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The 8 Building and Life Simulators of 2005 That Passed Me By

Old gaming magazines do not always bring back memories of games I loved. Sometimes they do something almost more interesting: they show me an entire part of gaming history that happened around me without ever becoming part of my own life. That is what I found while reading issue 7 of Dansk PC Gaming World from 2005. On one page, the magazine presented a ranked list under the broad Danish heading “Byggespil og livssimulatorer”—building games and life simulators. Its introduction compared these PC games to the LEGO and Playmobil of an earlier age: games for people who enjoyed building things, tearing them down again, managing systems and optimising them.

The magazine selected eight games. Some were complete standalone releases, some were expansion packs and some were highly specialised sports-management simulations. The list was:

1. The Movies
2. The Sims 2: Nightlife
3. X3: Reunion
4. Wildlife Park 2
5. RollerCoaster Tycoon 3: Soaked!
6. Tycoon City: New York
7. NHL Eastside Hockey Manager 2006
8. Footballmanager 2005

Despite the confident numbering, this was not a retrospective ranking based on finished reviews. Most of the games were still expected later in 2005, and the magazine was ranking promises, previews and potential. Looking at the page today therefore lets us test both the magazine’s predictions and my own relationship with the games. The surprising truth is that none of these eight titles has ever really meant anything to me. I recognise The Sims and the various Tycoon names, but this is not a list that unlocks eight forgotten childhood memories. In most cases, it unlocks nothing at all.

1. The Movies

The magazine placed Peter Molyneux’s The Movies at number one. It described the player becoming the head of a film studio, beginning in the silent-film era, constructing the studio and producing major cinematic masterpieces. Its final description was probably the easiest sales pitch possible in 2005: a mixture of The Sims, SimCity and Theme Park.

In hindsight, putting The Movies first was not simply empty Molyneux hype. The finished game combined a tycoon simulation with character management and a surprisingly flexible movie-creation system. Players could build and operate a studio, hire actors and directors, manage their careers and needs, design sets, shoot scenes and edit the results into films. It earned a Metascore of 84 and later won the BAFTA award for Simulation. As a prediction of critical quality, the magazine’s first-place choice was remarkably defensible.

Yet The Movies never caught my attention. That is especially strange because it came from Lionhead Studios and Peter Molyneux, names I strongly associate with Black & White. Elsewhere in this same magazine, Black & White 2 received only a tiny corner and a single sentence, while The Movies was crowned the most exciting building and life simulator. The magazine was clearly more interested in Lionhead’s film-studio experiment than in the sequel I actually cared about. History says its enthusiasm was not ridiculous, but personally the choice still feels upside down.

2. The Sims 2: Nightlife

Second place went to The Sims 2: Nightlife, the second major expansion for The Sims 2. The magazine highlighted its new Downtown area, clubs, parties, dating and 125 additional objects. It was a sensible high-profile choice. Nightlife expanded the social side of the base game with dates, romantic chemistry, restaurants, nightclubs, cars and vampires. It was received positively, with a Metascore of 76, and it became one of the expansions most closely associated with The Sims 2 era.

This is also the closest anything on the list comes to my actual gaming history, but even here “played” is probably too strong a word. I tried The Sims 2. I do not remember treating it as a serious long-term game, creating generations of families or spending hundreds of hours building houses. I believe I only tried the original base game at the time, and I certainly never owned the full wall of expansion packs on disc.

I own several The Sims 2 discs today, but that happened long after the game’s peak. Old Sims discs are now practically thrown at you in thrift shops, recycling shops and second-hand game bundles. Acquiring a few of them cheaply today is not the same as having followed the series and bought every expansion when it was new. So even the most familiar title on the magazine’s list produces only a vague memory of experimentation, not genuine nostalgia.

3. X3: Reunion

At number three, the category suddenly becomes much stranger. X3: Reunion is not a conventional life simulator in the style of The Sims, nor is it a straightforward construction game. It is an enormous space-trading, combat and economic simulation in which the player can fly ships, trade goods, build stations and eventually operate a commercial empire. It fits the words “manage and optimise,” but grouping it alongside nightlife expansions, zoo management and theme parks shows how broadly the magazine defined simulation.

The short preview claimed that X3: Reunion fully lived up to the expectations created by X2: The Threat, offering better graphics, a reworked economy and a clearer interface. That confidence looks questionable after release. X3 was admired for its freedom, depth and ambition, but its original launch was also criticised for bugs, poor performance, crashes and a steep learning curve. Its initial Metascore settled at 71. Later patches significantly improved it, and dedicated players could lose months or years inside its economy, but number three feels more like a vote for ambition than polish.

I never had that relationship with it. The name is familiar, but the game itself never called to me. A complicated space economy demanding patience, study and long-term investment is almost the opposite of a title I would casually install just to see what happens.

4. Wildlife Park 2

The magazine’s fourth choice was Wildlife Park 2, a zoo-management game in which the player cared for animals and visitors while keeping the zoo financially stable. Its description made it sound like a natural alternative to Zoo Tycoon: become a zookeeper, manage the animals, satisfy the guests and avoid losing economic control.

This placement was difficult to judge in 2005 because the game did not arrive on the magazine’s predicted schedule. It was listed for the fourth quarter of 2005 but ultimately appeared in 2006. The small number of professional reviews collected by Metacritic prevents a meaningful aggregate score, although the available reviews were positive, and the game developed into a long-running platform for numerous themed expansions. It was evidently a capable zoo simulator for the right audience.

I was not that audience. Wildlife Park 2 is one of those games I can look at and understand immediately, yet it creates no personal recognition. I never owned it, followed it or built any memories around it.

5. RollerCoaster Tycoon 3: Soaked!

Fifth place belonged to RollerCoaster Tycoon 3: Soaked!, an expansion rather than a standalone game. It expanded the amusement-park simulation with pools, waterfalls, water slides and water-based rides. Unlike several unfinished games above it, Soaked! was only weeks away from its June 2005 release when this list appeared.

Looking back at contemporary reception, fifth place may actually be too low. Soaked! earned a Metascore of 79 and was generally considered a substantial expansion for owners of RollerCoaster Tycoon 3. Within a category explicitly devoted to building, managing and optimising, a well-received theme-park expansion seems like a more natural top-three choice than the extremely specialised and technically troubled X3: Reunion.

The Tycoon name is familiar to me, but this particular expansion still has no personal weight. I know what the series represents, but I do not have a treasured Soaked! park, a favourite water ride or an old save file that I wish I could recover.

6. Tycoon City: New York

In sixth place, Tycoon City: New York promised the fantasy of becoming a successful entrepreneur in Manhattan. Players could construct and customise businesses across New York, develop districts and build a commercial empire. The magazine expected it during the fourth quarter of 2005, but it slipped to February 2006.

The eventual response suggests that sixth place was fair. Tycoon City: New York earned a Metascore of 67. Critics often found it attractive and accessible, but also easier and shallower than the best business or city-building simulations. It was not a disaster, yet it was not the future of the genre either.

Again, the word “Tycoon” gives me a point of reference, but the game itself never became part of my collection or gaming identity. It is familiar as a type rather than familiar as an experience.

7. NHL Eastside Hockey Manager 2006—or Was It 2005?

The seventh entry reveals one of the page’s most entertaining factual mistakes. The magazine clearly prints the title as NHL Eastside Hockey Manager 2006 and gives the exact release date of 27 May 2005. The description says that the sequel was waiting for the official National Hockey League Players’ Association licence and would add more detail and a clearer interface.

The date is correct, but the title is not. The game released in Europe on 27 May 2005 as NHL Eastside Hockey Manager 2005. Sports Interactive’s own history records it under that name and notes that it earned a review average of 82. There was no official 2006 entry between it and NHL Eastside Hockey Manager 2007.

Judged purely on quality, seventh place therefore underrates it. This was a highly detailed and respected management simulation. However, placing an ice-hockey database and tactical management game beside The Sims, The Movies and RollerCoaster Tycoon remains peculiar. All of them involve management, but they do not necessarily serve the same player.

It certainly did not serve me. I have never been interested enough in ice-hockey management to study thousands of fictionalised contracts, statistics and tactical decisions. Its quality does not change the fact that it was never going to mean anything to me personally.

8. Footballmanager 2005—or Was It 2006?

The final entry completes the magazine’s accidental year swap. It prints the title as Footballmanager 2005 but lists its release window as the fourth quarter of 2005. More importantly, the accompanying text mentions negotiations and conversations with players during the half-time break.

Those details point to Football Manager 2006. Football Manager 2005 had already launched in Europe in November 2004. The 2006 game arrived on 21 October 2005 and introduced half-time team talks as a major new feature. Sports Interactive discussed those team talks in a May 2005 preview interview, months before release. The magazine therefore appears to have placed “2006” after the NHL game that should have said 2005, then placed “2005” after the football game that should have said 2006.

The low ranking also has little relationship to eventual critical quality. Football Manager 2006 earned an average score around 89 and was nominated alongside The Movies for BAFTA’s Simulation award. It may have been the least visually exciting game on this colourful page, but it was one of the strongest and deepest simulations listed.

That does not make it personally meaningful. Football-management games appeal to people who can turn statistics, transfers, formations and long seasons into their own private drama. I have never belonged to that audience.

Was the Magazine’s Ranking Correct?

As a prediction of mainstream excitement, the list was not bad. As a strict ranking of eventual quality, it was inconsistent. As a coherent genre list, it was almost chaotic.

Magazine Rank	Game	Retrospective View
1	The Movies	A defensible winner: ambitious, innovative, critically acclaimed and a BAFTA winner.
2	The Sims 2: Nightlife	A sensible high placement for an important expansion to an enormous life simulator.
3	X3: Reunion	Too high at launch because of severe technical problems, although patches and depth gave it longevity.
4	Wildlife Park 2	Plausible for zoo-management fans, but delayed into 2006 and difficult to compare with the others.
5	RCT3: Soaked!	Probably too low; it was a well-received expansion and a perfect match for the stated category.
6	Tycoon City: New York	Fair: accessible and attractive, but only moderately received.
7	NHL Eastside Hockey Manager 2005	Much better than seventh if judged on quality, but extremely specialised.
8	Football Manager 2006	Far too low on quality, though equally awkward in a list of visual building and life simulators.

The most revealing choice is still The Movies at number one. That decision looked like pure Peter Molyneux enthusiasm before release, but the finished game largely justified it. The weakest prediction was probably X3: Reunion at number three, at least if we judge the version people actually received on launch day rather than the heavily patched game it later became.

A Retro List Without Personal Nostalgia

The usual temptation with an old gaming list is to turn it into a checklist: Which games did I own? Which ones did I finish? Which box is still sitting on my shelf? This page does not work that way for me. It is almost a negative image of my gaming history. I lived through this period, read PC magazines and cared about plenty of games, yet these eight releases mostly passed beside me without leaving a mark.

Even The Sims 2, the one title I actually tried, never became a major part of my life. I did not build a complete disc collection or follow every expansion as it appeared. The handful of discs I have today came later, when used copies had become so common and inexpensive that people practically gave them away. They are objects from the era, but not evidence that I was deeply invested in the series at the time.

That contrast makes the tiny Black & White 2 mention elsewhere in the magazine even more striking. The game I remember and care about received almost no room, while a full ranked feature celebrated a collection of simulations that meant virtually nothing to me. A magazine does not preserve my personal version of gaming history. It preserves the editors’ version: what they expected to be important, what publishers were promoting and which genres seemed ready to grow.

Final Thoughts

This single page from Dansk PC Gaming World is a wonderfully imperfect time capsule. It captures the excitement surrounding Peter Molyneux and Lionhead, the enormous commercial gravity of The Sims 2, the ambition of X3, the era of expansion packs sold on physical discs and the broad 2005 definition of a “simulation.” It also preserves missed release dates, a launch that proved rougher than the preview suggested and two Sports Interactive titles with their years apparently swapped.

Most importantly, it reminds me that nostalgia is selective. I can feel a strong connection to the magazine, its layout, its language and the period it represents without pretending that every game on its list mattered to me. Sometimes an old magazine does not return a forgotten favourite. Sometimes it simply shows you all the roads you never took.

These eight games were presented as the building and life simulators to watch in 2005. Some became respected classics, some remained niche and some were quickly overtaken. I barely played any of them. Yet reading the list twenty years later is still fascinating—not because it tells me what I loved, but because it reveals what an entire corner of PC gaming once believed the future would look like.