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It’s time to get serious about PC gaming because online game downloads threaten game consoles. Experts are predicting that by the year 2020, console gaming will be a thing of the past. While many gamers are currently enjoying their Nintendo Wii’s, Playstation 3’s, and XBox 360’s, their attention is getting swayed more and more toward the world of online community games and PC downloads.

Part of the problem with console gaming is that the companies are trying to make the consoles so graphically rich and innovative that they are losing a lot of money on the console itself, with the possible exception of the Nintendo Wii. That leaves a lot of room for the PC game manufacturers to really come out ahead.

The fact of the matter is that people like to play community based games these days. World of Warcraft and Everquest are huge successes because of that community feel. They also allow you to practically escape into another world.

Console games also allow for community play and downloadable gaming, but it’s starting to make more sense to just release these games on the PC platform. The graphics in many PC’s are already top notch, and they are just getting better and better.

The games can also sell more widely because so many people have home computers. Generally, gamers need to make a choice between one of the three top consoles. When games are released on PC they don’t need to make the same choice. That means more people can buy and download these games. That means big money for the companies that make the games.

Another interesting fact that points to having more PC downloads and less console systems and games is the theft factor. PC community games make a lot of money because they rely on subscription based service. There is nearly no way to steal a part in the community because it relies on subscription and DRM. Cutting down on theft is a big part of increasing profits for game companies.

While it’s not conclusive, it does seem to be the case that online game downloads threaten game consoles. There is less overhead with downloads, better theft protection, incredible graphics, and easy community access. Time will only tell what will happen to our precious consoles.

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Starting out in the world of Sudoku can be extremely hard if you don’t know what you are doing. Your best bet is to read up on the rules and get some beginning Sudoku strategies to make sure you can get started on the right foot.

If you don’t already know, the goal for a Sudoku puzzle is to make sure that every row, column, and box each contain every number 1 through 9. Because each of these items can only have a number once, this lets you use logic to determine which number goes in which square. This is really the ground level of problem solving in Sudoku. If a box has every number except for 2, then that is the obvious answer. This same concept applies to the rows and columns as well.

While this is the basic idea of Sudoku, you should also realize that the puzzles are hardly ever going to be that simple. You will need to combine the information that is available in the rows, columns, and boxes to actually complete a Sudoku board. When you start being able to do this, you really open up yourself to much more in-depth and effective strategies.

Probably the most widely used strategy is one that deals choosing a box and seeing what the surrounding rows contain. Looking at your box you will notice that it has 3 rows and 3 columns that run into it. As another example let’s assume that two of these rows have the number 5 in them. You know then for that box the number 5 can only be in the remaining row, which only has 3 squares. Hopefully two of those squares have already been filled and you can then put the 5 in the last one. If not, then you can move on and come back to that area once you have completed more of the puzzle.

Another strategy is to pick a row or column and see which numbers it is missing. For this example lets assume that our row is missing the numbers, 1,2, and 3. We know that they all go into it, but not exactly where. Look at the columns that run into the three empty spaces of your row. Let’s say you find a 2 in the left column and another 2 in the right column. The fact that they already contain 2’s means that there are no more 2’s needed for those columns, which includes two of your empty spaces in your original row. That leaves only one possible space in that row, which you can now fill with a 2.

In the end Sudoku really comes down to eliminating incorrect answers through logic. The information you need is already available and it is up to you to interpret it correctly. A lot of it can end up being simple trial and error, but you’ll be much more successful if you start off using these beginning Sudoku strategies.

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“The Sims” is the gold standard whenever you talk about Sims games. Released in North American in February 2000, it has become the best-selling PC game in history. Unlike other Sims games such as “age of Empires”, “The Sims” focuses on the mundane, day-to-day activities of the inhabitants of the suburbs outside of “SimCity”.

Players are put in control of the virtual daily activities of their characters and control their sleeping, eating, bathing, and entertainment activities. Perhaps, it’s this very ordinary aspect to the game that accounts for it’s huge popularity.

“The Sims” is the creation of legendary game designer Will Wright. Wright claims the inspiration for “The Sims” came from his own real life experience when his home was destroyed in the Oakland, CA firestorm of 1991. He was forced to move his family and essentially rebuild everything from nothing.

Wright based “The Sims” on another sim game he wrote called “SimCity” of just “Sims” for short. Wright came up with the idea of a “virtual dollhouse”, which he pitched to Maxis. However, Maxis balked at the initial idea claiming that the computer hardware available at the time was inadequate to support such a simulation.

In 1995 Wright was given the opportunity to develop his game concept by Electronic Arts. Initially dubbed “Project X”, the name was changed to “The Sims” in 1997 two years after its release.

In terms of competition, “The Sims” is about as low key as a computer game can get. The main objective is for the player to help his virtual characters (Sims) achieve their own personal objectives whatever they may turn out to be.

The Sims live in and interact with a virtual environment. There is a set hierarchy in their world consisting of “families”, which are assigned to a “lot” where they live and go about life in their virtual world. Life isn’t easy in this virtual world, at least from the concept of weekends, which doesn’t exist. Adult Sims work 7 days a week and the children must keep up with their studies. The consequences for not doing so is rather severe.

Though adult Sims can’t die from old age, there are several nasty ways that can result in death for a Sim. These range from drowning in a swimming pool after the steps have been deleted or perishing inside a house after all the doors have been deleted. A Sim can even die from contracting a virus from a pet guinea pig whose cage was left uncleaned for too long.

Domestic discord is also a part of life in the word of “The Sims”. Sims can leave their family, never to return and couples can brawl and eventually split up. Not too unlike life outside of the virtual world.

The popularity of “The Sims” is undisputed and has gone down as the most popular PC game of all time. There have been several sequels, expansion packs, spin offs, as well as ports to all the major operating systems and consoles. There is even plans for a film based on “The Sims” to be released sometime in 2009.

Could the wild popularity of “The Sims” have more than a little to do with how the mundane trials and tribulations of the characters are so similar to that of our own lives?

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