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View Full Version : Console Sim Gaming~ is there an audience?



jaymo76
03-29-2011, 12:52 PM
Let me just say that at heart I am a sports & Simualtion Gamer. On my home computer right now I have:

1. Sim City 4
2. Sim City Societies
3. Cities 2011 XL
4. Roller Coaster Tycoon 3
5. And Then There Were None (Agatha Christie)
6. CivilizationS 2 THROUGH 4
7. Monkey Ilsand Series
8. Zoo Tycoon 3 (deleted because of a disk scratch...)

Plus, my wife has every single edition of The Sims 2 AND THE sIMS 3 (exept Medieval). Real time sims are the basis of computer games. Heck, even facebook, etc is now in full development mode of sim type games (aka farmville, etc). REAL-TIME SIMULATION GAMES ARE EVERYWHERE, EXCEPT ON VIDEO GAME CONSOLES.

My question to this is Why? All of my friends play and love cpu simulation games. I would love to play a true sim game on the PS3 but the last great sim game on console for me was Civilizations I on my PS2. (Civ Revolution is a decent game but it lacks the depth).

Now don't give me the B.S. that the consoles just don't have the power/space, etc. because they do... especially the PS3. I am just amazed that console systems have not put in more type to develop and tap into the simulation community.

I don't play "shoot em up games." For me it's sports on console and sim on PC. I suspect there are a lot of people in my demographic who feel that way. So, will consoles ever see a "return" of simulation gaming or are console sim fans part if a dying breed?


** Back to the Future PS3 sim is a lot of fun!!!

morsdraconis
03-29-2011, 05:16 PM
Supposedly, the reason why more aren't making sim games on the consoles is because the controls (IE a controller) just isn't intuitive for RTSs. Now, of course, games like Civilization, Roller Coaster Tycoon, and Sim City could very much be on a console (as Civ Revolutions proved) but they need to get over this fact that it needs to be babied down for the morons to understand. Sim games (especially Sim City and Civilization) are all about the super complexity of their design.

RTSs aren't ever going to make their way to the console though because the control scheme just isn't ever going to work right. The speed needed to switch between individual units and groups and fly back and forth between combat and continuing to build/upgrade would never work on a console until they make keyboard and mouse a standard control for them (which amazes me that they haven't done yet).

jaymo76
03-29-2011, 06:39 PM
Supposedly, the reason why more aren't making sim games on the consoles is because the controls (IE a controller) just isn't intuitive for RTSs. Now, of course, games like Civilization, Roller Coaster Tycoon, and Sim City could very much be on a console (as Civ Revolutions proved) but they need to get over this fact that it needs to be babied down for the morons to understand. Sim games (especially Sim City and Civilization) are all about the super complexity of their design.

RTSs aren't ever going to make their way to the console though because the control scheme just isn't ever going to work right. The speed needed to switch between individual units and groups and fly back and forth between combat and continuing to build/upgrade would never work on a console until they make keyboard and mouse a standard control for them (which amazes me that they haven't done yet).

I don't know about that. On the original Civilization as well as Civ Revolution they did a good job at moving between units. etc. The designers just need a new way of thinking about doing things

JeffHCross
03-29-2011, 10:11 PM
There are some RTSs that have already made their way to consoles, so part of that argument is squashed. RUSE, Supreme Commander (& 2), Command & Conquer, etc.

The problem is not really the controls. The problem is the market. The sim market on consoles has long thought to be very small, and I don't just mean RTS games -- I mean any simulations. Other than Gran Turismo, there aren't many "sim" titles on any of the consoles. They just don't have the market to justify the expense.

morsdraconis
03-29-2011, 10:22 PM
But Civ isn't Real Time. It's Turn Based. The only RTS that's come close to thinking out of the box for control schemes to deal with the large amount of stuff you need to do quickly in RTSs is Tom Clancy's End War: http://www.platformnation.com/2009/01/05/the-best-console-rts-game-you-arent-playing/

Every other RTS has been complete shit for the console with the closest thing to be meh being Halo Wars.