The Sims 3 announced….

I have to say, I am a little bit excited about this. Announced today on 1Up (http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3166813), the Sims 3 is finally upon us. When I say ‘upon’, I actually mean ‘within the somewhat near-ish future’, as there is no official date that I’m currently aware of.

Anyway, excitement. Within the article, it mentioned that ‘The biggest change to The Sims 3 is that it takes place in a wide-open, constantly changing neighborhood’- *squeal*! For me, this is the one thing that I always thought was lacking from The Sims, in that there was no really good way to socially interact with other characters in your neighbourhood, unless they came round to your house on a whim (which I never quite understood- I’ve never just randomly wandered round to a neighbours house for a chinwag and some casual flirting) or you went to one of the ‘downtown areas’ (which existed on a separate time scale to your house, which was just plain weird). The fact that this social aspect now seems to have come to the forefront of the game interests me a lot. I always found the whole try-to-kiss-your-girlfriend’s-sister part of The Sims much more interesting than the job and mood fulfillment aspect, which, as also mentioned in the article, has been cut down.

‘The game also sees a major shift in how Sims’ motives are handled: Individual meters indicating bladder and sleep-deprivation levels are replaced by a new system of discrete moods’ says the article. This, in my view, is a very good thing indeed. This aspect really got in the way of your Sims doing all the cool things in life. True, it made sense, in that you had to make sure your Sim ate properly, and slept well, but I never thought it was flexible enough- what if your Sim wanted to go on an all night binge? It couldn’t be done in past iterations, but here it seems like this sort of behaviour could be a distinct possibility.

The Sims 3 is definitely a game that I’m going to be keeping my eye on in the coming months. It’s one of the most popular games around, and I’ve been a long time fan, so hopefully I won’t be let down.

I love you Ninja Gaiden Sigma, but…

By Dave
———————–

Dear Ninja Gaiden Sigma

I really want to love you, but I can’t see past your flaws. I know this is shallow of me, but perhaps I’m just a shallow person. Please listen to what I have to say- I hope you will understand how I feel.

There are some things that I really loved about you though. Your combat system was beautiful and full of joie de vivre. It is a skilful system, requiring me to constantly keep guard and be alert and on my toes. I adore games that keep me aware and active. Sure, most games like to keep me entertained through a general glaze of past experience and see it all before know-how- you however, challenged me in a way that no game had ever challenged me before. In fact, I still remember the time that I had to tell you to go easy on me; the intensity was too much for me to take. Even then, you had me pulling off things I never thought that, as a gamer, I would be able to do. I learned your combat skill set, and you pushed to do more and more, enabling me to become a mighty ninja in your arms.

I will never forget that. Your core game was a superb balance of button pressing and positional awareness. It was the small things that let you down.

For example, the time you asked to jump across multiple platforms had me in tears. Why would you give me these tasks, when you knew that your control system wasn’t designed to enable me to do such things? I tried and I tried, but I kept overshooting jumps, falling down large gaps, jumping aimlessly and awkwardly in incorrect directions. You just looked on, letting me become infuriated. I felt it was unnecessary to our relationship, but still, time after time, you forced me to interact with this anguish.

Another major gripe I had was your erratic level design. I loved it when we were in feudal Japanese settings, slicing foes with our blades, but why did you take me to the unholy monastery catacombs? It was full of guff enemies, ugly textures and poor platforming. There was no need for you to force that upon me, and it lasted so long as well. I think perhaps in the future, maybe you should hire more beta testers to pick out these poor points in your profile.

Overall you were a good game, the best I’ve played in a while. But it could never last- you could never satisfy me fully. I’m happy now, I’ve found a new soulmate; she’s called God of War. She’s not as unforgivingly tough as you, but she doesn’t infuriate me half as much. She has a sister called God of War 2, but I am yet to meet her.

I hope we can keep in touch, and maybe I’ll come round and give you another whirl at some point. But for now, goodbye, and good luck.

Best wishes, David.

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