The moment I enter my room at night, it's hard to leave my quarters. And the reason for the hermitic disappearance is this:
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| Marie Antoine (the little girl) and Deidre (her dad) |
I have always wondered how it feels to have so many different lives. Like it is possible to jump from one consciousness to another. But with Sims 3, the game lets me indulge in this fantasy. I have been an old granny who leads a criminal syndicate in town; A cat-lady who is a well-known writer. A hunk-daddy whose been thrown out of the house by his two-timing wife; a rebellious teen who moved in with the hunk-daddy after his sexy mom died in the cemetery; an eccentric fashion guru who fondly calls his boyish daughter "Antoine;" and finally, a black cat named after a leading character in the anime series Darker than Black.
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| looking out the window while little Orion is making poopoo |
In this surreal world, not only do I design homes and watering holes, I let loose my hidden twisted self. The characters I play, while best left alone to lead conventional lives, get tangled in complications because of my doing. I could create a sim (and endow the character with charismatic and nurturing trait) then let her butcher the entire town with a single Cow Plant. I could force all my sims to make babies. Who cares if the town runs out of land to build homes.
Given more time to play each life, I would come up with more sinister plots and unexpected upheavals. Those telenovelas on prime-time television are no match for my stories. And with fantasy elements such as imaginary friends, unicorns that appear at night (that you can ride a-la Rainbow Brite) and playable robots to enrich your game play, there are days when I really wonder, will this addiction end.
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| Goodwin (my main sim) standing on the edge of a cliff |
I've been a fan of The Sims since its first release more than a decade ago. Owing to its near-infinite playability, it's the first game I bought at Datablitz. It's also the only desktop computer game, aside from Civilization that I religiously followed to its latest successor.
Some people may not see the essence of this life simulation, much less, appreciate the tedious and repetitive tasks of seeing your Sims enjoy meaningful (and miserable) lives. But if you're someone afflicted with God Complex syndrome, or just appreciate the grandeur of creation and its sometimes unforeseeable turns, you will find Sims 3 to your liking.