My boyfriend’s nuts for Skyrim and he has his own Xbox to play in my apartment now. Last night, when my mom and I were in the living room, he found a bear and
set it on fire before finally hacking it to death
I have to admit I wasn’t paying attention before but found that a bit disturbing, because regardless of whether the animals are trying to kill players, some level of enjoyment comes from slaughtering them. The other issue is that Skyrim obviously has pretty advanced graphics and therefore has a heightened sense of realism compared to some other stylized or more simplistic games. I’m not worried about people with fully developed brains/morality and all, and I don’t think it’s inevitable that playing violent video games will turn kids into murderers, but like… a 10-year-old boy who plays his brother’s copy of Skyrim—will he be too desensitized to cruelty and therefore be more likely to do something cruel to a pet or stray animal? I already hear sad news stories about kids doing horrible things to animals for fun. I don’t even know. Maybe I’m just being a big baby.
And now my friend living in Japan told me she cried after killing a grizzly bear in the game for the first time. Doesn’t surprise me!
On the plus side, I really enjoy Just Dance 3 for Kinect so far. Only problem is I work up a sweat because I get so into it. This will be great exercise!
It sort of reminds me of World of Warcraft, but you don’t play with other people online and it’s much more realistic looking. There are lots of quests, fighting, and collecting items.
Oh gosh, I’m obsessed with the Sims. I have all 3 main games as well as all the expansion and stuff packs.
At the moment though I’m slowly making my way through all of the Zelda games. Finishing Skyward Sword gave me the great idea to replay the games I’d already won (Ocarina of Time, Oracle of Seasons), the ones I’d started but given up on (Minish Cap, Zelda II, Majora’s Mask) and all of the ones I’d never played before (Phantom Hourglass, Link’s Awakening, etc.)
Every The Sims game that has come out since The Sims 2 I have, pretty much. I’ve enjoyed many hours of just playing the game on my PS3 or computer. I can live a virtual life doing the things I’m not talented enough to do in real life.
I call the bookcase I store all my stuff on the ‘two and a half thousand dollar bookcase’ because between The Sims and Toy Story, I’ve spent far too much time and money.
A list of them all? Here goes nothing:
SimCity 4
The Sims: Pet Stories
The Sims: Castaway Stories
The Sims 2
The Sims 2: University
The Sims 2: Nightlife
The Sims 2: Open for Business
The sims 2: Family Fun Stuff
The Sims 2: Glamour Life Stuff
The Sims 2: Pets
The Sims 2: Happy Holiday Stuff
The Sims 2: Seasons
The Sims 2: Celebration! Stuff
The Sims 2: H&M Fashion Stuff
The Sims 2: Bon Voyage
The Sims 2: Teen Life Stuff
The Sims 2: FreeTime
The Sims 2: Kitchen and Bathroom Interior Design Stuff
The Sims 2: IKEA Stuff (my personal favourite!)
The Sims 2: Apartment Life
The Sims 2: Mansion and Garden Stuff
Spore
Spore: Creepy and Cute Parts
Spore: Galactic Adventures
SimCity Societies Deluxe Edition
The Sims 3: Create a Sim Demo
The Sims 3
The Sims 3: World Adventures
The Sims 3: High-End Loft Stuff
The Sims 3: Ambitions
The Sims 3: Fast Lane Stuff
The Sims 3: Late Night
The Sims 3: Outdoor Living Stuff
The Sims 3: Generations
The Sims 3: Town Life Stuff
The Sims 3: Pets Limited Edition
The Sims 3: Collectors Edition (just the box)
Factoring in that EA charge almost twice as much for the games in Australia than they do in the US, despite the fact the exchange rate is pretty much 1:1, I’ve spent a ton of money on these games.
I have a love-hate relationship with Sims games: I can easily become addicted to them and play for hours and hours, but then other times I’ll become sick of them and not want to play for a few years. Sims 3 wouldn’t work well when I downloaded it on my Mac, unfortunately, because it was super laggy.
I do that a lot as well, I usually play for a month or so after a new pack is released and then don’t touch the game until the next one comes out. I don’t think I’ve played The Sims 3 since mid-November.
EA recently announced that they were working with Maxis (the company that originally developed The Sims 1 and 2, before they had a falling out with EA which led to a string of bad expansion packs for the back half of The Sims 2’s life. They also had no involvement with The Sims 3 which is why a lot of people think TS3 doesn’t have the same charm that TS2 does) on a Sims-related project, so I’m hoping Maxis will get involved with The Sims 4 to reverse a lot of the mistakes that EA made with The Sims 3.
I’m also (vainly) hoping Will Wright ‘returns home’ to the Sim franchise to work on TS4 (to better explain how incredibly awesome Will Wright is, I’ll make the comparison that he’s the John Lasseter of the video game industry). At the moment he’s working on a mobile game that is supposed to evolve and develop uniquely to your own beliefs, ideals, etc. so I don’t think he’ll have time to come back to Maxis.
