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Players of “The Sims 3″ can design a single Sim to guide through life or create a whole family of them.

“The Sims 3″ takes some big steps forward for Simkind, allowing players to influence and interact with an entire town of gibberish-speaking Sims to their heart’s content.

“Fascinating” might be the best word for the game – the various Sims interact in surprisingly complex ways based on their personalities, and it’s entertaining to watch them do what they do, whether they’re at work or on personal time.

Players can pick a prefabricated household of one or more Sims, create a random Sim or craft a family using the game’s expansive Create a Sim options.

Age (infant to elder), gender, features, hairstyle and several sets of clothing all can be customized – and edited later. There are dozens of materials and patterns, and a virtually unlimited array of colors that allow each Sim to have its own look.

Players move their chosen Sims into a furnished or unfurnished house, or onto a bare lot for constructing a custom home. Homes and lots can always be changed and improved with enough money.

Each Sim can be given several traits, such as Green Thumb, Inappropriate, Great Kisser, Grumpy, Slob, Artistic and Athletic. A Sim’s combination of traits determines personality and autonomous actions, and what its Lifetime Wish is.

Each Sim also has Needs and Wants. These affect a Sim’s mood: A Sim in a bad mood will be discontent and won’t perform some actions at all. Events that affect mood often leave behind Moodlets, bonuses or penalties to a Sim’s mood that last a certain amount of game time.

Wants are a good way to boost a Sim’s mood and contribute to its Lifetime Happiness points, which can be used to buy special traits that, say, make it free to eat at restaurants or, at the high end of the scale, grant the ability to teleport across town.

Being in a very good mood feeds points directly into the Lifetime Happiness score while fulfilling a Sim’s Wants – like taking a class in gardening or simply having a chat with a spouse – gains points.

Lifetime Wishes are like a super-Want, granting a huge boost to Lifetime Happiness points, and like Wants, they’re tied strongly into a Sim’s personality. A Family-Oriented Sim may want to have a large family, while an Artistic one will probably want to create a masterwork.

“The Sims 3″ now features an online store where players can purchase points to spend on new items, clothing, hairstyles and so on for their Sims, though the game’s built-in options are considerable and can be easily customized to look unique. New players are given $10 worth of points when they register the game.

PICKS AND PANS

GUITAR HERO SMASH HITS

2 stars

A compilation of songs from “Guitar Hero’s” pre-”World Tour” installments, “Smash Hits” takes a selection of tracks from the previous games and updates them for play with a full guitar-bass-drums-vocals ensemble.

It’s good to have an opportunity to take tunes such as Franz Ferdinand’s “Take Me Out” and Queen’s “Killer Queen” out for a spin with a full “band,” and all the songs here are master tracks, replacing the covers that were common in the earlier “Guitar Hero” releases.

“Smash Hits” has a good mix of songs from the early games in the series, even if notable tracks by David Bowie, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Dick Dale and many others didn’t make the cut. The Music Studio song-editing mode makes a return, along with the other play modes from “World Tour.” Nonetheless, the full-size price feels steep for a release that’s little more than a song pack – especially when so many of the songs in it were first featured in games less than 2 years old.

Microsoft Xbox 360 (also for Sony PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, PS2); $59.99 ($39.99 to $59.99 for other versions) • Age rating: Teen

SWORDS & SOLDIERS

3 1/2 stars

A clever take on the real-time strategy genre, “Swords & Soldiers” has players take command of Viking, Aztec or Imperial Chinese forces and fight it out with another faction on a 2-D side-scrolling map.

Each faction has a base on one side of the map, and units they produce simply march toward the other side, fighting any opposing units along the way.

If they reach the end of the line, they’ll attack the enemy base until it’s destroyed or they are, so sending out a proper mix (or at least a constant stream) of fighters is a must. Gatherer units stay near the home base, venturing into mines to find gold for research and unit construction.

There’s a separate solo campaign for each faction, in which the player battles through several missions while coming to grips with the various units and special powers of their chosen people.

For example, Vikings have berserkers and ax throwers that can be prodded into a rapid charge, healed by the gods or aided by bolts of lightning from the blue. The Aztecs use slow-working poison, send out fast fighters armed with clubs and summon stone giants to smite their foes. The Chinese field swordsmen and can call down a rain of burning arrows. Each side has several more units and powers as well.

Nintendo Wii (WiiWare download); $10 (1,000 Nintendo Points) • Age rating: 10-plus

– Justin Hoeger

Alex Mercer has become a monster in “Prototype,” and he wants to find out how and why.

That’s the setup for this open-world game – the second this year, after the PS3-exclusive “Infamous,” to put players in the shoes of someone who never asked for superpowers. But Mercer makes no pretense of being nice – there aren’t any of the moral choices that “Infamous” protagonist Cole McGrath was given.

Mercer wakes up in a Manhattan morgue with a chest full of bullet wounds and no memories. But he soon finds that he can consume humans, copy their shapes and absorb their memories. He also has enough strength to lift and throw a car, and the ability to run up the sides of skyscrapers.

After sifting a hint from an early victim’s mind, Mercer learns that he has a sister. With her help, he starts looking for clues to his disturbing transformation – and to the shadowy military group, Blackwatch, that begins taking over the city just as mutants infected by a strange virus start overrunning the streets.

Much of the story is presented as a flashback, as told by Mercer to a mysterious confidant nearly three weeks after the start of the game. The plot is interesting enough, but it’s told in a herky-jerky way that makes it tough to maintain any narrative momentum.

One neat storytelling device is the memories of the people Mercer consumes. Certain targets are marked as part of the Web of Intrigue, a chart of plot points made up of tidbits of information relating to the plot at large. Absorbing them gives Mercer new pieces of the big puzzle.

“Prototype” is far more gory and violent than “Infamous”; Mercer’s powers aren’t neat and tidy, and he’s not concerned with sparing innocent life. In fact, consuming civilians is often the only handy way to refill Mercer’s health when he’s in a tight spot, though soldiers and mutants tend to restore more.

Absorption and imitation are just the tip of Mercer’s shape-shifting iceberg. New abilities are unlocked as Mercer progresses through story missions, and he can purchase upgrades and new powers with the evolution points generously doled out for defeating foes and completing story missions and side challenges.

Mercer’s mobility and diverse combat powers make rampaging through the city a blast, but there are some control issues that make finer movements a pain.

PICKS AND PANS

RUNE FACTORY FRONTIER

3 stars

An offshoot of the farming-RPG series “Harvest Moon,” the “Rune Factory” games mix a bit of combat in with all the plowing and planting. “Rune Factory Frontier” continues the agricultural adventures of Raguna as he arrives in a new town with a fresh row to hoe.

The game’s a pretty mellow experience centered on day-to-day tasks and Raguna’s relationships with his neighbors, though there is a story line to follow.

Raguna plants seeds in his fields and waits for the crops to mature before harvesting and shipping them off to be sold. Some crops grow best in certain seasons, and most take different amounts of time to mature. Much of the field is littered with debris at first, and special tools are needed to clear it, though it’s not made clear where to find them.

Raguna can buy extensions for his house, such as a forge to make tools. He can capture the small, glowing Runey spirits that inhabit the land and release them to influence his fields or produce miracles. Apart from farming and wandering the town, there’s also a floating, whale-shaped island above the town whose interior is a deep dungeon. Raguna can befriend and domesticate the monsters he battles there for use as livestock, and will find plenty of items along the way.

Nintendo Wii; $49.99 • Age rating: 10-plus

SINS OF A SOLAR EMPIRE: ENTRENCHMENT

3 1/2 stars

“Sins of a Solar Empire” was fantastic when it launched, though it did have a heavy emphasis on offense. The game’s first mini-expansion, “Entrenchment,” beefs up players’ defensive options considerably, introduces a host of new features and improves the artificial intelligence.

Defensive upgrades have been moved to their own research trees, and some of the gaps in the offense-oriented technology trees have been filled with new abilities. Along with improvements to defenses, each culture can lay down fields of space mines and field units capable of cracking a fortress world.

But the most obvious new features are the starbases, incredibly expensive structures that, when upgraded beyond their vulnerable initial forms, can hold their own against entire fleets. These bases can be built anywhere, allowing players to create a foothold in enemy territory or hold onto previously uncontrollable areas such as stars and gas giants.

Each culture has a different kind of base with unique upgrades that are in line with their play styles.

Other additions include units designed to counter hardened defenses and smaller tweaks such as the new quick start option, which allows players to begin with a few extra structures that are typically built first thing. Not shabby for a $10 download.

PC (ImpulseDriven.com download); $9.95 Age rating: Teen

– Justin Hoeger

Lillian Dow of Folsom, using a Nintendo Wii device, engages in virtual bowling Wednesday at the Folsom Senior Center. Watching her are, from left, Doretta Youngdahl of Pacifica, Elsie Offner of Folsom and Tom Grunwaldt of Folsom.

A dozen or so older adults at the Folsom Senior Center erupt in cheers and clapping as Elsie Offner, a 91-year-old resident of Folsom, bowls a strike.

The senior center doesn’t have lanes, but it does have a new bit of gaming technology, a Nintendo Wii. And with it comes Wii bowling, by far the most popular video game with the seniors who frequent the community center.

“It gets you out of your rocking chair,” said Offner, when asked what she liked best about the game.

And these types of video games bring with them substantial social benefits.

“It allows them to gather socially and feel social without leaving the comfort of the senior lounge,” said Sandy Hilton, the senior center’s community services manager.

While playing video games promotes social connectedness and friendships, other benefits – such as the improvement and sharpening of the minds’ abilities – are still being uncovered.

Cognitive or mental decline is a hallmark of aging. Most of us, at some point or other, will begin to see our memory, attention or reasoning capabilities falter. Recent research from the University of Virginia suggests that such declines can begin as early as our late 20s to early 30s.

Video games are emerging as a powerful new stimulant for helping to buttress and buffer the mind against the march of time.

Research over the past decade has repeatedly shown that games and other brain exercises can be effective aliments to declines in cognitive functioning, including memory, attention, processing speed, problem solving and mental flexibility.

The ACTIVE study published by the American Medical Association in 2006 showed that benefits for older adults can be seen five years after cognitive training – including positive effects on daily functioning.

Researchers at North Carolina State University and the Georgia Institute of Technology are teaming up to take the next step in understanding games’ benefits to cognitive functioning.

Anne McLaughlin, a North Carolina State assistant professor, has been awarded a $1.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation to uncover the aspects of games that have the most potential to improve cognitive functioning in older adults.

“We want to produce guidelines for people making games,” McLaughlin said. “The goal is to predict beforehand whether they’re working or not.” Once the guidelines are understood, collaborators at Georgia Tech will incorporate them into real working games.

This is important because a majority of commercial software marketed as enhancing cognition or brain function, such as Nintendo “Brain Age,” lack experimental evidence. The Food and Drug Administration does not evaluate or regulate claims about how such software could have beneficial health effects.

Companies such as Lumos Labs in San Francisco are not only developing cognitive training games, but also evaluating them.

“We are taking exercises and specific ways of doing cognitive development and converting them into games so that they are enjoyable enough for people to do,” said Mike Scanlon, head of scientific operations at Lumos Labs.

The games on Lumos’ site, Lumosity.com, aren’t explicitly developed for older adults because training on games can provide benefits for a wide range of age groups.

Games are organized into training programs consisting of 20 to 40 sessions of 15 minutes each. Each session in turn can involve playing up to five different mini-games for a few minutes each.

Doretta Youngdahl holds a Wii controller. Research over the past decade repeatedly has shown that such games can sharpen older minds.

Doretta Youngdahl of Pacifica cheers from the sidelines Wednesday during virtual bowling at the senior center, which has formed a league in which the winners are awarded trophies.

Tom Grunwaldt of Folsom, a 59-year-old who has Parkinson’s disease, is a whiz at Nintendo Wii’s bowling game, having achieved the high score of 300 a number of times. He participates in a virtual bowling league at the Folsom Senior Center.