The 8 Best Simulator Games You Can Play
Feeling organised? Ready to manage? Our list of the best simulator games will give you a choice of fresh new careers to try. Whether that’s as a university administrator trying to keep students happy, a pilot, or even the new owner of a PC building business. Start writing your to-do list now because it’s time to get simming.
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00:00Feeling organised, ready to manage? Our list of the best simulator games will give you
00:09a choice of fresh new careers to try out. Whether that's a university administrator
00:13trying to keep students happy, a pilot or even the new owner of a PC building business,
00:20start writing your to-do list now, because it's time to get simming.
00:31The best simulation games serve up something that should be a chore and turn it into something
00:35dangerously compelling. Powerwash Simulator just shouldn't work. Yet, when faced with
00:40endless miles of dirt and grime, all we want to do is grab our machine with its variety
00:44of nozzles and get down to filthy business. There's something truly meditative about
00:49tackling the maps of career mode as the muck disappears under gallons of water, with a
00:54rewarding pling as you finish each section, giving you a little supermeme, wait sorry,
00:59dopamine hit. Just another few hundred of those and this place will be sparkling. Oh,
01:05and you can even ask a friend to join you in co-op mode to get together for some good
01:09clean fun.
01:18City Skylines came along in 2015 to restore the city sim genre to its former glory, offering
01:24a contemporary reworking of Maxis' original SimCity formula. Skylines feels like a modern
01:30city sim in every sense of the word, and watching your metropolis expand and thrive in real
01:36time has never looked so good. But don't worry, not too much has changed, your city dwellers
01:41still really don't like it if they live too close to the sewage plant or don't have clean
01:46water. So fussy.
01:47City Skylines is also one of the growing number of simulation games that's available on console
01:52too, and the sleek user interface turns the comfort of a controller into a totally viable,
01:58not to mention enjoyable option for those less au fait with a mouse and keyboard.
02:09The 2020 release of Microsoft Flight Simulator was the first time the series appeared on
02:13console and it was immediately right at home on Xbox Games Pass. If you've always wanted
02:19to take to the skies but never had the gaming PC to power your cloudy dreams, Asbo Studios'
02:24incredible sim is here to switch your brain to airplane mode.
02:28The game is a visual marvel and the level of realism applied to the technicalities of
02:32flying is simultaneously impressive and terrifying. The nice thing though is the understanding
02:38that you might just want to take off and see the sights, in which case you can just turn
02:43on all the assists and the game just becomes beautiful tourism.
02:47As a pilot you can take in the photorealistic 4K planet earth, complete with realistic weather,
02:52and whether you want to see the wonders of the world or just find your house, Microsoft
02:57Flight Simulator will happily oblige.
03:08This is probably going to make you feel really old, but The Sims 4 is now 8 years old. The
03:14reason there's never been a sequel is simple, Maxis has added so many expansion packs, stuff
03:19packs and game packs over the years that The Sims 4 now feels like hundreds of games in
03:24one. Maybe you want to look after an entire family of vampires or werewolves, or perhaps
03:29build yourself the ultimate tiny home, or live by the beach, or take on the lives of
03:33the rich and famous sims, or even just spend hours constructing the ultimate countryside
03:38mansion. Whether you just want to build or really want to dive into the lifestyle element
03:42that's constantly being updated with more diversity and depth, The Sims 4 is still the
03:47cream of the management crop.
03:57Ready your anti-static armband, grab your thermal paste and prep that can of pressurised
04:02air, PC building simulator is here and it's more satisfying than we could ever have predicted.
04:07There's something very soothing about taking on a small PC business and simply sorting
04:12everyone's hardware problems, one rig at a time. This sim is ultra granular, meaning
04:17you have to undo screws and untangle wires before you can even get to the good stuff.
04:22Excitingly too, you can play with a huge range of real life hardware components, brands like
04:27Intel, AMD and Nvidia are all here to bring some gravitas to your ultimate builds. There's
04:32also a free construction mode to build your dream gaming PC. You might even feel like
04:37building your own PC once you're done.
04:49Ready to go back to school? Don't worry, you don't have to go that far back. Two
04:53Point Campus is all about building the ultimate university and, if you've played Two Point
04:57Hospital, you'll be familiar with the humorous tone of this in-depth management sim. Unlike
05:02Two Point Hospital though, where we could look at the bigger picture and not really
05:05worry about the patients turning into spooks in the corridor, Two Point Campus forces us
05:10to really care about our students. If they're not happy learning gastronomy or riding their
05:15horses and jousting at night school, then they won't want to pay you to keep educating
05:19them. Not only that, but we need to take care of their social lives too, throwing parties
05:23in the student union and even adding items to help them build friendships. You better
05:27be having the time of your lives.
05:37Ever wanted to be the lone member of a professional kitchen? The correct answer is, yes chef,
05:42and Cooking Simulator is here to test your skills in a sprawling realistic kitchen. If
05:46your only experience of Chef Sims is cooking mama, consider this a trip from the frying
05:50pan into the fire. Your diners are demanding, and not only that, but cooking is no mere
05:56matter of waving a wooden spoon in the general direction of a pan. Instead, you need to perfectly
06:01measure every ingredient, slice and dice your meats and veg, and perfectly cook each item
06:06in the correct saucepan. Thankfully, if you're more in the mood for mindless destruction,
06:11that's also possible here, and how a lot of our first meals went, with developer Big Cheese
06:15giving you the ability to start fires, break plates, and blow up the microwave. Whoopsie!
06:29Of course, we couldn't have a best Sims list without the sound of screams coming from
06:33a frankly dangerously designed theme park ride, but hey, it's what your guests are
06:38paying for, right? Planet Coaster from the management sim specialist Frontier Development
06:42is here to scratch all your old school roller coaster tycoon itches. Building your own Disneyland
06:47or Universal Studios has never been this much fun, as you craft the theme park of your dreams
06:52from the flowerbeds up. It can be a little intimidating for first time players, as there's
06:56just so much to get to grits with as you build, organise, and staff your park. But once you've
07:01got the basics, Planet Coaster feels limitless. There's also no chance of running out of
07:06new items, with all of the endless DLC packs on offer, so whatever kind of park you want
07:10to build, you'll find everything you want here.
07:14So that's the best simulator games you can play right now. Go forth and manage, or, y'know,
07:19just clean loads of stuff. And let us know in the comments below if you've got your own
07:23recommendations of what we should be playing.