It is time-consuming and expensive to become a pilot. It’s equally costly to run your own island, theme park, or movie studio. And it’s hard to imagine the resources you might need to exercise godly control over your neighborhood, or build your own galactic empire. Yet these are all things you can accomplish with clever simulation games for your Mac.

Imitation of life

Simulations can be divided into two categories: technical simulations and organizational simulations. Although they share a basic concept, they are very different products.

Technical simulations typically allow you to operate an aircraft (military or civilian) or a vehicle, or mimic playing a musical instrument. The goal of the simulation is to provide the most realistic experience possible; in essence, a true simulation of reality. Dials, switches, buttons, guitar strings, drums, and more are reproduced to provide total control. Gauges report factors such as speed, altitude, and fuel level, or simply let you know how the crowd is responding to your musicianship.

To further the illusion behind the wheel or in a cockpit, simulated weather impacts your gameplay. Head winds might make it difficult to steer a small plane, while an icy surface may cause a vehicle to slide uncontrollably when making sharp turn. The uncompromising focus on accuracy and detail makes this class of simulations an ideal tool for educators.

Organizational simulations let you run a small town, develop a network of railways, or even nurture a civilization. These games emphasize broad organizational management rather than minute details. As the head of state, head of the business, or even as a benevolent god, you are responsible for making key decisions for your organization that will ultimately determine its longevity. This may require you to feed your tenants on a regular basis, secure funding for your next construction project, or ensure your civilization has a powerful military. In many cases, these games require a good deal of strategy and careful planning to guarantee success.

The primary goal of organizational simulations is to provide countless hours of entertainment. Many titles function indefinitely, allowing you to play the game as long as it holds your interest.

Even More Possibilities

Given the best-selling status of The Sims and The Sims 2, along with their many expansion packs, it’s not a surprise that EA served up more adventures with our favorite characters in The Sims 3. Now you can tweak your Sims’ looks at a granular level, making each one unique. You’ll appreciate that variation as your Sims walk around open neighborhoods unhampered by the previous games’ need to stop and load new locations.

“We want players to dive into the game and feel like they have complete freedom to explore without interruption,” Sims 3 executive producer Ben Bell tells us.

The Sims 3 gives you similar creative powers over inanimate objects, which you can share with other players at the Sims 3 Exchange, a content repository with powerful search features and links to players’ MySpace and Facebook pages.

When it comes to guiding your Sims through their lives, Bell’s team created moodlets, which represent short- and long-term moods, along with revamped artificial intelligence driven by five personality traits and a new lifetime wish, such as becoming Leader of the Free World. Personality traits get passed down to children, along with physical looks, but kids can still become unique individuals, depending on the influence of other Sims around them.

All of those new features — along with others you’ll learn about in our Sims 3 article — come into play in the game’s first expansion pack, World Adventures. Take your Sims to Al Simhara, Egypt, Shang Simla, China, and Champs Les Sims, France and let them explore ancient ruins, learn martial arts, master their photography skills, and more. They’ll bring their new skills home, along with any items they acquire during their adventures. Frequent vacationers earn more visa days, letting them stay longer the next time they travel.

Or Become One of the Gods

Sims can improve their musical skills too, but if you’d rather take a more direct role in that artistic pursuit, Guitar Hero World Tour lets you not only master guitar, bass, drums, or vocals, but also put together your own group. Play with or form a band online and master Nirvana’s “About a Girl,” The Steve Miller Band’s “The Joker,” MC5’s “Kick Out the Jams,” and dozens of other tunes. While Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock and Guitar Hero: Aerosmith feature a single Rock Meter, World Tour includes a collective one that requires everyone to do their part to keep it in the green.

If you choose to master the guitar, you’ll notice that perfect axemanship involves a new version of the instrument, which features touch-sensitive pad on its neck, just below the fret buttons. You can tap it to strum notes, rather than use the strum bar, and alter the pitch of sustained notes. When you see a transparent purple line connecting a pair of notes, you can slide your fingers up and down the pad to play them.

Like previous Guitar Hero games, World Tour also co-stars some rock ‘n’ roll heavyweights, including Sting, Jimi Hendrix, Ozzy Osbourne, Smashing Pumpkins lead guitarist and vocalist Billy Corgan, and others. Fret shredders also face off against two of the top axe-slingers in the business: Zakk Wylde, who plays with Ozzy Osbourne, and Ted Nugent, of “Cat Scratch Fever” fame.

Evolving New Worlds

If you want to take your move on from Sims and rock bands to something on a more a cosmic scale, you can’t go wrong with SPORE (Electronic Arts), an epic simulation from Will Wright. Your galaxy-spanning adventure starts, literally, in the beginning: You guide a simple cell through the primordial soup of a nascent world, gobbling up smaller organisms and eventually evolving the ability to crawl onto land.

As a creature roaming the countryside, however, your work has just begun. Now you and your friends contend with other creatures who must be pacified through peaceful or violent means. Success leads to the establishment of a tribe that competes for resources with other tribes. Eliminate the competition — again, by becoming their friends or enemies — and soon you’ll find yourself in charge of a civilization. The nation who wins that stage earns the opportunity to blast off into outer space and embark on an open-ended endgame that includes discovering a secret at the heart of the galaxy. The Galactic Adventures expansion pack adds even more spacefaring fun, including the ability to design your own missions.

The standalone SPORE Creature Creator, which is included in the main game (along with Building, Cell, and Vehicle Creators), allows you to engage in the ultimate monster mash and devise the beast of your dreams. When you’re done, watch it dance to the beat, unleash a mighty roar, and more. You can even share your divine inspiration with other players through the SPOREpedia. The Creepy & Cute Parts Pack offers additional building materials, from floppy ears and adorable paws to piercing claws and mouths full of razor-sharp teeth.

Shades of Gray Welcome

If you’d prefer to keep your focus on one world and adopt more of a top-down view of the action, then Black & White 2 (Feral Interactive) is your game. Assume a deific position over the Greeks, who were driven from their homeland by the Aztecs (remember, this isn’t a history game), and rule through kindness or fear, prompting all villagers to do your bidding in the process. Extend your sphere of influence to bring nearby Norse villages under your control, eventually amassing enough strength to exact revenge on the Aztecs.

As well-known designer Peter Molyneux told us, Black & White 2 features real-time strategy elements, complete with realistic physics. You can participate in the battles, throwing boulders that take out opposing troops and directing the actions of your Creature, a lion, monkey, cow, or wolf that carries out your commands. Your Creature can also behave with malevolence or benevolence toward the villagers as it carries out a specific role: entertainer, gatherer, builder, or soldier.

Black & White 2 also features the Battle of the Gods expansion pack, in which a small group of surviving Aztecs have summoned a god of the undead who wants to tear Eden asunder. You can import your Creature from the main game or adopt a new one — two additional Creatures, a turtle and a tiger, are included. You also have access to new buildings for your village, new miracles for impressing your villagers, and new challenges that prove whether you belong in the pantheon of major deities.

Fly the Unfriendly Skies

While The Movies: Stunts & Effects doesn’t have an aerial dogfight option, you can enter that realm with WarBirds and FlyBoys Squadron (iEntertainment Network), which simulate World War II and World War I air combat, respectively. Hop into the cockpit of a P-51, a Sopwith Camel, or one of dozens of other realistic aircraft from those eras and take on opponents over the Internet. FlyBoys also includes 12 single-player missions reminiscent of the movie on which it’s based.

WarBirds features several strategy elements, including the ability to bomb and take over opposing bases. While flying over realistic maps of World War II era Europe, Africa, and the Pacific Ocean, you attack and defend against opposing forces with your wingmates. If you prefer, you can even hop in a tank and blast the enemy’s bases. Just watch out for bombers trying to drop their payloads on you.

Sims For the Kids in All of Us

If you and/or your kids are in the mood for a more lighthearted sim, the Petz games (TransGaming) should be a walk in the park. Catz 2 and Dogz 2 feature seven breeds of felines and canines, respectively, with 72 toys, dress-up options, pieces of furniture, and other objects for you to unlock as you train your pet to perform increasingly difficult tricks. In Petz Sports, you race one of 18 breeds of Dogz in 36 contests spread across four cups. Between races, teach your old Dogz new tricks and engage in games of jumping rope and playing fetch.

System Check

Simulations vary greatly in their system requirements. Organizational simulations often make limited use of three-dimensional visuals. Technical simulations tend to be more graphically ambitious. Since these titles fully recreate a three-dimensional environment, they demand faster processors, more memory, and more capable graphics cards. Please inspect the box of any title that appeals to you to ensure that it will run without a hitch on your Mac.

Digital Realities

Simulation games let us experience many things we can’t experience in our everyday lives without great expense (or magical powers). Although the games are no substitute for the subtle nuances of reality, they provide countless hours of compelling entertainment. Pick one up today!