We all have a lot of dreams, but honestly, it’s almost impossible to make them all come true. That’s where simulation games come in! You might not have the time or requirements to become a basketball star, a Formula 1 driver, and a football manager at the same time, but the power of video games helps you feel all those passions closely.
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Now, if you are passionate enough to challenge yourself in your beloved sports in a virtual life, here we have some suggestions that will get you to realistic situations in sports, where every choice does have a consequence and every win does need a lot of work!
10F1 Manager
Behind everyFormula 1driver, there is a team, and the F1 Manager puts you in charge of the team’s leader rather than the driver. So, you will now have a full team to lead to glory by planning race strategies, managing the staff in different departments, and signing new drivers.
As a fully licensed simulation, not only you can get in charge of your favorite F1 teams, but also you can relive some of the most memorable tournaments in the world and lay out your plans for each well-known track in the world throughout an entire Formula 1 season.
9Pro Cycling Manager
Some of you may not even know that this game exists, but it does! Pro Cycling Manager is a deep management game where you create your own team of cyclists, schedule training, and plan race strategies to win the tournaments.
It’s almost like Football Manager but set in an entirely different sports branch. You can search for young talents of cycling and sign them to play for your team, but you will have to take care of the club’s budget, so you don’t go bankrupt.
Although theNBA 2Kseries has been drowned in a pool of microtransactions for quite a while now without making any significant progress year after year, the series was indeed an outstanding sports IP before the massive injection of in-app purchases since 2018.
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After all these years, NBA 2K is still the only option for basketball fans to enjoy a fully licensed simulation of the NBA with clearly superior visuals. With the arrival of the new generation of consoles, the series added a new lifestyle focus to the game where you get to experience the off-the-court life of NBA stars, though there is still more to work on for the franchise.
7London 2012: The Official Video Game
Being the world’s biggest sports event, the Olympics is massive enough that usually receives its dedicated video game. London 2012’s official video game is probably the most realistic Olympic adaptation we have ever had.
Although the game never deeply simulates each major field in sports, it still gives you the option to explore many different sports branches with some acceptable controls, which you can improve upon by practicing. Since then, we haven’t really received any sports game that could match London 2012’s diversity.
6EA Sports FC
Formerly known as FIFA,Electronic Arts' long-running football simulation franchise is still the first and best option for most football fans across the world. There is no doubt that licensing all the major European leagues and tournaments is an ambitious move byEA Sports FCthat easily kicks every potential rival likePESor UFL out of the competition.
Other than that, with a wide variety of online and offline game modes, EA Sports FC gives you everything you need to enjoy a football simulation, be it standing off the pitch and coaching your team, or wearing your boots and starring on the pitch as a newborn superstar.
5Colin McRae Rally & Dirt
Born as Colin McRae Rally, theDirtseries has been around for quite a long time as one of the major rally simulators. Similar to Formula 1, Rally is also a hardcore branch of racing with its dedicated fans. Although the WRC’s yearly release probably makes it a bit more popular on the market, it still cannot match the quality ofDirt 4.
What makes Dirt stand behind WRC is the fact that it doesn’t always remain a simulator. Unlike Dirt 4, which was a return to the Colin McRae Rally roots in the series,Dirt 5shifted focus to a way more arcade-style off-road racing. That being said, the dedicated Dirt Rally franchise still exists, though with the acquisition ofCodemastersby EA, that franchise might not be continued anymore as WRC becomes the new sports property of Electronic Arts as well. So, it might be an internal overlap to have two different Rally simulators.
The WRC franchise has gone through multiple surgeries in its lifetime as the series was handed over to different developers. The reboot release of the series in 2010 wasn’t quite a successful launch, but as the series moved forward and the development was handed over to Kylotonn, the game made significant progress, especially after WRC 8.
That being said, the franchise is now owned by Electronic Arts and the next mainline entry is being developed by Codemasters. Regarding the studio’s good history with Dirt 4 and Dirt Rally, we do expect a groundbreaking reboot for the franchise, but it remains unknown how EA’s policies could affect it.
There is no doubt that Formula 1 is one of the world’s most popular racing tournaments, and Codemasters has been doing a great job of simulating this incredibly exciting branch of racing for years. Making constant progress year after year, the F1 series has been one of the top-notch yearly sports releases for a long time.
Even after its acquisition by Electronic Arts, F1 still remains loyal to its origins without making any sudden or miscalculated moves towards microtransactions, which has already made games like NBA 2K and EA Sports FC somewhat pay to win.
iRacingis your biggest chance ever to get as close as possible to motorsport racing events via a video game. Although the game’s subscription-based plan sounds too greedy, you can’t really find any better simulation at the moment to let you feel the hardcore racing challenges.
There are many things that contribute to the amazing level of simulation in iRacing. From the handling and car models to cockpit-only view. It’s all about making you feel you are in a real racetrack, and you won’t get that feeling right until you have a full racing setup to play the game.
1Football Manager
Football Manageris by far the deepest sports management simulation series we have seen in years. Although the series was once overshadowed by the FIFA Manager franchise, with EA Sports ditching its management simulation, Football Manager became the one and only option for football lovers who want to focus more on the managing side of the matter.
Hopefully, the lack of rivalry didn’t affect the quality of the franchise, and Sports Interactive managed to make significant progress in every major aspect of the series year after year, with the team now planning to switch the game engine with 2025’s iteration which will open up a lot more new opportunities to explore.
