Electronic Arts just can’t get enough money out of The Sims, err, Sim City, err, whatever franchise.  Witness more milking with the announcement of SimAnimals at CES 2009.  The Sims with animals?  Cute, right?

Wrong.  The demonstration given of the title in this video has got to be one of the more sadistic demos ever for a kid’s game.  Why is he shaking that bear?  And then dumping it in a river?  Then he steals a fawn and attempts to dump it in the same river?  You truly have to wonder about the marketing people at Electronic Arts.  Have they just been worked too hard?

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NPD released the January sales chart for PC games and it was completely dominated by two franchises. Can you guess which two, without referring back to the title of this article? In case you couldn’t, the two franchises are Warcraft and The Sims.

What’s really weird is the number of older titles in each series that have shown staying power. The Warcraft III Battlechest and Sim City 4 Deluxe both charted in the top 20. While Sim City Societies or the newest The Sims 2 expansion packs would seem sure bets, these classics are showing some true longevity. Perhaps it’s a side-effect of their sequels bringing in new fans who want to explore the games’ past? (more…)

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For a wide variety of reasons, there are still many around the world who oppose the theory of evolution. While it has gained widespread acceptance within the scientific community, the idea of evolution is still hotly debated among many social circles. Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee was very public about his lack of belief in evolution, instead subscribing to total creationism. Whatever your personal view may be, the following explanation of evolution using video games might help you better understand this sometimes complicated subject matter.

In the beginning…something happened

There was primordial ooze and then maybe lightning struck it or it got tired of being ooze (who wouldn’t?) and suddenly there’s life. How does one replicate this in gaming form? Of course the obvious choice for the origins of games would be Spacewar! This piece isn’t that literal, or maybe it is that literal as the choice is obviously A Boy and His Blob.

If you don’t remember this classic of the NES era, then you certainly owe it to yourself to find a copy and play it. A Boy and His Blob was your average platformer, except you had a blob as a sidekick. Feed it different flavored jellybeans and it would change it to different useful items. For example, feed it a strawberry flavored jellybean and the blob turned into a bridge to help you cross gaps. Of course, you were the one deciding what flavor of jellybean to feed the blob, so maybe it was more like intelligent design. (more…)

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