As humans we tend to want to be God. You know what I mean? We want total control over things, everything, and we want the sadistic, narcissistic pleasure of being able to toy with the lives of others. Some might call it slavery. Some might call it a violation of free will. I have to call it the nature of man, and in the case of games I call it the current trend.

You may not know me too well but something I do is play games on a huge scale. I don't just play for my enjoyment (though that is undoubtedly the main reason) but I also play because I study games. Video games are, in a sense, like music in terms of culture. They can convey a powerful aspect of a people or a society. Take Fable and it's sequel and you'll see various aspects of the English (British) culture. Take True Crime: Streets of LA or it's sequel and you see many aspects of the gritty stereotype of police in the largest cities of the United States. What I've noticed a bit more is that its more overt in Japan, I'm assuming because a lot of video game (electronic) commerce takes place in that great nation. Games have a huge influence there and there's literally a game for everyone, from the anime addicts (a host of games featuring otaku wet dreams and crossovers from shows we'll never hear about in the states in a board game fashion, to name a few) to carnal pleasure simulators (the company Illusion seems to have a lock on the 3D aspect of this genre; a number of others in the 2D department) and everything in between. We will never see the same kind of gaming market in the United States, but the variety is expanding through the world.

Will Wright has a lot of fame. Why? For one he created The Sims. Any gamer who hasn't heard of this series has been living under a rock. I won't call it the first "life simulation" game because even MY knowledge of games isn't that strong, but I can call it the most popular (outside of those carnal pleasure ones in Japan; the Artificial Girl series is pretty big I hear) in the world. I also think it's interesting that Will Wright creates these games, but only slightly. He's an atheist that exhibits a mighty large number of elements of "free" will (something I go through myself) with his games. That control over human life is what makes the Sims such a beautiful series.

We were all enchanted with the first one and the second one made us jizz in our pants. So how does the third one stack up? Well that depends. If this is your first juncture into the Sims series then it's not just going to appear good; it's going to appear so real. Take control of everything, from sleep patterns to work patterns to bathroom visits and cleanliness to shower time tinkering and jogging around. You'll love the parallels to your everyday life and you'll hate them at the same time. If this isn't your first Sims then you'll probably say, "It's better... but that's about it."

It's not really hard to review a game like this. The graphics are nice. The sounds are good. You get immersed into the game because of The Wire kind of feel to the sound. In The Wire all sound was organic, minus what was coming from a stereo. That's what made it so great... one of the reasons. Convenience is there when appropriate (a cab from out of nowhere is great and all) and the upgrades decrease the realism in exchange for some serious fun. Hell, even the jobs are realistic: pay you piss poor money for the equivalent to hours upon hours of stress. You get over it by getting your rocks off, preferably due to a female. Have kids and eventually your sim DIES miserably (no, it can be peaceful) and his kids carry on the legacy. Blah blah blah, yak yak yak, dribble dribble dribble. A lot of games have been trying to pack more realism into their titles (Grand Theft Auto 4 for example) and this one works with only keeps in when necessary.

Okay, graphically, audio wise, replay wise, this game is a keeper, a true PC/Mac/Linux(?) classic. Why? Because it proves that real life can be fun in a false capacity... so long as you don't live an exact life of a Sim... but even that can be funny if you put in a cheat code... the game, not real life. Let me explain my Sim's life so far. He's Tripp Mims, an aspiring rock star that has cornrows because he "doesn't want to be confused with hippies". He bought a house he just barely had the money for and spent the first week of his life in the new city eating 6 dollar pancakes in his bathtub. He found a job at the local theater on his first day and convinced a woman to pretty much fall in love with him in that same day. After two more weeks he finally got enough money to afford a bed and earned a single promotion after stressful days. Then he learned how to slack off at work and get paid as if he was working his ass off. When this happened he bought his guitar, finally, and spent three more weeks eating pancakes and mac & cheese before finally going to the grocery store. His house was a mess because he rarely picked up the newspapers outside and every other day either his sink or his cheap black and white TV broke. He invited that girl over once and tried with all his might to get her to woohoo with him, but because it was so ealry in the morning she either left and went home or just slept. His life sucked...

ALAS! Then he started to miraculously get 50,000 every few minutes... he bought thousands of dollars of things and upped the property value of his house to about six, seven times what he paid for it and moved to a better house on the other side of town. After adding a couple of nice touches (including a snazzy beverage maker) he invited that girl over again and they make woohoo about thirty times in a row. After their familiar relations he tried for a baby fifteen times and smiled when she had morning sickness. He smiled when he was robbed and he smiled when he bought a jet for his backyard and smiled even wider when he bought a military watch tower and a windmill. After getting off from work a little while later he was informed of his son's birth and met with his girlfriend halfway on the way home to see his baby, and changed his diaper on the street. He hasn't seen either one of them yet, but he has learned how to play a couple of new songs on his guitar. Now, isn't virtual life fun?

Rating: 5 out of 5