A new PC game came out this week. It is a life simulation game, called Kudos 2. It's a independent. A real independent game. In fact, it was mostly made by just one guy. (The guy's name is Cliff Harris -- you might remember a news story  about him a month ago or so when he started a public discourse with pirates on piracy.) 

The premise of the game is fairly simple: you play a guy or a girl who just turned 20 years old. The game ends when you turn 30, just like in real life. Through the decisions you make, you'll turn out to be a successful dude or dudette, or a pathetic failure. The choice is yours!

Being a small-team indie game, the graphics are limited -- but effective enough. The gameplay consists of choosing stuff, making every day type decisions (go bowling with your buddy, or stay home and watch TV?), and improving your character with night classes and stuff like bathing. Kudos 2 is sort of like a 2D stream-lined Sims 2.  

I played the demo for an hour or two last night. I'd give the game 7 out of 10 indie stars. The game is well put together, runs smooth, and has a nice look. The gameplay can be pretty engaging -- in the demo, I just finished a night course that unlocked a new career path in journalism, for my character. I was tempted to pony up the $15 for the full version of the game to see how things all turned out. I felt that relationships could be flashed out a bit though, and at times, the gameplay has a repetitive nature to it.

But feel free to judge for yourself. You can get the demo here. And the game has very low system requirements for those of you with older computers.