The Sims 3: Lucky Palms

Love, work and kleptomania return in The Sims 3, Electronic Arts' enormous life-controlling sequel to the bestselling PC game of all time.

I was on my knees pleading for a scrap of strategy gameplay and Paralives has laid me a feast of fun simulation effects.

Paralives gets off to a lovely start. We fade up to see the camera tracking a moving train as it winds serenely across a bucolic landscape. Slowly it moves in for an aerial view and the roof pops off, revealing the guard inside. And this is your movement tutorial; you'll guide the little fella into the next carriage, where a cluster of passengers leisurely watch the world go by. One handsome man slumps blissfully against his girlfriend; a group of friends laugh together across the aisle. Another man gazes dreamily into space, nodding along to something on his headphones, while a dad nearby kee

Paralives is stuffed with cool details that have me falling in love with the life sim.