You want to have all the sensations of sailing on a cruise, but you are terrified of the water, or you do not have time to do what you would like so much. Well, don't worry because that's what ship simulators are for, and that's what there is nothing that augmented reality, or video games cannot do ...Of course, nothing equals the pleasure of tasting delicious cuisine on the bow of a boat, or meeting interesting people, but at least it is a consolation or a way of reliving what you have already enjoyed.
Before going ahead and explaining a little more about the boat simulators that you have on the market, I will tell you what augmented reality is. It is simple, it is a technology that mixes reality, what we see and perceive, with the virtual. In this way, instead of isolating yourself from your own reality, what it does is integrate you into a virtual environment, but perceiving portions of your real moment. Thanks to this technology, for example, ppresentations of ships that have not yet been built, but they already have tickets for sale for their next trips. You can see some on Youtube.
And now, let's talk about simulators, games and other applications that will help you feel life on a cruise ship.
Ships, the recreation of 6 large cruise ships
To begin with, I will tell you about Ships, which is actually more than a game or simulator, it is a program created to recreate, worth the redundancy, the environment of 6 large ships. Among these ships are the Queen Elizabeth 2 or the Hindenburg Zeppelin. To enjoy this application you just have to have Google Earth installed and search for it, you can download it from the Google App Store, and if you read the comments you will see that there is everything, people who have enjoyed it very much and others who complain about how slow it is.
Ship Simulator is a complete ship simulator in which the player will have to do multiple nautical tasks. The most interesting thing is that you can choose between multiple vessels such as ferries, boats, yachts or cargo ships among others. The bad thing is that it is in English and the best is its hyper-realism. The European version, European Ship Simulator, takes you through the most important ports in Europe.
In 2018 they released the version Ship Simulator Extremes of which they have sold thousands, hundreds of thousands of copies, and this version is not free. In this case you are the captain and you have to make important decisions in really adverse situations like boarding pirates, facing the perfect storm in the Arctic and things like that. The good news is that this version is in Spanish.
Tempest and Black Flag, to really live the adventure
If what really interests you is adventure, and you are a classic, Tempest proposes you to be a captain of a vintage ship. In exchange for navigating stormy seas, you will have to unearth treasure, loot merchant ships and do everything expected of a pirate. It is not exactly a ship simulator, but its graphics are so well done that you will feel the sails unfold. The great advantage is that it is a very cheap app that you can download it on your mobile, so while you go on the subway you can dream that you are going through terrible seas.
Who have played blackflag, for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One they say that the recreation of the water, the lighting effects of the vegetation are phenomenal, and as for the plot they speak of an unadorned, direct script, with great force in its plot twists. Almost directly you get a pirate ship, the Jackdaw, one much faster than those of the time, and with it they launch you to sail through exotic tropical waters, and arrive, for example, in Havana. So that you have the certainty that you are sailing, the weather is changeable and you can be overwhelmed by wild storms, which you can avoid, if you see them arrive as a marine expert, but be careful! if you fall into one of them you will have to be very skilled to avoid giant waves and dodge typhoons.
Webcams on ships
Well, I've already told you about some games and simulators, but always you have the option to connect to the webcam that the big ships They usually carry webcams so you can see where your favorite ship is going live, this is the case of MSC, Norwegian, Costa Cruises, Princess or Cunard whose webcams you can access through their web pages. Just a comment, sometimes the cameras are a bit dirty, and it does not look as good as it should and in some cases you have to have pre-booked to access the links of the companies. Apart from the webcam of the ships, also the ports and calls usually have cameras that can be accessed.