Sims

Back in the day I was a big fan of the game The Sims. In fact, so were my roommates in college. Well, really just one of my roommates: Brandon. We both had the game on our computers and would play the game simultaneously, then start yelling at each other in the fake language that the Sim people would use.

If you've never seen or played the game, you're really missing out. You create a person with personality traits and needs and desires, almost like real people. You then place your Sim in a house which you are able to decorate to your heart's content. And then you let your Sim live. You control when they eat, sleep, go to the bathroom, go to work, etc. I don't see it as playing God, but I guess it could be construed that way.

Especially when one derives some sort of pleasure from placing a Sim in a room full of fireplaces and removing all means of escape, then having the Sim light all said fireplaces. Guess what eventually happens? Yeah, pretty sick, right?

Anyway, that game's popularity carries on to today. It spawned sequels, which brings us to the recently released The Sims 3. Back in January, I first caught wind of this game's coming release. So I went to the local GameStop to put down some money and reserve my very own copy. I didn't have enough to pay for the whole thing right then and there, but I figured that I'd have the rest and then some when the game came out a month or so later. At first I was a little nervous that the game may be too advanced for my aging computer, but the sales clerk assured me that if The Sims 2 worked for my laptop, the third installment should be no different.

Then the release date changed to June 2. Little did I know, that when June 2 arrived, I wouldn't be able to afford the rest of what I owed for the game. So I gathered up all the old video games I never played and traded them in for store credit. After all was said and done, I picked up the game on Tuesday for a grand total of $1.01 out of pocket.

That evening I was excited to load the game on my laptop. It took awhile, but the program finally finished installing itself. The game was afoot. As I was heavily into creating my very first new character in the new game, my computer crashed. Turns out the laptop doesn't meet the minimum requirements to run the game.

So now I'm stuck with a game that I can't play until the day I can afford to buy a new computer.

Another option is the Greenehouse. Nicole discovered that the desktop computer in their home office is capable of running the program. Last night I went over there and tried it out for a little while. After playing for only 15 minutes, I can say that this game is just as involved and complicated as the previous versions. It'll be nice when I can actually play it in the same addictive way I played the old ones.