Simulators. Better than life

do only the first steps towards gamers. And while the Matrix has not yet come to visit us, IT.TUT.BY has compiled a selection of games, game process which are as close to reality as possible.

Grand Theft Auto 5

Caesar

Ruler economic strategies from Impressions Games and Sierra Entertainment gave players more than one sleepless night in the role of a Roman city governor. Managing taxes and trade processes, caring for the population of the city and fulfilling the tasks set by the emperor. Caeser was able to visually teach the basics of economics and urban management.

Operation Flashpoint

In the early 2000s, shooters were dominated by a great trio: Quake, Unreal Tournament, and Counter-Strike. "Rocketjump", "jump", "elephant fight" - the words are familiar to every fan of the FPS (first person shooter) of those times.

However, the Czech company Bohemia Interactive Studio has demonstrated a fundamentally new approach to this genre. Ultimate combat simulation, huge maps and the player's ability to die from a single stray bullet after crawling on the ground for half an hour. Bullets reach their target faster than sound, the appearance of shortness of breath after running, almost complete freedom to conduct combat operations. Subsequently, Flashpoint evolved into new series tactical shooters Armed Assault (ArmA).

"IL-2. Sturmovik"

The game from the Russian developers 1C: Maddox Games was able to conquer the fans of flight simulators right off the bat with its hardcore and realism of military operations in the air. The simulator simulates the conduct of hostilities during the Great Patriotic War from 1941 to 1945.

"IL-2. Sturmovik" demonstrated not only excellent graphics for its time, but also a carefully thought-out aircraft damage system. A few holes in the wing could not really interfere with your combat mission, while the shot elevator made you say goodbye to the possibility of maneuvers.

Players and the press unanimously highly appreciated this simulator, and "IL-2. Sturmovik" rightfully took its place in the TOP-25 PC games of all time according to IGN.

Forza Motorsport

A series of games developed for the Xbox, allows the owners of the console from Microsoft to feel like driving one of the racing cars. One of the important details of the line of simulators is the car damage system. During the collision, cars receive not only cosmetic damage, but also a change specifications such as acceleration, top speed and handling.

For fans of racing in this line there are very nice bonus. As a partnership with the British TV program Top Gear, from the 4th part of the game, the voices of hosts Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May can be heard.

The Sims

Simulator real life- so you can call the game from Maxis and Electronic Arts. The player can try on the guise of a god, creating, managing and controlling virtual people. In 2002 The Sims became the best-selling game, surpassing even the legendary Myst series in terms of the number of purchases. In March 2010, Electronic Arts reported that The Sims games had sold over 100 million copies.

Microsoft Flight Simulator

Microsoft's Civil Aircraft Simulator allowed players to dress up as a civil airline pilot and fly virtually anywhere in the world. The series is famous not only realistic physics flights and its complexity of aircraft control, but also its openness to create its own models and airports.

Many pilot training systems are based on Microsoft Flight Simulator. In the game, you can master the basic course of flight and landing of an aircraft, behavior in an emergency situation. On the basis of training complexes using the Microsoft simulator as a platform, some tests and exams are accepted.

Dark Souls

In this game, you can see how a person's meeting with any of the fantasy monsters would end. After dozens of RPGs, we are used to the fact that monsters are just an unfortunate misunderstanding on the way to treasure. However, Dark Souls was able to very accurately convey what would happen if the player hit any fantasy world. Any wrong step threatens the gamer with inexorable death, every battle can be your last.

L.A. Noire

Rockstar Games is famous not only for a series about expensive car thieves, but also for the creation of a detective simulator. The gamer will plunge into the era of the 40s of the last century and investigate crimes. To do this, it is necessary not only to shoot accurately and work with fists, but also to search for evidence and interrogate suspects.

The game was able to be remembered for the careful study of the characters, their behavior and animation. During interrogations, more than once there will be a feeling that you are watching a Hollywood movie with excellent acting. Indeed, sometimes it will be possible to understand whether a suspect is lying or telling the truth only by his behavior.

Battlefield 4

Separately, there is the most technologically advanced in terms of graphics on this moment military shooter. We understand that it's not worth evaluating games only on the basis of graphics, but thanks to the new Frostbite 3 engine, "Battlefield" deserves to be called the "Most Realistic Graphics Game of 2014". Printed screenshots from this game can be passed off as real photos from the scene of hostilities.

Popular wisdom says - "You can't forbid living beautifully!". But this is easier said than done. You can, of course, try to become Mark Zuckerberg, invent a second Facebook and sell it for a record amount in the history of the US markets, estimated in billions of dollars. But the statistics are relentless: most startups die in terrible agony. You can try to make a career as an official and "master" large public funds. Only without connections in this area you can’t break through, and in case of failure, impressive prison terms threaten. In 999 cases out of 1000, you will have to remain an ordinary office worker, an engineer, a smartphone salesman or a pizza delivery man (if someone is offended by such comparisons, please, here's another one for you: a writer for websites).

Of course, you want to get away from this at times, and games are one of the best ways to escape. Here we will try to consider what virtual worlds better than the real one, and why they attract not only pure fantasy, but also a successful imitation of quite vital things.

Money

Diablo 3 has already been mentioned in the previous article, but what can you do if this is one of the best illustrations for other folk wisdom: "Money - chickens do not peck!". By the time you complete the game as the first character and go to the Legendary Rifts a couple of times, you will have 4,000,000 gold. Consider: Four. Million. GOLD. Coins. Even the most successful bankers, stockbrokers and top managers of Gazprom never dreamed of such a thing. And you can earn that amount in just 50-60 hours. So what is better after that - virtual or objective reality?

In Diablo 3, earning will require at least some effort, and in some games, money flows into your hands. Let's take Watch Dogs: if you're too lazy, you don't even have to clean up bandit lairs and stop criminal convoys. We hack into video surveillance systems, jump on cameras, “borrow” funds from civilians from bank accounts - and here you are: in 40 minutes we have an elite sports car, a powerful bike, the most expensive sniper rifle and an automatic grenade launcher.

Career

Series saints row- a great example of stable career growth: first we take patronage over all the gangs of a large metropolis, then we become the president of the United States and expel alien invaders, and then we deal with the Devil himself in hell - so that there are no competitors at all.

In real life, everything is much sadder: you can sell more smartphones for at least two quarters in a row than the rest of your colleagues in the salon. After 6 months, the boss will say that this is a reason to keep the job, but not to raise wages: there is an economic crisis in the yard! First, 2008, now sanctions and cheap oil, and then there will be an excuse.

Involuntarily, you will want to return to the virtual VIP world of purple hues, and hang out in your own skyscraper with pretty girls in the uniforms of maids, policemen and nurses.

Glory (WARNING: Spoilers!)

It's the same with fame. Be sure: if a whole game was made about a character (especially AAA class), it means that he is somehow very different from the mass of ordinary people, and his story is at least unusual. And at the very least, epic. For instance, Bioshock Infinite. The protagonist is a hired detective of fairly free morals, who gets involved in the fight against the prophet Zachary Comstock. The puritan grandfather has seized power in the largest sky city in America, and, like a true dictator, eradicates all dissent.

Our detective eventually manages to defeat the prophet. The girl is saved, the dictator is defeated, his giant airship is burning like the ill-fated Hindenburg. And then it turns out that main character- and there is Zachary Comstock. Only in the future (or in the past!? The final scene in the lighthouse is completely unsettling). The universe is divided by zero, the story of Bioshock Infinite is pure delight, and you think about temporal paradoxes for a long time afterwards.

In real life, there is an inexorable sequence: born, studied, married ... and further down the list, to the point. For the items "feat" and "breathtaking events" there is often no place, no desire, no opportunities.

Comfort

Admit it - you played The Sims 4. No, of course not 300 - 400 hours, but 5 - 6 hours to hack the game for money, rebuild a VIP mansion and populate a young couple of hardcore punks there. Have a party, destroy everything to hell, and then re-buy an arsenal of the most expensive sofas, beds, TVs and so on. You can expand the site and dig a huge pool on it - to make it more fun. Objective reality is a little different from this exciting process of clicking the mouse.

Those who have made repairs in at least a couple of rooms of a Soviet apartment are well aware of what it turns into: dozens of bags of plaster and self-leveling floor, endless packs of laminate and wallpaper rolls, buckets of paint for the ceiling and walls ... and two months in construction dust.

It is not surprising that after that you want to go into the good old Skyrim, buy, say, the Proudspire mansion in Solitude, and furnish it with the latest Nord design in about 15 minutes.

Excessive realism without harm to health

Often, gamers look for realistic imitation of life's harsh trials in games, which, nevertheless, will not lead to the loss of real health or material wealth. Let's take at least EVE Online- in this exciting MMO, you need to mine the same minerals on the same asteroids for at least 6 months, or exterminate low-level pirates (again, the same ones) in order to advance at least a little and start dreaming of a career as a star admiral or the head of a mega-corporation.

Day-Z provides a similar range of feelings. You sneak into the village for a long time, find an ax and two cans of stew (it takes about 30 minutes), slowly sneak back. Zombies notice you - they, unlike Dead Island, no aggro radius: they will chase you forever, and do not think to return to the programmed point. Your life ends in the stomach of the living dead, and no save points: all over again. The second attempt - a village - an ax, a stew - you come across a certain freak ("handsome" in Polish, that is real player) with an assault rifle - headshot without warning.

Judging by the sales of both EVE and Day-Z, many people like it all. But even enduring hardships and experiencing disappointment is much more pleasant at home, in warmth, in a comfortable armchair than in the cold vacuum of space or in an abandoned Eastern European country.

Life simulation games on the PC are developing in two main directions— when development proceeds in a biological way and when the social aspect of life is revealed in the game.

In the first case, the player gets the opportunity to experiment with the genetics of various creatures, recreating the stages of evolution, to model the impact of ecology on the development of society. Evolution sims are mainly created in this genre, such as Spore, which combines evolution sim, strategy and space simulator. The game consists of five stages, the first two of which are the evolution of a living being from a cell to a rational being.

In the second case, the social life of living beings, their interaction with each other, communication, work, romantic relationship. In this genre, the leading position is undoubtedly occupied by the game series The Sims, the first game of which was released in 2000. In The Sims, the player controls a virtual family, which can consist of up to eight people. During the game, you need to satisfy the needs of the wards for food, comfort, hygiene, communication, etc.

What makes you play 3D human life simulators on a computer? In such games, a person can choose a role and a behavior model that is not characteristic of him in Everyday life and literally "get into someone else's skin." Agree, quite a tempting prospect.

Unusual simulators can be distinguished into a separate category, which reflect the life of the most unexpected creatures. Animal simulators, such as the bear simulator, or the goat simulator, which received wide popularity and positive reviews from the public due to the crazy gameplay, can be attributed to this category.

And the most unusual life simulator, perhaps, can be called a stone simulator, in which the entire gameplay consists in contemplating the world around from the point of view of a stone.

This section, which contains best online games life simulators in Russian, you can read full review favorite game and learn all the secrets of its passage.

Entertainment developers have long noticed the interest of users in simulators. The desire of people to improve their lives or change some aspects is very strong. Using these attractions, a variety of simulators are created that allow you to safely try out a real profession, manage a family of virtual men, or even be the mayor of a metropolis.

An online computer game completely imitates real processes. The best projects allow you to control all the parameters in detail and thoroughly influence what is happening. Highly specialized simulators are created dedicated to one topic or global projects covering life in its entirety.

The same laws apply here as elsewhere. The only advantage that the player gets is the accelerated time. It's stupid if the virtual character grows up as slowly as in reality, and the houses will be built for years. Naturally, some simplifications are made so that gamers do not lose interest, and their attention is occupied with achieving goals.

TOP 10 Life Simulation Games

Highlight the best representatives in the chosen genre is somewhat easier than in others. There are not so many high-quality projects and it is easy to count them on the fingers. In our version TOP 10 the best simulators life looks like this:

• The Sims;
• 3DXChat;
• Love City 3D;
• The Good Life;
• 7 sins;
• Europa 1400: The Guild;
• Viva Pinata;
• Virtual Villagers;
• space colony;
• singles. Flirt Up Your Life!

Each of the presented projects is a pearl in its field. If The Sims covers every aspect of life the way it is, Viva Pinata takes us to a surreal world of growing dolls filled with candy. Strawberry lovers will pay attention to 3DXChat and Love City 3D. with real people, you just need to understand that on the other side of the monitor an unpleasant surprise may await you.

Tired of the historical era? Fast forward to medieval Europe thanks to Europa 1400: The Guild. Complete freedom of choice is amazing. You are free to become absolutely any character of the society of that time.

Among the browser simulators, you should pay attention to Let's Fish. We turn into an avid fisherman and go to any available body of water. Everything is thought out pretty well here: from choosing gear, bait and bait, to analyzing water bodies and determining the best time for biting.

Real life is a game that we all play with passion. She can be beautiful or cruel, and everyone chooses what she will be. Here is a small guide to interesting game titled "Life".

Game Basics

You may not realize it, but real life is a strategy game. It includes various mini-games such as dancing, driving, running or sex, and the key to winning the whole game is the correct distribution of resources.

The difference between pros and losers is how they spend their time, their most valuable resource. But what about money? Yes, this is also a very valuable resource, but still, time remains the main priority, and in order to win, you must always know what it is spent on.

Childhood

Your game begins with your character (that is, you) being born with a random personality, under random circumstances. After that, for the first 15 years of your life, you go through training missions that cannot be missed.

The start of a serious game

Like every young player, you have a lot of energy and time, but almost no experience. Many things, such as the best job, expensive property and partners, are not available to you for the time being.

This is the time when you constantly level up and your experience grows rapidly. You will never again have so much free time for learning and so much energy as at this age.

Your main task is to use the time as fruitfully as possible. Remember, every job you do upgrades your skills and changes your position in the game.:

It may seem that this is too simple for life: I chose the necessary skills, pumped them over, and in order, you can win. Of course, in life everything is a little more complicated, because you don’t see the talent tree and you can’t accurately predict which skill will be useful for what, you can only guess about it. In addition, your body does not always obey and does everything that you have planned. Why? Let's figure it out.

How to make your body listen

You are different from the character computer game the fact that your body does not always obey the dictates of the mind. For example, when you tell yourself to go to the gym, the body completely ignores this wonderful, in fact, impulse.

This is not a bug in the game, everything is thought out and logical. You have a special "state scale" that you, unfortunately, do not see. It looks something like this:

If any criterion of your condition is too low, your body will not agree to do what you want. For example, try to study something when you are exhausted or hungry, and you will see how difficult it will be, almost impossible.

Your willpower scale is also very important. You have a certain amount of willpower for the day, it rises slightly with meals and is fully restored during a deep night's sleep. If you have used up your willpower, and it is at a very low level, you can only do what you really like.

Remember that every decision in favor of a less attractive option (for example, go to gym instead of watching an interesting movie at home), takes some amount of willpower.

There are several tricks that will help you maintain your behavior in a given line of play:

1. Maintain tone. If you are tired, hungry, or sad, your willpower will be low. So it is worth taking care of your character so that he is capable of something.
2. Distribute tasks rationally. Remember that willpower is a resource that needs to be replenished, and do not use it too much. If you have several tasks that require a lot of willpower, scatter them over different days, mixing them with those that are more enjoyable for you.
3. Do the most important tasks first. If you have a really important matter, it is worth spending a lot of your willpower on it. It will be more difficult for you to complete other tasks, but the main tasks will be completed perfectly and on time.
4. Take away the temptations. If you're tempted to switch from hard work to easy fun, you'll need more willpower to do it. As a result, the temptation will draw more valuable resource out of you, and you will not be able to complete the work on time. For example, you are compiling a report, and a page on a social network is open in the next tab. You constantly want to switch, climb other people's pages and publics, and this exhausts you more than you can imagine.

It turns out that the key to success in the game is to properly combine the state of your body and the execution of the right tasks.

Choosing the Right Tasks

Choosing the right tasks at the right time is one of the main points in the game. Some tasks affect your state more:

Other tasks - on your skills and abilities:

You should make time for things that will help you stay in top condition, like eating well and getting enough sleep to keep your willpower going. And after that, you must spend this resource (willpower) on pumping your skills and abilities.

Some skills are more valuable, and some of them can even open a whole path for you, like a talent tree:

Others are independent and have no continuation:

The most effective is to acquire several skills and combine them with each other. It is very difficult to become the best in some area, developing just one skill, it is almost impossible. Much easier choose several related skills related to each other and pump them all.

Environment

Your environment matters a lot to your status, skills, and chances of leveling up. Actually, you can play anywhere, but in certain places it is much easier. For example, if you play as a woman in a number of countries, some opportunities will be closed to you.

The chances of fully revealing yourself in the exact place where you originally ended up can be very mediocre. Therefore, after you determine the tasks for yourself, consider changing the location. If in a new place you can achieve more, develop skills better and improve your condition, why not?

Search for partners

Attracting partners is an additional mini-game within the main one, and success in it, most often, depends on how well you go through the main storyline.

If you have a good condition and pumped skills, you already have a good chance of winning the mini-game.

At the beginning of the game, you can reject partners and be rejected. This is normal, but sometimes negative experiences affect the player's condition badly. In order to advance further in this mini-game, the player must build up enough willpower and keep moving forward.

80% of success in finding a partner depends on the attractiveness of the player, and if it is, then he spends time on the right things. If you love what you do, radiate goodwill and optimism, you automatically become attractive.

The remaining 20% ​​of success depends on being able to be in the right place to meet your other half. That is, if you are all attractive, but you don’t go anywhere except work and at home, you are unlikely to find a partner for yourself.

Money money money

Later in the game, you will need to manage the "money" resource. Most players understand that it is possible to increase the amount of money at the beginning of the game (take a loan or borrow), but, in fact, from this more problems than benefits.

The most important rule of money: never borrow money unless you plan toas a resultget even more. For example, if you take out a student loan, invest in your profession, which will provide you good income, it is rational. And if you take out a loan for new shoes or new model smartphone - this is irrational and will not bring you anything but losses.

Here are some strategies for dealing with finances:

1. Doesn't think about money. It's a stress-reduced strategy: you just live within your income and have a little rainy day. Make sure you spend your free time properly, then there will be no regrets.
2. Rich. Choose your career and environment carefully, and prepare to move up quickly. You have to invest a lot in relevant skills, which will take up a lot of your time, and carefully monitor your condition so as not to burn out at work.
3. very rich. You start own business, because you cannot become very rich by working for someone (in principle, in our realities, it is also very difficult to become simply rich without your own business). If you properly allocate your resources, you will eventually not need to work at all.

Old age

Your options change during the game. Marriage and kids will take up your time and energy and also introduce a lot of random elements into your game. This slows down your development and leveling of skills, but also has its own advantages.

Older characters have a lot of developed skills, resources and experience, so quests are open for them that are not yet available for younger players. For example, they have enough resources to write a good novel (experience + time) or buy a house (not everyone, of course, it matters what money strategy you choose).

After the age of 80, players tend to drop out of the game. If you have pumped health skills, you can last much longer, but cheating methods for this have not yet been invented.

At the very beginning of the game, you have no influence on the environment in which you start and with what abilities you start. The same goes for the end of the game: everything is already determined by how you behaved throughout the game. It depends on this how you end your game: healthy, prosperous and happy, or not.

Therefore, your strategy is very important: by the time you understand how to play, most of the best moments are behind you.