Banished vs Virtual Families
Banished
Banished is a medieval-themed city-building simulation that can be pretty difficult to get into at first mainly due to its many nuances and lack of a comprehensive tutorial. But once you get the general idea of how things work (we'd recommend starting with easy mode), you'll start to truly appreciate the game as the challenge that it is. In some way, this game is quite similar to SimCity in many ways with the obvious difference being the themes and the lack of piping, waste management or electricity. Different maps will pose a different challenge and of course, the bigger your village is, the more stuff you'll need to manage. Although it does have some strategy elements to it - mainly in the form of village management, the game is not a war game. There is no fighting involved but your villagers will die from natural causes or disasters like illnesses or famine.However, once you've gotten the hang of the game, Banished becomes less of a punishing game and a bit more boring due to the same-y looking buildings and the soundtrack. When it comes to replayability, we'd say that the game has maybe tens of hours in it before you'll get bored and move on to the next game... and this play duration may be drastically reduced if you happen to be a pro SimCity player.
So, in short, Banished will appear to be a somewhat frustrating game at first, but once you've gotten the hang of it, the game might gradually becomes boring mainly because there is nothing else to do except to expand, expand and expand! However, we can't say that we didn't enjoy playing the game, and even for the shorter play duration it has to offer, as opposed to triple A city-building titles, the game is worth the money it costs.
Virtual Families
Virtual Families is a fun family simulation game where you'll be in charge of taking care of a virtual family. Somewhat similar to The Sims albeit in a much smaller scale, you'll get to adopt a virtual person of your choice and encourage him or her to do what young adult humans do - find a stable career, meet a suitable partner and settle down to start a family. Instead of ordering your sim around though, you'll encourage certain behavior by praising and discourage others by scolding. In some way, you can say that you can actually shape the personality of your little virtual person.Aside from the sim, you'll also get to improve the newly-wed's home. There are even multiple hidden puzzles all over the place for you to find and solve. Sometimes, when you least expect it, an event will pop up threatening to turn the amazing virtual life you've built for your sim completely upside down! All of these provide some respite from the usual daily routine of your sims as they go about their day.
Virtual Families is an incredibly fun game especially for fans of life simulation games like The Sims. If you got the chance, you should really check this game out! The demo is free to play, but for the full experience, you'll need to buy the game.