I was just browsing the Google Play Store and I am getting frustrated seeing games being tagged with the genre, but aren’t actually simulating anything. E.g. Idle Miner/Mining Tycoon (can’t remember name). Nothing in the game is accurate or even tries to represent real life. It even has cartoon graphics. Now I’m not getting mad about the games themselves, just the fact that they are being labelled as sims. Anyone else annoyed by this?
Play store is a shitshow. It’s so hard to spot the few actual gems in the absolute avalanche of ad-ridden asset flip time wasters that have the only goal of harvesting your data or running a monero miner in the background. The chances are better with paid games, but even then it’s hit-or-miss.
I gave up on mobile gaming long ago.I haven’t played a decent mobile game in ages. How else am I supposed to get my dopamine fix 🙄😂. I am currently enjoying the small open source games on F-Droid however.
The Mobile port for Final Fantasy Tactics is still superb. The UI is a bit outdated but the strategy game itself is not.
Wait until you hear about The Sims
Oh I have, haha.
Wait. Are you telling me Goat Simulator isn’t accurate?
Goat Simulator suffers from the same issue. It’s not a SIMULATOR. Sure, they put in the effort to make it seem like one, but in the background they just attach a camera to a real goat that you control remotely via wires into it’s brain.
It’s just lazy programming really.
At the danger of being whooshed here - with Goat simulator specifically, I think it’s pretty obvious that the game is overall not meant to be taken seriously, including the title.
Open marketplaces will tag their products with anything and everything in the hope of showing up in “featured” lists.
This is another one of the consequences of over SEO in the current age of the internet
I agree.
Technically a simulation is some mathematical model that captures some but not all aspects of a system. (A model that captures every aspect is the system itself)
So like “Idle Miner” models the basic concept of buying capital then putting it to work extracting value. Yeah it’s an ultra-simple model, but it is a model.
Are there any good mobile games out there?
Stardew Valley, Terraria, Minecraft
Terraria only works on non x64 devices. Sad noises…
There’s also geometry dash, vector pinball, 2048, and 1010! Klooni
Bloons
Kingdom rush
Monument valley
Machinarium
The Room
Shattered pixel dungeon
They exist, you just need to hunt a bit harder and be prepared to pay a little for them.
OldSchool RuneScape
Osrs is labeled a sim? Since when
Snakebird is one of the best games I’ve ever played, full stop
- baba is you
- jelly no puzzle
- Super cat tales
Krumit tale, Life in adventure, pocket city, lock screen, setting, kwgt
My current favorite is Slice & Dice
Marketers gonna market. If “simulation” is a hot-selling category, then games are going to be sold as “simulations” if they bear even a slight resemblance to an actual simulation. This the same industry in which the customers con themselves into thinking that Final Fantasy is still a role-playing game.
What are the new Final Fantasies like? 8 was the last one I “beat” and then I never played 9 because the characters looked so cartoonish.
I played the sky pirate one and liked the Gambit system.
I played the one with lightning, but I never got into the whole crystals thing that is so prevalent in FF and it was just such a huge part of that, and they were trying so hard to make her the new cloud.
What are the new Final Fantasies like? 8 was the last one I “beat” and then I never played 9 because the characters looked so cartoonish.
With its protagonist Noctis as the chosen lightbringer, Final Fantasy XV was just an Andrew Lloyd Webber song away from being Lucifer Christ Superstar.
And Final Fantasy XVI is basically Devil May Cry with a story that resembles a George R. R. Martin fanfic only if you aren’t familiar with Michael Moorcock’s Hawkmoon stories.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
an Andrew Lloyd Webber song away from being Lucifer Christ Superstar
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
I HIGHLY recommend X if you like turn based combat. It’s my personal favorite of the series. The setting is chill beach vibes mostly, the context is pretty depressing, and there’s enough story hooks throughout the game to keep you on your toes the entire time.
XVI is pretty great if you like real time combat. If you like it at the beginning but think it’s too basic, keep playing. It gives you more to play with as you go. Great story as well. Most of the characters are really compelling.
XII is a fantastic middle ground as the combat is still then based, but you can move freely, and the gambit system is there if you want it (you can get as high level or deep as you want).
If you liked VII, try out Crisis Core. It’s the best thing to come from that world.
The newer games still have the same general story elements and themes that were characteristic of the entries you’re used to, but the combat is more like an action RPG. The sky pirate one is FF12(my personal favorite one) and Lightnings entries are FF13. Since 14 is an MMO you’ve really only missed two main-series games.
I’m waiting on the latest entry, FF16, to be released on PC so I’m no authority, but from streams I’ve watched the combat is pretty similar looking to the Devil May Cry series.
Since 14 is an MMO you’ve really only missed two main-series games
You can play most of it solo, aside from some of the major boss fights, and it’s both a “greatest hits” nostalgia trip and a damned good FF in its own right once you get into the Heavensward expansion and beyond.
I agree completely and generally describe it as a single-player MMO experience. It does a great job of incorporating the FF storytelling into an MMO environment and I personally love it. I haven’t played since they massively condensed the ARR content a few years back.
At the end of the day though, an MMO and a traditional RPG play very very differently and attract a very different audience so I usually give it an asterisk.
I HATE idle games with all my heart and soul. I love management games and those shitty excuse for a game are everywhere.
If you like management and friendly strategy games look for Kairosoft they are the only ones I know are not Idle shit. Also they are mainly pay once so most of them (except dream house story) don’t have in game stores.
FYI: Reddit has a good Kairosoft community if anyone is interested in going there
Management game you say? May I suggest Prosperous Universe?
You may! and I may try it!
I think that, in theory, idle games wouldn’t be TOO bad on their own. However, they happen to encourage/allow developers to add tons of microtransactions and because of the simple gameplay: many devs make clones of existing games or games with the same game loop. This leads to a shit show of shitty games in the genre. So I believe the concept is meh, but in practice they are all terrible.
I just wish there was a way to hide games. I don’t care about the 15th clone of clash of clans or match 3 games.
Hell I wish google would do that for any product, exclude particular domains from all searches for instance.
Like others have said already: it sells. It’s the same reason why seemingly every single fantasy/adventure game is called an “RPG” regardless of whether or not it contains actual RPG elements, like creating your own character.
Also, most albums tagged with shoegaze on Bandcamp are not shoegaze. It’s a travesty.
Same with grunge, weirdly there’s a lot of shoegaze in there
Grungegaze is a thing though.
The shoegaze like emo music? like those emo kids in South Park that just look at the floor and kind of not dance?
Give me your top 5 shoe gaze albums, for calibration, and also because I love recommendations.
