What is it about Sims

Posted by admin on June 27th, 2014

Not “The Sims” but simulators, I love them as games.

I’ve been playing a bit of a game called Spintires, it’s a heavy, Russian truck simulator and I am really enjoying it, you can check out a video here:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5p3l9lXgirk&w=560&h=315]

The game is basically – here are some trucks, here is some mud which you WILL get stuck in, here are some logs and here is a spot to drop said logs, Enjoy! It doesn’t sound it but it’s so much fun.

I’ve dabbled with simulators before, I own Euro Truck Simulator 2 and Train Simulator 2014 and of course I’ve played The Sims and SimCity (new boo, old yay!) but it’s the vehicle simulators I keep coming back to. I’m not totally sure what the attraction is but I think it’s to do with the fact that there’s actually not much game play, as it were.

These vehicle simulators are fundamentally about transporting something from one place to another, be that goods or passengers in the case of TS2014. There’s the unknown quantity of the vehicle you are driving and often the games are quite difficult, it takes practice to reverse a truck up to the loading bay in ETS2. However the real entertainment in these simulators is making your own game.

Spintires has excellent features for making your own game. Like most driving sims it’s very open world and gives you a huge (square) map to explore. There are fuel drops to discover, garages to find and new trucks to uncover. What I like doing is slogging through mud in the first truck I’m given, checking out the map and then trying to meet the objectives, transporting logs from one side of the map to another. The game is tough though and it’s not long before you either tip your truck over on it’s side or find another truck that needs repairs or fuel. Then the game extends and I find myself trying to rescue my own trucks rather than using the quick ‘teleport to garage’ option. Last night I discovered how to open new garages but it involves towing the largest loads through the mud, I’d never had to apply the winch so often. At this point all thoughts of the games actual objectives are left behind as I set up my own.

So try one out, ETS2 has been on sale regularly on steam or take a look at Spintires. Bring your patience and a pint and some YouTube videos when you can’t work out what to do next and you could find a new gaming experience in the nerdiest of games.

Euro Truck Simulator 2 – http://store.steampowered.com/app/227300/
Spintires – http://store.steampowered.com/app/263280/
Train Simulator 2014 – http://store.steampowered.com/app/24010/

Go on, you know you want to.