this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2025
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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?

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 hours ago

Dwarf Fortress, aka drunken dwarf simulator.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 hours ago

I definitely have the most time spent in Project Cars 2 on PS4, but I've since switched to PC sims and have been playing Automobilista 2 since it is the most similar.

I'd like to get into Assetto Corsa more but idk how to get the mods running on Linux / Steam

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 hours ago

Heavy Gear 1 and 2. So much fun when multiplayer ever worked.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

Cultist Simulator. (half joking 😂).

Big fan of Cities Skylines in city simulator genre.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 hours ago

Not super in-depth like some of these other games but I love Snowrunner. I can count on 3 fingers the number of games I’ve spent over $100 on the game+ additional content in my entire life. Civ5, Civ6, and Snowrunner. It’s such a relaxing game but can definitely be difficult as well. Also i can play music at the same time and not miss any story because there isn’t really any story.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 hours ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 hours ago

My parents got me a copy of Harrier Jump Jet by Microprose one christmas. I can't even begin to imagine how many hours I spent on that game, both actually playing it and studying the manual for it. Still have the manual actually but the floppies are long gone.

After that I got every Microprose sim I could get my hands on, F14 Fleet Defender was probably my favorite after Harrier.

Then I kinda lost interest in simulators until Arma came along, spent years where I hardly played anything else.

Nowadays though ETS is pretty much the only sim I play.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

X-plane. Ms flight simulator is drop dead gorgeous, but X plane has a better flight engine.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 hours ago

You can do a lot to improve how it looks, too. There's a lot of custom terrain, and you can download meshes made from satellite photos.

It also works better in VR.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 15 hours ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

I credit Kerbal Space Program for my ability to think in three dimensions. Without KSP, I would have been some kind of dumbass. I thought getting to orbit was just a matter of going up until I was like 18 years old

Have you ever pulled up an old save file to look at the stuff you used to design? I did that the other day and found out that I used to be good at this game. Folded space stations, massive mining rigs, Apollo Style landers, a beautiful SSTO that's braindead easy to fly, an interplanetary module that can dock to the back of said SSTO, I made fancy shit. Nowadays I just slap boosters and docking ports on fuel tanks and call it good enough

I gotta post pictures from that save file sometime

[–] [email protected] 5 points 14 hours ago

2nding this, but also I'm looking forward to KSA, hoping it can be the true successor

[–] [email protected] 3 points 16 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 13 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 46 minutes ago

I bought a VR headset solely to play VTOL VR; worth it!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 21 hours ago

Swat 4 🤷‍♂️

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

B-17 (intellivision)

F19 (Atari computer)

Jumbo jet (Atari computer)

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 5 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Wolfpack I played up and down 20 years ago. I may check it out again.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

I like OpenTTD. Based off the old Transport Tycoon game

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

Sim Collector Simulator

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Assetto Corsa, hands down. The mod community have made it into something quite special. I've got pretty much every other driving/racing sim as well, but I keep coming back to AC.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Any idea if there is a way to get the mods to work on Linux?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

Not sure, maybe through Wine, but I'm almost certain it won't work with my Moza wheel and pedals, or VR.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Derail Valley Simulator. I like my trains.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

If you like building sets, you should check out Rolling Line.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 13 hours ago

Not so much the collecting. I like learning how to drive them, and driving them. I blew up my steam engines the first several times I touched the controls

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I should get back into that one. I played some in early access, and it was fun.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

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

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Falcon BMS. It’s a mod of falcon 4.0 from the 90’s. Best combat flight sim out there. DCS is prettier, I guess, but, overpriced garbage by comparison.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Apache longbow 2 from 1997.

Edit: got original mixed with 2

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

Farming Simulator.

I grew up in the country and moved to a city. It's neat to see how accurate the older tractors and equipment are to real life.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 day ago

The one where you get to shoot jfk.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

American Truck Simulator.

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