Although I thoroughly enjoy the concept of micromanagement, I have to say that I'm not really big on simulation games. I never got into The Sims and I was never particularly fond of strategy games either. It's not that I don't think they're cool (cos there are some rad ass titles out there), but personally I think there has got to be something truly compelling about a game in any one of these genres that will make me actually stop and take notice. Here's a few of them.
Space Colony is the closest sim game I've ever played. It's often described as "The Sims in space". Sim purists may complain about it's lack of depth as compared to the popular series. But as a casual gamer, I welcomed the easier approach. Speaking as a perfectionist, I don't want a million options to have to rifle through. That would only distract me from the rest of the game. And that's why I like Space Colony so much. I thought the premise was concise and clever, the characters and locales \ items were amusing, and the graphics were awesome. In the end, I was content with what it had to offer me and I had alot of fun with that game.
Civilization IV has caught my eye recently. And why wouldn't it... it looks absolutely gorgeous. And I know it's a turn-based game (the least popular of the bunch), but the gameplay seems so smooth and fluid I can only imagine you'd hardly even notice. An upgraded graphics engine, the inclusion of religions, and all those eras and world leaders to discover and explore! Aside from it looking and playing great, I love the idea that you're actually LEARNING while you play... a feat so rarely achieved in this day and age of videogames. Now THIS is history I can sink my teeth into. In fact, they should teach classes this way! I would have done alot better in school, I know that for damn sure. I'm so intrigued that I'm seriously considering picking it up once (or if) it becomes available for Mac.
But the game that's got me uber excited is Spore. To be honest, I had never heard of it before (it being a PC game and all) until I had read this. The general concept of the game is that you start as a single celled organism and eventually expand out into the whole damn universe. Seriously. How freakin' rad is that?! And the idea of a game of such magnitude running on a mere portable handheld simply astounds me.
If you've got the time to spare, you should check out Will Wright's presentation. He goes into great detail about Spore's gameplay and all of its potential. I'm almost convinced this can quite possibly be THE COOLEST GAME... EVER.
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