I chose a modified double camelback shotgun: for those outside of the South, that means a long house that goes straight back with a second story that covers the back half of the house - the camelback. It wasn't until they had made enough money to build them a nicer house that I fell in.

As I soon realized, it doesn't have to be. Played one way, The Sims 4 is an obsessive American Dream simulator. They pursued their careers with the sort of dogged determination that you would expect from someone who plays as many RPGs as me, min/maxing their time for the optimal monetary return. They got into scrapes, worked hard and bought new objects as they needed them. I started playing this game simply enough: I made a little family modeled after two friends of mine and Top Chef head Judge Tom Colicchio, then set them off in a tiny, haphazard home to pursue their dream jobs. I can at times excuse this by reminding myself that playing video games is my job, but actually writing about video games is my job, and these are the first words I've written on The Sims 4. I don't have a problem with The Sims 4, it's only that I play it for longer than I intend to, that I think about it when I'm not playing it, that playing it sometimes interferes with my work, that I have spent more money on it than I intended to and that I tick all the other clinical markers of addiction.

How much is sims 4