Top life simulation games for pc. Better than life. Ten most realistic games. How to make your body listen

Jane McGonigal is the first person in the world to receive a PhD for her study of games and their impact on our lives. Unlike many, she doesn't see games as a waste of time. Her research shows that games help solve real problems - from breaking bad habits to fighting dangerous diseases.

Once the game saved Jane herself, and then helped another 400,000 people. That's how Jane realized: living playfully is an idea that can change everything. We can create the game we want to play ourselves and win the grand prize. She talked about this in the book SuperBetter.

Jane the Concussion Slayer

In the summer of 2009, Jane McGonigal suffered a concussion. She suffered from constant headaches, nausea and dizziness. My head was in a fog. Jane couldn't read, write, run, work, drink coffee. She was overcome with despair. And then a brilliant idea came to mind.

Jane told herself: either I will kill myself, or I will turn life into a game.

By that time, Jane had studied the psychology of games for 10 years and was sure that those who play games - computer, board, sports or other - are more creative, purposeful and energetic problem solvers. She decided to turn these features to her advantage and created a game called Jane the Concussion Slayer.

Jane decided to beat her concussion with a game. -

Calling in her sister Kelly (by the way, the author of the bestselling book Willpower) and her husband Kiyash, Jane began a battle with the "bad guys" - phenomena that could slow down the healing process. She also collected and used power-ups - anything that made her feel better: a five-minute game with a dog, eating walnuts (good for the brain), two walks around the house with her husband.

Despite the simplicity of the game, after a couple of days the fog in my head dissipated. Depression and anxiety subsided. The headaches did not go away, but Jane stopped suffering. She felt that fate was in her hands, and began to treat herself as a strong person.

SuperBetter

A few months later, Jane posted a short video on her blog explaining the rules of the game. Not everyone is familiar with the symptoms of a concussion, so Jane renamed the game SuperBetter (translated from English - "much better").

Soon Jane began to receive messages from people all over the world. They invent their own secret identities, look for allies and fight the "bad guys". They became superheroes in the fight against depression and postoperative and chronic pain. They managed to find a job after many years of failures, to establish relationships with loved ones. The players assured that they feel stronger and more courageous, better find a common language with friends and relatives. They became happier.

Reading the letters, Jane realized that to improve life through the game, you do not need to go through illness or injury. The game is a tool for personal growth. With it, we can fight failure, laziness, bad habits and everything that prevents us from living. We can turn life into a game - and win.

We start the game. Challenge yourself

An interesting fact: during the game, we never experience a sense of hopelessness. We focus on opportunities rather than threats and are less afraid of failure. Why? Because when we play, we consciously look for difficult problems, and we like to solve them. We don't play to avoid defeat, but to find out what we are capable of. And we believe that victory is possible even in the most difficult conditions.

This approach can be applied in real life. It's called taking on a challenge in the face of a threat.

A challenge can be anything that provokes a desire to test one's strength and provides an opportunity for personal development. For example:

• change job
• Repay a loan
• Become a donor
• Start loving yourself
• Last 21 days without sugar
• Get rid of fatigue
• Start your own business and become inimitable
• stop being lazy
• Raise a Happy Successful Child
• Become best version myself
• Quit smoking
• Start enjoying life

Find your challenge. If there was only one way for you to become stronger, happier, healthier, or braver, what would it be? Think and write.

Collect bonuses

A bonus is any positive action that you can easily perform. It causes pleasure, a surge of strength, a feeling of courage or support. It's easy to use at no cost, and feel better anytime, anywhere, no matter what.

Communication with animals is one of the most pleasant bonuses. -

When Jane was dealing with the effects of a concussion, she came up with the following perks: watch YouTube videos of baby animals. Look out the window for 30 seconds. Hold your husband's hand for six seconds. Eat 10 walnuts as they are good for the brain. Try to make your dog smile.

Collect bonuses that suit you and use at least three of them daily (or more).

Drink a glass of water. Sing as loud as possible. Take a dance break. Breathe 30 seconds fresh air. Look out the window. Find something that quickly lifts your spirits and gives you a boost of energy. Use bonuses every time you need an incentive.

Exterminate the "bad guys"

We all know the "bad guys" in video games. These are the obstacles that force us to be creative and smart. In everyday life, they act the same way - they complicate it. But they also help develop the skills and strategies that make us smarter, stronger, and faster. This is how we can achieve bigger goals in the future.

To get better, fight the "bad guys". These are any habits, symptoms, thoughts, feelings and behaviors that prevent you from becoming a superhero.

What do your "bad boys" look like? -

Here are some of the "bad guys" of SuperBetter players.

• Mr Vulcan. It erupts inside of me, making me say terrible things to my little children and my husband, whom I adore.
• Sirens luring into the elevator. They begin to sing sweetly every time I try to be more active and want to climb the stairs.
• Lord Impossible. If I plan to do something good, he comes to me and says it's impossible.
• Four of the devil's foods: pizza, soda, marshmallows and hot chocolate.
• Nocturnal Computosaurus and Nocturnal Telesaurus.
• Snuff, dragon of sorrow.

Find your "bad guys" and fight them at least once a day. If you didn't find them today, you're either a world champion superhero or (more likely) you weren't careful enough.

Come up with tasks

On the way of any hero, countless trials await. From Rocky Balboa to Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games, all heroes complete many small feats and missions. With each feat, they become a little smarter, stronger, braver and more prepared for the big challenges ahead.

Every time you decide to do something - and successfully do it - you remind yourself of the power over your actions, thoughts and feelings.

Bake cookies and treat them to someone on the shoulder only a real superhero. -

This process is called purposeful action - taking small steps towards goals and values ​​every day, even when it is difficult. Completing just one task a day can make a big difference in how you feel about life satisfaction.

Here are examples of tasks:

Come up with your own task and complete it in the next 24 hours.

epic victory

The goal of the game is to win an epic victory. This should be one that will show you that you have become a superhero.

The goal should be realistic, challenging, energizing and non-violent. Here are examples of epic SuperBetter wins.

• Live one day without feeling bored (challenge: depression).
• Sleep one night without an iPod (challenge: insomnia).
• Keep up with your husband while walking around the lake (challenge: get fit).
• Dance in front of people (challenge: social phobia, low self-esteem).
• Meditate for 30 minutes straight (challenge: feeling anxious).

Find a goal that will be an epic victory for you.

Keep score

What is a game without a score? Be sure to lead it. Lots of ways. You can count used bonuses and battles with "bad guys". You can count completed tasks. You can set records (10 bonuses per day!) Here is an easy way to calculate daily points.

3 bonuses + 1 battle with the "bad guy" + 1 task = daily victory

You can come up with your own way. Keep notes in a diary, spreadsheet or blog and track your progress. It may not be an epic victory soon, but you can always win today. Do it!

Real life is a game that we all play with passion. She can be beautiful or cruel, and everyone chooses what she will be. Here is a small guide to interesting game titled "Life".

Game Basics

You may not realize it, but real life is a strategy game. It includes various mini-games such as dancing, driving, running or sex, and the key to victory is whole game is the proper allocation of resources.

The difference between pros and losers is how they spend their time, their most valuable resource. But what about money? Yes, this is also a very valuable resource, but still, time remains the main priority, and in order to win, you must always know what it is spent on.

Childhood

Your game begins with your character (that is, you) being born with a random personality, under random circumstances. After that, for the first 15 years of your life, you go through training missions that cannot be missed.

The start of a serious game

Like every young player, you have a lot of energy and time, but almost no experience. Many things, such as the best job, expensive property and partners, are not available to you for the time being.

This is the time when you constantly level up and your experience grows rapidly. You will never again have so much free time for learning and so much energy as at this age.

Your main task is to use the time as fruitfully as possible. Remember, every job you do upgrades your skills and changes your position in the game.:

It may seem that this is too simple for life: I chose the necessary skills, pumped them over, and in order, you can win. Of course, in life everything is a little more complicated, because you don’t see the talent tree and you can’t accurately predict which skill will be useful for what, you can only guess about it. In addition, your body does not always obey and does everything that you have planned. Why? Let's figure it out.

How to make your body listen

You are different from a computer game character in that your body does not always obey the dictates of the mind. For example, when you tell yourself to go to the gym, the body completely ignores this wonderful, in fact, impulse.

This is not a bug in the game, everything is thought out and logical. You have a special "state scale" that you, unfortunately, do not see. It looks something like this:

If any criterion of your condition is too low, your body will not agree to do what you want. For example, try to study something when you are exhausted or hungry, and you will see how difficult it will be, almost impossible.

Your willpower scale is also very important. You have a certain amount of willpower for the day, it rises slightly with meals and is fully restored during a deep night's sleep. If you have used up your willpower, and it is at a very low level, you can only do what you really like.

Remember that every decision in favor of a less attractive option (like going to the gym instead of watching an interesting movie at home) takes some amount of willpower.

There are several tricks that will help you maintain your behavior in a given line of play:

1. Maintain tone. If you are tired, hungry, or sad, your willpower will be low. So it is worth taking care of your character so that he is capable of something.
2. Distribute tasks rationally. Remember that willpower is a resource that needs to be replenished, and do not use it too much. If you have several tasks that require a lot of willpower, scatter them over different days, mixing them with those that are more enjoyable for you.
3. Do the most important tasks first. If you have a really important matter, it is worth spending a lot of your willpower on it. It will be more difficult for you to complete other tasks, but the main tasks will be completed perfectly and on time.
4. Take away the temptations. If you're tempted to switch from hard work to easy fun, you'll need more willpower to do it. In the end, temptation will draw more out of you. valuable resource and you won't be able to finish the job on time. For example, you are compiling a report, and a page on a social network is open in the next tab. You constantly want to switch, climb other people's pages and publics, and this exhausts you more than you can imagine.

It turns out that the key to success in the game is to properly combine the state of your body and the execution of the right tasks.

Choosing the Right Tasks

Choosing the right tasks at the right time is one of the main points in the game. Some tasks affect your state more:

Other tasks - on your skills and abilities:

You should make time for things that will help you stay in top condition, like eating well and getting enough sleep to keep your willpower going. And after that, you must spend this resource (willpower) on pumping your skills and abilities.

Some skills are more valuable, and some of them can even open a whole path for you, like a talent tree:

Others are independent and have no continuation:

The most effective is to acquire several skills and combine them with each other. It is very difficult to become the best in some area, developing just one skill, it is almost impossible. Much easier choose several related skills related to each other and pump them all.

Environment

Your environment matters a lot to your status, skills, and chances of leveling up. Actually, you can play anywhere, but in certain places it is much easier. For example, if you play as a woman in a number of countries, some opportunities will be closed to you.

The chances of fully revealing yourself in the exact place where you originally ended up can be very mediocre. Therefore, after you determine the tasks for yourself, consider changing the location. If in a new place you can achieve more, develop skills better and improve your condition, why not?

Search for partners

Attracting partners is an additional mini-game within the main one, and success in it, most often, depends on how well you go through the main storyline.

If you have a good condition and pumped skills, you already have a good chance of winning the mini-game.

At the beginning of the game, you can reject partners and be rejected. This is normal, but sometimes negative experiences affect the player's condition badly. In order to advance further in this mini-game, the player must build up enough willpower and keep moving forward.

80% of success in finding a partner depends on the attractiveness of the player, and if it is, then he spends time on the right things. If you love what you do, radiate goodwill and optimism, you automatically become attractive.

The remaining 20% ​​of success depends on being able to be in the right place to meet your other half. That is, if you are all attractive, but you don’t go anywhere except work and at home, you are unlikely to find a partner for yourself.

Money money money

Later in the game, you will need to manage the "money" resource. Most players understand that it is possible to increase the amount of money at the beginning of the game (take a loan or borrow), but, in fact, this is more of a problem than an advantage.

The most important rule of money: never borrow money unless you plan toas a resultget even more. For example, if you take out a student loan, invest in your profession, which will provide you with a good income, this is rational. And if you take out a loan for new shoes or a new smartphone model, this is irrational and will not bring you anything but losses.

Here are some strategies for dealing with finances:

1. Doesn't think about money. It's a stress-reduced strategy: you just live within your income and have a little rainy day. Make sure you spend your free time properly, then there will be no regrets.
2. Rich. Choose your career and environment carefully, and prepare to move up quickly. You have to invest a lot in relevant skills, which will take up a lot of your time, and carefully monitor your condition so as not to burn out at work.
3. very rich. You start your own business, because you cannot become very rich by working for someone (in principle, in our reality, it is also very difficult to become simply rich without your own business). If you properly allocate your resources, you will eventually not need to work at all.

Old age

Your options change during the game. Marriage and kids will take up your time and energy and also introduce a lot of random elements into your game. This slows down your development and leveling of skills, but also has its own advantages.

Older characters have a lot of developed skills, resources and experience, so quests are open for them that are not yet available for younger players. For example, they have enough resources to write a good novel (experience + time) or buy a house (not everyone, of course, it matters what money strategy you choose).

After the age of 80, players tend to drop out of the game. If you have pumped health skills, you can last much longer, but cheating methods for this have not yet been invented.

At the very beginning of the game, you have no influence on the environment in which you start and with what abilities you start. The same goes for the end of the game: everything is already determined by how you behaved throughout the game. It depends on this how you end your game: healthy, prosperous and happy, or not.

Therefore, your strategy is very important: by the time you understand how to play, most of the best moments are behind you.

All computer games have their own classification. In this section, such games for the computer as simulators will be considered. You can download simulation games via torrent for free on this site. Nowadays, there are a lot of games and it is not always possible to divide them into some specific types, so the distribution system computer games not yet well systematized. But there is a consensus among the developers, to which they managed to come. These are the most popular game genres, whose belonging can always be identified. One of these popular genres includes computer games of the Simulation genre.

Games Simulators, or as they are also called, Managers, create an opportunity for the player to simulate the situation of driving a certain type of transport or even a helicopter.

Games with a simulation effect using a computer create the full opportunity to simulate the control and behavior of a wide variety of technical objects. If games of other genres aim to entertain players with the assistance of phenomena impossible in real life, then the simulators offer the full realism of the object that needs to be controlled. The most rated and famous simulation games: War Thunder, Microsoft Flight Simulator for Speed, F1 2011 .

In order to make it easier to navigate in a huge number of simulation games, they can be divided into subgroups:

1) Arcade-type simulators are a special kind of technical simulators created in a simplified version, most often using alternative physics. Them fundamental difference consists in the physical component of the models of these games. Most often, equipment in such games is represented by various models of cars and spacecraft.

2) Sports simulators, as a rule, consist of simulating actions taken in some sports game, most often in football, billiards and tennis.

3) Economic simulators are often confused with economic strategies, but unlike them, simulators of this type display market or entrepreneurial processes, where the main goal for the gamer is to get as much profit as possible in the virtual world in which he plays. The player controls the already existing market enterprises, and all processes really repeat all the processes that take place on real markets of various types.

Simulators in the game world can be used not only for a pleasant pastime, but also for the purpose of learning and training in driving a certain type of transport. In computer simulations, developers create an environment that is no different from the situation in real life. At this time, the development of simulators is gaining momentum, and in the near future they will go beyond the usual boundaries of computer games. In addition to various transport simulators, there are no less exciting life simulators. legendary game with an almost complete simulation of life and unimaginable, real graphics is the game popular among millions of people around the world - The Sims.

Without any doubt, it can be argued that this stage in the development of simulation games is just First stage development of this genre of computer gaming industry. Surely soon virtual reality will completely absorb human minds. A special helmet has already been developed and tested, with the help of which the player can find himself in the virtual world.

Grand Theft Auto 5

Caesar

Ruler economic strategies from Impressions Games and Sierra Entertainment gave players more than one sleepless night in the role of a Roman city governor. Managing taxes and trade processes, caring for the population of the city and fulfilling the tasks set by the emperor. Caeser was able to visually teach the basics of economics and urban management.

Operation Flash Point

In the early 2000s, shooters were dominated by a great trio: Quake, Unreal Tournament, and Counter-Strike. "Rocketjump", "jump", "elephant fight" - the words are familiar to every fan of the FPS (first person shooter) of those times.

However, the Czech company Bohemia Interactive Studio has demonstrated a fundamentally new approach to this genre. Ultimate combat simulation, huge maps and the player's ability to die from a single stray bullet after crawling on the ground for half an hour. Bullets reach their target faster than sound, the appearance of shortness of breath after running, almost complete freedom to conduct combat operations. Subsequently, Flashpoint evolved into new series tactical shooters Armed Assault (ArmA).

"IL-2. Sturmovik"

Game from Russian developers 1C: Maddox Games was able to captivate fans of flight simulators right off the bat with its hardcore and realism of military operations in the air. The simulator simulates the conduct of hostilities during the Great Patriotic War in the period from 1941 to 1945.

"IL-2. Sturmovik" demonstrated not only excellent graphics for its time, but also a carefully thought-out aircraft damage system. A few holes in the wing could not really interfere with your combat mission, while the shot elevator made you say goodbye to the possibility of maneuvers.

Players and the press unanimously highly appreciated this simulator, and "IL-2. Sturmovik" rightfully took its place in the TOP-25 PC games of all time according to IGN.

Forza Motorsport

A series of games developed for the Xbox allows owners of the console from Microsoft to feel like driving one of the racing cars. One of the important details of the line of simulators is the car damage system. During the collision, cars receive not only cosmetic damage, but also a change specifications such as acceleration, top speed and handling.

For fans of racing in this line there is a very nice bonus. As a partnership with the British TV program Top Gear, from the 4th part of the game, the voices of hosts Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May can be heard.

The Sims

Real life simulator - this is how you can call the game from Maxis and Electronic Arts. The player can try on the guise of a god, creating, managing and controlling virtual people. In 2002, The Sims became the best-selling game, surpassing even the legendary Myst series in the number of purchases. In March 2010, Electronic Arts reported that the games had sold over 100 million copies. The series Sims.

Microsoft Flight Simulator

Microsoft's Civil Aircraft Simulator allowed players to dress up as a civil airline pilot and fly virtually anywhere in the world. The series is famous not only realistic physics flights and its complexity of aircraft control, but also its openness to create its own models and airports.

Many pilot training systems are based on Microsoft Flight Simulator. In the game, you can master the basic course of flight and landing of an aircraft, behavior in an emergency situation. On the basis of training complexes using the Microsoft simulator as a platform, some tests and exams are accepted.

Dark Souls

In this game, you can see how a person's meeting with any of the fantasy monsters would end. After dozens of RPGs, we are used to the fact that monsters are just an unfortunate misunderstanding on the way to treasure. However, Dark Souls was able to very accurately convey what would happen if the player hit any fantasy world. Any wrong step threatens the gamer with inexorable death, every battle can be your last.

L.A. Noire

Rockstar Games is famous not only for a series about expensive car thieves, but also for the creation of a detective simulator. The gamer will plunge into the era of the 40s of the last century and investigate crimes. To do this, it is necessary not only to shoot accurately and work with fists, but also to search for evidence and interrogate suspects.

The game was able to be remembered for the careful study of the characters, their behavior and animation. During interrogations, more than once there will be a feeling that you are watching a Hollywood movie with excellent acting. Indeed, sometimes it will be possible to understand whether a suspect is lying or telling the truth only by his behavior.

Battlefield 4

Separately, there is the most technologically advanced in terms of graphics on this moment military shooter. We understand that it's not worth evaluating games only on the basis of graphics, but thanks to the new Frostbite 3 engine, "Battlefield" deserves to be called the "Most Realistic Graphics Game of 2014". Printed screenshots from this game can be passed off as real photos from the scene of hostilities.

Popular wisdom says - "You can't forbid living beautifully!". But this is easier said than done. You can, of course, try to become Mark Zuckerberg, invent a second Facebook and sell it for a record amount in the history of the US markets, estimated in billions of dollars. But the statistics are relentless: most startups die in terrible agony. You can try to make a career as an official and "master" large public funds. Only without connections in this area you can’t break through, and in case of failure, impressive prison terms threaten. In 999 cases out of 1000, you will have to remain an ordinary office worker, an engineer, a smartphone salesman or a pizza delivery man (if someone is offended by such comparisons, please, here's another one for you: a writer for websites).

Of course, you want to get away from this at times, and games are one of the best ways to escape. Here we will try to consider what virtual worlds better than the real one, and why they attract not only pure fantasy, but also a successful imitation of quite vital things.

Money

Diablo 3 has already been mentioned in the previous article, but what can you do if this is one of the best illustrations for other folk wisdom: "Money - chickens do not peck!". By the time you complete the game as the first character and go to the Legendary Rifts a couple of times, you will have 4,000,000 gold. Consider: Four. Million. GOLD. Coins. Even the most successful bankers, stockbrokers and top managers of Gazprom never dreamed of such a thing. And you can earn that amount in just 50-60 hours. So what is better after that - virtual or objective reality?

In Diablo 3, earning will require at least some effort, and in some games, money flows into your hands. Let's take Watch Dogs: if you're too lazy, you don't even have to clean up bandit lairs and stop criminal convoys. We hack into video surveillance systems, jump on cameras, “borrow” money from civilians from bank accounts - and here you are: in 40 minutes we have an elite sports car, a powerful bike, the most expensive sniper rifle and an automatic grenade launcher.

Career

Series saints row- a great example of stable career growth: first we take patronage over all the gangs of a large metropolis, then we become the president of the United States and expel alien invaders, and then we deal with the Devil himself in hell - so that there are no competitors at all.

In real life, everything is much sadder: you can sell more smartphones for at least two quarters in a row than the rest of your colleagues in the salon. After 6 months, the boss will say that this is a reason to keep the job, but not to raise wages: there is an economic crisis in the yard! First, 2008, now sanctions and cheap oil, and then there will be an excuse.

Involuntarily, you will want to return to the virtual VIP world of purple hues, and hang out in your own skyscraper with pretty girls in the uniforms of maids, policemen and nurses.

Glory (WARNING: Spoilers!)

It's the same with fame. Be sure: if they did about the character whole game(especially AAA class) - it means that he is somehow very different from the mass ordinary people, and its history is, to say the least, unusual. And at the very least, epic. For example, Bioshock Infinite. The protagonist is a hired detective of fairly free morals, who gets involved in the fight against the prophet Zachary Comstock. The puritan grandfather has seized power in the largest sky city in America, and, like a true dictator, eradicates all dissent.

Our detective eventually manages to defeat the prophet. The girl is saved, the dictator is defeated, his giant airship is burning like the ill-fated Hindenburg. And then it turns out that main character- and there is Zachary Comstock. Only in the future (or in the past!? The final scene in the lighthouse is completely unsettling). The universe is divided by zero, the story of Bioshock Infinite is pure delight, and you think about temporal paradoxes for a long time afterwards.

In real life, there is an inexorable sequence: born, studied, married ... and further down the list, to the point. For the items "feat" and "breathtaking events" there is often no place, no desire, no opportunities.

Comfort

Admit it - you played The Sims 4. No, of course not 300 - 400 hours, but 5 - 6 hours to hack the game for money, rebuild a VIP mansion and populate a young couple of hardcore punks there. Have a party, destroy everything to hell, and then re-buy an arsenal of the most expensive sofas, beds, TVs and so on. You can expand the site and dig a huge pool on it - to make it more fun. Objective reality is a little different from this exciting process mouse clicks.

Those who have made repairs in at least a couple of rooms of a Soviet apartment are well aware of what it turns into: dozens of bags of plaster and self-leveling floor, endless packs of laminate and wallpaper rolls, buckets of paint for the ceiling and walls ... and two months in construction dust.

It is not surprising that after that you want to go into the good old Skyrim, buy, say, the Proudspire mansion in Solitude, and furnish it with the latest Nord design in about 15 minutes.

Excessive realism without harm to health

Often, gamers look for realistic imitation of life's harsh trials in games, which, nevertheless, will not lead to the loss of real health or material wealth. Let's take at least EVE Online- in this exciting MMO, you need to mine the same minerals on the same asteroids for at least 6 months, or exterminate low-level pirates (again, the same ones) in order to advance at least a little and start dreaming of a career as a star admiral or the head of a mega-corporation.

Day-Z provides a similar range of feelings. You sneak into the village for a long time, find an ax and two cans of stew (it takes about 30 minutes), slowly sneak back. Zombies notice you - they, unlike Dead Island, no aggro radius: they will chase you forever, and do not think to return to the programmed point. Your life ends in the stomach of the living dead, and no save points: all over again. The second attempt - a village - an ax, a stew - you come across a certain freak ("handsome" in Polish, that is, a real player) with assault rifle- Shot in the head without warning.

Judging by the sales of both EVE and Day-Z, many people like it all. But even enduring hardships and experiencing disappointment is much more pleasant at home, in warmth, in a comfortable armchair than in the cold vacuum of space or in an abandoned Eastern European country.