112 Operator
Overview
Ol' Il Pallino has a confession to make: He’s never played 9-1-1 Operator going into 1-1-2 Operator, so this review most likely won’t be helpful for players who wonder how both games compare. The selling point for 1-1-2 Operator is obviously the feature that allows players to play sandbox games in any city in the world. Campaigns, however, are limited to a handful of cities in Europe and the gray area that is Istanbul, Turkey. Both the sandbox and campaign start with a story of the player becoming an emergency dispatcher managing a single district through a probationary period, and after three shifts, the player presumably does well enough to unlock more regions on the map (the player gets to pick which regions in sandbox mode) and also gains more units and personnel along the way. (New vehicles may be purchased once unlocked. Equipment may also be purchased for police, medical, and fire units to perform specialized tasks or to simply make units more skillful.) As the player progresses, the situations become more hectic, but if the player knows anything about unit and resource management (and you probably do, or else you wouldn’t be reading this review) the player should have no problem staying on top of tasks no matter how overwhelmed the player feels seeing icons appearing on the screen requesting any combination of police, medical, and/or fire units, and all in real time.
– Real player with 273.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best Simulation Realistic Games.
DISCLAIMER: I backed 112 Operator on Kickstarter, and have been playing since Closed Alpha.
TL;DR: I recommend 112 Operator, especially if you’re a fan of 911 Operator.
Features
All the features and events from 911 Operator and its DLCs are there, e.g. earthquake, blackouts, search request, etc. So what about the new features promised in-this game?
[olist]
- New fire mechanics is one of the highlights of their promotion. Mechanically it works, and it does pose a large challenge to manage this event while considering things like the weather and wind. However, based on experience (on very early build), the mechanics is let down by the often poor pathfinding that the units take. I have had several instances where police units were stuck between the fire or can’t find a proper path to a clear area, thus failing evacuation on the fire’s path. This might’ve been improved in release, but sadly I haven’t been able to see this in action since large area fires occurs very rarely in campaign, and almost never occur in free-game.
– Real player with 34.9 hrs in game
Der Milchbauer
If you need to speed up your carpal tunnels inflamation, this game is your best choice. Buying 300 cows = clicking 300times (+), no +5 , +10, mark with shift etc… If you want to inseminate the 300 cows you have to click 300times, but also need to scroll in slowly reacting list. The worst GUI execution is dragging this game completely down. And with the real economic data, well I am not really sure. Its better to buy the cows and sell them when they stop milking and buy new ones, than to inseminate them. Does not sound reallistic to me.
– Real player with 6.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best Simulation Management Games.
It’s really, really hard for me to give this game a review. First of all: It’s a very small game, don’t expect anything big. It’s more of a clicker game. You cannot be very active in terms of building visible new buidlings. You can upgrade buildings, but just via text.
The whole game takes place on two screens: The farm screen and the stable screen. There is no tutorial or anything like this, nothing is getting explained, yet the handling is pretty simple and I guess it’s part of the game to explore the few mechanics by yourself. You start off pretty empty with 50k bucks and no cows at all. First step is obviously buying some cows and sell the milk. The nice thing is, the whole game was built around real data from German farmers. The price you get for your milk changes every day and is NEVER really high.
– Real player with 1.0 hrs in game
Global ATC Simulator
I have to say that I keep coming back to this sim when I need something to organize… which ain’t that often. But that’s just me. If you like logic problems and solving simulated emergencies then crank up the settings and go for rush hour at JFK or ATL.
What I like about the game is that it’s easy to configure and control. When I say control, I mean manipulating the planes as they come and go. The airport database is very complete and I’ve yet to find an airport worth controlling that’s missing. And, from what little I’ve experienced in real life, the SIDS and STARS are pretty darn good.
– Real player with 59.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Simulation Management Games.
I love a good aviation similator (to include ATC) and this simulator does well at simulating real world situation and probably would make a good training tool, as I Aerosoft typically makes applications for. So first off, the blemishes…
With every Aerosoft package I’ve used they AI is barely functional, they just can’t seem to get a programmer on staff with any kind of appreciable skill at providing intelligence to air traffic or the environment. So what do I mean by that? Well in this simulator, an aircraft pilot should refuse some ATC requests based upon weather conditions. When I had visibilty down to under a mile and clearly ILS landing conditions, I was able to get planes to accept visual approaches while well outside of visual capabilities (10 miles and FL130+). Any intelligent pilot would have radio’d back “unable”. Altitudes and speed restictions over certain navigation aids were not enforced and I didn’t appear to get “dinged” for not meeting the required conditions at the navaid. The only “realistic” feature I did find is if had aircraft landing “with” the wind they would abort a landing and would radio back to me they were unable to land due to a lack of runway due to tailwind conditions. I suspect that Aerosoft is expecting a trainer to be monitoring a student who will apply a “thwack” to the back of the student’s head when mistakes are made. The tutorial states that multiple commands can be given at once via the command line but I have yet to be able enter more than a single command a time, even using the example they provide.
– Real player with 49.0 hrs in game
Spaceship Simulator
A fairly decent game for the price, definitely worth checking out. Not very long though, I beat it in about 8hrs and that was with me messing about fighting enemies I didn’t really need to while testing out different ship designs. There are also a few game breaking bugs - namely sometimes you can only attempt a challenge mission once (which is clearly not intended) thus preventing the game from continuing.
Despite that, it is still a lot of fun. The major draw - harvesting parts from enemies to build your ship - is done well enough and the actual ship design segment (despite some counter intuitive elements and a tediousness that could be solved with a copy/paste feature) is actually rather fun. The sinuous nature of the ships moving about like living things is not something you see often, especially not a as major role in the ship design. In that, this game achieves exactly what it set out to do.
– Real player with 7.2 hrs in game
I had a good time playing this game for the most part. The various enemies were cool, I really liked the spider spaceship design. Just keep in mind: when building your spacecraft, you must select the part you want to add and then click and drag from a joint to place it. It must be within a certain range of that joint. The game is pretty simplistic, but it isn’t too expensive and I’m a sucker for games where you build on to your vehicle by destroying enemy vehicles. Some updates to the game and maybe a way to do pvp would be cool. I probably won’t explore the game further unless it gets updated.
– Real player with 3.9 hrs in game
Suez Canal Simulator
A lot has been improved just on the main screen before entering the ship. In the top right at the main menu there is a tab marked “Options”. In there are simple to understand controls which I recommend you write down on paper, a note file if you have a 2nd screen or something.. Also in options is a briefing or some such name. That tells you what you are responsible for doing and what you are not.
This is not for everyone. You need to not be after an exciting game with action. It is more for seeing what it is like on the canal. You do speed up and slow down, but, you don’t steer left and right. That is auto piloted.
– Real player with 6.6 hrs in game
Do not buy! Ugly main menu background, this game is horrible and has rigid gameplay, graphics are from another century. It’s uninteresting. Lack of action, the product seriously lacks work. Not worth more than 1$.
The dev even blocked me to not tell what I was thinking about his “simulator”
– Real player with 0.1 hrs in game
Dracula’s Castle
Manage the castle by expanding it, then build and unlock new rooms granting new mechanics to explore. The Alchemist will allow you to equip Dracula with mystical tools, unlock the bat cave to improve Dracula’s Mist Form. The more you expand, the more your labour force can grow. You’ll need to grow your army of servants in order to accumulate enough soil to sail to England on the Demeter.
Travel Transylvania by night but watch out for Van Helsing. Stalk the towns of Transylvania, on the hunt for fresh blood, or attempt to overwhelm them to gain powerful bonuses. Feast, recruit laborers or “invite” a guest to the castle, the choice is yours. You’ll need to entrap Jonathan Harker to fulfill Dracula’s dark designs.
Grow Dracula’s power the way you want to. Dracula possesses different attributes such as Power, Cunning, Speed, Charm and Magick. Choose which ones to train and equip the right relics for your build. Build new monsters at the Alchemist’s Lab utilising recipes found in the Necronomicon! Craft or acquire new gear throughout your adventure.
Engage angry mobs, town militia and even dedicated vampire hunters in exciting tactical turn-based combat. Leverage Dracula’s powerful abilities and forms to outwit and overwhelm the enemy. The spoils of battle are yours! Hand over curios and materiel to the Castle Alchemist to craft new items and raise new monsters to join Dracula’s dark menagerie.
Follow the early plot of Bram Stoker’s masterpiece, the main goal centers around Jonathan Harker, Van Helsing and the trip to Carfax Abbey in England; but plenty needs doing in the dark corners of Transylvania. Engage in various side-quests given to you by Death and other denizens of the castle as you work on building up Dracula’s regional power.
rFactor
I first discoverd rfactor when I was at a car fair that had an F1 simulator. So when I went over to have a go I enjoyed the F1 car model and the sim that came with it. Since then I was clueless to know what the name of the software it was using until now when one day I was looking through Steam and when I randomly found it I said to myself “Hang on! This is the same sim that the F1 simulator was using!!” So I downloaded it, Installed it on to my computer and gave it a go out of the box and it became my main racing sim ever since.
– Real player with 339.3 hrs in game
First things first, this game is old. 10 years old. Don’t come expecting much in the way of graphics, you’ll be disappointed. If you want graphics, go for a new sim like Assetto Corsa,
Second, the base game content sucks. If you don’t like modding games, don’t buy this game.
Third, this is damned fun. The AI is highly adaptable, I have found. None of the awkwardness of being too fast for one difficulty but too slow for the next one. The modding community is enormous, IE to scales I’ve only really seen beaten by Bethesda RPGs and FSX. Want F1 cars from 1982? Got that. Want Indycars from 1998? Got that too. Want Argentinian Touring Cars, Australian GT cars, or British Formula 3? It’s got all that.
– Real player with 227.0 hrs in game
Winter Resort Simulator
This game has been nothing short of amazing for what it currently offers, but there is always room for improvement and the addition of other things as well. Some of the things in which may be cool are new maps created by the developers along with different lift manufacturing companies like Leitner including North Americas Leitner Poma and possibly older Doppelmayr lifts like Uni-m and stealth. Other older companies like Yan, Von Roll, and Riblet would be cool as well to create older resorts but of course these additions include licensing if not coming from the workshop but offering as a DLC would be great too. Work on minor fixes would also need to happen like better rendering and better rates at FPS. Its getting better, but its not there yet, but I can also see how rendering with LUA code causes lag, but fixes to this would be great. This could also include better optimization for larger user created maps as well. All in all its a great game and the sandbox feature is amazing for what it offers now but more like larger map sizes than what there is now would be cool. Another thing in which may need work on is creating lower tris count trees so that they dont contribute to the render lag as much as they do.
– Real player with 235.6 hrs in game
Hello, everyone I really did like the stunning detail with slopes and mountains and train weather and sky and snow animation makes me really believe I am actually on the slopes. The Chair Lift mechanics and attention to detail is worth buying the game in itself, but as of right now the game doesn’t have munch to offer, just a bunch of restursants to purchase, and I still haven’t found the other chairlifts besides the ones you start out with. I don’t know if your supposed to place them or not. Also why would you place rented ones. It don’t make munch since to me. In all and all if given some time and patience this game could be a top Selling game. Anyways happy gaming. :) Also can you at least give us a named map where everything is at and mark my charactor walking so I know where I am at. Also slop start/end locations would be good too. Anyways it has the protential to be a really great game, but needs more help.
– Real player with 73.6 hrs in game
Action SuperCross
I just love this game. When I found out that it was available on Steam I had the same feeling as when I received a CD-ROM from my grandmother in 2000 on my birthday (I still have it). Thanks for being part of my childhood.
– Real player with 2.3 hrs in game
Nice to have this shareware classic on Steam after all these years at a fair price. It’s a simple DOSBox bundle, so there’s no modern widescreen enhancements or achievements - just cloud and workshop support. Despite the 4:3 aspect ratio, I think the simpler aesthetic holds up a bit better than Elma visually.
A fair amount of the levels were tweaked and reused in Elma, but there are some differences in physics and level design that make it interesting enough to replay, and the lost levels are a nice bonus.
– Real player with 1.9 hrs in game
Farming Simulator 22
Warning! Fanboy (and proud of it) review ahead.
This being the 5th version of Farming Simulator I have played; it’s pretty safe to say that I am a fan of it. There is no doubt. I will start by saying that this is literally the same game as FS19. As it is, FS17-15-13. A common complaint from some people for reasons that I do not understand. What makes our favorite games, our favorite game? If they turned it into a tractor demolision derby; would it be the same game we love now? While that does sound fun; it is not what we all originally bought the game for. We buy (and then rebuy) these games because there is something about them that we like. Why has the GTA Franchise been so wildly popular all of these years? For the reason I pointed out above. Standard Psychology aside…
– Real player with 108.4 hrs in game
(Summary at bottom)
NOT a reskinned FS19. I have about 650 hours on FS19 and I can most certainly say this is much better in many ways, and many things have been completely overhauled.
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Sounds have had a major overhaul, makes the game feel more realistic and immersive.
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More placeables than ever, including sheds with working doors, refuel stations (diesel, methane, and electric), seed & fert tanks, etc. Fences too, great addon, easy to use.
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Many many new brands, and more tire brand options. Also license plates for equipment and vehicles.
– Real player with 79.3 hrs in game