Video and computer games have made occasional appearances on the television drama ER over the years. Most memorable was an early episode that showed the doctors playing Doom in their spare time. Now the long-running and popular medical drama is getting a game of its own. ER, the game, is a new project from Legacy Interactive, the developer responsible for making games based on another popular television show, Law & Order. However, unlike Legacy's Law & Order games, which play out like classic point-and-click adventure games, ER is going in a whole new direction. Imagine taking The Sims and setting it in a hospital, and you get an inkling of where this intriguing new game is going.

ER will let you explore the virtual emergency room of Cook County General Hospital.

In ER, the game, you'll have the opportunity to play as a young medical intern getting on-the-job learning experience at Cook County General Hospital in Chicago. You'll create a unique character, choosing your appearance and gender (the latter will affect romance possibilities in the game), as well as traits and specialties that will determine your ability to diagnose and treat various kinds of conditions. For instance, your intelligence, dexterity, constitution, and charm can affect whether you specialize in neurosurgery, pediatrics, orthopedics, and more. And while your character will be able to treat all kinds of conditions, the role-playing-style skill system will ensure that you treat some better than others, and you will receive extra experience points for focusing in your specialty.

After you create a character, you'll begin your first day in the emergency room. The game takes place mainly from an overhead, isometric view, much like The Sims. You'll control your doctor as he or she walks around the emergency room. Since the game is based on the show, the layout should be familiar if you're a fan of the series, but even then, you'll probably see things you haven't seen before, such as the security room or gym. You can manually walk around the ER, or you can simply click on a patient's icon, and your character will automatically find a path to that patient. Legacy is looking to make the game particularly user-friendly, especially considering the show's wide range of fans.

Much like The Sims, ER will be a game about time management. The game is divided into six episodes, each of which represents a 48-hour shift that you'll have to work at the hospital. However, the game designers didn't want the game to focus on the mundane details that The Sims does, like making sure that your character always goes to the bathroom. Instead, your primary focus will be to treat patients and do the bidding of the senior hospital staff. And as a medical intern, pretty much every other doctor in the place is senior to you. This means that you'll get various tasks and orders, such as treating a certain number of patients in a limited amount of time. You'll also have time for other pursuits as well, but more on that later.

Treating patients will be your job, but you can also try hitting on the nurses.

Treating most patients will be fairly simple, and you won't have to bark out medical orders, either. First, you'll diagnose the patient and determine his or her condition. Depending on the severity of the condition, you can send the patient to one of three kinds of hospital beds, where you can then try to treat the patient yourself (success is based on your medical skill level and the level of the patient's condition, as well as some random chance), or you can "curbside" another doctor for assistance. Obviously, you'll want to direct patients properly, so that the most severe cases are sent to the best-prepared beds, where medical supplies are kept nearby. Otherwise, if you try to treat a seriously ill patient in a regular bed, you'll discover that the nurse assisting you has to constantly run off to fetch more medical supplies. In keeping with real life and the show, some patients may die, so you'll have to make sure you try to do everything you can.