Simulators are one of the earliest PC game genres, and remain compelling experiences to this day, even if they’re not as popular as they used to be.
I like all kinds of combat flight sims; the MS Combat Flight Simulator from 1998 was something special, and I’ve had some similar fun in IL-2 Sturmovik. The newest civil air sims are pretty great too, I’ll pop on a podcast and make a flight. They’re particularly cool in VR.
I’ve also found the MechWarrior games to be fun, but I’ve only played 2 and 5. I got to play a bit of Steel Battalion with the full crazy controller at a con a few years back, and that’s got to be a lot of fun once you really know what you’re doing.
So what’s your favorite sim?
Elite Dangerous and i also love old school mechwarrior 2
Elite Dangerous FTW. 🤘🏼
I haven’t played since ~planetary landings/Mamba release (pre-TurdReich, IIRC?🤮), but back then, me & my Mur-der-Lance in Black Friday skin were proudly part of the anti-griefer brigade.
(Huge underbelly particle cannon + overcharged boost for baiting said ass-clowns into a 180° top speed yaw-slip one-shot kill trap = mmm, so good <chef’s kiss>)
Even DIYed my desk chair w/ Vesa mounts to house a Warthog replica HOTAS, and ran an alt rig overhead for the Index to the battlestation (vs the default full room, standing set-up), et al.
Ahh… Those were the days. 🤩❤️🔥
p.s. Nowadays, I get close to reliving that nostalgia via my heavily-modded (250+) Starfield NG+, but am quietly & reservedly hopeful for the upcoming Osiris Reborn release… 🤞🏼😅
ahem <glares @ No Man’s Sky launch>
Goat Simulator
DCS (Digital Combat Simulator)
Tons of well-simulated combat aircraft. IL-2 is probably the closest simulator to it.
DCS is what I play most of the time - particularly the Viper. I help run the unit I play with as well.
Elite Dangerous is the only other sim I play.
Elite Dangerous
Dwarf Fortress, aka drunken dwarf simulator.
It’s not a simulator, it’s a parallel world.
For me, my favorites are:
RAH-66 Comanche for flying sim.
Wolfpack (from Brøderbund) for submarine sim. I believe it is also free on archive.org. (Added link: https://archive.org/details/msdos_WolfPack_1990)
Euro Truck Simulator 2 for trucking sim.
F1 2019 for racing sim. But it pretty much requires a wheel and pedals if you want to get really good, which does add to the cost.
EDIT: added link
Wolfpack I played up and down 20 years ago. I may check it out again.
Great! Wow.
It was Aces High II
That was my first thought when I saw OPs screenshot. I still hear “check 6” in my head every time I get zoom and boomed in War Thunder
Assetto Corsa
Amazing game, could have more varied maps in free access servers, but the game is old so it’s ok
It’s my favorite racing sim. Good pick.
I like OpenTTD. Based off the old Transport Tycoon game
I have spent a lot of money on iRacing and Elite Dangerous. I kind of miss it but also feel that i was way too deep into it to be having fun. It was a struggle to always make things better and i was not really enjoying my self
Derail Valley Simulator. I like my trains.
I should get back into that one. I played some in early access, and it was fun.
Depending on how long ago it was, we’ve had a couple of updates recently. You can now paint all your engines, and there’s a ton of gadgets
VTOL VR is incredible
I bought a VR headset solely to play VTOL VR; worth it!
Euro truck simulator 2! I have lots of hours in this game, playing date and night. At some point I had a Logitech wheel with pedals and shifts, it was so damn good!!!
My routine was to get a long route through graphic and small roads, listening to radio for hours.
ACC is my favorite right now.
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