The Sims Medieval - Releases on 3/22

So, I figured I'd just give a few thoughts on The Sims Medieval, which will be released this Tuesday (in the US). I'm not a Sims player who gets much into the medieval kingdoms, and I don't think I've ever downloaded the custom content folks have made for it (even though it is well made and lovely!). I personally just like the modern world when I play Sims.

Despite this, the first videos I saw of The Sims Medieval actually looked pretty cool. I'm not a huge fan of RPG's, but it looked like a pretty happy mix between Sims and RPG's. I liked all the Simmy quirks they added, and the comical aspects. I actually started getting a little excited, as there seemed to be a lot of fun gameplay, and hey it was still the Sims right?

Well, not exactly. What killed my interest in the game is that, despite looking like Sims and acting like Sims, the gameplay IS in fact more like an RPG. For example, children don't grow up, nor are they playable. If you've played Fable 2, children were just this...little AI annoyances that followed your character around...or not...whatever. They didn't have any sort of depth. I wanted to have medieval legacy families, dammit! I wanted the king to perhaps have his princess daughter grow up to fall in love with a peasant. I wanted DRAMA! After all, that is why I play the Sims. I love telling stories, even if it's just in my own head. So babies grow up to children and then...nothing? The idea of keeping a game fresh only by hopping from one character to another is not appealing to me. So you play a king...then a knight...then a wizard...*yawn*.

Also...no horses? Really, EA? I don't even know what to say about that.

The only possible good thing that I'm hoping for from the Sims Medieval is if the wonderful modders figure out some way to clone items from that for Sims 3. It'll probably be impossible though.

Originally I had planned on buying TSM on its release, so I could give it a proper review here, but sorry, I'm not paying $50 for it. I might pick up when it has a HUGE price cut, but until then, I'll just twiddle my thumbs waiting for the release of the fourth Sims 3 expansion pack: Generations.