Electronic Arts

The Sims 3 Collector's Edition
$69.99
Have been playing the sims starting with sim tower and moving through the sims collection, sims 2 (which I loved when it came out brought a whole new dimension) and now the sims 3 is even more amazing. Neighborhood play being able to leave your house and go about the town is great! If you enjoyed a sims game before, you are very likely to love this game. The new design elements are very nice. Only issue at this time there is no option for building your own neighborhood from scratch and I do miss that. I believe that you could take the entire town apart and start from scratch that way but I haven't tried actually doing that (yet).

It's a lot of fun. The new features are all terrific. Only tech issue that I've had is that if you remain idle too long, the screen gets dark and you cannot undo that without signing out of the game and then signing back on. So if you are up answering the door and get to chatting or have to run outside a minute, you either need to play with an unattractive dim screen or restart. The good thing is that if you save and exit, you do get to come back with the screen looking normal and your progress all saved.

I liked getting the bonus storage device with the collector's edition. It's practical and I get a lot of comments on it! It's a little bit extra but I think it's worth it. The alternate town you can download for free is pretty decent too. So at this point you choose between two neighborhoods of play.

There is an online exchange for customized items that players have created and also an online store. I bought some things with my free points (which is nice) but have not put any money into buying from the store. What's nice about it (opposed to item/expansion like homestuff for sims 2) is that you can buy items individually and don't get stuck with a ton of stuff you don't like.

The Sims 3: World Adventures Expansion Pack
$39.99
First a qualifier: I've been playing The Sims on PC since its inception. That said, I owned all of the EPs for Sims 1 and 2 and now Sims 3. I bought World Adventures on launch date and spent the next 10 hours struggling to play it. Before I could play it, I was advised that I had to install the new patch from EA so I did that at the same time. Now I'm not sure if it's the game, or the patch, but 90% of the houses I'd built and the families I'd created and raised were deleted by the addition of this EP. Additionally I am unable to save my progress due to "error 16" which seems to have affected everyone. EA has now released a patch to address that particular issue, however they have not come up with a resolution yet for the numerous other issues...

Aside from the households being deleted, there is also an obvious problem with my sims no longer being able to interact with each other. So they can't chat, tell jokes, get to know each other, flirt, "woohoo", or anything else that would require social interaction. Which means essentially, that until they patch this game, your sims will die out because you won't be able to form relationships that lead to child bearing.

There are other minor inconveniences such as inventories being deleted, reward objects no longer working and needing to be deleted, etc... My advice is too not buy the game right now. Wait until it's been fixed so that you don't have to endure the frustration of a virtually unplayable game.

On a more positive note, the scenary in the new locations are breathtaking and the game offers some fun new skills to build, but once again you can't really interact with anyone so all you can do is try to complete the missions.

The Sims 3
$49.99
The Sims has always been a fun game. With Sims 3 you have more free range, you don't have to wait on load screens, you can go anywhere in the city/neighborhood. Visit neighbors, friends, go to work, library, park, fishing, grocery, etc either by walking, jogging, bicycle, car or taxi. Yes you can take your children with you, except for work of course. A few things I miss from The Sims 2, a changing table for the baby, going to the icebox to get a baby bottle, the length of pregnancy is short, like 3 sim days. Once your ready to have the baby you can have the baby either at home or at the hospital. The one thing I don't like about the Sims 3, is when you go into a building, grocery store, book store, hospital etc you don't get to see the inside or whats going on. Once your sim goes inside they just kinda of fade away. Same with kids at school. Yes I know I am picky, or nosey but I like to see whats going on. The one thing I wish The Sims 3 had was where you can sit down with your kids. rock your babies that kind of thing. Other than what I wish for. The game itself is super fun to play, its highly addictive, but what Sim game isn't? I like how you don't have to go shopping for clothes, you can just simply click on a dresser and click on plan outfit. It's just that easy. There are so many improvements and its just an open fun game. I do wish they would get rid of the censor. Come on they go to the bathroom with their clothes on. When in shower they look like barbie dolls, please tell me who hasn't seen naked barbies? I just think it's annoying. This only proves adults should have games just for adults.... Bottom line if you like The Sims and all EP's. Your going to loooooooooooove The Sims 3!

Spore
$39.99
I bought this game a month after it came out. I read the review talking about some sort of DRM thingy. Well I learned that DRM just keeps you from installing it more than 3 times. Just install spore onto a laptop with vista or install spore on a mac notebook and then bring the laptop to your friends house. But get a mouse because it is easier to move the camera. The goal of the game is to evolve from a cell to into the space stage Let's get to the point. Here are the Pros and Cons

Pros
360 view with just holding the right and left mouse button
great graphics
complete control of your creature
large varity of parts for your creatures
desision to kill or befriend creatures
in the civilization stage you can make your own vehicles
large amount of weapons and other tools to use in space stage
easy controls
awesome superweapons in civilization stage


Cons
no game over
not a lot of different weapons in civilization
have to evolve to land

I would recommend this game for 5-12 years olds. For 12 years old it might be too easy but for 5 year olds a little challenging and frustrating. This game is a best buy. [...]! I hope you will buy this great game