People were lined up outside of stores, some for as long as 48 hours, just for the opportunity to buy the new Playstation 3. Would you or even could you? How does a seemingly unemployed adult afford the high price tag? I say seemingly unemployed, because I know of few employers that will allow you to stay off work in the middle of the work week. All this hoopla over a gaming sytem. Then there have been a rash of robberies. How could it be worth it? Why do I need a console that's like a PC? I have a PC with a 100Gb harddrive, to me a 60Gb harddrive is a step down. Then there's the price tag. If people weren't so eager to shell out $600.00, maybe the prices wouldn't be so high. Then theres the high price of the games themselves. If you buy the console, chances are you can't afford the games (at least not right away). I know people whose children probably won't have a Christmas or a very poor one this year, because daddy just had to have a PX3. Would I deny my kids Christmas or decent clothes or even good food to satisfy my need to have the newest and presumably best gaming console? The answer is no. When or even if we get the PX3, it will be when the price fits in my budget comfortably and certainly not this close to Christmas. Our addiction to gaming and the newest technology borders on the absurd. I think of what $600.00 could mean to my family. It could pay my rent for one, buy a ton of food, buy new clothes for my family... the list goes on. I wonder if the value of the games don't go down when you think of what it replaces. It takes the place of socializing, homework, family time and outdoor activities. Hardly the healthy lifestyle I'd want for my kids. So, no thank you Sony, my kids use my computer for research, homework and the occasional game and besides they have the PX2 and the limited amount of time they are allowed to use it and they've turned out to be  sociable, healthy and they do well in school.

The Sims community is made up of people like you who have bought and play the Sims. Its been in existance since 1999, when The Sims 1 was brand new and has evolved over time to The Sims2 community. It consists of free sites, pay sites and free sites that offer things that you can donate for. You also have forums that often offer free downloads as well as Yahoo groups that also offer downloads. Much of the Sims community is free. The quality of downloads varies from site to site with some of the free sites offering some of the best quality. Mod The Sims2, is a free forum and huge that offers a wide range of high quality downloads. The Sims Resource, although for the most part free, has a subscription option, where you can also download the featured artists content. Those are the two best places to get quality downloads. Some of the better known pay sites, really don't offer you anything that you should have to pay for. There are of course exceptions. I like The Sims Connection, some of their community lots and premium objects are worth a monthly fee. I would also check out Wood For Sims, especially if you like really well done wood objects and themes. Before you hook up with a paysite check out all of the free content in the community. A word of advice, watch your download count. EA/Maxis is always adding new expansion packs and stuff packs and the worst thing is to have a game that runs too slow or crashes on you. Before I play the game, I usually turn off things running in the background (like your internet and virus protection) and defrag my harddrive. The more RAM you have the better. Running the game on the minimum required just doesn't work out. You end up with a slow loading and slow playing game, unless you play the game with no custom content and just what was included with the game.

How ironic. I can surf all over the place...no problem, but the one board I want to be on and I can't go there. Since this afternoon, everytime I try to go there I get "404 error in Apache bridge".
Whatever that means. I tried the one source that should know what that is, the internet and what do I get...nothing. I get plenty of sites that want to sell me registry cleaners and fixers, but nothing to tell me just exactly what it is. The information highway seems to be road blocked. So here I sit writing this mini rant. I am so not a happy camper.

Tomorrow Xenosaga III will be at Gamestop and since I reserved a copy, I'll be picking it up. If I use my Playstation 2 it's usually to play RPGs, otherwise I'm a PC gamer. I've noticed that most of the games I'm interested in are coming out in Oct. most notably Final fantasy XII. I know I've complained before about the way the Japanese jerk us around with their US releases. Why noone has bothered to bring this to their attention completely baffles me. The US market for Japanese products, especially in the gaming industry is huge. Anyway, as soon as I have a chance to play Xenosaga III, I'll write my review. Actually I'm more interested in Pets (Sims 2). I've played most of the Sims games for the Playstation 2 and while they are ok, they can't match the playability of the PC version.

I haven't bought the XBox 360 and I probably won't be buying the Playstation 3 either. Why? Sometimes I feel like we are being led around by our noses or more aptly our wallets. Every few years (it seems) we have the war of the consoles. Where every company that makes these things tries to outdo his competitor with higher powered and increasingly more expensive toys. I was/am happy with my PS2. It reminds me of the old adage "if it ain't broke...don't fix it". Right now, I feel that the prices are too high. I just can't justify that kind of expense. As long as support for the PS2 is there and games I want to play are still being made for it, I'll stay with it. Maybe in a couple of years when the prices drop to a more reasonable amount I'll relent. I already have a new computer, a nearly new PS2 and a gameboy. I just don't need any more toys.

On a different note. Every once in a while I get massive game burnout and I'll get away from the computer or PS2 for several days and find other things to do. Don't get me wrong, my life does not revolve around the PC or gaming. I have a ton of other stuff I have to do before I can ever take a break and surf the net or play a game, but still if I play more than normal, I do get bored with it all. That's what happened to me this week. I haven't touched the PC in four days, except to check my emails. That's it. I rarely use the PS2, unless a new game I really want comes out. I love to read, so in my spare time that's what I've been doing.

This is totally unrelated to games or gaming. Yes people there really is life away from a monitor or TV screen.

I like hard driving music as much as the next person, in fact, metal is my favorite music. Just not at 2 AM. I'm assuming it was metal, could have been rap. Who knows. All I could hear was the constant annoying bass, over and over again. I live about 4 doors down from the idiots who do this and it was loud enough to keep me awake. So I can just imagine what it's like for their most immediate neighbors. They stopped for about 2 weeks, when someone called the police on them, but they are back to doing it again. Trouble is once it stops I still can't sleep, because I am all hopped up from it. I had to get up at 7 AM, after having only a few hours of sleep. Now I feel like crap, from lack of sleep.

You can set my mood as tired and grouchy.

After toying with the idea all of yesterday, today I went in and changed from friends only/no comment to everyone/comment. Why? I have no idea, except I like the exchange of ideas. I figure if I don't like what you have to say, I'll delete it.

I took a 17 month break from the Sims and computers. From Jan. 2005 until April of 2006. I needed that time to take care of real life stuff and truthfully I didn't it miss at all.

I started fresh in April, new PC and all of the EPs (including FF). When I left I only had The Sims 2, no EPs at all. It was like starting out all over again. Now I have over 3,500 downloads. I have decided not to download anything else, until after Pets comes out, because I don't want to have to take anything out of my game.

Interesting side note, one of my neighbors is on the Geek Squad. I know a lot of geeks, but he's my first official geek. He works for Circuit City on their Geek squad and of course he does make house calls. I haven't had to use his services yet, but it's nice to know where to find a geek when you need one. You know your fast on your way to being one yourself when the idea of a geek living a few doors from you is exciting. Maybe it's because, he's an official geek. On the side of his car it has "Geek Squad". How cool is that?

Well it looks like I'll be buying two copies of The Sims 2: Pets, one for the PC and one for the PS2. After looking at all of the pics and reviews, my daughter has decided that this is a must have game for the PS2. Too bad it always costs more for the PS2, oh well.

The Sims 2: Pets looks like it's going to be a really great EP. A lot of people wanted the sims to have Pets (me included). Some people remember how it was with Unleashed for The Sims and remember getting bored with it pretty quick. I have that EP (I have them all) and about a million downloads for the Sims and EPs. I don't know if I will ever play it again, but a lot of my downloads I bought, so who knows. I liked Unleashed and I never did get bored with it and face it Pets is a hundred times better, just like Sims 2 is about a hundred times better than The Sims.

The one EP from the Sims I didn't much play was Superstar. I really lost interest in it really quick. I could have done without Making Magic as well. I did enjoy Unleashed though.

It's kind of strange to be thinking about the next EP when Pets hasn't been released yet, but people are, including the Maxis team who have already strarted asking what people would like to see in upcoming EPs. So expect at least one or maybe two more EPs for the Sims 2. This is a huge money maker for EA, with a very large and active online community.

The Sims community is huge. If you own the game and haven't been to any of the hundreds of sites devoted to the Sims 2, you should. While their are a lot of pay sites out there, we also have an equal number of free sites. If you only visit to download that's cool, but there is also a lot of information and who knows you might make a friend or two. Not to say there aren't a bunch of jerks in the community, cause there are (just like real life), but it doesn't take long to figure out who they are. Also in the creative community we have a few cliques of kind of snobbish creators who only associate with other creators. They look down on non-creative types. Which is okay with me, because after reading some of their posts, you really wouldn't be all that interested in them anyway. I like people who have lives away from the Sims and can talk about other things.

Anyway, I'm one of those people who is really looking forward to Pets. I have dogs in real life and so I suspect my game will lean toward dog ownership. My daughter loves cats, I see her game heavy with cat owners.

I wonder about the wisdom of sharing your thoughts with people who are virtual (excuse the pun) strangers. Though I confess to have been more open to it lately. I have found that the harder you try to sound interesting and amusing the less you are. So I won't try. I'll just be me and share a little of what I've been thinking about.

One of the topics at my house has been the amount of time it takes for the US to get Japanese titles, a good example of that would be Final Fantasy XII. Personally the wait for games doesn't bother me nearly as much as the way they play with us. Will a title be available in the US or not? Sometimes we wait forever just to be told it won't be made available here. Okay that's their prerogative. I would suggest that games not be reviewed in US gaming magazines until it has been announced that it will actually be shipping here. I hate seeing what great new game the Japanese are enjoying that we will never get. Which leads me to my next question. Why are developers here not coming up with great new RPGs? You can't tell me no one in the USA knows anime.

Sounds a bit like a rant doesn't it? Not so. We invest a lot of our hard earned cash in these consoles. New titles should be released internationally at the same time or at the least a few days after initial release. It can be done. The Sims: Pets will ship in the US Oct. 17 and overseas on the 20th. I think it's a power play and I wouldn't be surprised if politics doesn't come into it in some fashion.

On second thought...you may consider this a rant. :lol