Comfort games-- like comfort food only comsumed via PC and contain no calories.

[Biggirl]

For me a comfort game has to be simple in it's gameplay yet offer varied ways and skill levels in the actual playing. So that every time you play it, it is comfortably familiar and completely different. The Sims would be an excellent comfort game except that ever since I installed the Hot Date upgrade it crashes every single time I attempt to play.

My very own very favorite comfort game is Age of Empires: The Conquerors. I like that I know I can beat it and I like that I can determine whether it'll be a quick game (2 opponents) or a long drawn out battle for land and resources (6 or 7).

What other games should I consider?

[Ashtar]

"Thief", by the now-defunct Looking Glass Studios.
Come to think of it--almost anything made by Looking Glass Studios. Thief, Thief 2, System Shock 2, and to a lesser extent, Deus Ex. (Not made by Looking Glass, but with a lot of the same designers)

They're first-person games, so they may not be for you if you don't like that kind of genre. But I absolutely adore Thief because of it's non-linear gameplay style. The main crux of the gameplay involves stealing things while not being seen--but even after you become familiar with the levels, there are so many different ways to replay it..you can vary the way you sneak about..you can try to case the place completely, or dive right into the main objectives. You can try experimenting with different ways to get around guards--I always find me asking myself, 'Will I try to get by this guard and steal that item completely unnoticed? Or will I stab him in the back and dump his body down the well before it's found by others?

It's a very immersive game..forever one of my favorites.

[Tusculan]

Actually occasionally I like to replay Doom. It's nostalgia pure and simple, like visiting a place you know from childhood, roaming through environments you know by heart, greeting those surprise demons like old friends, before blowing them to pieces, that is. The first episode is the best to do this, since it's so easy I can do it half asleep.

Am I weird to do this?

[Sanscour]

Have you tried Age of Mythology Biggirl? I liked it very much, and if you play against the computer and not the campaign you could choose the Norse, Egyptians or Greeks and have your game play vary on which deities you choose to worship. As your city expands, since your one shot god spells and mythical creatures vary on which gods you want.

that's all I can think of right now

Sanscour

[shijinn]

Originally posted by Biggirl
... game has to be simple in it's gameplay yet offer varied ways and skill levels in the actual playing. ... diablo 2 and expansion. as simple as it gets (skill levels is questionable). just click everything. can be mindlessly addictive. gameplay from 20 mins to 72 hours.

[Biggirl]

Yes, I've got Mythology-- which I also like. But Conquerors is my favorite.

[Mofo Rising]

The CIVILIZATION series, along with ALPHA CENTAURI.

Too bad those often turn from comfort into an all consuming I've-wasted-the-day obsession.

[godzillatemple]

Master of Magic. My favorite D&D type game from years past. Build cities, raise armies, hire heros, and then go forth to conquer your neighbors....

Barry

[Waenara]

...simple in it's gameplay yet offer varied ways and skill levels in the actual playing. So that every time you play it, it is comfortably familiar and completely different.

Definitely Snood (www.snood.com).

An excellent way to waste a little time. Always interesting. Often frustrating and challenging, but depending on the gameplay mode it can be quite easy and mindless. It's definitely worth paying to register, and being able to access many more playing levels and variations.

[Lute Skywatcher]

Originally posted by Mofo Rising
The CIVILIZATION series, along with ALPHA CENTAURI.

Too bad those often turn from comfort into an all consuming I've-wasted-the-day obsession. Weekend, in my case. :)

[elfkin477]

My comfort game is Creatures 2. I like putting in the various downloads to keep the norns from drowning and to encourage breeding, and watching to see what happens when they reproduce- will the babies be blue or purple? Will the baby be bright enough not to give it self a head injury by walking into the cave wall obsessively? There's not a lot to the game, but it's nice. It makes me look forward to The Sims 2, actually, since the new sims game is borrowing the C2 lifecycle concept.

BTW, Biggirl, have you installed the offical Hot Date patch? It's at the sims site, and should keep your game from crashing. In theory. www.thesims.ea.com/us.index.html under "downloads" (hopefully. It's been a couple of years since I installed it. If not google "hot date patch" and you should find it on a fan site)

[elfkin477]

Oh dear... make that http://thesims.ea.com/us/index.html under "get cool stuff." It is still there, btw.

[Gadfly]

X-Com: UFO Defense.

Ohhh yeah.

System Shock 2

Awesome game, but.. System shock 2? A comfort game? What the fuck?! That game scared me like nothing else has EVER scared me before.

[SolGrundy]

My comfort games are Final Fantasy Tactics and Suikoden 2. I'm constantly re-playing them. But they're both Playstation games, so they probably don't qualify.

On the PC, it's Diablo 2, which I've already beaten twice but is constantly beckoning from the hard drive, "Play me again! I'm here and you can be killing things within minutes!"

The Sims is the other one. Shame about its crashing for you, though; you should definitely try the patch. And if that works, then get the Unleashed expansion; that and Hot Date are the essential expansions for the game.

[Shalmanese]

Tetris, virtual pool, Risk, Worms(!!!)

[Athena]

When I'm in the mood for comfort, I usually take my high level Everquest character and either:

1 - go to some area that has some good memories for me and buff up the newbies who are playing there, or help them fight by pulling hard monsters and debuffing them until the newbies can kill them

2 - go to the stinky wood elf treehugger town, charm a guard, and see how far I can get into the town before I die or get bored.

Which I do depends on what kind of "comfort" I need. Warm snugglies or Kill Everything In Sight.

[Master Wang-Ka]

"Comfort Game?"

Dungeon Keeper 2.

It's the opposite of every "dungeons and dragons" dungeon crawl ever made. You're the Dungeon Keeper, and it's your job to create lairs, treasure rooms, traps, lure in monsters to live there (and build your traps and such)... and you have the responsibility of feeding the monsters, and keeping them happy and entertained (your dominatrix-like Mistresses insist on a Torture Chamber for fun, whereas your trolls and goblins would probably prefer the Casino).

There's a Campaign Mode where your objective is to conquer a series of petty kingdoms by burrowing under them and invading, culminating in your conquering the entire land... as well as "My Pet Dungeon" mode, in which you simply create dungeons for fun (and arrange for invasions by Goodly Heroes, to see how your defenses stand up), as well as Skirmish Mode, in which you can complete a selection of single-shot missions against the Goodly Heroes, or rival Dungeon Keepers!

I've been playing the thing since 1999, and I haven't got tired of it yet.

[Quack]

Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2

The nostalgia of it. Oh, the nostalgia.

[randwill]

"Riven" for me. But it's of a genre most of you are probably unaware of. It's called an "Adventure Game". No cars to steal, or whores to run over, or buildings to blow up, or giant monsters whose bloody guts will splatter gloriously.

These type games are more contemplative and cerebral, if you will. More comforting to me than cutting heads off trolls with axes.

Adventure games are getting harder to find in America, where the mindless violent stuff sells best. But if you want to venture into more thought-provoking game territory (more thought-provoking than: "That blowed up real good!") I recommend looking for games like: "Sanitarium", "Grim Fandango", "Syberia", "The Longest Journey", "Legacy of Time", "Zork Nemesis", "Blackstone Chronicles", "Darkfall", "Obsidian"and the "Myst Trilogy" which includes the above mentioned "Riven" along with "Exile" and the original "Myst" which used to be the best-selling game of all time. (Don't know if it still is.) You'll have to put on your thinking cap to finish these, but looking around this country, I don't see that as a *bad* thing.

Also, I understand that most gamers want just the opposite of having to think when they relax with a game. So to each his own.

[Headcoat]

Unreal Tournament

I've had this game on my hard drive since the day it came out about 3 years ago. Since that time, dozens of games have come and gone, but this one is a constant that I just can't bring myself to uninstall.

I've played countless FPS's both single player and online - I suck at every one of them. I dabbled in "realism" games like Counterstrike, but constantly come in dead last place, plus its no fun at all for me.

But UT, damn...I am almost always first place no matter what server I go on to..in fact, I've been banned from many places by ignorant admins with accusations of "cheating" (I do no such thing). In that game, I am a GOD. Therefore, it is my true comfort game.

And yes, I've tried its sequel, Unreal Tournament 2003 - it sucks (and consequently, I suck at it).

[Biggirl]

Originally posted by randwill
"Riven" for me. But it's of a genre most of you are probably unaware of. It's called an "Adventure Game". No cars to steal, or whores to run over, or buildings to blow up, or giant monsters whose bloody guts will splatter gloriously.





Don't be so patronizing. Of course I've heard of Riven. It was the top selling PC game for close to a year, so many have not only heard of it but have played it as well. Me included.

It's not a comfort game though. Just like Civ it takes too long to complete for it to be a good comfort game for me.


And thanks for the patch. I'm going to try it.

[Miller]

Originally posted by randwill
"Riven" for me. But it's of a genre most of you are probably unaware of. It's called an "Adventure Game". No cars to steal, or whores to run over, or buildings to blow up, or giant monsters whose bloody guts will splatter gloriously.

In short, no adventure.

Don't get me wrong: I love adventure games, too. But they're hardly any more intelligent than any other genre: they just require a lot of patience for trial- and-error and pixel-hunting. Can't get through a particular door? Try using everything in your inventory on it. If that doesn't work, go back through every previous room and make sure you didn't forget to pick something up, or make sure you talk to all the NPCs until you've exhausted all the dialogue trees. You don't have to be smart to beat an adventure game, you just have to have a mild anal-compulsive disorder. Sure, adventure games can be fun, but there's a reason the genre's in decline: they're generally not very good games. Too often, the game comes to screeching halt because the player can't make whatever intuitive leap is required to advance the story. And then there's nothing else to do but wander around screens you've already seen, hunting for some clue as to what to do next, usally trying a dozen or so perfectly valid strategies to get past the obstacle before hitting upon the one solution you're supposed to use. When it comes to most adventure games, I'd rather just read a novel of the same material, because a book doesn't have it's story grind to halt every ten minutes while I try and figure out how to turn the next page.

I do find it funny that you condescend about adventure games not featuring "cars to steal, or whores to run over, or buildings to blow up, or giant monsters whose bloody guts will splatter gloriously," and then, while listing good adventure games, you go on to cite Sanitarium, which features a stolen car (which you crash in a flashback at the beginning of the game), exploding buildings (the sanitarium's tower), and giant, gloriously gut-splattering monsters (the plant creature in the town of deformed children). Okay, you can't run down whores, but no game is perfect.

[shijinn]

Miller :D

Originally posted by Gadfly
... System shock 2? ... That game scared me like nothing else has EVER scared me before. ... try playing alien vs predator - as a marine..

playing in the dark with headphones highly recommended. definitely not a comfort game.

[Rabid_Squirrel]

Roller Coaster Tycoon 2. The only non-violent game in my whole collection.

Also, Jagged Alliance 2. Great game, terrific voice work and rock solid gameplay. Bloody shame that Sirtech has keeled over and died...:(

[Master Wang-Ka]

Hee, hee. Unreal Tournament is good, but I don't regard it as a "comfort game."

Although I find it very soothing to frag bots left and right after a hard day's work. Helps get the venom out and makes me a nicer person to deal with, y'know?

And while Myst and Riven were okay, I really preferred Grim Fandango... although, once again, I'm not sure I'd call it a "comfort game." Too, too long.

Scrabble's good. And I really like Freedom Force, for some absurd reason...

[Anonymous Coward]

Soldier of Fortune II - online multiplayer. Within seconds I can be online and blowing up stranger's limbs.

mmmmm.. gibbs....

[Tanaqui]

People require different things in comfort games, I think.

I would classify Diablo II and, back in the good old days, Descent II, as games that fall in the category you mention for me. But they aren't comfort games.

For me, it is adventure games and RPG's with their familiar story lines and beloved characters that are truly comforting. A lot of Sierra Online's stuff: the King's Quest games, particularly the middle ones--V, VI, and VII. The Quest For Glory games, also in the middle of the series--III and IV. And last but certainly not least, Squaresoft's stuff--Chronotrigger, Chronocross, Final Fantasy VI, VII and VIII. And Myst, yes. (Didn't get into the sequals.) Whenever I'm feeling down, it's one of these games I drag out of storage.

[Trjckster]

Originally posted by shijinn
Miller :D

try playing alien vs predator - as a marine..

playing in the dark with headphones highly recommended. definitely not a comfort game.
They're coming outta the walls. They're coming outta the goddamn walls!

Ever try playing the multiplayer Co-op maps? Me and my brother played them as Marines, you face a never ending horde of aliens constantly attacking in waves. We scared the crap out of our parents screaming at each other for backup.

[elfkin477]

Biggirl... did the patch end up working for you?

[slortar]

I second Thief. I'll be playing that game off and on as long as I have a computer capable of running it.

The game is one big virtual sandbox. I love the AI--very little is scripted so even though the game goes one way one time you play it, you have very little chance of the same planning panning out the same way the next time.

It's also damn immersive. Whenever I've had a bad day, it's always nice to ghost my way through Bafford's mansion (basically achieve all goals, steal all treasure without alerting, knocking out, killing or otherwise disturbing the guards). I love the ambient sounds, too. Very relaxing.

[panamajack]

Chuck Yeager's Air Combat - the game is over 10 years old but it's still one of the most enjoyable combat flight sims ever. It's made for mid-20th Century fighter combat ( WWII, Korea, also Vietnam ) and gives a great feeling for each type of plane you can fly. You can go up against any plane or combinations of planes you feel like (like a P-51 vs. 10 trainee Me-109s, or 2 NKAF MiG jets). Easy to get into and short enough to provide just enough distraction.

I like Heroes of Might & Magic - the original. The city generation isn't too complex, and the bright cartoonish look of the characters is amusing. It is a little too easy to beat the computer, though. It's a relaxing game for me.

One that may seem strange as a 'comfort game' is The Longest Journey. With almost every other adventure game I've played, I concentrate on beating just that game. This one, though, has such strong characters and a decent story that it isn't as important. You find yourself actually wanting to have the conversations that you have with others, instead of the usual pumping them for information. I've been playing it well over a year now, just a little bit at a time. It's nice that it's an 'impossible to lose' game and most of the time doesn't require much thought. My only criticism is that the occasional puzzle still requires bizarre leaps of logic leading to the try everything in your inventory.

I'll second AvP - as a Marine when I feel desparate and want to watch things blow up as I wait for death, as an Alien when I feel like biting people's heads off.

[panamajack]

Chuck Yeager's Air Combat - the game is over 10 years old but it's still one of the most enjoyable combat flight sims ever. It's made for mid-20th Century fighter combat ( WWII, Korea, also Vietnam ) and gives a great feeling for each type of plane you can fly. You can go up against any plane or combinations of planes you feel like (like a P-51 vs. 10 trainee Me-109s, or 2 NKAF MiG jets). Easy to get into and short enough to provide just enough distraction.

I like Heroes of Might & Magic - the original. The city generation isn't too complex, and the bright cartoonish look of the characters is amusing. It is a little too easy to beat the computer, though. It's a relaxing game for me.

One that may seem strange as a 'comfort game' is The Longest Journey. With almost every other adventure game I've played, I concentrate on beating just that game. This one, though, has such strong characters and a decent story that it isn't as important. You find yourself actually wanting to have the conversations that you have with others, instead of the usual pumping them for information. I've been playing it well over a year now, just a little bit at a time. It's nice that it's an 'impossible to lose' game and most of the time doesn't require much thought. My only criticism is that the occasional puzzle still requires bizarre leaps of logic leading to the try everything in your inventory.

I'll second AvP - as a Marine when I feel desparate and want to watch things blow up as I wait for death, as an Alien when I feel like biting people's heads off.

[Biggirl]

I haven't patched it yet. Doesn't look like I'll get a chance to before this weekend. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

[Badtz Maru]

Originally posted by Wang-Ka
you have the responsibility of feeding the monsters, and keeping them happy and entertained (your dominatrix-like Mistresses insist on a Torture Chamber for fun, whereas your trolls and goblins would probably prefer the Casino).

The salamanders likes to play!! My casino always had a lot of salamanders, it was hard to get them to leave.

Very strange game. I played it a lot, but I would get bored after a while because, in the long run, there was only so much you can do, and soon every dungeon is pretty much the same.

My comfort game is Rise of Nations. Whenever I am bored I can bring it up, start a solo battle (usually me vs. 7 AIs on a smallish random map, all random nations), and play for a while. It doesn't get boring for me but I often get frustrated and quit sometime around the enlightenment age.

[badmana]

I love Cataclysm (homeworld 2) by Sierra.

AvP2 is too scarey for me, although big multiplayer LAN parties are fun with that game (5 marines against me as an alien...heh heh heh).

I also play Age of Empires 2 and Shogun: Total war when the urge to send hundreds of men to their deaths appeals to me (but Shogun doesn't always work with my Nvidia card...argh!).

[Athena]

Originally posted by Miller
In short, no adventure.

Don't get me wrong: I love adventure games, too. But they're hardly any more intelligent than any other genre: they just require a lot of patience for trial- and-error and pixel-hunting.

Yeah, no kidding. I downloaded the demo to Siberia a few months ago, and regretted it immediately. Sure, it looked good. But there's nothing that bothers me more than trying to walk into a room and being told "You don't really feel like doing that right now." OK, I'll check out my suitcase. Oh, I don't really feel like doing THAT either. Hmm... there's a locked door, wonder if I can jimmy it with that crowbar? Wait, those two items cannot be used together.

I'd be all for so-called adventure games if they were set in an actual world as opposed to a script. It's my goddamn suitcase, I should be able to open it whenever I want, not only when the game deems it acceptable!

[Monkeypants]

Mine is Factory: The Industrial Devolution. But it's only for Mac, and so I haven't played it in a long time.

http://www.roundhousesoftware.com/factory/

[Amp]

Team Fortress Classic!

Whether I just want a quick 20 minute game or want to waste an entire evening I will fire this bad boy up and commence to mow down everything in front of me. Best game ever, and I don't even like multi-player games. This is the only one I play.

[lno]

I'm depressed- despite having a dozen friends who are eager for LAN parties on any given day, I'm the only person I know who likes to play AvP or AvP2.

My recent comfort games:

Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory - this is a free multiplayer-only game that was intended as an expansion to RtCW but ended up being standalone. It's theraputic to pick up a panzerfaust and blow the hell out of other people.

Thief Gold and Thief II, as other people have said. While it's fun to be sneaky, it's also fun to blackjack a guard, pick up the body, and throw it into a canal and watch the unconscious guard drown, or toss it off a balcony / roof and try to hit a guard walking by below.

You can't kill someone by throwing a body on them (I think) but it's amusing to try.

Europa 1400 - The Guild satisfies my latent Machiavellian nature. Someone has dirt on me and is trying to prosecute me? Let's kidnap him and hold him for a year and let the case die down. I need a better position? Bribe, bribe, bribe.

I wanna go play -now-.

[Miller]

Originally posted by badmana
I love Cataclysm (homeworld 2) by Sierra.

Great game, but it's not Homeworld 2. This (http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/homeworld2/index.html) is Homeworld 2, and it's out in less than two weeks!

[BraheSilver]

I have just discovered that Grand Theft Auto 3 makes a great comfort game, if you're just messing around. Instead of doing missions, I had a police chase that lasted more than five days (in game time), just going crazy with the jumps and turns. Of course, it ended spectacularly: I made a jump onto the overhead L-tracks and got rammed by a train in midair. I don't think I could do it again if I tried.

[shijinn]

Originally posted by Trjckster
They're coming outta the walls. They're coming outta the goddamn walls!

Ever try playing the multiplayer Co-op maps? Me and my brother played them as Marines, you face a never ending horde of aliens constantly attacking in waves. We scared the crap out of our parents screaming at each other for backup. no my connection couldn't handle multiplayer then, i would lag bad. nevertheless, i tried to log in once, and was promptly mowed down by a group of rampaging aliens coming down the war path..

Originally posted by panamajack
... You find yourself actually wanting to have the conversations that you have with others, instead of the usual pumping them for information. ... i'll second The Longest Journey. wouldn't recommend it normally but i do so agree with the above statement, i would have april wander around just to listen to her thoughts, the conversations with other people and even take my time to read her diary. i'd a few attempts to start a diary before but it always petered out, but after that game ended i was inspired to start another diary and have kept it up since.

OP - what about web games? i had fun with acrophobia but it's gone now. sometimes, when i'm bored i might try win, lose or draw (http://www.shockwave.com/sw/content/inklink15), and hope i can find a good room.

[Odesio]

Originally posted by Gadfly
Awesome game, but.. System shock 2? A comfort game? What the fuck?! That game scared me like nothing else has EVER scared me before.

Ah yes. There's nothing like playing that game at 11 PM with the lights out, looking away from the computer during a dull moment, only to be scared shitless when out of the blue you hear "Join the MANY!"

Marc

[Silentgoldfish]

Miller, gotta say, nice comeback. Anyone that thinks adventure games are all cerebral and high class hasn't been playing them long. While fun, can anyone really say that trying to figure out how to get past the pimp to have sex with the hooker is a better use of time than saving the universe from the evil aliens of Xen?

[pulykamell]

Archon is still one of the coolest games around. There's an updated PC version of it out there somewhere, but I just run the old C64 classic on an emulator. It's like arcade-style chess.

Hoyle's Card Games Maybe doesn't quite fit the OP's definition of a "comfort game," but this is what I play for hours. (Skat and Cribbage being my two faves.)

[Ellis Dee]

Halo, if only because I'm a frag god.

Starcraft: Broodwars, before I had to delete it and swear off RTS games. (I was ranked quite respectably on Kali in AoE) I still have a great puzzle-scenario I created for it. But the oceans of time I spent in build-order strategies became unacceptable.

Hitman 2: Nothing is as satisfying as going through a level killing everyone while being seen by noone.

[Fibber McGee]

Originally posted by pulykamell

Hoyle's Card Games Maybe doesn't quite fit the OP's definition of a "comfort game," but this is what I play for hours. (Skat and Cribbage being my two faves.)

Actually I think this (along with the various other Hoyle titles) fits the OP better than most of the other games mentioned in this thread.

After all, the title features multiple card games (which, I think, counts as variety :D ) multiple skill levels in terms of computer-controlled oponents to play against (not to mention the variable skills of opponents you might meet online) and are a lot more laid-back and relaxing than some of the games mentioned herein.

Much as I love games like GTA3 and various FPSs, I have to wonder about people who derive comfort from them . . . ;)

[elf6c]

The current one is Battlefield 1942: Secret Weapons Demo. Normally against the bots. The game makes up for the bots being a bit dumb at times by making plenty of them, and making them really good shots at times. Nothing like bottling up the enemy at a bridge and slaughtering them as they try to cross it with your trusty Sherman. Boom!

Heh!

[emulsified]

I have to cast a vote for Nethack.

This is a game that I will replay forever. Is there another game that can inspire dread at the sight of mere letters, like this: h or this: R?

Maybe it's not extremely simple in its gameplay, though. But anyway, it's completely free, is only 2 megs, and is better than almost any other game out there.

[Balle_M]

Harpoon.

Yeah, it's ancient but there are about 4 billion user scenarios out there.

Plus, there's nothing like seeing your complex attack plan coming together pefectly and suddenly having three Alfas appear inside your anti-sub screen right before you launch...

[criminalcatalog]

Sherlock, an old logic game. I was able to do some puzzles in under five minutes, though some of the puzzles seemed to come down to a 50/50 guess...

Diablo 2 LOD. My greatest waste of time.

[NicePete]

Doom II: as someone mentioned earlier, it's fun and familiar. Plus there are 10 gazillion user created levels out there, so you can still discover new environments.

CivII/Alpha Centauri: For me, the best gameplay of the genre. Have not played CivIII, but CivCTP sucked.

Snood

[slortar]

Originally posted by Frankd6
Doom II: as someone mentioned earlier, it's fun and familiar. Plus there are 10 gazillion user created levels out there, so you can still discover new environments.

CivII/Alpha Centauri: For me, the best gameplay of the genre. Have not played CivIII, but CivCTP sucked.

Snood

Yep. I should've remembered Doom. The best part about it is how it all works from sprites so you can walk into a room filled with 500 monsters with no slow-down. Walking out again...that's a problem. :D I like using Slige to randomly generate levels--sure, they get a bit samey after a while, but it's still sufficiently different each time to satisfy me.

[KidCharlemagne]

Well if you like AoE conquerors Biggirl then I recommend Rise of Nations - the latest and greatest of real time strategy. BTW, do any of you play adventure games one than once? Even 10 years later I wouldn't forget the puzzles to Grim Fandango. If you like that genre and have played GF, then I'd recommend Longest Journey and Sanitarium. Or, go old school and get Day of the Tentacle - a brilliant Lucas Arts adventure. If you have a GameCube then probably Animal Crossing is the ultimate comfort game.

[Biggirl]

Well, I went to download the Sims patch. Seems I've already done that. At least that's what my 'puter tells me. Maybe it's Vacaction that's screwed up. I made the very, very bad mistake of not upgrading The Sims in order of the releases. Here's some advice-- don't do this! The Sims like their updates in the proper order, if you put them in in the wrong order Bob oozes out of The Matrix and smothers you with his greasy t-shirt.

[elfkin477]

Uh, Biggirl, that's your problem Right There, and there's no fix for it but unistalling and reinstalling everything. They have to be installed in order they were released, or they don't work. It says so in all the booklets that come with the game expansions because they mean it.

The proper order is either Sims Deluxe or The Sims and Livin' Large (since Deluxe is Sims and LL) -->House Party--> Hot Date --> Vacation --> Unleashed --> Superstar (--> Makin Magic will be next after it comes out in Oct)

What you're supposed to do if you want to go back and add one is go into your MAXIS/thesims folder and make copies of all your Userdata folders, your Gamedata folder and Downloads folders and paste them somewhere else. Why I couldn't tell you, but I think a few people have had the folders over-written so the tell everyone to back them up just in case something goes wrong. (and if they do you just c&p the old folders after deleting the new ones the game installed) Then unistall the game and re-install them in proper order with regards to which ones you have, so if you have just Hot date and Unleashed, you'd install them in the right order, pretending the others in the chain were there anyway. You have to do this every time you want to install one that isn't the latest one. There isn't any other way to make them work.

Once you re-install them, and get the patch for the very last expansion pack you have (the older pack's patches are included in each newer expansion, so unleashed, for example has all the patches but its own on the disk - and there's no superstar patch and no talk of making one unfortunately) it should start working properly for you. <fingers crossed> At least until you install Super Star :)

[Biggirl]

Oh, I did uninstall and reinstall. The Sims won't let you install an older upgrade without uninstalling the newer one first.

I can play for a while. Sometimes a long while. But if I send my Sims on a date, it will eventually crash and I have to turn off my computer manually. Complete computer lockup. That's why I don't play it any more.

Maybe I should just uninstall it from the The Sims and start from scratch.

[Lute Skywatcher]

I love racing games and will put in one of my Need for Speed disks (High Stakes or Porsche) when I want something fun to kill time. I have lots of user-created vehicles for HS, including the Police Hunter truck.

[Bryan Ekers]

Heck, I have a shortcut to Renegade on my desktop, a game so old, you could choose to play in CGA or (wow!) EGA.

[elfkin477]

Originally posted by Biggirl
Maybe I should just uninstall it from the The Sims and start from scratch.

Yeah, kind of like I said when I said in the first sentence " Uh, Biggirl, that's your problem Right There, and there's no fix for it but unistalling and reinstalling everything," Right? :D I hope after all the trouble it has caused you it works in the end!

[JohnT]

Originally posted by randwill
"Riven" for me. But it's of a genre most of you are probably unaware of. It's called an "Adventure Game". No cars to steal, or whores to run over, or buildings to blow up, or giant monsters whose bloody guts will splatter gloriously.

These type games are more contemplative and cerebral, if you will. More comforting to me than cutting heads off trolls with axes.

Adventure games are getting harder to find in America, where the mindless violent stuff sells best. But if you want to venture into more thought-provoking game territory (more thought-provoking than: "That blowed up real good!") I recommend looking for games like: "Sanitarium", "Grim Fandango", "Syberia", "The Longest Journey", "Legacy of Time", "Zork Nemesis", "Blackstone Chronicles", "Darkfall", "Obsidian"and the "Myst Trilogy" which includes the above mentioned "Riven" along with "Exile" and the original "Myst" which used to be the best-selling game of all time. (Don't know if it still is.) You'll have to put on your thinking cap to finish these, but looking around this country, I don't see that as a *bad* thing.

Also, I understand that most gamers want just the opposite of having to think when they relax with a game. So to each his own.

Appreciate the snide social commentary in a game thread. Get out much? :rolleyes:

[ElwoodCuse]

Originally posted by Wang-Ka
Hee, hee. Unreal Tournament is good, but I don't regard it as a "comfort game."

Although I find it very soothing to frag bots left and right after a hard day's work. Helps get the venom out and makes me a nicer person to deal with, y'know?


For extra fun, try renaming the bots with people you dislike.