Sprung

I feel like I've been playing a lot of Viral Roulette lately.  Almost every week it's been a new set of symptoms, a day or so off work then feeling better by the end of the week, just to start all over again. Lucky I went for the free flu vac from work or I'd have really been in trouble.  Ah, the joys of late Winter and the change in seasons.  But, yay, now Spring has sprung!  Ah-choo!

Spent a lot of time playing Civilization V and Banished for the low key gameplay and the achievement hunting.  A teeny bit of building in The Sims 3 and a revisit of Skyrim.  Checking in with my hirelings and some crafting in Elder Scrolls Online.  Also, downloaded but haven't tried the CAS demo for The Sims 4.  Waiting for the next Civilization and Borderlands games out next month then Dragon Age and Pokemon in November.

Surprisingly, I find myself even less interested in The Sims 4 now that it has been released.  Mostly I think it's the EA porky-pie factor and the less than stellar handling of the whole thing so I'm going to give it a bit longer to settle in.  Anyway, I assume that, if sales had met or exceeded EA's expectations, we would've heard by now.

I don't normally enjoy watching other people play video games but this one is definitely worth the time (more for the commentary than for how the game plays since that's pretty much as you'd expect).  Also, go and check out NerdCubed plays... The Stanley Parable  when you get a chance.  

Lastly... 20,000!

Caveat Emptor

You may have somehow missed all the palaver and still be considering getting Sims 4 next week.  All I can suggest is that you take some time to read a few blog posts or forum discussions (and that means at least 5 to 10 places to try to get a balanced view) before you hand over your cash.  The official site doesn't count (and neither does anywhere that is just a cut-and-paste of official press releases).  I could point out a few places but, meh, I'm over it.

Who's Game?

Games can be expensive here, mostly due to the "Australia tax", so you often have to pick and choose what you pre-order or buy on release so you don't end up paying a lot for something that ends up gathering dust on the pile of shame.  

Since buying Sims 3, I've paid around the same price for a few base games, including Skyrim and Civilization V, that provided a complete experience in themselves and were nowhere near as high maintenance.  I didn't have to hang out for expansions to make the base game more interesting.  Mods enhanced gameplay and provided additional content, they weren't there primarily to fix the game.

It's not that I don't enjoy playing Sims 3.  I suspect I'll be playing for a long while now that modders have fixed most of the problems and my game is running surprisingly smoothly, even with almost all extra content added (aside from KPST and a few bits of store content).  I still have a lot more to try out in the game now that I can travel without it crashing or losing all of my Sim's friends or inventory.

But, looking back, I have to admit that Sims 3 was a lot of money for an almost empty box that needed a whole lot more spending to fill it up and make it a complete experience.  I feel reasonably comfortable with how much I spent on it but I can see Sims 4 being yet another cash cow for EA. I'm not at all keen to do it all over again.

Sims 4 is currently around AU$90 for the Limited Edition.  They seem to have left out some pretty key features from Sims 3 without adding anything to encourage me to take a chance on it.  And they seem to be rushing things just to get it out there, which in itself is enough to make me hold off on buying it.

So, I'll be spending my money elsewhere, at least until Sims 4 presents a better value proposition (ie. it works, is interesting, is about something more than EMOTIONS and costs a whole lot less).  I might even give SimCity a spin now that they've enabled offline play.  Anyway, this is my current big ticket shopping list:

• Dragon Age - Inquisition (Oct 2014).
• Borderlands - The Pre-Sequel (Oct 1014). 
• Pokemon - Omega Ruby / Alpha Sapphire (Nov 2014).
• Sid Meier's Civilization - Beyond Earth (2014).
• The Witcher - Wild Hunt (Feb 2015).
• Batman - Arkham Knight (2015).
• Uncharted 4 - A Thief's End (2015).