Simulator games seems to get a bad rep around here, even though some of them are pretty good. What do you think of them? What was the best you've played?

I would vote Rig'n'Roll. That game is awesome and very well made trucker simulator. Other pretty good simulator game is the Farming Simulator 2011. I grew up in a farm, and lived there for 22 years, so that might affect my view a bit. But it's a fun game, I recommend you check it out.

Football Manager series, clearly.

My only experience with Farm Simulator 2011 is second hand, through this. While hilarious, it doesn't inspire too much confidence...

I think I could be entertained by a train simulator, if they are anything like miniature trains.

IL-2 Sturmovik. Enough said.

Flying simulators, blergh -_-

:)

Falcon 4.0 wins best in class easily.

As for favorite well Grand Prix Challenge (though I suspect I would love F1 2011) and Jane's Fighter's Antholofy (USNF + expansion and ATF + expansion)

For pure flight simulator, nothing beast X-Plane 10 (which just came out $79.99) or if like me you're satisfied with owning a previous version that is still FAA approved, X-Plane 9 which I paid $5 but still goes for $29 on their site.

I was just thinking yesterday how much I enjoyed Evasive Action, specifically the WWI part.
It might not have been the best flight simulator, but I enjoyed it.

Pro Pinball series is one of most realistic simulation on PC. For new game, Bohemia Interactive's Take On Helicopters and ArmA series are pretty good overall and can be regarded as simulator.

Arma drove me bonkers. Even doing the supposedly fun jeep race was a pain.

Arma was riddled with bug. I guess the shooting mechanic and commanding your squad were supposed to be the simulations. Else, i can't say the same.

Most of those sim games come from Germany. If you go into any electronics market or gaming store here, you'll see an entire rack of shelves devoted to them, yet despite their obnoxiously poor quality, they seem to shift like hotcakes.

"Farming Simulator 2009" (Landwirtschaftssimulator) was actually supposed to be quite good for its subject matter. Obviously no use if you're not interested in that sort of thing, but my brother-in-law really enjoys it.

I personally like playing German Truck Simulator, but then that game does actually have an ounce of realism to it.

I used to have a blast with F-15 and F/A-18 from Jane's back in the day. I'm also quite impressed with Falcon 4.0 (especially BMS).

LOMAC looks good.

Jane's Fighters Anthology clearly stands out among the more simplified "survey" sims.

Enemy Engaged - Comanche vs Hokum rocked. I loved the living battlefield where you actually supported the war effort in one of the three playable dynamic campaigns, rather than playing a series of linked scenarios in other sims which don't really affect future missions.

I never got used to the speed for modern jet sims, so flying virtual helos is much more manageable. Flying virtual helos also feels like driving very fast cars, except that you don't run smack into a cliff face in a race car.

I've never played one, anyone care to show a particularly good one?

It really depends what type of sim you're interested in -flight (IL-2, Janes's sims, etc), racing (SimBin's games), business (e.g Capitalism), sports management (Football Manager series), etc. The list goes on.

From the looks of it, there's a ton of choices. As a starting point, what're some of your favorites? I'm open to anything, really.