Pro’s: Infinitely replayable; lots of downloadable content; waaaaay too many features to detail.

Con’s: Downloadable content costs real Earth dollars; managing big families is pretty tough.

Allow me to elaborate with the brief story of my sim Chuf Money’s life.

Chuf Money moved into a modestly decorated, prefabricated, one-bedroom home. His neurotic tendencies put him under a lot of stress, and his day job in politics certainly didn’t help. Fortunately, he only had to play nice at the office long enough to pay his rent, so he could spend his off-time working up his guitar-playing skills. Eventually, he made more money from that than he did from his job, so he took the musical gig full-time. He eventually fulfilled his dream of becoming a music legend — but never settled down, outliving his long-term girlfriend and watching her die before his very eyes. In his old age, he started avoiding the phone, since the only reason it rang was to let him know another one of his friends had died. Toward the end, he adopted a son — if for nothing else than to have someone to keep his memory alive.

GameSpy gives the game 4-1/2 stars out of 5!