The Sims

Happy Birthday the 'The Sims' series! You’re 20 years old today, which means you’re finally old enough to throw an old boot full of soup right at a cop’s head, and be totally immune to prosecution (seriously, it’s true! If you didn’t know about that lil trick, you should try it). You’re also old enough, apparently, to have released an unfeasible number of spinoffs, ports,…

Tagged with EA Maxis, Electronic Arts, feature, The Sims, The Sims 2, The Sims 3, The Sims 4.

Earlier this week, EA revealed the new Tiny Living Stuff Pack for The Sims 4. It allows players to build cosy little homes, limited to just 100 floor tiles in size, and adds new little home items like a bookshelf that has an inbuilt TV. Plus: cosy knits! All very lovely. But the creativity of The Sims' community has never been confined by size -…

Tagged with Electronic Arts, feature, Kalonica, Kevin McCloud, Maxis, Pol Clarissou, The Sims, The Sims 4.

When half the town was gone, an interloper appeared in an empty house. His name was Whitely and I still don't know where he came from -- he just arrived. Perhaps he saw an advert in the local paper for a house sitting vacant: "Previous tenant spontaneously combusted. Ready for immediate move-in. No questions asked." He needed to be dealt with. This is the final…

Tagged with EA Maxis, feature, Motherlode, Simento Mori, The Sims, The Sims 4, The Sims, The Sims 4.

While playing through this second instalment of Simento Mori, an exploration into the limits and meaning of death in The Sims, I nearly swallowed a fly. I had casually taken a sip of my drink, only to feel the sensation of some foreign object (decidedly solid) making contact with the inside of my teeth. I had to extract its carcass from my mouth with my…

Tagged with EA Maxis, feature, Motherlode, Simento Mori, The Sims, The Sims 4.

Six months ago, The Sims inspired an existential crisis. I say this with no particular gravitas, but to say it: The Sims is an undeniably powerful force. You can read about that existential crisis here, but suffice it to say that I have both a deep admiration for, and significant vendetta against, Maxis property The Sims. Perhaps sensing this rage/respect combo for The Sims, I’ve…

Tagged with feature, Motherlode, Simento Mori, The Sims, The Sims, The Sims 4.

A year ago or so, I re-downloaded The Sims. My partner and I wanted a low-effort game to play together, and I introduced them to the life-changing videogame craze: “Make yourself in The Sims and live the life you’ve always wanted!!!” We made ourselves, built a beautiful little home, and adopted a cat. I became a professional writer or something, and they went into the…

Tagged with EA, feature, hauntology, Jacques Derrida, The Sims, The Sims 2, The Sims 3, The Sims 4.

Videogames were a presence throughout my childhood, thanks to my dad having a PC for work. When he didn’t need to use it, I was allowed to tinker and explore. The games built into the computer like Solitaire, SkiFree and Fuji Golf, as well as the CD-ROM games we got from stores like Office Max and Borders, quickly became second nature to me. Now, looking…

Tagged with Babyz, Ballz, Bitsy, Catz, Chop Suey, feature, Klik N Play, Maxis, Petz, PF Magic, Smarty, Theresa Duncan, Widget Workshop, Zero Zero, Dogz, SimCity, SimTunes, The Sims.

The planet is full of aimless people. Dozens of non-descript robots silently going to and fro, with no discernable purpose or meaning. Yes, I’m at Gamescom, the annual gaming conference in Germany, but I’m not talking about the visitors on the show floor. I’m talking about the on-screen player bots of Dual Universe [official site], a sci-fi survival MMO making big promises about player numbers…

Tagged with feature, Gamescom, Improbable, Klang, Novaquark, Seed, SpatialOS, Dual Universe, EVE Online, RimWorld, The Sims, Worlds Adrift.

Virginia never imagined she'd be telling a Black woman it was okay to wear Black clothes. As an African with lighter skin, Virginia had feared accusations of cultural appropriation when she first started making traditional African outfits for The Sims 4. Though she had spent the first 12 years of her life in West Africa, her mixed-race origins marked her as an outsider, and she…

Tagged with fashion, feature, Second Life, The Sims, The Sims 4.

Have You Played? is an endless stream of game recommendations. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time. Later Sims games were probably better games, in terms of how they fleshed out the fantasy (and accidentally gave it more than the intended degree of consumerism critique subtext with all those expansion packs and DLC), but Will Wright's original people simulator remains…

Tagged with feature, Have You Played, The Sims.

Every Sunday, we reach deep into Rock, Paper, Shotgun's 141-year history to pull out one of the best moments from the archive. This week, Adam explores his own gaming history to understand why he plays and why he writes. This is my first week back from a holiday, during which time I barely looked at an internet, let alone wrote on one. I didn't play…

Tagged with feature, From The Archive, Ultima Underworld, Crusader Kings II, Dwarf Fortress, Minecraft, The Sims, Ultima VII.

This is my first week back from a holiday, during which time I barely looked at an internet, let alone wrote on one. I didn't play any games either, unless you consider freezing to death on a remote Welsh hillside to be some sort of game. As is often the case, not doing something for five minutes has made me think about why I do…

Tagged with feature, Ultima Underworld, Crusader Kings II, Dwarf Fortress, Minecraft, The Sims, Ultima VII.

More from the archives, this time a 2007 piece on the dark eroticism inherent in The Sims, penned by the sorely-missed RPS co-founder and giant of words Kieron Gillen. It was the phone calls that made me certain. The Sims was going to cross over, one way or another. I worked in a cramped games magazine office for just shy of five years. There were…

Tagged with feature, The Sims.

Oh no! It’s for girls! And not even the good type of girls. The bad ones. The ones who like Hollyoaks and reality TV, and feast on swirling and scurrilous rumours about Brangelina. Except that’s a load of old rubbish, like claiming that games with guns only appeal to violent sociopaths or wargames only appeal to retired colonels. I have it on good authority that…

Tagged with Electronic Arts, feature, mod news, The Sims Studio, The Sims, The Sims 3.

Young people. Good grief. Your ignorance is as plain as those spots on your greasy face. Don't you know anything? Can't you be bothered to learn anything? Did you even read the words of esteemed colleagues Rossignol, Walker and Smith detailing the first three parts of this Olympian list of The Most Important PC Games Of All Time? I am quite sure that I, Deacon…

Tagged with Aliens vs. Predator, Darwinia, feature, Minesweeper, The Very Important List Of PC Games, Warhammer 40000: Dawn of War, AudioSurf, BioShock, Blade Runner, Command & Conquer, Deus Ex, Diablo II, Dune II: The Battle for Arrakis, Dungeon Keeper, Fallout, Fallout 2, Freelancer, Grim Fandango, King's Bounty: The Legend, Mass Effect 2, Minecraft, Peggle, Planescape: Torment, Plants vs. Zombies, Sid Meier's Colonization, Spelunky, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, The Sims, Total Annihilation, Ultima VII, Warcraft II, World of Warcraft, X-COM: UFO Defense.