One of the things that caught my attention at E3 was the Desperate Housewives video game, by Buena Vista Games and Liquid Entertainment. It’s a “sims-style” game that seeks to recreate the intrigue of the TV show. Players can customize their player, their home furniture, etc, when they aren’t indulging in morally questionable behavior.

When I first heard about this game, I thought it sounded like a promising attempt to reach outside the “core” gamer market, but was worried that the gameplay would prove stale. Fortunately, the demo I witnessed at E3 dispelled those concerns. The experience seemed quite rich; for example, I watched a player antagonize a character from the TV show, after which they broke into the character’s house (to “dig up dirt” that might help protect them from that newly-antagonized character). The player was caught sneaking around (they knocked over a vase), but then lied their way out of the situation (as tracked by a “composure meter.”) Not bad. Let’s hope that the rest of the game isn’t an endless repetition of that scenario with minor variations.

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