It is time-consuming and expensive to become a pilot. It’s equally costly to run your own island, theme park, or movie studio. And it’s hard to imagine the resources you might need to exercise godly control over your neighborhood. Yet these are all things you can accomplish with clever simulation games for your Mac.
Most games are available for online ordering 24 hours a day, every day.
Imitation of life
Simulations can be divided into two categories: technical simulations and organizational simulations. Although they share a basic concept, they are very different products.
Technical simulations typically allow you to operate an aircraft (military or civilian) or a vehicle. The goal of the simulation is to provide the most realistic experience possible; in essence, a true simulation of reality. Dials, switches, and buttons are faithfully reproduced to provide total control of the craft. Gauges report factors such as speed, altitude, and fuel level. To further the illusion, simulated weather impacts the operation of the craft just as it would in the real world. head winds may make it difficult to steer a small plane, while an icy surface may cause a vehicle to slide uncontrollably when making sharp turn. The uncompromising focus on accuracy and detail makes this class of simulations an ideal tool for educators.
Organizational simulations let you run a small town, develop a network of railways, or even nurture a civilization. These games emphasize broad organizational management rather than minute details. As the head of state, head of the business, or even as a benevolent god, you are responsible for making key decisions for your organization that will ultimately determine its longevity. This may require you to feed your tenants on a regular basis, secure funding for your next construction project, or ensure your civilization has a powerful military. In many cases, these games require a good deal of strategy and careful planning to guarantee success.
The primary goal of organizational simulations is to provide countless hours of entertainment. Many titles function indefinitely, allowing you to play the game as long as it holds your interest.
Or Become One of the Gods
Then there are simulations, such as Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Aspyr Media), that defy easy categorization. Guitar Hero III includes a guitar that you play with the music, pressing its corresponding fret buttons and flicking the strum bar as notes cascade toward you. While the game puts you in the role of guitarist for an up-and-coming fictitious band, its playlist draws from the greatest songs in rock ‘n’ roll history, including Cream’s “Sunshine of Your Love,” The Who’s “The Seeker,” The Rolling Stones’ “Paint It Black,” and Pearl Jam’s “Even Flow.” You’ll find 71 songs in all.
Guitar Hero III also features eight rock venues, 13 characters, 50 guitars, and plenty of customization options, including new clothing and different guitar designs. Unlockable video content includes Johnny Rotten and other surviving members of The Sex Pistols talking about re-recording “Anarchy in the U.K.” for the game, as well as motion capture sessions with well-known musicians. And if you think you have the chops, enter Guitar Battle mode to take on a live opponent locally or over the Internet.
Simulations on Deck
The Sims 2 (Aspyr Media) and its University, Nightlife , Open For Business, Pets, Seasons , and Bon Voyage expansion packs continue the tradition set forth by the original Sims game. As in its predecessor, The Sims 2 enables you to create your own digital people and populate a variety of unique neighborhoods with them. You can micro-manage every moment of their lives or make more broad decisions, such as what jobs they will take, and let their free will dictate the small stuff. Now, however, you can do all that in 3D, zooming in and out of the action and rotating around it as you search for the best angle.
The biggest improvement in the game comes in the form of digital DNA, which enables your characters to pass down traits to the next generation. So now you can watch two adult Sims fall in love, get married and have babies who progress from toddler to child to teen to adult to elder. Sims also now die, although they can return as ghosts, a part of the game that creator Will Wright calls “exploring the failure states.”
The Sims 2: University adds a new young adult stage to your Sims’ lives, enabling them to head off to college and experience that lifestyle. In the Nightlife expansion pack, they can visit the new downtown area, checking out the latest hotspots and dancing the night away with The Count, The Diva, and other new, larger-than-life characters. Open For Business turns your Sims intro entrepreneurs, while Pets gives them companions of the furry — and non-furry — persuasion.
The success of The Sims 2 has also spawned a pair of spin-off games, The Sims Life Stories and The Sims Pet Stories, that offer self-contained adventures focusing on specific Sim characters. The former contrasts the stories of down-on-her-luck Riley and successful-but-lonely Vince while the latter follows the feline and canine misadventures of cat sitter Stephen Loyal and dog lover Alice Whitt. Neither game requires The Sims 2 to play, and both of them streamline the gameplay mechanics while offering graphical optimizations that allow them to run well on laptops.
The Sims 2: Seasons brings spring, summer, winter, and fall to your Sims’ world, complete with the appropriate clothes, beverages, and activities. Now your Sims can enjoy some hot chocolate after making a snowman, or they can tend to a garden whose produce lets them make tasty concoctions. Seasons also features six new career paths and the new gardening and fishing skills.
When your Sims want to take a break, send them on vacation with Bon Voyage, which features three exotic hideaways: Takemizu Village, Three Lakes, and Twikii Island. Each one’s unique amenities include exotic meals, guided tours, and new abilities to learn, such as fire dancing and local greetings. You can even build new Far Eastern, mountain, or island retreats for your Sims to visit, as well as create vacation homes in any destination, if your Sims would rather stay there than use a hotel.
And don’t forget that no matter what your Sims are doing, they can always use new clothes, furniture, home decorations, and more. Make that happen with the Family Fun Stuff, Glamour Life Stuff, and Happy Holiday Stuff packs, each of which offers over 60 new items.
So You Want to be a Movie Star
If you’re really enamored with digital film, take your aspirations to the next level with The Movies (Feral Interactive). Start your own movie studio and decide what types of projects to take on, which actors, actresses, directors, and screenwriters to hire and fire, and how you’ll keep all that talent happy during their downtime. You can even decide the exact placement of your sets, trailers, buildings, and other structures on the studio lot.
Let The Movies’ automatic story creator take care of each film’s main plot points, or dictate them yourself with the Advanced Movie-Maker. You can even use the Post-Production Facility to fine-tune the footage your digital talent creates, deciding where to cut scenes, adding sound effects and voice-overs, and more. Thousands of would-be auteurs have uploaded their works to The Movies Online.
The Movies starts at the dawn of cinema, unlocking new technologies as you progress from black-and-white silent films to effects-laden epics. Each five years of in-game time brings about an awards ceremony during which your studio could take home prizes for Best Acting Performance, Most Prolific Studio, and more. If you’d prefer to just make movies and not worry about studio logistics, switch to sandbox mode, which begins with all the extras unlocked and eliminates the talents’ potential personality problems, such as actors who’d rather get drunk than show up on the set.
If, like us, you enjoy making special effects-heavy films, don’t forget to add the Stunts & Effects expansion pack. It allows you to hire stunt performers and task them with all kinds of death-defying feats, such as leaping from a truck just before it explodes or dashing across a bullet-riddled battlefield. New training facilities help them hone their skills, while new sets, such as city streets and jungles, give you additional storytelling options. Blue and green screen sets let you add special effects later, thanks to the expansion pack’s new miniatures, which include a devastated urban landscape and an alien mother ship.
Fly the Unfriendly Skies
While The Movies: Stunts & Effects doesn’t have an aerial dogfight option, you can enter that realm with WarBirds and FlyBoys Squadron (iEntertainment Network), which simulate World War II and World War I air combat, respectively. Hop into the cockpit of a P-51, a Sopwith Camel, or one of dozens of other realistic aircraft from those eras and take on opponents over the Internet. FlyBoys also includes 12 single-player missions reminiscent of the movie on which it’s based.
WarBirds features several strategy elements, including the ability to bomb and take over opposing bases. While flying over realistic maps of World War II era Europe, Africa, and the Pacific Ocean, you attack and defend against opposing forces with your wingmates. If you prefer, you can even hop in a tank and blast the enemy’s bases. Just watch out for bombers trying to drop their payloads on you.
System check
Simulations vary greatly in their system requirements. Organizational simulations often make limited use of three-dimensional visuals. Technical simulations tend to be more graphically ambitious. Since these titles fully recreate a three-dimensional environment, they demand faster processors, more memory, and more capable graphics cards. Please inspect the box of any title that appeals to you to ensure that it will run without a hitch on your Mac.
Digital realities
Simulation games let us experience many things we can’t experience in our everyday lives without great expense (or magical powers). Although the games are no substitute for the subtle nuances of reality, they provide countless hours of compelling entertainment. Pick one up today!
