolls onto my hard drive. They never quite manage to sound identical, though – I imagine this is because other developers have far more people on their payroll. SCS has only been able to afford a skeleton staff of 16, but from that modest workforce has sprung one of the best vehicle sims ever made.
There’s so much to do in Euro Truck Simulator 2. It’s a game that offers up its pleasures in a very laid-back manner, but it would be wrong to imply it suffers as a result. Instead, there’s something refreshingly organic about the way you shape an increasingly prosperous career as an international trucker and the routes you’ll follow to get there.
In fact, once you’ve sampled the tiny taster offered by the generously proportioned demo – and applied a few decals to sweeten the deal – I’d recommend going for broke with the full purchase.
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Euro Truck Simulator 2 is the result of a close collaboration between a passionate and experienced development team and devoted fans. It offers players the choice between a challenging, near photo-realistic simulation, and more casual modes that let you relax and just drive. The game features German and English voiceovers, official license from Scania – one of the leading brands in European truck manufacturing – dozens of different truck models to choose from, highly varied road network with numerous heliports, ferry ports, airfields etc.
While SCS have clearly poured a lot of effort into tweaking and twerking the driving model, there’s an even more impressive suite of options available to drivers who want to spend cash.
You can deck out your wheels with spoilers, LED lights, blast shields and paint – or you can splash out on engine enhancements and floors to increase your maximum speed. It’s tempting to imagine what Euro Truck Simulator 2 might have been if the majority of energy expended on the peripheral business elements had been applied to making its on-road experience more convincing.
But then we wouldn’t have a game focused entirely on the ins and outs of hauling ass across Europe, complete with relevant legal paperwork. It’s this fusion of arcade and simulation that makes ETS2 such a compelling proposition whether you’re ferrying anything from refrigerators to rocks in Poland or petrochemicals in Poland.
At some point between your first delivery and the last this will happen; you’ll suddenly realise that for at least an hour of your life you’ve been enjoying truckin’.
Initial release date: 19 October 2012 Developer: SCS Software Series: Truck Simulator Publisher: SCS Software Designer: SCS Software Modes: Single-player video game, Multiplayer video game Platforms: Microsoft Windows, Linux, Macintosh operating systems
3. Factorio
Factorio is by far one of the most brilliant, yet deceptively simple game. You play as a character who needs to reach an objective in a factory full of machines that produce a resource — those resources then can be used to produce other resources, make machines, or upgrade your facilities. The game could be called Factorio: the race for production. Although it is simple in concept, Factorio is incredibly complex and difficult to master. It has been constantly updated since its original release in 2016, and will surely continue to be updated for years to come.
It’s a production chains game where you manage industries, build conveyors, construct logistic systems and automate everything to create the most productive factory you can. Now if that kind of system design appeals to you – and for some reason there are people who find it the least bit interesting; we call them “weirdos” but they still exist – then Factorio will brighten and enrich your life, and prove that somewhere out there in this dull, drab and bleak pit of nothingness our species is capable of producing some artistic beauty.
There’s not much to say about Factorio that hasn’t already been said by someone else, so I’ll keep it short and sweet. Factorio is a simulation game about production chains, resource gathering and production, but with an emphasis on the management of human resources. You must design, build and manage factories for processing various raw materials.
These factories produce resources like coal, iron and copper which are used to produce better tools and machinery that in turn help you mine for rarer resources such as aluminium, oil, uranium and diamonds. Factorio does not make crafting these items easy; in fact the entire part of the process is fraught with danger because everything is set against your advancement in some way or another. It’s up to you to decide if you bargain with enemies or destroy them outright.
Factorio achieves painstaking realism through bits and pieces. The most broken, abused, and out of place machine doesn’t have to be explained or justified because every other machine it touches is designed in the same way.
Every single technical element has its roots in a real-world counterpart: the circuit board is an abstraction for the motherboard; each slot on that board represents a single IC, VLIW instruction type, or module; the ICs themselves have pins on them to simulate capacitance effects; the wires have resistances which mean they can heat up, glow, and melt your other wires if not properly insulated.
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Factorio’s reality is based on layer after layer of detail piling up until you see hundreds of little moving parts animating autonomously across the screen.
Factorio is something you have to experience for yourself, but the best way to do this is to buy a copy for yourself and play it. We’ve provided a fairly thorough look at the gameplay and ideas on this page, so if you’re still interested then try it out yourself—you won’t be disappointed. Factorio will take you to places far outside your comfort zone, but this is why you’ll love it. If you’re looking for an entirely new world of challenges, wrapped up in a simple yet engaging package, then Factorio is the game for you.
Initial release date: 21 February 2016 Developer: Wube Software Publisher: Wube Software Engine: Proprietary Engine Genres: Action game, Indie game, Real-time strategy, MORE Nominations: Křišťálová Lupa Award – Global Projects of Czech Creators, BAFTA Games Award for Debut Game Platforms: macOS, Linux, Microsoft Windows, Macintosh operating systems
4. Prison Architect
Prison Architect is an amazing simulation game. You get to build and manage a prison. Your main concern is keeping the inmates within secure boundaries while providing as many goods as you can. You’ll have to consider how to spend your money on buying goods, hiring staff and building extra facilities like workshops and classrooms.
Prison Architect is a game all about details. It’s not trying to recreate anything specific, but instead wants to bring the experience of managing a prison home. What does that mean for you? That it isn’t a game that shoots for absolute realism by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s one of the most detailed small-scale simulators that you’re ever likely to play. A prison is after all essentially a self-reliant city – a contained ecosystem where the wheels have to keep turning, zoomed in to the point that every citizen, every water pipe, matters.
Plan the building’s layout, zone cells, and kit them out with what they need. Everything in one big building? Lots of small buildings around a yard? The system allows both, as well as drawing a line between essentials for each room, such as a toilet, and whatever generous extras you feel like providing, such as windows in basic cells or beds in solitary confinement.
One of the most fascinating things about Prison Architect is the sheer level of detail that’s on display. You’re not just designing a series of buildings, but planning a self-contained ecosystem that needs to turn over regularly enough to maintain itself.
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There’s no doubt that when it comes to simulation games and architectural planning, Prison Architect isn’t the first name that springs to mind. There’s no Sim City, no Civilisation or Anno or Transport Tycoon. There is, however, Theme Hospital and Dungeon Keeper: two titles from a now sadly bygone era of gaming. Given the choice between managing a population of sickly patients and delving into the darkness of medieval fantasy, I know which I’d pick every time.
Prison Architect is a game that tests your understanding of human anatomy, of building design, inmates’ behaviours and the pattern of a prison’s development over time. Everything in it feels deliberate, and that it was included because it could enrich the experience, not because it was broken out of a checklist. Its rules are easy to learn but as comprehensive as they need to be. If you’re an inmate, even a little trouble can mean more than just extra work for you: death from lack of food or water, violence from other inmates or staff, disease and malnutrition result in varying degrees of agonising death too. Any attempt to cheat the system inevitably leads to disaster.
If you’re looking for a game that will let you build your own prisons, Prison Architect is well worth the money. There are a couple of minor issues here and there, but there’s enough resource and customization to make it incredibly addictive. Prison architects know how to architect, for sure.
Initial release date: 6 October 2015 Designer: Chris Delay Mode: Multiplayer video game Platforms: Android, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, MORE Developers: Introversion Software, Double Eleven, Tag Games Publishers: Paradox Interactive, Introversion Software, Double Eleven Awards: BAFTA Games Award for Persistent Game
5. Planet Coaster
Planet Coaster is a beautiful, fun ride through the history of theme parks, with a lot of tongue-in-cheek humor thrown in. It’s got it all: deep management sim gameplay, great graphics and animations, plenty of unlockables and secrets to find, killer music, and more. Going a step beyond the standard rollercoaster sims we’ve seen in the past, Planet Coaster offers nearly endless possibilities for creation. And what you build is useless without an equally potent park management game as well.
Planet Coaster is alive, and living in its own world. One of the game’s strengths is how well it transports you from reality to a fantasy world. Your duty as a professional amusement park designer is to bring this new world to life. This job has its pleasant moments, but also its challenging ones. If you’re the type of person who loves the built environment, chances are Planet Coaster will be something you’ll enjoy for quite some time.
The graphics are fantastic, the mechanics are intuitive and easy to get started with, and the campaign provides you with everything you need to know to make your dream park a reality. It’s one of those games that can be played again and again as your skills improve over time. For any fan of creative and fun gaming, Planet Coaster will deliver days worth of enjoyment.
Ultimately, Planet Coaster is just a really fun game. It’s got a great sense of humor and some tongue-in-cheek visuals to match, and it has the potential to be something that everyone in your family can enjoy. While it may not have the depth or longevity of its predecessor, it’s a fun ride while it lasts, and the building possibilities are endless. I’d definitely recommend it as a way to spend some time tinkering on your PC, no matter what your age.
Initial release date: 17 November 2016 Designer: Andrew Fletcher Mode: Single-player video game Composer: Jim Guthrie Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X and Series S, Xbox One, MORE Developers: Frontier Developments plc, Aspyr Publishers: Frontier Developments plc, Aspyr, Sold-Out Software
6. Rim World
Rim World is a sci-fi settlement construction and management sim driven by an intelligent AI storyteller. Inspired by Dwarf Fortress, Firefly, and Dune.
One of the best aspects of video game is that we can kick back and relax. There are so many wonderful games to choose from and I could go on for days about them. But there really is nothing like diving into a well developed role playing game. I’ve played countless hours across so many different games and have always found each one entertaining. Rim World is one of the newer games in my collection that I’ve been playing lately.
The game tasks you with colonizing “RimWorld”, a remote planet beset with danger and full of opportunity. You’ll begin by (randomly) selecting the three survivors that will make up your four-person starting posse. These are your colonists: their skills, stats and relationships with one another will make or break the colony.
The crew of survivors comes from an array of backgrounds: there’s the colonial governor, a medic, an engineer and a few other professions like hunter, cook and trader. Each character has different preferences (like preferring to sleep in a bed over a sleeping bag) that can influence how content they are in their living environment. There’s more than just picking out flooring and making the interior pretty: you’ll need to balance needs like having enough beds for your people versus having spacious living quarters to comfortably move around in.
Despite its cartoonish art and sci-fi setting, survival mode in RimWorld is a surprisingly hard game with complex systems you have to learn to thrive. The very first decision you make in the game is vital: where will your colonists live? If you choose an unhealthful environment, everyone will catch a cold before you can even start building or researching.
In terms of a teaching tool, there’s a lot to interact with here. The baseline of understanding you need to get going, the simulation rules and ideas behind them, the game design decisions around the flow of play, and then everything else that your colonists can do to express their AI. RimWorld is a highly complex game that demands careful study by its players, but it also rewards exploration and experimentation.
There’s no single correct way to play the game, or even a best way—it’s all about tailoring your approach to fit your style and the experience you want from the game. The nuanced approaches that emerge from months of play are encouraged by RimWorld’s open design.
Ultimately, RimWorld succeeds in its goals. It’s a game that admirably attempts to simulate an entire ecosystem and create a workable game around it. Though it doesn’t always achieve this, there are enough engaging and compelling moments in RimWorld that make failure seem almost tolerable (except when it doesn’t let you save).
Even if the game isn’t totally successful at what it’s trying to do, its mechanics and systems tie together in ways that make it well worth experiencing. But if you’re looking for stories with happy endings, or any kind of narrative feedback, you may be better off playing one of the medium’s other offerings.
Initial release date: 4 November 2013 Engine: Unity Mode: Single-player video game Composer: Alistair Lindsay Developers: Ludeon Studios, Tynan Sylvester Genres: Indie game, Construction and management simulation, Simulation Game, Simulation, Strategy Platforms: macOS, Linux, Microsoft Windows, Macintosh operating systems
7. Civilization: Beyond Earth
Civilization: Beyond Earth is a simulation strategy game developed by Firaxis Games. It’s the latest installment in the Civilization franchise and it’s set in a science fiction setting. It takes place on an alien planet that’s been terraformed for colonization by humans. The player is put in charge of one of these fledgling colonies with the ultimate goal of achieving one of several victory conditions.
The gameplay itself is considered to be similar to its predecessor, Civilization V, but with some notable changes like the new affinities system which influences the kind of playstyle one has. The game contains six different factions or races, of which you get to choose one at the start. Each race has its own unique traits, advantages and disadvantages compared to other civilizations in the game. Gameplay consists largely of building a colony with different buildings that give benefits to your people, army or economy and make them grow more powerful over time.
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Despite being a ‘brand-new’ game, Firaxis have drawn on elements of their critically acclaimed Civilization V to create Beyond Earth. Since each new civ operates in the same turn-based manner as Civ 5 and its expansions it is easy to pick up and play. The visual style of Beyond Earth is also masterfully similar to a Civ game, making it easy to feel right at home.
Unfortunately, the affinity system feels a bit forced and I never really got into researching and selecting multiple affinities. A unique aspect of the different affinities is that they also open new city locations around your colony, which can grant bonuses. Another interesting feature of Beyond Earth is the way you deal with other colony’s nearby. You actually have no idea how close or far away any other colonies are, so you just have to fly across space and hope for the best (though you do get some bonuses depending on how many colonies you’ve already landed nearby).
Overall, Beyond Earth is good. It’s a solid Civ game and a solid science fiction game. If you are looking for one of those two things, it’s definitely worth the hefty cost of entry. Will the price of Civ:BE be too much for the average gamer? Absolutely. Is it worth it? For the right gamer, yes. This isn’t Civilization 6 and I think that’s smart.
Beyond Earth goes out on a limb to try something new and if you want to follow that limb to an unexplored place, it just may be worth your while. Alternatively, if going to a new world where civilizations don’t rise and fall in turn doesn’t excite you, Beyond Earth may not be for you and there hasn’t been anything since Star Trek: Birth of the Federation more than a decade ago that will likely change your mind about this sub-genre of 4X strategy games
Initial release date: 24 October 2014 Series: Civilization Mode: Multiplayer video game Developers: Firaxis Games, Aspyr Composers: Grant Kirkhope, Geoff Knorr, Griffin Cohen, Michael Curran Publishers: Aspyr, 2K Games Platforms: Microsoft Windows, Linux, macOS, Classic Mac OS
8. Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword
There are a lot of similarities between the original Civilization IV and its expansion pack, Sid Meier’s Civilization IV: Beyond The Sword. This is to be expected, as Sid Meier’s Civilization IV: Beyond The Sword is the second game in a pair of similar PC games. While it doesn’t offer any sort of new experience, there are some astonishing improvements over the original game.
Beyond the Sword also brings with it some AI enhancements. More attention is given to wonders than previously. New building chain upgrades have been added – for example, the Egyptians can upgrade their granary to a pharaoh complex.
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There are also new types of city-state quests, a new diplomatic option for staying at their borders (which provides bonuses, but doesn’t allow you to settle within them) and the ability for city-states to launch military attacks on each other. The enhanced diplomacy option is also accompanied by a strong move towards more “meaningful” diplomacy rather than just buying favours or promises of cash.
Beyond the Sword represents a continuation of the Civilization IV improvements that made its predecessor so much fun to play. The espionage feature is well-used by both experienced and new players but also provides a lot of interesting decision making, as long as you don’t always go for the instant kill. It’s definitely worth checking out as part of Civilization IV or separately on its own.
This is, to some degree, a tribute to Civilization and the unique way it is constantly (and continually) updated, expanded and revised. On the other hand, the Civilization franchise has been around for a little too long, now. We think it’s high time for a radical change. And we’d love to see turn-based strategy being revolutionized. Perhaps Beyond Earth will do that, or perhaps it will fail miserably. But revolutionizing turn-based gaming will require a brave leap outside of the traditional boundaries.
In this expansion pack they added a lot of new features that make the game more interesting, such as being able to attack people in other cities or bribe them with gold if they become a nuisance. The graphics have been updated and look great and overall the gameplay is slightly better than before. However, there were some flaws in the game that kind of ruined my feeling about it—it seemed like there were too many things that could go wrong and ruin your chances at victory.
If you are one of those hardcore strategy fans who can deal with such issues, then I definitely recommend Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword but if you are like me and need everything to be laid out for you completely then I would wait until they fix these problems before buying.
Initial release date: 18 July 2007 Series: Civilization Designer: Soren Johnson Developer: Firaxis Games Modes: Single-player video game, Multiplayer video game Publishers: Firaxis Games, 2K Games, Aspyr, Take-Two Interactive Platforms: Microsoft Windows, macOS, Classic Mac OS
9. SimCity 4
Since the beginning of civilization, mankind has struggled to make sense of what is. SimCity 4 is another example of this innate curiosity. It is a game that asks you to make order from what appears to be chaos, but in reality it just adds more pieces to the pile.
SimCity is a city simulator, which means that it’s not about playing the game and making money (although you can do that too). It’s about building your own city, which inevitably includes decisions like whether or not to build a nuclear power plant. This is exactly why I love SimCity 4 so much — it forces me to confront my worst characteristics as a human being: Envy, Greed, Fear and Ignorance.
One of the biggest innovations was the introduction of zoning, which was a game changer in terms of city planning. Zoning allowed you to control where your houses and businesses would be built. You can pick a residential zone where you want to put your houses, an industrial zone where you want factories and warehouses, or a commercial zone where you want your shopping centers and other businesses. By using zoning correctly, you’ll be able to keep your citizens happy while making good use of your land.
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To this day, SC4 is still played by a surprisingly large number of people, with one of the most popular online communities being SimTropolis. In 2007, it was named one of GameSpot’s Top Ten Games of All Time. Furthermore, it spawned a series called SimCity Societies (SCS), which was released in 2005 as a spin-off game that only included single-player content as opposed to the multiplayer features that were introduced in SC4.
SimCity 4 was the first game that really gave me an interest in computer games. It was my first experience playing with the mouse and keyboard, and I had a lot of fun creating all sorts of cities around the world. The more I played it, the more I wanted to expand on it. Making a city that I could live in would be a dream come true. As SimCity 4 came out for Mac OS X, I was excitedly checking out all of these features.
The AI (artificial intelligence) seemed pretty cool, but you can’t leave your computer idle for too long or else it will shut down because of lack of resources. In order to get around this problem, you have to create a network. This allows you to control multiple cities at once and share resources between them.
A notable feature of SC4 was that it included an early version of the “modding” element that would become very important in later games like Fallout and The Elder Scrolls series. This allowed players to create highly customized maps and scenarios based on any parameters they liked; therefore, there are hundreds of mods available for SC4 today.
If you’re looking for the perfect game to play during college, I’d highly recommend SimCity. You should be able to easily find it online or at your local pawn shop, (though I wouldn’t recommend playing at a pawn shop — they tend to be dirty and smell like urine). It’s great with just few friends, but even better in multiplayer mode. Start up a server where everyone takes turns until someone gets bored and quits, easily making room for the next hopeful Mayor.
It doesn’t take a lot of time and there’s not a lot of stress involved. So next time you end up spending some extra time at the library cramming for that math test — look into getting SimCity instead. There’s no better way to kill 48 hours than obsessively building your own city, then watching untold millions die in a horrific bombing your own design.
Initial release date: 14 January 2003 Series: SimCity Mode: Single-player video game Composer: Jerry Martin Developer: Maxis Designers: Michael McCormick, Joseph Knight Platforms: macOS, Microsoft Windows, Linux, Classic Mac OS
10. Europa Universalis IV
Europa Universalis IV is a realistic and historically accurate simulation of the Medieval beginnings of the European colonization at the dawn of modern times. The game plays like a grand strategy-RPG hybrid with elements of Risk-like randomness that adds suspense and intrigue to every campaign. The ultra-moddable interface allows for countless user modifications, adding features and improvements for years to come. Europa Universalis IV is a masterpiece so great, it will only grow in popularity from here on out.
When it comes to 4X games, the saying goes “easy to learn, hard to master”. I only superficially understand this proverb: by which I mean to say it is demonstrated with games like Ancient Empires II or Spaceward Ho!, where initial impressions are able to be turned into victory after a suitable amount of play and learning; certainly, there is a bit of a learning curve. But for others — for instance Europa Universalis IV — particularly in the context of Paradox’s offerings; Crusader Kings II, Their Finest Hour and A Game Of Thrones amongst others in their catalogue – it couldn’t be further from the truth. The hardest part of managing an empire is working out what you should do next.
If Crusader Kings is Paradox’s attempt to legitimize themselves as a game developer, then EUIV feels like their proof that they’re here to stay. It’s a throwback in the best sense of the word: it brings back the same incentives and challenges that have kept this sort of game alive for so long.
It doesn’t have the wacky variety of real-world monarchs and cultures that you’d get from Victoria 2, and it lacks an epic, easily-grasped conflict like those found in Hearts of Iron III. But what it has instead, amazingly, is everything else.
Every single detail—down to the enormous number of historical events that you’ll encounter over the course of a 300-year game—feels carefully considered, lovingly crafted, and fits together beautifully with every other piece in one large world simulation. If CK2 was supposed to show us that Paradox could create a living, breathing world—complete with all the squalor and glory that entails—then EU4 is their second statement proving that they can do just that.
Initial release date: 13 August 2013 Series: Europa Universalis Designer: Johan Andersson Publisher: Paradox Interactive Mode: Multiplayer video game Developers: Paradox Development Studio, Paradox Tinto Platforms: macOS, Linux, Microsoft Windows
What are Simulation games ?
Simulation games are one of the most expansive and popular game genres the world over. Whether it’s space exploration, fighting corrupt governments as a guerrilla fighter, or racing cars around a track at 200 miles per hour, if you can think of an action, there’s probably a simulation game for it.
In some ways, simulation games are like role-playing games (RPGs): Players have to think about their approach to both succeed in the game and get the most fun out of it. However, instead of having pre-set characters and scenarios, which is common in RPGs, simulation games let players create their own environments and characters. This is done through either choosing options from menus or by building them from scratch with various tools.
Players can also customize their virtual environment while they’re playing. Although they can’t change the rules of the game itself, they can choose different goals and objectives to work toward with each play session.
One of the most common types of simulation games is flight simulators that allow players to fly an aircraft without leaving their living room couch. These can be anything from early biplanes to military jets or modern commercial airplanes. They’re usually very detailed in terms of controls and instrumentation — usually requiring a controller with many buttons and switches just to operate it.
The only limit is your imagination! Simulation games give you the opportunity to try on something new. Maybe you’ve always wanted to be an astronaut or a famous chef or the president. Many simulation games let you accomplish these goals and even more. Whether it’s running an entire country or just caring for your own virtual pet, simulation games let you watch your dreams come true.
Simulation games can have a variety of purposes such as training, analysis, or prediction. Usually there are no strictly defined goals in the game, with the player instead allowed to control a character or environment freely. Most simulation games allow players to make choices about where they want to go next in their adventure. While some simulations are about creating and building worlds of your own, others are much more focused on making decisions in specific scenarios.
How to play Simulation Games ?
Simulation games are very diverse, but they share the common trait of attempting to accurately simulate a real life experience. Most simulation games attempt to copy some activity in the real world, down to the smallest detail. For example, an airplane flight simulator would try to copy every aspect of flying an airplane, from the experience of sitting in the cockpit to handling the controls.
Some simulation games will take a simple concept and make it into a complex game full of details and options. Other simulation games will take a complex subject and simplify it down so that anyone can understand and enjoy it. For example, there are simulation games about managing football clubs (with lots of detailed statistics) and there are also simpler football manager games where you just pick players for your team without worrying about details like fitness levels or injuries.
Simulation games can be serious or silly. There are realistic military combat simulations and silly simulations where you can run a virtual lemonade stand or operate an amusement park. Simulation games also have sub-genres, including construction simulations (like Sim City), dating sims (where you try to win someone’s heart), business simulations (where you manage a company).
Conclusion
In short, simulation games are more than just mere diversions; they are the most fun way to learn and experience a concept. From farming to war, SimCity to The Sims; these games present players with realistic environments and events that they must learn to control in order to succeed. While some of these games can be used as teaching tools, others are simply a more entertaining way to gain exposure to different ideas.
Overall, these are some of the best simulation games on the market right now. We hope that your search for games will be an easier process because of this guide. Not only that, but you might have even found a few new games to try out. There are many more options out there to try out, and we’re always happy to hear from our readers about new titles to add to our lists. So please continue sharing any suggestions or questions that you may have with us.