You remember Oblivion from back in the day. It's worse than Morrowind in a lot of ways but the real-time day-night cycle and the NPC movement was engrossing. Quests where you have to go find people, and they can be in tons of locations are so interesting. Sometimes you have to figure out when someone goes home, Idk. Also characters would occasionally exhibit quirky behaviours. Every subsequent Bethesda game diminished this aspect hugely, it's one of the things I hate about Skyrim most.

Another series where the games never hit an early height of world sim again is Pokemon. Gold & Silver introduced day and night cycles that would have NPCs appear or disappear, wild pokemon encounters change, radio stations come on or off, certain items show up. For a system with 32kb of ram, it slapped. Other games have the cycle system but it's easily the most pronounced in G/S/C.

The "life sim"/'you are a loser farmer' genre as pioneered by Harvest Moon (and now happily overtaken by Stardew Valley and its ilk) have always had this kind of system, and I do like those a lot but if a game's not "about" its scheduling, it seems like they're more likely not to have it nowadays. STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl and its sequels had day/night at least, Metro did not... So if you know of any recent games that have really cool scheduling or realtime or day/night mechanics, hit me up. Also don't say Cybertruck'd 2077, game is boring and stupid :)

  • hypercracker [he/him]
    ·
    11 days ago

    Rain World has this but for ecosystems. There is a whole dynamic predation hierarchy that changes according to how dangerous you are known to be or how much you have tamed certain creatures, there are tribes of intelligent creatures that you can trade with or fight with or be attacked by depending on the reputation you develop with them over the game, there are food sources that cannot be repeatedly visited but must be rotated through to give them time to regrow.

    • ashinadash [she/her]
      ·
      11 days ago

      Finally it's the ecosystem simulation every open world game bragged about, for real! I've been eyeing this game for a long time.

      • hypercracker [he/him]
        ·
        11 days ago

        Just know that it's hard to get into. There isn't really any strong narrative pushing you along, and it's a lot more about learning how to exist in the specific ecosystems you encounter as you progress through the game. There are a few linear difficult stealth & platforming sections around the midpoint but the early game is very open.