Okay, I have Sims fever. This is the first game I have ever pre-ordered, and it's not even designed by the legendary Will Wright, who has officially retired from this franchise. Instead, it's directed by some guy named Rod Humble (another great Sim name!) who admits in a Wall Street Journal article to having both childhood and adult obsessions that are classic examples of Asperger's special interests. Sims 2 gave the dolls in the virtual doll house the ability to age, marry, even grow old, and added new life aspirations beyond having a better paying job. In Sims 3 they will gain psychological motivations beyond the basic physical ones in prior generations of this game. Will this new idea make for a more fun game experience or will it fall flat in the execution? Do I care?
Apparently not, since I have my own unfathomable psychological motivations that compell me to own a copy, even though I don't even have time to play this game. Not only did I pre-order this game, I got the collector's edition that comes with a 2GB Plumbob USB drive. It's the very first time I've ever heard the word "Plumbob", but I already know what it must mean. And here I am writing this article, which reads like an advertisement for the game. Scary, huh?
Microsoft announced Project Natal at the E3 this week. It looks almost too good to be true, but the Wii looked that way back then too. If Microsoft can really pull this off, would this technology be the Wii killer?