Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Playing God.

Y'know, while we're busy shooting each other in the jaw, saving the world from immediate destruction, foiling some grand master plan from an insane dictator, and being that one scrappy underdog who gradually comes into their hidden power..

Someone's out there creating lives.

sims3_diamond.jpg

..and screwing with them.


I actually wish I played The Sims more, I remember being a kid and playing SimCity like a nut, however I wasn't carefully managing the economy, building residences, promoting business, constructing a easily navigable grid, or any of those responsible things a great mayor should.

I was tearing all of it down.

Sim_City_Disaster_1_iPhone.jpg

Call me crazy, but it's endlessly hilarious when Godzilla is destroying your town while a hurricane goes at odds with a tornado for most buildings flattened, during a massive flash flood and viral outbreak. The disaster slider was my friend, and it was always turned up to max RIGHT when my citizens were experiencing a golden age.

I think it's the philosophy behind what makes The Sims so much fun to mess around with. Almost like controlling reality TV, it's a riot to watch these guys succeed as much as it is to watch them fail. We're on the cusp of the third one's release, and honestly? I'm tempted. Robust customization options down to a character's fitness, raising them from kid, the entire town being seamless (one of my complaints was that the indoors felt too disconnected from the outdoors, being less cohesive as a world), and removing the annoying traits (am I the only one who WASN'T fond of making them poop every 5 minutes?) means EA just wants us to have fun focusing on them and their quirks (Did I mention there were over 80 of those things, ranging from klepto to insane?). Given these below videos, it looks like it'll be a riot.






Marking June 2nd on my calendar..

1 comment:

  1. I actually was wondering about the non-explosion alternatives available to me in the month of June.

    But if you are building things to enjoy their eventual destruction isn't it a bit like vegetarian sausages?

    ReplyDelete