There have always been two versions of The Sims. On the one hand, you have the PC versions, which feature the original life simulation gameplay, and (until The Sims 3) the console versions which took the original formula and added a storyline, missions and other new gameplay elements. Depending on which platform you were using, you knew what Sims experience to expect. Forget those expectations, because The Sims: Medieval blends both styles to create a wonderfully fun Sims experience. Thanks to a wonderfully detailed world, improved features and quests that are actually fun to play through, The Sims: Medieval may be showing its age a bit, but there's no reason to pass it up.

By now you probably know the basics of The Sims. Create a person, and live their life from the major events like marriage and children to the mundane like doing the dishes and going to the bathroom. Here though, instead of going to the beach or buying new big screen TVs, you'll be spending your time in costumes and storming medieval castles. The world created here by EA is incredibly detailed, and full of fun little secrets to explore. There are a ton of areas you can take your Sims, and have a blast doing so. My one issue with this? There's absolutely no way to build castles, which seems like a no brainer addition for this medieval iteration.

The setting isn't the only change in Medieval; in fact there's a lot more here than you'd expect. Unlike The Sims 3 and previous titles before it, you won't be able to create anyone you want in Medieval. Rather, you'll select from a set of hero characters that you can customize to your heart's content. To some, this may seem limiting, but it gives the game a much more focused feeling, and forces players to adapt certain strategies to different hero types. Your sims needs and traits are much more streamlined here as well, as you won't have to worry about anything but two needs; hunger and energy. In addition, each hero will have two traits and one fatal flaw, which go a long way in determining just how your sim acts and how your game plays out. The gluttony flaw for instance requires your sim to eat a lot more than others. Messing around with different combinations of traits and flaws is an incredibly fun experience, and allows for interesting and varied playthroughs.

While you can still do pretty much anything with your sim, like getting married or exercising, you'll find the most fun in the game's new quest system. You see, each sim has a Kingdom Ambition (think of them sort of like the normal ambitions from The Sims 3), which can be anything from ruling the Kingdom to getting a nice job with the royal family. How you'll achieve these ambitions is by going on smaller quests which eventually lead up to larger ones. In true Sims fashion, you're free to take on these quests in any matter you want, but the more you play through the game, the more you'll find that there's certain hero types and trait combinations that are made for certain types of quests.

Strangely for a Sims game, there's a definitive ending to Medieval. Sure you can still play in free play mode, but once you achieve your sim's Kingdom ambition your game is pretty much over. If you want to try another ambition, you have to start a new game, which kind of blows. The good news is that once you finish one, you'll open up a whole new set of ambitions, complete with new quests, which does a great job of keeping the gameplay fresh.

I mentioned it above, but the lack of ability to build a castle, or any building for that matter is shockingly missing from Medieval. Sure, you can still customize a building's look and feel by changing out some of the walls, furniture or paint, but I seriously wish I could have built my own kick ass castle to scare off enemies with. Though it's a great game, filled with new things to do, The Sims: Medieval doesn't truly feel like The Sims in this aspect.

By far, the most disappointing aspect of The Sims: Medieval is the fact that it still suffers from some of the problems that plagued earlier versions of the game. Your sims still have the tendency to stomp their feet and get stuck behind objects when there's an obvious path around. Oh, and just ask any Sims player how frustrating it can be when your sim's levels don't go up when you've done everything you can.

It's easy to expect The Sims: Medieval to be just another whoring out of the billion dollar license by EA, but looking closer shows that it's anything but. Though it still suffers from some of the same problems of the original games and lacks a few key features (come on, I can't make my own building in The Sims?), there's a lot to like about this new version of the game. The quest system is a blast to play and the new and more streamlined ambitions mode is a welcome change. The Sims: Medieval may not please every Sims fan, but all should give it a try.