Earth Simulator Play god with a whole planet

You start with a blank world or with the real Earth, built from actual elevation and climate data. From there it is all brushes and dials: raise islands and mountain ranges from the sea, steer the winds and ocean currents, turn the sun's strength up or down, set the level of CO₂. Every change ripples outward. Move the mountains and the rain falls somewhere else, so forests give way to steppe and steppe to desert. Melt the polar caps and the sea climbs into the coastal cities you were fond of. Geography decides destiny here, and you hold the pen.

Settle your world with people and the tribes start to grow. Nations form, keep their own cultures and faiths, name their lands and seas, sign alliances, wage wars and live through revolutions. Every nation has a ruler, every ruler a dynasty, and you can follow a family tree through generations.

Being a god means choosing. It is a calm game at your own pace, right up until the moment you decide it is not.

For anyone who likes building settlements from the ground up, this starts one step earlier than most: before the first road, there is a coastline you drew. Settle the world and the first villages grow into cities and nations on their own, shaped by the terrain, climate and resources you arranged. You decide where the rain goes and where the mountains stand, and the layout of civilization follows. Then you can walk those cities in first person and see what your zoning choices look like from street level, in whatever era the nation has reached.