I'm a middle-aged woman who was never a really huge video-game player till I found this one. I'd originally discovered The Sims 3 via the Wii version of the game, and in the process of looking for online information about the Wii game, I learned about the PC version and that players can do far more with it than is possible with the necessary limitations of the Wii game. I decided to give Sims 3 for PC a try, and that was a year ago; I've played just about every day since then. Even a year later, I find I still have so much to learn about the game -- and that's even before I started trying out expansion packs.Granted, one needs a good computer to handle the game, as it requires most of your PC's processing power to play. (Mine is an older Dell that can handle the base game and two expansion packs before it starts balking and refusing to run the game; I'm still shopping around for the best machine that won't break my budget.) But if you're new to the game and still figuring out what's going on, the base game all by itself is more than enough to keep you busy till you're ready to add an EP or two.I had never thought a video game could pull me in to the extent this one has, but I think it's because I'm a writer, and playing The Sims 3 for me is very similar to my storytelling. The difference is that there's a visual element that I can never get with my stories. I've always enjoyed creating characters, telling their stories, and getting to know them; as in my books, I create Sims, give them traits, then put them in a house and get them started on their lives. It was exciting to find that my Sim could be a writer too ... if only real-life writing and publishing were so easy. :) Your Sim can also be an angler or a gardener and sell their fish or produce; the fun of these two hobbies is that there are some really weird fish and plants in Sim World. Your angler can go for conventional stuff like minnows, goldfish, tuna, salmon, lobster, jellyfish, sharks and even piranhas, or the fanciful things like robot fish, vampire fish and the elusive deathfish. If your Sim is a gardener, they can grow not only lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, garlic, bell peppers, watermelons and pumpkins, but also cheese plants, steak plants, egg plants (as in, they grow eggs, not real-life eggplant), and everyone's favorite fantasy plant, the money tree.There are more conventional careers as well: doctor, police officer, international spy, politician, crook (yes, your Sim can be a professional criminal), rock star, pro athlete, or astronaut. There are even part-time jobs for adult or teen Sims. Most careers have ten levels and your Sim can progress rapidly through each level with challenges and some studying. For recreation, your Sims can go to the town park, one of two public swimming pools, fishing holes, beaches, the fitness center, the theater, the library and the bookstore, and there's a grocery store and a couple of restaurants. Kids and teens attend the town school; and if you decide you don't like your Sim's name, you can send them to city hall to change it. Sims also have cars, ranging from the putt-putting Sloppy Jalopy (which looks to me like a cross between those old 1970s monstrosities the AMC Pacer and the Ford Pinto) to the sleek Margaret Vaguester, which could pass for any hundred-thousand-dollar Italian sports car.The base-game town, Sunset Valley, comes complete with its own built-in population, and at the beginning of the game, you have the option either to play in one of the game's ready-made households, or create your own. If you decide to make up your own Sim(s), you can then either install them into an empty house that's already in town, or buy an empty lot and build your own house from the ground up. This was another thing that hooked me almost from the beginning: building Sim houses. You can be as creative as you want to be; while there are certain limitations in the software, the possibilities for constructing an original house are still legion. You can also decorate and furnish the house any way you like, with both interior and exterior wall decor, options for flooring, and landscaping objects. The house in the photo is one I built myself.This review would stretch on into infinity if I listed everything that's possible to do in this game; but I did want to mention one drawback. The game has any number of bugs, the vast majority of which are harmless and often even funny; but some bugs are decidedly frustrating. My biggest pet peeve is what I call the Pigtail Plague, in which the game assigns two ponytails -- complete with red ribbons -- to every Sim that ages up, including males, beginning with the teen life stage. I've learned that this is actually an error that lies deep within the software and somehow sneaked past the EA development team to crop up in the game out of nowhere. Apparently it requires a degree in computer programming to defeat; we less-computer-literate types can just have our Sims eye themselves in the mirror and click on said mirror to get the option to change your Sim's looks, whereby you can then give him or her a more appropriate hairstyle. But if there are a lot of pigtailed guys in your town and, like me, you find it looks ridiculous on them, it can be highly annoying.There's also a lot of load time involved, and each time you start up the game you have to sit through at least five full minutes' worth of loading screens. As your game progresses and your Sims' stories develop, the last load screen in particular will gradually lengthen till, if you're really unlucky, you may be waiting an hour or more for the game to finish loading for play. So a game like this probably isn't the best choice for those who have a hard time waiting for anything. :) For me, though, the immense enjoyment I get from playing is worth the wait, and even (usually) worth the bugs. My rating would be 4½ stars, but since I don't have the option for half a star, I'll settle for 4.