A fascination with simulators

[garyw]

Hello everyone, I'm Gary and I'm addicted to simulators. I think that this realisation came to me somewhere near Berlin when I was driving a Volvo FH16 with a load of tomatoes on the back - this being ETS2 of course and not real life!

Over the course of the weekend I'd driven around part of Europe in ETS2, flown from Hannover to London Heathrow and done a very nice (even if I do say so myself) touchdown on 27R in gusty conditions and performed a small ISS reboost in Orbiter.

Yes, I'm addicted to to simulators but not just any simulators. I like Simulators that have an open world element. For example, ETS2, Orbiter and FSX all allow you to do whatever the hell you want to do and that's pretty key.

In ETS2 I don't have to stick to the route that the GPS has given me, I can go off on a tangent. I can just sit there and listen to the sound of the engine, and the Scania has the best engine sound, the Volvo is not far off. Likewise with FSX, I can just sit at an airport and watch the rain or fly a helicopter to London heliport and have one more try at that tricky platform landing.

Yes, I'm addicted to simulators and I can't see it changing anytime soon.

So tell me, are you addicted to simulators as a whole or just orbiter? Are there any other simulators out there that you'd recommend that a simulator nut should pick up?

 

[Urwumpe]

Well, of course, there is DCS, but the more I played it in the last months, the more I realize that the world in DCS is, while pretty large, not open and not that "alive". When you land on the deck of a carrier, the deck is empty. When you rearm and refuel, your aircraft is changed magically.

I think that is the huge difference to a proper open world like you have in "Witcher III", where you ALWAYS have life around you. You are never really alone somewhere, and if it is just some animal sitting 10 meters away from you. No settlement feels like some anonymous pattern to let the world appear larger, you quickly recognize even small villages.

I think that is also something that I miss in Orbiter - the world is open. But it is lonely up in space. Just take SSU there as bad example: I am in a spacecraft with six other blokes and ladies. But I see none. Not even myself. There are 300,000 - 400,000 people working in the world to get the Shuttle into space and back again. But I see no one, interact with no one. I think that is one thing that I hate most about Orbiter.

The best moments of any DCS multiplayer session has always been how busy the air base gets - even without ground crews. I really wish I would one day experience something like that in Orbiter: You touch down on a base that is busy and even if you choose your own missions, you never are completely lost in space.

Recommendations... of course DCS. In terms of open-world games, Subnautica feels good, though it is rather survival than simulation.

 

[Matias Saibene]

I personally liked: Orbiter, and Microsoft Train Simulator.
What I like about Orbiter, is its expandability, it's visually beautiful (especially the beta), and also gives you the freedom to fly, and what is best, in the beta can visit virtually anywhere, a mountain, atoll, sea, etc.

 

[IronRain]

I'm addicted to simulators as well, yes. I even bought my new PC with FSX in mind. I'm also getting more and more into X-Plane where I've logged about 300 hours so far. Sometimes I even go so far that I fly a C17 from The Netherlands to The Cape or French Guiana (of course with a satellite as cargo) and then launch it a couple of weeks later in Orbiter.

As for recommendation, I can really recommend X-Plane. It feels like Linux under the flight simulators, but if you spend some time setting everything up, it runs perfectly!