simulation
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Let your finger act as a god of the blobs in Blobiverse
Blobiverse is a simulation game in which your finger plays god among all the blobs and small animals wandering the land just below the surface of your device's glass. You have a large landscape filled with grass, trees and small lakes to work with plus all of your tools for placing blobs, animals or scenery in your world and watching it blossom. Guide or antagonize the blobs as they slowly shape the world you rule. Blobiverse is free with in-app purchases for iPhone and iPad and requires at least iOS 7.1. Most of your godly controls for the game are located in a row of icons at the bottom of the display that scroll to reveal even more. You have your blobs, a set of some animals and some trees among other things. Tap one to essentially select it as a paint brush, allowing you to tap all around your Blobiverse to place them. It took me an unreasonably lengthy amount of time to figure out the controls in the game. It doesn't come with a tutorial or brief instructions. When you tap something new, a diagram appears that attempts to explain the function, but does so in a vague way that often left me confused. The diagram either wasn't clear, or following its visual instructions didn't produce the desired effect. Getting to know Blobiverse was more frustrating than it should have been. Eventually the blobs start spreading and building upon this new frontier. They chop down trees and use the wood to built tents and small forts. A community center of sorts magically appears as the game progresses where there seems to be an open exchange of tools and goods among your blobby citizens. One of my blobs decided to then plant some seeds and grow some vegetables. I accidentally tapped the FarmVille-esque crops and killed them though. Life is tough when you're a god. Speaking of your godly duties, they can only truly be fulfilled when you have enough mana capsules. For all intents and purposes, I'm just going to refer to them as energy. As you control aspects of the Blobiverse or place various new blobs and scenic additions, your energy meter at the top drops. It regrows over time, but if you're in such a rush packs of mana capsules are available as in-app purchases. Part of the charm in Blobiverse is, as a god, discovering what your abilities are. You might tap something and find you just completely obliterated it (like those poor vegetables) or you might discover something new from the tap. You have to pan around and explore. I get that out of Blobiverse and in that regard, it succeeds. That said, I do wish it provided more guidance for beginners. I was left scratching my head far too often trying to figure out what I could and couldn't do with the world in my hands. As far as entertainment value, I regret to say that Blobiverse loses its novelty quickly. It's fun exerting your power for a bit, but I don't stay engaged, at least not in the same way as I would if I was to play something with more substance like the Sims. Blobiverse is a universal game for iOS and it's free in the App Store.
Atmospheric bounty hunter White Space explained in dev diary
Curve Studios Design Director Jonathan Biddle discussed the alpha version of his latest game White Space in a new developer diary video. In it, bounty-hunting players fly from one pretty, polygonal, procedurally-generated planet to the next to take down their targets.
Surgeon Simulator team tackles loaf life in I Am Bread
The warped minds behind Surgeon Simulator 2013 explore another unexpected branch in the simulation genre with I Am Bread, a game in which players assume the role of... an ambulatory slice of bread. In Bossa Studios' I Am Bread players use the bumpers, triggers, and face buttons on an Xbox 360 controller to guide the glutenous star on its quest to be toasted and served at breakfast. The game's mundane premise and setting really help sell it as a work of pure ridiculousness, and the bread can wind up in all sorts of misadventures on its way to the dining room table. "How did it get up on the ceiling fan?!" is something you may find yourself thinking while watching the above trailer, followed soon after by "Oh, no not the toilet, ewwwwwww gross." A release date for I Am Bread was not announced, and target platforms (including toasters) are not yet known. [Video: Bossa Studios]
Star Citizen earns Guinness world record for crowdfunding efforts
As Star Citizen recently crossed $55 million in funding, Roberts Space Industries founder Chris Roberts announced that the game is entering the Guinness Book of World Records "not as the largest crowdfunded game of all time, but as the largest crowdfunded anything of all time."
Love is in the air at the Tokyo Game Show
Dating simulation games are nothing new in Japan; and in fact, there's something for both boys and girls. This particular booth at the Tokyo Game Show was chiefly promoting Voltage Inc.'s romance mobile apps to the ladies, but with a twist: The company brought in some "attractive models" to let attendees "experience the world of romance apps in real life." Japanese girls (and some guys) were actually lining up to try a scene from one of the three games, and needless to say, it's rather entertaining to watch their reactions -- which were unsurprisingly consistent in general -- as the male characters wooed them with a "kabe don." And if you don't know what that is, educate yourselves with our video after the break.
Blood Bowl dev launching football simulator next week
Blood Bowl developer Cyanide Studio announced the impending launch of its new sports management game today, Front Page Sports Football. The PC simulation game has players managing a fictitious football team, picking from over 2,300 plays to lead their franchise to gridiron glory. Squad members rely on over 20 skills such as speed, agility and morale, each influencing the effectiveness of plays called by armchair coaches. The game marks a resurgence in Sierra Online's American football management series of the same name that spanned 1992 to 1999, though Sierra is not involved in the latest game. Cyanide Studio announced Front Page Sports Football in July, and is also working on a Blood Bowl sequel in addition to its stealth game, Styx: Master of Shadows. Images of Front Page Sports Football's menu-heavy interface can be seen in the gallery below, or when the game launches next Thursday, September 25 for $19.99 (€19.99, £14.99). It's not the only upcoming football simulation game, as the developers behind the Out of the Park Baseball management series plans to launch Beyond the Sideline Football in 2015 with full NFL licensing support. [Image: Cyanide Studio]
Virtual reality training for rescuers may save your life in a crisis
While some soldiers have virtual reality training to familiarize themselves with the battlefield, paramedics and other rescuers are out of luck; their first crisis is frequently all too real. Intelligent Decisions isn't happy with that lack of preparation, so it's developing a VR system that gives first responders a taste of what it's like to handle major emergencies. Its upcoming Medical Simulation thrusts trainees into chaotic situations like natural disasters and terrorist attacks, teaching these people to maintain focus and treat those who need the most help. The hardware can incorporate actors and mannequins into computer-generated scenes, and it will have sensors for blood pressure, heart rate and gaze to verify that crews are staying cool under pressure.
The 13 billion-year evolution of the universe, crammed into a four-minute video
Now you've got the basics of the universe down, try a dreamy tour through 13 billion years of stars and the space between them all. That's what Nature's offering, courtesy of MIT and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Prior attempts to scale and visualize everything ever were apparently hampered by a lack of computing processing power and the outright trickiness of the physics involved. The Illustris Project eventually took five years to craft and is apparently made of 10 billion minute cubes inside a virtual box measuring some 350 x 350 million light-years. It's not the first history of everything simulation, but it's the fanciest looking one -- watch the whole thing after the break. Astronomer Michael Boylan-Kolchin adds, in a commentary of the study: "If this all sounds somewhat complicated, do not be fooled: It is extremely complicated."
Fly like a bird with this VR-powered, scent-emitting machine
Current technology and human anatomy may prevent you from soaring like a bird in real life, but a team at the Zurich University of the Arts may just have the next best thing. Their Birdly machine lets you flap your way through the air much like the Red Kite it's modeled after. Motors translate your hand movements to the virtual avian's wings, and an Oculus Rift VR headset gives you an all-too-literal bird's eye view of the scenery -- you probably won't want to look down very often.
PS Vita Pets plays fetch on June 3
PlayStation Vita Pets, the pet simulation-meets-adventure game from Spiral House, will launch June 3 in North America and June 4 in Europe. In the game, players choose from four different dogs, care for them, then explore Castlewood Island to "uncover the long lost legend of a king and his dog." Sony's answer to Nintendogs was announced in August, at which point it was revealed that the animals in the game talked like humans. PlayStation Blog noted today that the game features roughly 10,000 lines of spoken dialogue, which is around 10,000 more lines than you'd expect to hear out of any animal. [Image: SCEE]
Goat Simulator now available for barnyard mischief on Steam
Leave it to Coffee Stain Studios to deliver totally serious news on April Fool's Day: The indie developer launches Goat Simulator on Steam today. For $9.99, PC players can raise hell as the adorably mischievous goat, scoring points by breaking items as they would in a game like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, save for the epic tricks. To whet the appetites of today's unfunny pranksters, Coffee Stain Studios did offer goofy "release day patch notes" in Goat Simulator's official Steam forums. The day-one patch "added more goats," "added more goatiness to the map," increased "goat tongue realism" by 25 percent and "probably added some bugs." The patch did not change the goat in the game to a hawk, which would have made more sense of our conversation with the developer at the Game Developer's Conference in March. [Image: Coffee Stain Studios]
Surgeon Simulator to save or ruin lives on iPad tonight
Surgeon Simulator will launch on iPad tonight, providing the game follows the common trend for UK and US iOS app releases that hit the same day as New Zealand. The game is out now for New Zealanders, and has players guiding the shaky hands of returning surgeon-of-sorts Nigel Burke through operations on "the world's unluckiest patient, Bob." The game includes a multiplayer mode, the heart and double-kidney transplants from the bloody PC version of the game as well as new teeth and eye transplant objectives. Given the game's new touch controls, developer Bossa Studios opted to hack away Nigel's left arm, so it no longer floats around the operating room in the iPad version. Those with iPad 4 devices or better can also record and upload their surgeries for the amusement of others. Surgeon Simulator will cost $5.99 for US players and £3.99 for wannabe doctors in the UK, according to Pocket Gamer. [Image: Bossa Studios]
Warehouse and Logistics Simulator updated with zombie DLC
Aside from being the closest we'll get to seeing a Shenmue 3 in this lifetime (given its high-level simulation of forklift physics), United Independent Entertainment's Warehouse and Logistics Simulator is best known for its realism and faithful recreation of mundane labor. Similar to PC games like Farming Simulator and Train Simulator, Warehouse and Logistics Simulator challenges players to complete an honest day's work while focusing on safety and efficiency. Forget all of that, though. This week sees the release of Hell's Warehouse, a horror-themed add-on that fills the game's harbors, distribution centers, and construction sites with bloodthirsty zombies. Luckily, players find themselves behind the wheel of a rugged forklift, which is more than capable of mowing down the undead hordes. Bombs, mines, and other weapons will also help to clear out particularly stubborn zombies across multiple scenarios and gameplay modes. Hell's Warehouse is available at a 20 percent discount during its first week of release. [Image: United Independent Entertainment]
Infinite Flight offers a bumpy, but excellent, ride
Flight simulators often straddle a strange line between being games and instructional tools. There's rarely an objective beyond ones that you yourself set -- getting off the ground is a fine starting point -- and if you're like me, the "game" ends when you make a poor navigational choice and end up smacking into the terrain below. Still, I find myself drawn to them, and Infinite Flight is one of the best flight simulators I've found on the App Store. When you open the app, you're greeted with four changeable flight options: Your type of plane, location, weather, and time of day. There's a number of variations of each, with a total of 31 aircraft (14 of which are obtained via in-app purchases), a dozen or so regions, a huge range of weather conditions, and four times of day. Once you have all your options set, the app throws you straight into the cockpit of your virtual plane. There's really no tutorial to speak of, aside from a "Help" option that explains what each of the many on-screen control buttons does, but through a process of trial and error (mostly error), you'll should find yourself taking to the skies before long. As soon as you're airborne -- and once you've learned the demeanor of your aircraft -- you can explore each massive real-world location for as long as you want. I live roughly fifty miles from one of the starting airports offered on the starting menu, and was able to fly by my relatively small hometown while piloting a massive jet. There are a couple of things that keep Infinite Flight from being jaw-droppingly amazing: First, while many of the planes are extremely detailed and well modeled, the actual scenery and airports are extremely basic. There's nothing in the way of 3D buildings or varied terrain, which is find when you're high in the sky, but can be cringe-worthy when landing. The second issue is that half of the planes on offer require in-app purchases, which can amount to a pretty hefty iTunes bill if you want them all. The app itself is US$4.99, which is a bargain for an extremely deep game like this, but it feels strange that many of the best aircraft require you to use your credit card again. Despite these shortcomings, Infinite Flight is still one of -- if not the -- premiere flight experiences on the App Store. It's (mostly) eye-catching, and crams a huge amount of content into a small package, even if some of it costs a few bucks extra.
iRacing is the real driving simulator
I've never been to northern California's legendary Laguna Seca road course. In meatspace, at any rate. But thanks to dozens of realistic racing game recreations, I know the track's serpentine layout and its infamous corkscrew corner like the back of my hand. I've barreled through it hundreds if not thousands of times since 1999's Gran Turismo 2, so it darn well ought to be familiar by now, right? And it was, right up until I loaded onto iRacing's version of it.
Beyond the Sideline Football NFL management sim coming in 2015
Beyond the Sideline Football is a management simulation game like the ever-popular Football Manager series, due out in 2015 for PC, Mac and Linux. Unlike Football Manager, the game is centered on a different sport: American football. Coming from Out of the Park Developments, the creators of the excellent Out of the Park Baseball management series as well as Title Bout Championship Boxing 2013, the game will include all 32 NFL teams and their current roster of players. Like other management sims, the game has players managing their team's depth chart, simulate matches for decades and call every play in individual games. Additionally, players can bring their favorite teams to fortune (or run them into the ground) by negotiating contracts, participating in the annual player draft and make trades to better their franchise's future. OOTP Developments is boasting "nearly 50 tracked stats" for the game's virtual athletes as well as "complete histories" and automatically-generated news and stories to build the game's sporty universe. Beyond the Sideline has another connection to Football Manager, as former Sports Interactive developer Francis Cole is the lead developer on the project. [Image: Out of the Park Developments]
Denver Broncos picked to win Super Bowl XLVIII in Madden 25 simulation
EA Sports ran a simulation of the Super Bowl XLVIII match-up this coming Sunday between the Denver Broncos and the Seattle Seahawks using Madden NFL 25 and wound up predicting a Broncos victory with a score of 31-28. The simulation had Denver toppling Seattle in dramatic fashion: Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch brought the team to within two points on a last-second 27-yard touchdown run before the team successfully scored two more on the two-point conversion attempt to take the game to overtime. The sim then showed Seattle stalling out in the first possession of overtime before Broncos kicker Matt Prater booted the game-winning field goal. Broncos quarterback (and noted Papa John's pizza spokesman) Peyton Manning earned the Super Bowl MVP award thanks to his 322-yard, three touchdown performance in the simulation. EA's Super Bowl simulations have a decent track record, as the publisher has successfully named the Super Bowl winners in eight out of the last ten years by using the latest roster files in the current Madden game. If that's not a testament to the work of Madden Ratings Czar Donny Moore, then we're not sure what is. Head past the break to see the list of EA Sports' Super Bowl predictions in recent years and each game's actual outcome.
Romance your anime boss in Our Two Bedroom Story for iOS and Android
It's a fantasy come true: After admiring him from afar for so long, you're now moving in with your dreamy boss from work. Will this be the beginning of a budding romance, or is it the start of a workplace disaster? It's up to you to keep your professional life on track while spending quality time with your pretty anime boyfriend in Our Two Bedroom Story, a rare English-localized entry in the otome (female audience-targeted) romance simulation genre released today for iOS and Android devices. "As the player is thrown into her secret, new life with her boss," the game's description reads, "she can experience the excitement of seeing a side of her guy that she never sees at work." Our prediction: He refuses to do the dishes and his room smells like a fart circus. It's up to you, then, to shape him into the boyfriend you want him to be while not getting fired from your day job. That would be awkward. Our Two Bedroom Story's prologue chapter is free to download, but to continue your romantic conquest, you'll need to purchase one of two story paths, priced at $3.99 each. The game's epilogues cost an extra $1.99.
Fight manager sim Title Bout Championship Boxing 2013 out on iPad, Android
Boxing management sim Title Bout Championship Boxing 2013 is now available on iPad and Android via the Google Play store. Title Bout 2013 launched on PC, Mac and Linux in June 2013, one month after Out of the Park Developments sold the series to PISD, an independent company that provides OOTP with development libraries used for Out of the Park Baseball. Title Bout 2013 has players simulating boxing matches, setting up tournaments, training sessions and more in a management simulation/text-adventure-style interface. Much like OOTP Baseball and Sports Interactive's Football Manager series, Title Bout 2013 features a huge database of real-life athletes, sporting over 8,000 fighter records. The management sim is said to be nearly the same on iOS and Android as it is on PC, though it's priced at a moderate $1.99 compared to the current $9.99 price for two PC licenses on the game's site. Title Bout Championship Boxing has a lengthy history, as it began as a tabletop game created by brothers Jim and Tom Trunzo in the late 1970's, later seeing DOS-based text simulation TKO Boxing in 1990. Comp-U-Sport created Title Fight 2001, a brand later sold to OOTP Developments, which launched Title Bout Championship Boxing 2 and version 2.5 in 2005 and 2008, respectively.
Digitally simulated worm wriggles for the first time (video)
It's relatively easy to simulate life in an abstract sense, but it's tricky to do that cell by cell -- just ask the OpenWorm Project, which has spent months recreating a nematode in software. However, the team recently cleared an important milestone by getting its virtual worm to wiggle for the first time. The project now has an algorithm that triggers the same muscle contractions you'd see in the real organism, getting the 1,000-cell simulation to "swim" in a convincing fashion. There's still a long way to go before OpenWorm has a complete lifeform on its hands, mind you. The group has to introduce code for a nervous system, and performance is a problem -- it takes 72 hours to emulate one-third of a second's worth of activity. If all goes well, though, you'll eventually get to play with the worm through a browser. In the meantime, you can check out the digital critter's motion in a video after the break.
