I'm currently having a historical game itch. I can't quite decide which period the itch is for though, nor the genre, just that I want to play games based on real history (though the ability to change history is never a bad thing

To be clear, I'm not looking for a game that just takes a bit of inspiration from history (like say Empire Earth or Civilization), but rather a game with some historical accuracy. 

*edit* Also, no Total War games. I just don't like those games. 

Hmm, Assassin's creed? While a fictional storyline they went through qutie a bit of historical accuray to build their cities/characters and events within the games.

Since you don't want RTS games or WWII (there goes Medal of honor, etc) not sure what else to suggest.

There just isnt a lot of historical games outside of niche RTS titles or cheap casual national geograhic style games.

I got the impression that Assassin's creed's entire premise (templar/assassin rivalry) was rather historically inaccurate and a tad bit silly. 

I don't mind strategy games, I was just afraid that unless I mentioned that I would like something else, I would only get military focused strategy games suggested to me. During my own search I did find a game that deals with a period of time that is often glossed over in history (Great Invasions: The Dark ages "350-1066 AD"), though it is a game by AGEOD, so I just ignored my own criteria of "no AGEOD level of complexity"...

I also got a few historical trading games suggested to me (interestingly enough, every single one of those were of German origin. The game market really is different there than it is in the rest of the world)

Have you looked at the list on Mobygames?  By the looks of things, you should get a list by going to the "Find Games" box on the right-hand side of the main page, selecting "History" in the "Genre" dropdown ("History" should be under the heading of "Educational Categories") and then pressing the "Go" button.  There also seems to be a "Historical Battle" list under "Non-Sports Themes" in the same drop-down.

It lists surprisingly few games that way. If I pick system: Windows and genre: History, it only gives me 127 results, and the vast majority of those seem to be childrens games meant to teach history or trivia games. Picking Historical Battles (Specific/exact) gives more results, many of which seem to be proper games. The problem is that I don't know where to start, which games are just somewhat inspired by history, and which are more accurate? And random clicking resulted in me clicking on a hentai game, and now I wish I could unseen that

OK Fnord, good idea.

That is a topic that I really enjoy myself and I look for: here are historic setting games that are accurate of all genres that I have found and enjoyed..

Assasins Creed - contrary to what you heard, the Templar Borgia competition represented real and actual conflicts not between those actual groups but between similar interests. The settings of ACII are indeed some of the most accurate I have ever seen, the ones set in Italy and the realism is amazing. Game play is challenging, very.

Egypt II - Very accurate portrayal, adventure game, will run on XP as it is an older game with some work

SPQR - very accurate roman game very old but still will work on XP

Victoria - Resource mamagement game set in the Victorian Age, rather interesting and fairly accurate.

Pirates of the Carribean - with the mods , very accurate, there are some mega mods out for it, and they make the ships and the action very realistic

Age of Pirates - City of Lost Ships - AGain with the mods, amazingly accurate portrayl of that age.

Vietcong - very little known game by the same developers who did Mafia I and II, amazing realism and gives you histirc view of a very interesting era, they developed their own game engine that is one of the most sopisticated and accurate of any in making a complex and dynamic NPC filled 3D World

Caesars Will - older but will run with XP if you turn down sound acceleration, very accrurate shows interiors and settings that give you a real feel for Rome just after Caeser's death.

Total War Series - a bit more focuses on combat than you may want but with some of the mods you can get a very accurate Napoleonic era for one thing, and several other periods also have mods: American Civil War, Great War (WWI) and some others. A new mod developed a highly develped landscape and tree replacement that makes the game highly realistic. Roma Surrectum is the name of that mod it is for Rome Total War, the new Shogun Total War is the most sopisticated and succesful of the series set in Medievil Japan.

I know you said no WWII but you may not have played the Hidden and Dangerous series, it is the best and most immersive of that era, also by the same people who made Mafia I and II, and Medal of Honour Pacific shows amazing detail of the entire era, with immersive work that is unparalleled, including a full experience of the attack on Pearl Harbour that is one of the most amazing realistic settings of any game.

I would go for Assasins Creed II Brotherhood, it is simply amazing for historical accuracy and immersion.

So Egypt 2 is a major improvement on the first one? I bought a collection of the two a while ago, tried the first one and absolutely hated it. 

SPQR is the game from 97 that they more recently turned into a free browser game, right? link 

Victoria (if it is the Paradox game you are referring to) was for a long time my all time favorite Paradox title. Now that honor belongs to its sequel, Victoria 2. I have all of Paradox's in house developed titles except from Crusader Kings 2, which I'll buy once they have patched it (Paradox make great games, but they are always buggy on release. They also tend to publish buggy but great games, and I have a fare amount of those as well).

If you are talking about the same Pirates of the Caribbean that Bethesda released a few years back then I've sadly played that one as well. Surprisingly good for being a licence title (but then again, the game was originally meant to be called Sea Dogs 2, and the licence was only tacked on at the very end of its production cycle, that is why it has so little to do with the movie). I should probably see if I can find the first Sea dogs. 

Vietcong is another game that I own. Never got very far in it though, because I thought it had a few major flaws, but an interesting game. The Vietnam conflict is probably quite hard to make a proper game out of, because being ambushed and stepping into traps is not all that fun. It would probably make for a better game if you were playing the north Vietnamese, though such a game would on the other hand probably not sell. The only good Vietnam-themed game that I have ever played is actually a board game (namely Lock 'n load forgotten heroes: Vietnam, which also happens to be my favorite hex-based tactical wargame)

The total war series is sadly one that I don't really enjoy. I keep buying the games, because they look interesting, and I feel like I should love them, but I never actually finish them. The campaigns just feel too drawn out, they would probably be better if they were on a smaller scale (dealing with smaller regions). The first Shogun is an exception, that game had so few provinces that you could finish it in an evening or two. I suspect that I won't return to that game though, Paradox have released their own game set during that time, and while it lacks the tactical battles, it is strategically far more interesting. link

 I plan to give Rome another chance, with the Total Realism mod at some point though (but then again, I have Europa Uniersalis Rome and its expansion, which much like Sengoku lacks the tactical battles, but is far more interesting from a strategic point of view).

And I have played Hidden & Dangerous. I have both games, but I'm absolutely horrendous at them (never got past the second campaign in H&D 1 alone. When playing with a friend we just barely managed to finish it). The games themselves were very satisfying though, well paced, true to what they were based on (for the most part, one could always nitpick about things) and fun.

I'll check out Cesars Will, and see if I can find a copy for sale at a decent price around here. 

IIRC, Egypt 2 isn't too bad.  Pure AG, nothing military.

There's always Rise and fall: Civilizations at War.  That's pretty historical if you don't mind an RPG/RTS mix. But yeah, that's military.

The first result when googling Rise and Fall was to a free, add supported version (apparently sponsored by the US air force). I'll give that a try.

*edit* And I just gave the CK2 demo a shot (there is a contest on another forum where if you write an after action report for the demo, you can win the full game). It seems like a great game, and Paradox have also added wikipedia links from the game to all historical characters, which is genious!

wow Fnord, i will have to try harder lol

Originally Posted By CrisGer (16 FEB 2012 8:33am)

 

 

wow Fnord, i will have to try harder lol

Well, when it comes to historically accurate games, the list is quite small to begin with, unless you are willing to play incredibly complex games (like the ones sold here). It should be pointed out that games more complex than Victoria: an empire under the sun are considered to be of intermediate complexity on that site (I don't even think I would be able to wrap my mind around a game like this, which is on the far end of the complexity level))

ah Harpoon, i have the original, and since you did say WWII i cut out a lot that i study, including the amazing Silent Hunter series, IV and V espcially are remarkable with the mods...some mega mods that i help develop and support.

i dont do strategy games much any more, brain is not fast enough....i like lots of scenery and story

i realy will try to think of some more, i have thought for years that games could teach history in amazing ways, some of the most immersive experiences possible that give the flavour and feel of an era are games...including the Juarez duo about the West and the USA, some of the Medal of Honour, Brotheres of Arms and the other major WWII series, they are fantastic for locations and ambience, Mafia II for New York City in the 1950s, and so on but you asked for real history and i am still working on it, i have played so many that my mind has trouble bringing them back.

but i will keep trying. you are voracious and tenacious and remarkable. A One person Game Encycolpedia

Two other historic games are the two old Versailles, early 3D, and very accurate historicaly ...not sure if they work on modern comptuers but they may. There is another old historic "tour" game set in Peking, almost a slide show of the Great Palace but another remarkable one, there are several oldies set in China, there was another very old one very early 3D make by a group called Girl Gamers i think.

Originally Posted By CrisGer (16 FEB 2012 10:07am)

 

Two other historic games are the two old Versailles, early 3D, and very accurate historicaly ...not sure if they work on modern comptuers but they may. There is another old historic "tour" game set in Peking, almost a slide show of the Great Palace but another remarkable one, there are several oldies set in China, there was another very old one very early 3D make by a group called Girl Gamers i think.

Are you thinking of The Legend of Lotus Spring? That one was made in colaberation with "Women Wise". I always found the description of what their games might contain a bit odd though. They are describing women as a homogeneous group, as if all women are interested in a rather narrow selection of subjects. From the manual from The Legend of Lotus Spring:

Upcoming Women Wise titles will feature more rich stories, plus titles of women's interests including topics on health and wellness, nutrition and subjects like aromatherapy, Feng Shui, spas around the world, enhanced CDs...

(Enhanced CDs? That is a very odd subject matter for a game). They apparently planed to focus on adventure games, and it went on a bit about how future games would also be adventure games.

It is not that I hate the WW2 time period or anything like that, I just think that it is severely overdone. It sometimes feels like every second strategy games (and 3/4 of all complex strategy games) are WW2 focused. I understand why it is such a popular time period to create games for though.

Harpoon just looked like the most (or at least the second most) complex game I've ever seen. We have machines at the lab that are used to determining the structure of different molecules that seem easier to use (and those give readouts that looks like this  (don't worry if you don't understand that, it just looks like a mess to anyone who has not spent a lot of time with such things)).

I like to think of myself as more of a general walking encyclopedia

The big problem with many of the older adventure games, like Legend of the lotus spring and I would guess SPQR are that they just don't work well on modern computers. Some use older versions of quicktime, which can be a real headache, and the engine that The adventure company used during the time have major compatibility issues. Some games work, but many sadly don't (I've tried to get my copy of The Sacred Amulet to run on my computer, but to no avail)

*edit* I'm having some issues with Rise & Fall. The game starts in a resolution that is not supported by my monitor, and I can't find a config file where I can change that. My copy of Great Invasions: The dark ages "350-1066ad" & Birth of America just arrived though. Together with 2 copies of Counter Strike Source, that I did not order, and not pay for...  picture of what I got (I've already had friends call dibs on these though)

Yes that is Lotus Spring by the women group, it is very interesting i got it to run on Windows 98 but i dont think there is any chance of XP or later.  it is quite well done but the engine is very primitive...and textures very bland, i traded my copy to a friend in Engtland for an early Lara Croft

the other game is called Forbidden City i think, and is a semi historical tour semi story about Peking about 400 years ago.

there is a very early game about Japan from the same era, something about the Houses of Kyoto or something like that

i am gonna do more lilsting of things once i can get unburied from some other stuff.

yes Harpoon is very complex and is a cross over game from the days of pencil and paper wargaming, i started with that, and naval war gaining back in the 1970s, back then we had no dream of the days we have now, and everythig was done on paper or in the head indeed.

there are two very recent and very well done WWII era games just out, adventure games, i will get the info.

I'm no stranger to board games that requires a lot of book keeping and manual work in general. After all, I play battletech, and in that game it is not uncommon for each side to have 10 of these. Even at a time where we have computers that can handle everything for us, just going back to basics has its charm. 

There is game out there called Verailles 1685 - but it seems to be an adventure game. More here:

http://www.amazon.com/Versailles-1685-Intrigue-Court-Louis-PC/dp/B0006FTKD2

It seems to be more of a children's game, though.

An action game I played many years ago was/is Time Commando. In this game you travel through time and visits historcally correct places and fight through levels. Another game is The First Templar, which is also an action game in which you play as a Templar in the 1300's.

I did a search for historical games and this BBC site was shown:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/interactive/games/

Also, from this link it seems that Read Dead Redemptio is pretty accurate as well

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110401145536AAFzphZ

If you look at this wiki page, there should be a lot of inspiration:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Video_games_with_historical_settings

Time Commando was a game that I used to play with my neighbor many many years ago (around 97-98, I think). We never got past the WW1 level though. If my memory serves it was not all that historically accurate, the levels just borrowed inspiration from different time periods.

And Red Dead Redemption was sadly never released for PC

And the Wikipedia list sadly seem to contain more fantasy games than actual historical games. There is even a game about anthropomorphic pigs in the medieval category

I'm by the way done with trading games for now. Spent a fare amount of time with Port Royale today, and like always when it comes to that type of games I love playing them for a while, but then grow bored with them, because they get too repetitive. 

Have you played L.A. Noire ? I know it is an adventure game, but from whaat I understand it is fairly accurate in describing how L.A. looked back in 1947-1949. And it is out for the pc

I've wanted to play it, it looks like a great game, but my computer is sadly a bit lacking

Darn it, I really want to play L.A Noire. I've been looking around to see how other people with similar systems as mine have fared, if they have been able to play the game (Skyrim ran just fine, KoA's demo ran without any noticeable slowdown, but I experienced some rather severe texture issues). I could sadly find no reports though

Anyway, i booted up East India company again, and tried to play through the Battle of Trafalgar DLC (not something that I would have bought individually, but it came with the collection). Not a bad looking game at all, for being a game more focused on trading than ship to ship combat.

and played around a bit with the demo for Crusader Kings 2

which at points feels like more of a chose your own adventure/rpg than a grand strategy game

Probably mentioned already but here are a few AGs in my collection with a strong historical bent:

Versailles 1685: very detailed interior and exterior architectural recreations of palace etc.

SPQR: the browser game version doesn't do justice to the game

QIN: a bit fancifull but filled with historical artifacts and factoids of the period in question

Byzantine: Istanbul etc.

Last Express: period costume drama with an accurate recreation of of the train itself

In the wargame category - if you haven't, look at:

Combat Mission series: The new iterations of this great quasi rts/turn-based series are very impressive.

Close Combat series, especially the new versions. Overhead RTS WW-2

The last express is one of the more interesting games that I have played, and it was one of the first adventure games that I ever owned (I played a demo for it and was instantly hooked). I have also played the original CD-version of SPQR in the past.

Byzantine looks like an interesting game, but costs £50 (plus postage), which is a tad bit more than I'm willing to pay for a game.

Versailles has been mentioned already, and I'm on the lookout for a copy of it that does not cost an arm and a leg. Qin though is new to me (if you mean the game from 1995). I can't find any place that sells it though.

And as for the strategy games. I thought that Combat Mission were WW2 only (I have played the first 2 parts of the series), but after searching for the games on Gamer's Gate to see if there were any more, I found something very interesting, one game in the series deals with the Russian/Afghan wars, something that I have never seen represented in a game before. I'm downloading the demo for it right now. 

And I have played the first 4 Close combat games. I'm not in the mood for WW2 right now, but it is a good series. 

The Russia/Afghan sim uses Battlefront's 2nd iteration of the CM engine - an impressive step beyond the earlier one, which was awesome to begin with. I DL'd the demo for Normandy, and will do same for Russia/Afghan. They also have T-72 which puts you in command of a Ruski tank in various Balkan type settings. I found one cheap on eBay.

Yes, QIN is the 1995 game and published by Time Warner of all people. Another very nice game from the gold mine of mid 90's AGs.

Combat Mission Afghanistan could really use a tutorial... I can't help but feel a bit lost while trying to play the demo. There seem to be a great game hidden in there, but the lack of tutorial and proper tooltips is a problem.