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] 2 points 5 hours ago

SimCity 4 and Factorio.

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

I like goat simulator

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

OMG, I can't believe no-one's mentioned BeamNG.drive. The stuff that game simulates is off the charts. It's been in 'early access' forever, but if you're even remotely interested in driving simulators, it's the gold standard for a realistic driving experience. Crashing in VR in this game is the most visceral thing ever. It'll change you.

Here's a clip of me driving a RHD Piccolina around one of my local roads a kindly modder added to the sim until I crash catastrophically.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 hours ago

BeamNG.drive

Starsector

Dwarf Fortress

Dota 2 (psychological warfare simulator)

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Carmageddon. It taught me everything I needed to know about the role of pedestrians while driving.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 hours ago

I think this is the first time I've EVER seen carmageddon mentioned. Great game

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 hours ago

XWing Alliance will probably always be my favorite, but Elite Dangerous is up there. If Elite had story missions and a singleplayer campaign to elaborate on the world building, it probably would be my favorite.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 12 hours ago

Oh my god I think this is one of the two games from my childhood that I first played and have not for the life of me been able to find

The other is some weird frog sidescroller platformer I got at Staples as a kid in the late aughts or possibly early 2010s

[–] [email protected] 9 points 18 hours ago (2 children)

Dwarf Fortress, aka drunken dwarf simulator.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 hours ago

It's not a simulator, it's a parallel world.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

I bought that game just because I watched the Noclip documentary series on the developers. I haven't played it yet, and I'm not sure I ever will, but goddammit I vicariously love those two men.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 18 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 19 hours ago

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

[–] [email protected] 5 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

Cultist Simulator. (half joking 😂).

Big fan of Cities Skylines in city simulator genre.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 20 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 20 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 4 points 22 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] 4 points 22 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 1 day ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 1 points 21 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] 16 points 1 day ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 23 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] 7 points 1 day ago

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

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 15 hours ago

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

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day 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 1 day 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] 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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

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