The best Management Sims?

Hey guys, 
 
What are the best management sims around these days? Ive got a lot of time to fill and I really enjoy the genre. 
 
Ive played all the football managers, Hot springs story, Game dev story, Pizza something (i forget), Rollercoaster tycoon all versions. Those are what I can remember off the top of my head.
 
I would prefer games that have graphics rather than spreadsheets, as Im kinda burnt out on number crunching Football manager. (114 hours played on 2011. I think I got my £29.99s worth) 
 
Thanks in advance 
Merx

Do you like managing creatures, too? If you've never played Dungeon Keeper before there's a great version of it over on Good Old Games for like, $5.99. I suppose there might not be enough micromanagement in it for you to enjoy it as you would those other games you mentioned but it's the only other game I can think of that's even remotely similar. Basically you dig a dungeon, build rooms to attract a variety of creatures, train them and ultimately defeat the heroes of the level with the aid of traps and spells.

Keep in mind that it's a game from 1997 and the graphics look like 1997. Just remember to press alt+R to up the resolution if you end up getting the game, makes it a little more manageable (hah, the pun!).

While I'm on the subject of Bullfrog, you might want to check out Theme Hospital as well. Another old game that might fit your interests more. I don't know where to get it though, but I seem to recall seeing it on PSN a while ago?

Ah yeah, Ive played Theme hospital. That was a great game. I remember having it on PS1, and my flatmate discovered his disc of it not long ago. 
 
Ive never tried Dungeon Keeper but Ill give it a go. 
 
Any other suggestions are welcome. Especially ones where you build a small buisness into a big one.

@Merx: Does it have to be a business? Sounds like you might actually enjoy something along the lines of Civilization V, I know I've spent countless hours on that game.

@Merx said:

114 hours played on 2011.

Weakling ;)

• But let's see. There's SimGolf, where you build and manage your own golf course, and even get to play on it. It's old but I still like to play it from time to time.
• SimCity is a given.
• I guess the Harvest Moon series could be considered a sort of farming sim, though it is very unique.
• Uplink is a very unrealistic, but extremely fun and nervewracking hacking sim. I've spent many, many hours on it.
• I would consider the Tropico games as being sims. Rule and manage your own island, including setting government policies and laws, dealing with foreign governments and internal strife, all the while trying to get re-elected.
• There's John Deere: American Farmer. Not that bad actually, but if you have absolutely no interest in managing a farm, you should probably stay away.
• Then there's Chocolatier, and its sequel. It's basically you developing your own chocolates and selling them all over the world. It has mini-games you have to play every time you want to develop a new chocolate though.
• Those are the ones I can remember from the top of my head.

You should take a look at Evil Genius.  Similar to Dungeon Keeper but with James Bond villainy.  I believe it can be found on Steam but I'm not bothering to double-check.

I've been playing Anno 1404 (with the Venice expansion pack) plus Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 and they've been really entertaining, especially the former. There's a surprising amount of things to do in Anno 1404 since they've got a built in achievement system in it too.

As someone who loves these games, I'm gonna have to vouch for Evil Genius as well.

Evil Genius is a nice little gem that you can probably get pretty cheap, of course the Sim City games are well-worth playing as well. Perhaps this is just a personal preference but I also rather liked Tropico 3.

Theme Park World for the PS2 is slighlty dated but its a great great game, and dirt cheap too.

Theme Park World for the PS2 is slighlty dated but its a great great game, and dirt cheap too.

Musumaker

+1 for Recettear and Evil Genius. Evil Genius is one of my all time favourite games, and you can find it on Steam for pretty cheap.

Hey guys. 
  
Thanks for everyones input 

I'm gonna give Anno 1404 and Tropico 2 Pirates Cove a go. They both look to offer what Im after. And although Ive never tried to format of Dungeon Keeper/Evil Genius, I will give them a go at  a later date.
 
On a side note, since many of you may have played it, did anybody find in Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 a strange problem/bug where the crowds pathfinding seemed to break after a while, so they wouldn't go on rides or even down certain bits of path. Its difficult to explain but if you experianced it you will know what I mean.

Does Roller Coaster Tycoon count? 

Transport Tycoon Deluxe.

Or OpenTTD, though the AI is horrible and therefore is not a real option.

@Merx said:

@Aeterna: How is the AI bad? We talking game breaking? I was considering giving it a go.

I would say so, the AI's are all in beta afaik and... most don't even work. There'll be one that'll just do trucks/trains etc, those I remember atleast surviving, the rest just... well, bankrupted.

That's why I would tell you to get Transport Tycoon Deluxe and then you can simply copy over the files, at least for the music and graphics I remember. This has been quite a while, so this may not be true anymore.

Viva Pinata, kinda. It's real cheap now

Roller coaster tycoon