What computer do you have? If we recommend something that doesn't work on your hardware, that won't do you any good.
My wife plays The SIMS all the time, with the expansion packs, Livin' Large and House Party. Personally, I like Livin' Large but I could pass on House Party.
I just picked up Microsoft Flight Simulator 2000 for $4.97 ($24.97 - $20.00 MIR) from SAMS Club. It's fun, but it's *almost* edutainment. Which is cool by me because the cockpits are nice and realistic.
I bought Tribes 2 and Black & White at almost the same time, but I played Black & White more. Tribes 2 is just better graphics from Tribes, but not terribly innovative. It incorporated some of the features from the fan mods of Tribes, but that hardly is innovative. Black & White is totally innovative. There are no (zero) icons! The entire game is driven from a beautifully rendered floating view of the landscape, and your "hand" (the mouse pointer). You "gesture" with your hand to invoke different commands (i.e. swirl the mouse, or draw a star or a box with mouse movements). It's very nice, but it includes a story line that is more or less linear. That hasn't stopped me from starting from the beginning with relative joy.
Black & White also has a multiplayer mode, where you compete with other "gods" online to see who can dominate the population of your islands. I haven't tried that yet.