Are there any *good* games with "Simulator" in the title worth recommending?

Recommended Videos

XsjadoBlaydette

~s•o√r∆rπy°`Inc hope GrIfts etUrnaL
May 26, 2022
1,503
1,774
118
Clear 'n Present Danger
Country
Must
Gender
Disappear
Dusting off the neglected 'new thread' catridge hoping it still works here after a hearty blow

They keep releasing them. You know the ones. Multiplying. Osmosis. Clones. Mirrors. Echoes. No exaggeration on the PSN store alone a new one is dropped every 2-4 days, 3 or so times a week. Hardly more than background static now. Yet occasionally find myself thinking they must be providing some kind of garuntee of returns above the odds of releasing original IPs, implying some bastards are having fun somewhere with this and I want in goddamn it. Does anyone know if they are all pretty much worthless trash or are there a few gems in the coal.Hay.sorry meant haystack. A lot of recent mining games have their gems in coal or rock but bafflingly no haystacks. A mystery best left for another day I spose.

Like for example ,thief simulator. There is a platonic version of fun game am imagining there, it even has a sequel now too. But that don't mean it good, right? Scary movie has 5 of the kunts already! A This is where demos are needed the most....to get a quick answer to "slop or not" (Afternoon gameshow coming soon to airwaves near you) Am but a simple easily distracted woodland critter, just wanna steal loadsa stuff, is that a crime? Really?

Beyond the temptation of the thief one, it appears at this point they make a simulator out of literally (as near the literal meaning of literally anyone's getting out of this frazzled brain ) every task/job/struggle, so surely law of averages says a masterpiece is either already out in the wild or due relatively soon, eh? Thats a logic I did, right?

Only known exceptions am already aware of perhaps obviously are the goat sim series and Microsoft Google satellite map rider. Former was the mother plant am I remember correctly? The one who started all this during the cataclysmic 3rd meme war? Curiously they feel so unrelated to the shovelslop churn they're their own species frolicking gayly in their lil psuedo-meme bubble universe. Flight simulator even moreso, hah. Doesn't that game require like a majority of hard drive and still requires internet streaming to manage an absurdly high memory demand? While mildly intrigued, for something I'd probably play twice before getting bored, not sure the exterior faff would be worth it.

Oh and if anyone played those digging simulator games, am violently curious on if they are just games a out digging holes or if ts some highbrow arthouse Subversion, or even low brow subversion like frog fractions instead. Can't be all just about digging a hole, right? That isn't a gaming experience people would pay money for, right??




this is what happens when mates ain't around, just left with pets n poltergeists for company: ceaseless yapping in text form. It's a public menace. If I ever get as annoying as Russel brand everyone has permission to kill me. It's a mercy one, you'll be legally fiiiiiiine!
 

XsjadoBlaydette

~s•o√r∆rπy°`Inc hope GrIfts etUrnaL
May 26, 2022
1,503
1,774
118
Clear 'n Present Danger
Country
Must
Gender
Disappear
Oh I totally forgot that existed. Have the first one already I think, memory holed away. A sequal existed too at some point, but cleaning in any videogame has the opposite of a calming effect where a lil anxiety guilt demon in the back of the mind starts being like "oh you gonna clean some virtual space are you? Without even checking your real home first??" You're going to tidy imagination land yet neglect this everchanging list of physical domestic duties and improvements like some wastrel freak, are you?!"

That's sane, it's yeah , no, I'm sane, that's the sign of a healthy relaxed and squeaky sane mind. Very bleached clean and sane. No problems here hah! No blood no problems!
 
Last edited:

The Rogue Wolf

Stealthy Carnivore
Legacy
Nov 25, 2007
18,388
11,465
118
Stalking the Digital Tundra
Gender
✅
I liked PowerWash Simulator.
Can second this. Between the zen of rushing water and that satisfying "ching!" sound whenever you finish off a particular object or section, it's a great game for whiling away the hours while you have music or YouTube or whatever playing.

I've also been playing Teddy's Haven, which is a super-cozy fantasy-themed shop simulator; it's like many other store simulators, except with about 90% of the stress taken out. No need to worry about fluctuating prices, customer complaints, or anything of the like- you can simply sit inside your store and sell what you can buy from suppliers, or you can go out into the countryside and gather fruits, ores, milk and wool, and use them to make other things to sell like mead, jam, thread and smelted bars.

Plus you can watch geese walk into your store and buy swords. How do they use the swords? Not my job to ask; I just sell them.
 

Worgen

Follower of the Glorious Sun Butt.
Legacy
Apr 1, 2009
16,496
5,097
118
Gender
Whatever, just wash your hands.
Drainsim seems like it could be really satisfying.

 

Bedinsis

Elite Member
Legacy
Escapist +
May 29, 2014
2,040
1,102
118
Country
Sweden
I mean, The Sims is named as such because Will Wright was curious about simulating various system in video game form (be it a city, a park, a farm or a planet) and he wanted to simulate how people functioned in a player designed dwelling, but the focus became more on simulating life itself in what we call a Life Sim.

It's a well designed series, well worthy of trying out. Though I haven't played since entry number 2.
 

The Rogue Wolf

Stealthy Carnivore
Legacy
Nov 25, 2007
18,388
11,465
118
Stalking the Digital Tundra
Gender
✅
Drainsim seems like it could be really satisfying.
I watched a Let's Play of this. The water physics are remarkably solid; for the most part, the water flows and moves how you'd expect it to, aside from a few weird cases when you get around the edges of some terrain feature. Not sure if it has a whole lot of replay value, though.