HICHEM Posted January 12, 2019 Posted January 12, 2019 WAR THUNDER Perhaps the best thing about this free MMO is that it’s very easy to just plunge into it, get a decent idea of its systems and start having fun right away. Try saying that about Flight Simulator X with a straight face. If you’re after sheer volume of machinery, War Thunder’s WW2/Korean War era roster exceeds 300 aircraft. Each can be piloted using arcade (boo!) or simulation physics models to blast away at airborne adversaries playing on both PC and consoles – its servers know no platform boundaries. Which, of course, means there’s usually plenty of easy meat for PC players to pick off. If War Thunder’s skies offer an opportunity for a quick joyride and a bit of sightseeing, ground combat offers the exact opposite – the steel beasts in this tank game move at such a glacial pace that you’re constantly on high alert, scanning for enemies in the scrubland. Whoever fires first in this free Steam game almost always carries away the spoils. The USA, Russia, Britain, Germany and Japan all wage war here, each with their own particular mechanical strengths (there’s a long-running argument concerning Soviet machinery bias in this area), weaknesses… and convoluted upgrade paths. If you’re averse to grinding, this might not be the simulation game for you. If you’re after a WW2 sim with an enormous community that you can start playing with no financial outlay, though… well, your demands are very specific, and War Thunder’s your sim. Play War Thunder for free FARMING SIMULATOR 19 When it comes to farming simulator games, look no further than, er, Farming Simulator 19. The clue’s in the name, frankly. Please excuse our facetiousness, but believe us when we say that if you’re looking for the closest one-to-one recreation of truly living off the land, Giants Software’s latest agricultural outing is for you. And we’re experts, as our Farming Simulator 19 diary eloquently (read: sort of) shows. Considering you’ll most likely be losing many hours to tending your crops and livestock, it’s great that Farming Simulator gives us a graphical overhaul. That doesn’t help the smell of the manure, though. With more vehicles and detail than ever before, Farming Simulator is the kind of management game that teaches you new skills as you get away from the big smoke. Or just lets you make creepy crop circles. FLIGHT SIMULATOR X When people say the word ‘simulator,’ Microsoft’s imperious and encyclopaedic aviation behemoth is the first game that springs to mind. It’s inevitable – like picturing a Christian Bale in a clear raincoat flecked with blood whenever you hear Huey Lewis and the News. It’s rare for a sim to be so all-encompassing that it can provide both light entertainment to the curious casual gamer who wants to fly fighter jets under bridges with a gamepad, and valuable education to a budding pilot ensconced in a home-made cockpit – but such is FSX’s scope. In a recurring theme throughout this feature, mod support plays a huge role in its prolonged lifespan. At this point, all FSX’s best planes and environment maps come from third parties, which means to get the most out of it you’ll need to invest a fair few hours gathering .zips of high-res textures before you fly. TRAIN SIMULATOR 2016 Train Simulator 2016 has some big problems, and a risible pricing model – and yet, it’s unquestionably the best way to travel the world’s best-known and most historic railways without leaving the comfort of your PC gaming dungeon. It’s a tricky one. If you already own Train Simulator 2015, this year’s game is available as a free update that adds a shiny new UI, expanded tutorials and better search functionality. However, it also includes new trains and routes that you can buy by either shelling out TS2016 as a standalone game, or purchasing them separately. Currently the game has over £3000/$5000 of DLC on its Steam store page, carrying over from title to title dating back to 2014, with individual routes and trains costing as much as £24.99/$27.99 each. That pricing model is bewildering at best, and yet armchair locomotion enthusiasts have no better option than TS. Routes are exceptionally detailed, trains include familiar domestic and exotic historical machinery, and while the series has yet to make the jump to Unreal Engine 4 as promised, it boasts higher visual detail than its limited rivals. F1 2015 In some respects, Codemasters’ F1 series has been on something of a downward trajectory for several years, with enjoyable additions such as historical content stripped out and the game’s once lavish career mode now reduced to a single championship season in one of the real drivers’ flame retardant booties. However, beneath this year’s disconcertingly bare game lies the best driving the series has ever seen. F1 2015 arrives with a handling model that articulately conveys the grippiness and volatility of a modern F1 car. Brakes must be applied like you’re taking home a box of eggs in the footwell; turn-in points precisely anticipated and throttle modulated as your V6 engine does its best to squirm away from your control. There are numerous other ways to chase the F1 rush – Assetto Corsa and Project CARS offer something approaching top-tier open wheeled racing, and modders have built damn good approximations of the sport in every simulation game from rFactor to GTR2. But F1 2015 offers fully licensed cars and tracks, both rendered with impressive detail, without the need to unRAR a single file or visit the game directory once. Its wheel support is improving year-on-year, too.
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