First about consoles, then we can pretty much drop it. Consoles also remain a fault for the VERY reason you mention. The PSX is the ONLY one that is reverse-compatable. Otherwise, you have to look for a ROM or an emulator.
That's kind of cute, except for the poor fellow who doesn't have a PC. A PC user can emulate just about anything, as there are teams devoted to such projects like playing Fallout in Linux or FreeBSD. Which I have, incidentally enough. Or playing old console games on the PC, or Amiga games, C64 games, et alia.
But that's assuming that you have a PC with whatever OS. Consoles are going to dry when consumers tire of having to upgrade past an obselete build. Dreamcast owners, completely. The poor bastards are probably feeling really...raped at this point, I believe. They now own a piece of hardware they likely dropped a lot of cash for that ultimately isn't being supported for much. *Are* console owners going to play the roulette from now on? Are they going to play the "you can only play the games on the consoles you drop $300 for and nothing else" game? Time can only tell, but the greed factor for them is their strength and downfall, I see that the companies are taking a rather large bite.
The Sims is a great sim game, even though I don't care to play it for long. I must admit the home construction bit has a lot of 3d home-builders beat. EA has a good support for the game, allowing one to share the improvements that they have made with other people, and actually show off their accomplishments. Not many other games offer such. The game is constructed into a more freestlye manner of play, allowing numerous possibilities that I have to accord it with an RPG classificiation because whilst you do not go up in levels, you still do roleplay to an extent. Mind you, this isn't a "you play the role of a racecar driver, so racing is an RPG" thing. You honestly make decisions and the game bases upon those decisions in a manner that is more dynamic than Roller Coaster Tycoon or many others. Much like Fallout and Arcanum.
-Rosh
www.nma-fallout.com