I am someone who consistently loves trying something new. This has lent to me having a lot of hobbies, such as video games, writing, and photo manipulation. Overall, I would say I’m a very creative person with a passion for delving into games. I believe there have been times in my life where I wished I could make some sort of living from video games. I remember a period of time where I thought about seeking employment as a game tester, but nothing ever came of it. Nor did I have success in pursuing a degree in software engineering; that never panned out because a full-time job took priority over college courses.
About half a year ago, I started viewing videos on YouTube from a vlogger called Tipster. He is someone I gradually found I had much in common with and I started looking forward to whatever new videos he’d post. After several months, I started checking out live broadcasts (or streams) of his on a site called Twitch. Over time, more channels got added to my watch-list – among them Katastrophe, Stando, and YeskaYuggz, Tipster’s sister.
The more time I spent viewing streams, the more it felt like something I wanted to try for myself. This feeling was compounded when I viewed a YouTube video from Tipster on what it took to be a successful streamer. Providing a good commentary, engaging with your audience in the chat room, and just being yourself and having fun are key components to building a thriving Twitch channel.
The start of 2018 felt like a good time to try something new. After researching what I’d need to begin streaming, I bought a set of headphones with a mic attachment. On January 9th, I broadcast my very first video game – Dead in Bermuda – from a Surface Book. The basic premise of the game is to keep the eight survivors of a plane crash alive until they can be rescued from the tropical island – not necessarily Bermuda – they’re stranded on. I had attempted multiple times to get through the game, but all of my playthroughs ended with two or more characters starving to death. The longest I lasted was around 29 days.
I started streaming Dead in Bermuda with the intent to survive for 50 days if possible. I don’t know if it’s because I was taking my time and thinking things through more, but I surprised myself by actually making some good headway this time. I started feeling more confident that I would make it through the entire game with all eight characters. This belief changed when one of the survivors – Illyana — died of illness on Day 47. The next night, her father, Yuri, succumbed to depression over losing her. Despite this setback, I ended my stream at the 50-day mark with the resolve to try to make it through the rest of the game with the remaining six characters. It might be difficult since Illyana and Yuri were the most skilled at researching and scavenging, but I aim to do my best.
On the flip side, my forays into streaming were just as much of a learning experience. When I reviewed the first couple videos I recorded, I discovered that the mic on the headphone wasn’t the best. In addition to picking up my voice really well, it also recorded every breath I took. I hate to use the term ‘mouth-breather’, but that is pretty much what it sounded like.
Prior to my final recording of Dead in Bermuda, I decided to invest in a webcam. I believed it might be good to have an alternate mic recording my commentary as well as have a visual of me reacting to the game. The one downside to this is that the volume of the game was too high. As I found out when I reviewed the recorded video afterward, the sound effects and music of Dead in Bermuda were so loud that it was drowning out my commentary at times.
Since I failed to gain much of an audience with Dead in Bermuda, I decided to switch to a more popular game on January 12. The one I picked this time was Party Hard, a satirical little game where the objective is to slaughter the participants of a given party without getting killed or arrested. Prior to starting my stream, I tweaked the game’s volume and moved the webcam video to a different corner of the screen so it wouldn’t obscure what I was doing within the game. I was much more animated in my commentary with Party Hard than I was with Dead in Bermuda. I felt more confident that I would start building an audience to my budding channel.
Unfortunately, I found out after I’d recorded 90 minutes of gameplay that I’d hit another snag. For whatever reason, the mic failed to record my voice at all for the entire broadcast!
While I haven’t yet recorded any further streams as of January 17, it is something I do plan to continue. I have been spending my time researching to avoid any further hiccups. I have also been brainstorming on ways to make my channel unique and entertaining enough that viewers will want to keep tuning in. And I have ideas geared toward putting together a background for the webcam that will better showcase my interests, such as reading and photo manipulation.
The bottom line is that streaming is something that I greatly enjoy so far. I could easily see myself doing this long term, even if I don’t gain much of a following from it. I’m glad to have some means of sharing my love of video games with like-minded individuals. And if I can entertain an audience while I’m at it, then all the better. It will mean I’ve finally found the perfect niche for myself.
For any readers who are interested in giving my channel a chance to see what I’m all about, be sure to tune in for the streams of Sahara4877 at https://www.twitch.tv/sahara4877.
Tags: Twitch, video games, streaming, Tipster, Dead in Bermuda, Party Hard, games
I grew up trusting the police, the courts and the justice system. In elementary and high school civics classes, I learned a lot about the American system of justice, the importance of telling the truth and that everyone is innocent until proven guilty.
I loved watching court dramas on TV. Some of my favorites were Dragnet, Judd for the Defense and Perry Mason. I believed the police always told the truth, the lawyers did their best for their clients and the innocent always went free.
Fast forward to today. I just finished reading Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson* which was published in 2014. Bryan wrote about his experiences defending death penalty cases in Alabama from the 1980s until now. The stories he tells are heartbreaking.
For the most part, his clients are sitting on Death Row because they are poor, African-American and have had bad to abysmal representation in court. If they weren’t so poor, they could have afforded a lawyer who would have attempted to represent them, if for no other reason than to keep getting paid. And, if they weren’t African-American, having an all-white jury in Alabama might have been a plus.
In Just Mercy, the author doesn’t just talk about legal motions so much as tell stories. And the stories are heart breaking. There’s Walter McMillian, who was on death row for six years after being convicted of murdering eighteen-year-old Ronda Morrison, a clerk, working in a dry cleaners. It didn’t matter that he had numerous witnesses, one of whom was a police officer, to the fact he had been attending a church fish-fry many miles away at the exact same time. In Walter’s case, Sheriff Tom Tate and other law enforcement officials and witnesses were so determined to convict him that they committed perjury and fabricated evidence.
At one point, when Walter protested his innocence, Sherriff Tate replied, “I don’t give a damn what you say or what you do. I don’t give a damn what your people say either. I’m going to put twelve people on a jury who are going to find your goddamn black ass guilty.”**
Then there’s the story of Michael Lindsey. In the spring of 1989, several other of Mr. Stevenson’s Death Row clients asked him to help Michael. He was scheduled for execution in May. After that execution, they asked that he help Horace Dunkins, who, even though he was mentally retarded, was scheduled to be executed in July and then Herbert Richardson, who had gotten P.T.S.D. in Vietnam, and who was scheduled for August. Everything was happening so fast—so many executions and not enough time for good defenses.
There are also a number of stories of people who were exonerated and freed from prison after tremendous amounts of work. This would have never happened without both the resources Mr. Stevenson was able to bring to bear, such as first-class criminal investigations, and his own brilliance in presenting the evidence so convincingly that courts could only decide in favor of his clients.
If you’re interested in how our justice system really works and like sitting on the edge of your seat until you find out the verdict, this is the book for you!
* Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, 2014, Spiegel & Grau, New York.
**Wikipedia: McCarthy, Colman (October 10, 1995). “A Matter of Death and Life”. Review of Circumstantial Evidence: Death, Life, and Justice in a Southern Town by Pete Earley Bantam. Retrieved December 14, 2017.
I’ve been waiting a long time to play Not A Hero, an expansion pack, or DLC, to Resident Evil 7. Not a Hero was originally scheduled to be released in spring 2017, but the add-on got pushed back to December because the production crew felt the game wouldn’t meet the expectations of the fans. While I was anxious for answers to mysteries presented at the end of Resident Evil 7, I was also patient enough to wait for them.
My most burning questions centered around the soldier who claimed to be Chris Redfield, a veteran hero of the Resident Evil series. Was it really him? If so, why would he be working for a company calling itself Umbrella — the corrupt pharmaceutical company responsible for creating genetic-altering viruses and horrific monstrosities? What was the meaning behind the DLC title, Not a Hero?
Early on December 12, I loaded up Resident Evil 7, eager to play the DLC that I expected had been automatically downloaded the day before. I was surprised when I didn’t find Not a Hero listed among the menu options. The only new title present was End of Zoe, a secondary DLC title scheduled to be released the same day. I immediately shut down the game and searched for Not a Hero on my main gaming hub, the Steam Network. It wasn’t listed there either.
I searched for answers online, and found one forum that seemed to indicate the add-on would only become available upon completion of the main game. Not seeing any other option, I proceeded to play through Resident Evil 7 in its entirety. This took almost the whole day because I kept taking breaks at various points. The last thing I wanted to see after the closing credits was an ad for Not a Hero explaining how to download and install the DLC.
I was a bit aggravated to see that the desired title was now listed on the Steam Network. I don’t know if it was made available at some point during the day or if my playthrough of Resident Evil 7 unlocked it. In either case, I proceeded to install it with the intention of playing it the next day.
I woke up around 2AM on December 13. Rather than try to get back to bed, I chose to begin playing Not a Hero. I learned in the first few minutes of gameplay the main character is indeed Chris; he is voluntarily working with a new company called Blue Umbrella dedicated to fighting the horrors created by its namesake.
Not a Hero largely has Chris pursuing Lucas Baker, a sadistic madman and budding bioterrorist who had escaped capture during Resident Evil 7. The DLC, as with the base game, is told from a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the world through Chris’ eyes. Despite checking out trailers and tidbits on what to expect, I went into the game largely blind. I was very eager to uncover whatever mysteries and dangers awaited me.
Unfortunately, the lack of knowledge worked against me in several instances. I acted like such a noob during the first few hours of my playthrough, it’s a wonder I didn’t get killed more than four times.
I believed I had a pretty good arsenal at my disposal to begin with. A pistol, combat knife, shotgun, and several grenades seemed like they would be a good defense against the creatures lurking in the mines. I changed my mind when I first encountered a variant of the monster that could regenerate and wouldn’t go down so easily. I initially ran from it, then realized I had to go back in to retrieve a key needed to get to a soldier that Lucas had captured.
Trying to rescue said soldier didn’t go so well. I unlocked the cell door and approached him. The cave soon filled with poisoned air and started a death trap that Lucas had put together specifically for his prisoner. Rather than take an air filter that the doomed soldier offered to Chris, I stupidly tried to make a run for it even though my oxygen reserves had fallen to 5%. I was pretty much dead in an instant.
Once I retrieved the air filter and installed it, I was left with the problem of how to take out the regenerating monster in the cave where the key had been. After futilely trying to find special ammo that would stop the creature from healing, I cheated and looked online for tips. The answer was simple: go back to the main cavern and go through the green door to find a night vision filter and the needed ammo.
Upon going through what I thought was the right door, I found myself in a pitch-black tunnel. But I didn’t let that deter me, nor did I think I was in the wrong place. I blindly stumbled through the tunnel and proceeded to set off a variety of pressure-plate traps and tripwires. Surprisingly, I didn’t get killed during this determined search for items. I had just enough healing items to make it through in one piece.
I don’t know how long it took me to determine that the door I’d gone through was blue, not green. Once I figured that out, finding the items I needed was a cinch. The next challenge was to find my way back to the main cavern. I found that turrets had been set up in the tunnels I’d used to get to this point. Initially, I tried shooting the turrets to take them out — which didn’t work — and inadvertently used up the special ammo I’d collected. My answer on how to conquer the turret obstacle was to run past them to minimize the damage. Death #2.
When I loaded the last save point, I was given a tip on the loading screen to find an alternate route back to the main cavern. Once I got through that segment, I returned to the blue door. Finding my way through these tunnels went much smoother. At least until I reached a room where another soldier had been taken prisoner by Lucas. This area was loaded with laser tripwires and explosives. My first not-so-brilliant idea was to lob a grenade into the room to neutralize the bombs. Death #3.
Upon closer inspection, I found that it was possible to get through the room without setting off the tripwires. I carefully navigated my way to the imprisoned soldier and initiated a conversation with him. The next thing I knew, I heard Lucas taunting Chris over the intercom before the tripwires started rotating in my direction. Death #4.
On my third try at this, I discovered that I needed to cut the power for the room before talking to the soldier. This still didn’t save the guy, as he’d been outfitted with a collar bomb that was shortly detonated remotely. Soon after the soldier was killed, Lucas activated an explosive he’d strapped to Chris’ arm at an earlier point in the game. I was given a time limit to find some liquid nitrogen canisters to temporarily neutralize the bomb and remove it. Death #5 occurred because I didn’t make it before the clock ran out.
Similar follies plagued me through the remainder of the game, and I believe I died a total of nine times. While I was happy to make it through Not a Hero, I was left to reflect on my disappointment with the story.
It hit me, once I finished the game, that Chris is starting to develop a reputation for failing to save the team members he’s working alongside. The same premise was used in Resident Evil 6 and the recent anime film, Vendetta. At the very least, I would have liked to see this point addressed in Not a Hero — either through some inner monologue from Chris or through a philosophical debate between him and Lucas.
I feel that Chris’ failings is the meaning behind the DLC title. It is possible that on some level he no longer views himself as heroic. I have to wonder if this storyline is building toward something big. I see two possible outcomes to this scenario: either Chris decides to throw in the towel and retire out of shame, or he encounters a situation that redeems him and possibly has him sacrificing himself for the greater good.
My dissatisfaction with Not a Hero was surpassed by the other DLC, End of Zoe. The secondary game focused on Lucas’ sister, Zoe, who is infected with the virus present in Resident Evil 7. The basic plot is that her Uncle Joe – an ex-marine – finds her and strives to locate a cure for her.
Joe is essentially a character who relies largely on his fists to take down the creatures standing between him and the means to save his niece. My main nitpick with this scenario is the excessive number of locations where you can save the game. In one area, I could barely take twenty steps before coming to another room where I could save my progress.
As with Not a Hero, I played End of Zoe on the easiest difficulty but didn’t find it nearly as much of a challenge. Despite playing as a character whose specialty is unarmed combat, I didn’t die once during my first playthrough. I feel that perhaps the easy mode was made too easy. I hope that the medium and hard difficulty settings will put End of Zoe on par with the other DLC. I would hold the secondary game in higher regard if that’s the case.
Overall, I feel that Resident Evil 7 and its add-ons opens up some interesting doors for the future of the franchise. I look forward to whatever story comes next.
If there is one thing I like best about video game sequels, it would be the continuation of a story or enhancement of a casual game. While I love hearing news of an upcoming installment that will add to a series I enjoy, there are many games I’ve played in my lifetime that sadly never got a follow-up.
Below is my list of twenty games, including some obscure titles, I would like to see a sequel for.
1) Phantasmagoria (1995)\Puzzle of Flesh (1996) – An interactive horror game series that filmed actors against a blue screen, Phantasmagoria was quite innovative for the technology of its time. While the original entry and its sequel, Puzzle of Flesh, told stories unrelated to each other, they were the most suspenseful and goriest games I’d ever played up to that point. If the company that produced them hadn’t gone out of business, it would have been interesting to see the series evolve with the times.
2) Portal 2 (2011) — I love the Portal series for its interesting blend of logistical puzzles and humorous stories. It centers around a mute girl named Chell who is being used as a test subject in an underground facility run by a sadistic artificial intelligence called Glados. While Chell is let out into the surface world at the end of Portal 2, it shouldn’t necessarily mean the series is over. I feel that there are other stories that could be told – maybe even with a different protagonist. I hold out hope for news of a third game on the horizon.
3) Gauntlet Legends (1998)\Dark Legacy (2000) – Gauntlet Legends and Dark Legacy both exist as bold, larger than life reimagining of the original two-dimensional game from 1985. Legends took the basic concept and made it a hundred times better with a three-dimensional environment and more resources to keep the player’s character alive. Legends and Dark Legacy were so enjoyable that they had me visiting the local arcade on a weekly basis. What’s even better is that the arcade game saved my progress and character level because I typed in a password on the machine. While I wish that there was a sequel to expand on the two existing games, they remain some of my all-time favorite dungeon-crawlers.
4) Command and Conquer: Renegade (2002) — While I am a fan of the Command and Conquer franchise in general, Renegade stands out for being the only game in the series to let you assume control of a single character rather than directing one army to fight another. In Renegade, you step into the shoes of a commando named Havoc who takes on missions to destabilize an evil organization. I spent countless hours playing and replaying levels on all difficulty settings. I would have liked to see another Command and Conquer game use the same formula. But since the production company went out of business a year later, it seems all I can do is dream.
5) Emperor: Battle for Dune (2001) — Though loosely derived from writer Frank Herbert’s Dune series, Emperor tells an equally intriguing story centered around a battle between three factions to seize control of a planet holding the galaxy’s most valuable resource. I spent countless hours with the roleplaying strategy game, sometimes spending half a day just trying to get through a single mission. The ending of the game remained the same no matter which faction was picked and was left very open-ended. I would have loved to see a follow-up that would answer some questions about the conclusion of Emperor. Unfortunately, the same company – Westwood Studios — behind Command and Conquer was also the one that produced Emperor: Battle for Dune. The closure of the company pretty much guaranteed that a sequel would never come.
6) Fable III (2010) – Though I don’t consider Fable III as the best PC game I’ve ever played, it still had good qualities I’d like to see improved upon in a fourth entry. In Fable III, you play as a young prince or princess – dependent on player preference – whose older brother is a cruel ruler who is asking for a revolution. The younger sibling escapes the palace and proceeds to forge alliances to take back the kingdom. The player decides if the main character will be a benevolent or downright evil ruler. But I feel there could have been better ways to exemplify the paths chosen. For me, it’s very off-putting to see the main character show his or her willingness for evil by farting in someone’s face. Sadly, the series hit a dead end following the release of a standalone game in 2012. Since the company behind the Fable series – Lionhead Studios – closed down in 2016, there may never be a Fable IV.
7) King’s Quest: Mask of Eternity (1998) – The only thing that this particular game has in common with the first seven entries in the King’s Quest series is the title. Mask of Eternity is a role-playing, dungeon-crawler game that hardly seems to fit with a series of point-and-click fantasy games. Nevertheless, Mask of Eternity is very enjoyable for what it is. While I never made it all the way to the end thanks to a game glitch that halted my progress, it would be nice to see a follow-up in the same vein.
8) Dead Island: Riptide (2013) – The Dead Island series consists of the most intense zombie survival horror games I’ve ever played. Both the original game and Riptide are hardcore enough to have me angrily cursing every five to ten minutes. There are also moments where I’ve felt like a total bad-ass with some of the zombie kills I got. The first two games are set on separate islands in an archipelago where an outbreak has occurred and both games allow you to play as one of 4 to 5 characters with different strengths. There was an announcement for a Dead Island 2 – to be set in California of all places – that was scheduled to be released in 2015. But production problems resulted in the sequel never seeing the light of day. Whether it will ever be released is anyone’s guess.
9) Oregon Trail 2 (1995) – Oregon Trail 2 is an excellent educational simulation game where the player strives to get pioneers safely from their starting point to a new life in the west. I can’t even count the number of times I attempted to traverse the trail, but most of my playthroughs ended with the wagons getting trapped in a mountain pass during the winter. I feel that a potential third game would be outstanding with today’s technology. I strongly hope to see Oregon Trail 3 become a reality someday.
10) Icebreaker (1995) – Of all the games I’ve played in my lifetime, Icebreaker wins top marks for being the most unique. It is an addictive arcade-type game where the player controls a 3D triangular icon that can shoot bullets or smash certain objects in the game by ramming them. The goal to beating each level is to completely destroy a grid of pyramids. Some examples of what makes it challenging are that the stationary pyramids require different methods to demolish, while the mobile pyramids can kill the player-controlled icon if they catch it. As if that didn’t ramp up the difficulty enough, there are also hidden traps or hazards to watch out for, such as a pit to fall into. I got so much enjoyment from Icebreaker that I’m sad it never got a bigger and better sequel.
Top (L-R) Altered Beast, Phantasmagoria, Command and Conquer: Renegade
Middle (L-R) Plants vs. Zombies 2, Super Puzzle Fighter II, Maniac Mansion
Bottom (L-R) Battle Slots, Dead Island: Riptide, Icebreaker, Darkseed II (photo credits at end)
11) Plants vs. Zombies 2 (2013) – The Plants vs. Zombies series consists of games that are kid-friendly, but still very enjoyable. It is exactly what the title suggests and consists of the player picking a roster of eight to nine plants per level to ward off zombie attacks. When I first heard news of a sequel to the original game from 2009, I was ecstatic – until I found out it would only be playable on an Android device instead of a PC. I greatly hope that there will be a Plants vs. Zombies 3 someday and that it will be compatible with a device that I actually own.
12) Maniac Mansion (1987)\Day of the Tentacle (1993) – Maniac Mansion was a comical puzzle game series that was so challenging I had to frequently look at hints on how to get through it. While the plot was too bizarre to try to make sense of – a mad scientist kidnaps a college girl because he’s being mind-controlled by a meteor – the game greatly appealed to me at my young age. Day of the Tentacle brought back some of the characters from Maniac Mansion, but there’s no way I could summarize the plot in a way that would do it justice. I would have liked to see a continuation, but I guess there was only so much weirdness that the series’ production team could come up with.
13) Age of Mythology (2002) – Age of Mythology is one of the best strategic battle games I’ve played and features tons of elements from Greek, Egyptian, and Norse mythology. The game also has an epic story that sees heroes from each civilization band together to prevent the release of the imprisoned Titans. Most levels allow you to utilize God powers, such as summoning an earthquake, to help defeat the enemy armies. Good luck on figuring out how to get through the game on the hardest difficulty – I never could, but I still enjoyed playing it very much. I recently learned that there was an expansion pack – which focuses on Chinese mythology — developed last year for a remastered version of Age of Mythology. But I still would very much like to see a sequel made.
14) Origamo (1994) – Origamo is a casual puzzle game that’s similar to Tetris and consists largely of using polygonal shapes to fill in a given origami-like image for each level. While it might not have appealed to everyone – especially since it seemed impossible to beat the game on the hardest difficulty setting – it is one that holds a special place in my heart. Part of me will always wish it had been popular enough to warrant a sequel.
15) Altered Beast (1988) – A game I was frequently drawn to during trips to the arcade, Altered Beast is a side-scrolling fighting game that pits the generic main character against a wide variety of supernatural monsters. During each stage, the player can use power-ups to transform their character into a beast – such as a werewolf or were-tiger – to better decimate the monsters encountered. I loved this game so much when it was still around that I once spent an entire day feeding quarters into the machine just to get all the way through it. What I would love even more is to see a modernized version of it made available for gamers.
16) Darkseed II (1995) – The Darkseed games hold the distinction of being a showcase for the artwork of H.R. Giger, the artist who designed the title creature in the popular Alien film franchise. Aside from being visually stunning, this sci-fi PC series has some good stories. The basic plot for both games has a man named Mike Dawson striving to stop aliens – from a place called the Darkworld – from succeeding in a plot to destroy the Earth. It disappointed me that Mike was killed at the end of the second game. I often felt that the story shouldn’t have stopped there. I’ve seen many other video games come up with something creative to bring a supposedly dead character back to life. It’s doubtful that the Darkworld aliens would have stopped aiming for Armageddon. It would really be nice to see the series revitalized after all this time, but I won’t hold my breath.
17) Mystery P.I. (2007 – 2011) – Mystery P.I. is the collective title given to a series of hidden object games for the PC. Featuring elaborately designed levels, Mystery P.I. really made it a challenge to locate all the objects on the given list. It is a series that easily could have kept going, but sadly came to an end after the release of the eighth game.
18) SimCoaster (2001) – I know there are a lot of video games that allow the player to build their own theme park, but I regard SimCoaster as a personal favorite just for its simplicity. It is another game I never got to play all the way through thanks to some bugs in the code, but it is one I never tired of. If a more modern version should ever be released, I would snap it up in a second.
19) Battle Slots (2011) – Battle Slots is a highly creative video game that combines slot machines with a duel-to-the-death fighting game. Your victory in battle against your opponent is dependent on how many good spins you get on the slots. The concept is so original and innovative that I’m surprised a Battle Slots 2 never came to be. Fingers crossed that my hopes for a sequel will one day become a reality.
20) Super Puzzle Fighter II (1996) – Super Puzzle Fighter II, an arcade game that I frequently fed quarters to, was a combination of Tetris and Street Fighter. The primary goal was to clear rows on the Tetris board as quickly as possible to decimate the other player or computer A.I. controlled fighter. It is one game that I really miss playing, especially because I was particularly good at it.
I’m glad that I’ve lived long enough to have played so many different video games over an ever-changing landscape. It’s a far cry from the two-dimensional environment of Maniac Mansion to the realistic high definition characters and settings presented in Dead Island. For me, each of the games on this list deserves either a follow-up or modernization of a terrific concept. Whether or not a sequel comes to pass for each of them, the fond memories I hold for the games on this list will never go away.
When I was much younger, I used to love seeing the stories I wrote come to life. This usually entailed using my collection of My Little Ponies to act out the story, each of them representing a certain character therein. Sometime during my teenage years, I obtained an obscure PC game that let the user create simulated stage plays. I can’t even recall the title of it now, but it served as another way to bring my stories to life. Nevertheless, my options were limited, and the stage play game even crashed when I made the dialogue for the characters too complicated.
Hearing news of a game called The Sims way back in 1999 seemed to be a dream come true. It would allow the player to create a household of up to eight people and have full control over their actions. While the original Sims game contained elements that its successors didn’t – such as children who remained perpetually young – it still allowed me to create physical representations of story characters I’d dreamed up over the years.
While each expansion pack released for The Sims enhanced the experience in some way, the limitations of the game would have made me tired of it sooner or later. The announcement of its first successor, The Sims 2, solved this problem and got me even more excited to continue my forays into this world.
The Sims 2 surpassed the original game in many ways: you could now have your starting family build a dynasty over generations, as Sims could now grow up and eventually die. The game was more three-dimensional, and you were given more options of shaping a character’s look. And what’s better, children would inherit their looks from their parents rather than not resemble them in the slightest.
When The Sims 2 was released in 2004, I fell in love with it so much that I gave up entirely on the original game and got rid of my collection. This new versatility gave my imagination a workout. Over time, I even formulated a couple stories through The Sims 2 that I may one day craft into a fiction story of my own. And the option to create more realistic representations of my story characters added to my appreciation for The Sims 2. So much so that I thought I would never tire of it.
As with the original game, each expansion pack released for The Sims 2 made the experience all the more enjoyable. The option to send teenagers off to the college and follow their adventures there, allow families to adopt pets or start their own business at home, and to allow Sims to dabble in magic made it seem like there were no limits to where you could go with this.
I can’t recall why The Sims 3 – released in 2009 – seemed so much more appealing than its predecessor, but my addiction to The Sims 2 fell by the wayside once the newer game came along. In retrospect, my decision to get rid of my Sims 2 collection is one I regret. I was dazzled by The Sims 3 for the first few years, but my love for the series eventually soured.
The number of game glitches for The Sims 3 seemed to grow exponentially with each new expansion pack. The one I detested the most occurred when I would play as a single family through several generations. Whenever I tried to send one or more of the family members off on vacation or to college, the game would just freeze up. This particular glitch demanded I delete whatever family I was playing as and start a brand new one from scratch.
I eventually got so frustrated and jaded that I stopped playing The Sims 3 and sold off the whole lot of it. After more than a decade, I decided I was done with this life/family simulation game and thought I’d never look back.
Sometime late in 2015, I changed my tune when I purchased a copy of The Sims 4 that had been released a year prior. At first, it was fun. The Sims seemed more realistic than ever and their relationships and how they interacted with others could now be determined by their emotional states. For instance, it is somewhat difficult to get a loner Sim and an outgoing Sim interested enough in each other that a romance blossoms.
I had created three different characters for the Sims 4, moved them into different houses, and began playing the game in earnest. I had married each of them off and got to the point where each had a child. Out of nowhere, all my saved data for The Sims 4 up and vanished. I lost the three families I’d put some work into over several weeks and would have to start over from scratch. I don’t have any explanation for what happened, but I was agitated enough to give up on the series once more.
Part of me wonders if the problems I experienced with The Sims 3 & 4 might not have been an issue if I’d had a high-end PC computer that would have made the glitches less prevalent. But I may never bother to find out. One thought that I’ve had percolating for some time is to repurchase The Sims 2 and its expansion packs since I never encountered any major issues with them.
I’ve been around video games enough to know that bigger and flashier games are not necessarily better than what’s come before. My experience with the overall Sims series definitely proves this.
To sum it up: Never discount the value of old-school video games. They may hold more worth than something that looks like the best thing ever on the surface.
