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Simulation

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Meeple Station is a space station simulator that has been in early access for awhile and I figured it’d be good to give it a look now in September of 2019. Some of the early feedback was that the game was shallow and I think, from what I’ve played, that’s not so true anymore. Once your station is launched, there is definitely some waiting time before you can do “more” and that will likely evolve over time, but there is a lot to do in the game as is. Gameplay The gameplay is very in-depth at this stage of development for a simulation game. On the surface, it seems shallow, but ultimately more layers of the game emerge as you play it for any significant amount of time. The first thing you have to do is build your station with a limited set of resources (or spawn a pre-configured “good…

Islanders requires you to place buildings in a way that builds synergy in a zen like continuous march, much like business meetings. The way you place each building is how you build your score. Certain buildings like other buildings and dislike others. As a city planner your job is to place the buildings in a please way, build enough score and move to the next island where you start all over again. The vast majority of achievements focus around building buildings & building your score and rushing to certain milestones. To move from island to the next, you’ll have to reach specific score thresholds. Once you start at a new island, you lose everything from the previous one (except the score). You can press ESC at any time to see your online ranking. You can stay on one island before moving to the next to continue score building if you’d…

Back in the day, there used to be two baseball games that would compete with each other; Sony’s MLB The Show and MLB 2K. Following the release of MLB 2K13, 2K Sports dropped the franchise, leaving PlayStation exclusive The Show to dominate the virtual baseball market. In 2014, RBI Baseball brought back their franchise, aiming to create a more arcade-based style instead of the realistic simulation that The Show offers. I think that is an unwise decision and that the RBI Baseball franchise won’t exist much longer in the future. The thing about baseball video games is that no one buys them except for hardcore baseball fans. Except for Mario Baseball or epic arcade-style games like The Bigs or Slugfest, baseball fans want a realistic sim. The casual baseball fan isn’t going to buy a copy of RBI Baseball like a casual fan would buy Madden or NBA 2K. If…

The Super Bowl is one of the most televised events in the world. This year, fans across the globe tuned in to see if the New England Patriots would continue their dynasty or if they would crumble at the hands of the Los Angeles Rams. I imagine that most fans were rooting for the Rams, since the Patriots have seen way too much success, but alas, it wasn’t meant to be. This year’s Madden Super Bowl simulation that predicted the Rams would top the Pats was wrong, just as I knew would be the case. In one of the most boring Super Bowl games I have ever witnessed, I couldn’t help but think – would a game of Madden be more entertaining than this? This year’s Super Bowl was all about defense. The score going into halftime was 3-0 Patriots and ended up just 13-3. Props to those who took…

Recently I heard of a story about Formula 1 Racing. There was some race between an accomplished F1 racer and an Esports racer on a real-life track. If I’m betting money on this race, I’m throwing it all on the tried and true driver, the one who has raced in the physical world. I would have lost all of my money. The Esports driver won, beating the actual driver with years of experience by 0.6 seconds – unbelievable. The training from his video game sim was so realistic; he was able to drive a real F1 car better than a serious competitor in the racing realm. How else can video games be used as training? This may sound like something from a sci-fi movie, but video games may be the key to the future. Think about how advanced video games have become. They may be able to help us in all sorts…

As has been done in the past, Electronic Arts did their yearly Super Bowl simulation, trying to predict this year’s winner. This Madden NFL 19 sim had the Rams beating the Patriots by a score of 30 – 27. Historically, the Madden Super Bowl sim has been pretty accurate. Since 2004, the simulation has been correct 10 out of 15 times, not bad for a video game. While Madden has shown to be accurate in past predictions, I am here to tell you Madden is wrong this year. As much as I would love to see my UGA boy Todd Gurley tear it up this Sunday and hoist that Lombardi trophy, I don’t see it happening. There is one thing that video games cannot replicate – determination and spirit. Tom Brady and the Patriots are determined and motivated like never before. They feel like they are underdogs and that everyone doubts them, and that terrifies me. The…