I find the challenges a game presents in the simulation genre is the hardest. You have to find stuff that will strive players to be better at the game and these cannot be repetitive. In this sense, I think Cooking Simulator fails because the main challenge is cutting the right shape, sticking to the recipe and time management. These are okay challenges but the game is not suited for these. There is no horizontal cutting for, let's say, french fries. Or you could follow the recipe to the dot and people wil stilll find something wrong with it because everybody's a critic these days. And if you're trying to pick up a garlic piece that's only a few pixel squares (?) good luck with that because there is a mouse input lag. The last straw for me was when the timer didn't ring when it was supposed to (it had only one job). There's just so many frustrating aspects like these.

While the gameplay is so-so, the incentive system is just egregious. In an ideal game, you would unlock new features (and challenges!) with the money you earn, so you would always have a reason to play the game. For example, you want to unlock a new recipe that requires grilling but you'd have to buy a grill for 1,000 bucks. Now I have a goal other than gaining fame. But in the game, you have all the appliances ready for service from the get-go and the money you earn is only used for ingredients or utensils, which can be bought to the maximum capacity in a few game days. Such a wasted opportunity.

With all the bugs and problems and considering the size of the developer company, there is only so much they can fix before they move onto their next project. I doubt they see a problem in the incentive system and I doubt they can fix all the bugs in this relatively short timeframe but I really hope I'm wrong.