Pre-Order The Sims Medieval

 The Sims Medieval continues in the vein of other plot based Sim games such as The Sims Castaway. The Sims Medieval uses the same engine that is used in The Sims 3 which offers much better game play than Sims 2 and the The Sims Castaway. The Sims Medieval grants the player the opportunity to perform quests and engage in normal medieval life activities in a wonderfully rendered medieval setting; imagine ornate costumes and massive castles.

The primary focus of The Sims Medieval is your kingdom. You will begin the game with a kingdom, you will choose an ambition for your kingdom. The kingdom's ambition is similar to the lifetime wish of a Sim in Sims 3. A full list of ambitions has not been released yet but tentatively some of the ambitions will be religion, military and wealth.

To accompish your kingdom's ambition you will need to complete quests using "Hero Sims" (more on the below). After you accomplish a quest you will be rewarded with points that will allow you to purchase more buildings for your kingdom. Each building has qualities that will be beneficial to your kingdom and shape its growth. Adding a building will also add a new controllable "hero Sim" to your kingdom.

Hero Sims are controllable Sims that you will play with and use to accomplish quests. The first hero Sim that will be available to you is the monarch (i.e. King or Queen). As the storyline progresses and you add more buildings to your kingdom more hero Sims will become available. Different hero Sims will be to accomplish different quests; some quests will require the use of several hero Sims.

You can also control the daily lives of hero Sims; making them work, play or fall in love. It is important that hero Sims do their work or they may be sent to the stocks to have rotten fruit thrown at them or even executed.

These are some of the hero Sims: monarch, bard, priest, spy, knight, wizard, blacksmith and physician.

Pre-ordering is easier than schlepping to your local box store and having to hunt down a clerk to open the case to send the game up to the front of the store while you finish your shopping and then having to ask the cashier to get your game from customer service. Beyond that convenience, buying the game now is like sending a gift to your future self. If your future self could they would definitely send you a thank-you note.