When it comes to computer games, I’m mostly into strategy games. I prefer turn-based, but I enjoy an RTS now and again. Simulations have always been interesting to me as well, particularly sports management sims. Of course, the mother of all simulation games is the Sims franchise.

I confess, I never jumped on the Sims bandwagon when the first iteration took the gaming world by storm. I gave it a spin when a friend acquired it. Initially, I found it interesting. But it turned quite boring and repetitive before too long. So although it was on top of the gaming charts forever, it just wasn’t my thing.

I eventually bought The Sims 2 quite a while after it was released. While I found it to be somewhat of an improvement over the original, I never played it for any significant length of time. I uninstalled and reinstalled it several times, hoping to get into it. I never did play any of my sims for their full lifespans. Needless to say, I never bought any of the expansions either. I just always felt the game was missing something. Primarily, more advanced neighborhood interactions. I always found it jarring that, while playing, the entire neighborhood disappeared, leaving your sim’s house all alone in this vacant, green world. I wanted to walk around the neighborhood, knock on doors, greet people on the street, and that sort of thing. Yes, I was very pleased to read that all of this was going into the third iteration in the series.

Shortly after The Sims 3 hit the shelves in Korea, I purchased a copy. This is the Sims game I’ve been wanting to play since the original. I like it so much that it’s the only game I’m playing right now. My epic campaign in Europa Universalis III is suspended, and Burscough will have to do without me for a while in FIFA Manager 09. The Sims 3 is just plain, silly fun. My first sim just turned elderly and will likely croak soon. His wife is only a few days away from going gray herself. And their kid is growing quickly. I’m really eager to see how the traits he has develop. He already has the insane trait, which has been hilarious to see.

Too bad for me, though. I’ve got a hefty number of games I’ve yet to complete and very little time in a day to spend on gaming. The days of 15 hour gaming sessions are long gone (the main reason I no longer play MMOs). So unless The Sims 3 gets tedious soon, it’s going to be a while before I finish off any of the other games lying around my hard disk. And my book case. And in my closet. Bah.