Game Review: the Sims

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  • Joey Millison
    Moderator Emeritus
    • Aug 2000
    • 1022

    Game Review: the Sims

    I know, it's not exactly a brand-spanking-new game, but it's fairly new, and VERY cool in my humble opinion.

    I was in Best Buy a while back and was looking for a new game. This is always a frustrating experience for me, as I always hoping to find something new and amazing, but always wind up finding titles that all are based off the same game engine with just different graphics. How many versions of Quake, Unreal, etc can they possibly make?
    But then I stumbled across this box with ugly colors and a high price. I walked over and looked closer, it was "The Sims", a unique game by Eletronic Arts that puts a twist on earlier classics like Sim City. It looked weird at first, but I was intrigued by the explanation of how the game played.

    "In SimCity™ Will Wright gave you the power to build and control cities... with The Sims™ you'll create and control people!"

    Who doesn't like the idea of playing God? I figured I'd take a chance on it and try it out.
    First off, it's not a highly graphic intensive game. And the gameplay isn't the quickest in the world. But trust me, if this game played any quicker it would be impossible!
    You start out with the Newbie family (and I'm still playing them believe it or not) who live in a nice neighborhood. You start day one out with Bob and, oops, forgot her name...anyhow, it's the Newbie Couple. They have no jobs, which means no income. It's your job to help them find employment. You do this by searching the newspaper for a job. After a job is found you need to make sure they get enough sleep, clean up, eat, and have fun. You gotta make sure they get up and go to work in time as well, or they will lose their job. And how well they do at their job depends on how much you take care of them. It's pretty in depth once you get into it.
    And it's also pretty damn addicting. As your family grows you can buy them more stuff, nicer stuff, and even move them into a bigger house. It becomes a challenge to see how far they can move up in the world. It's extremely entertaining.
    My couple have just recently moved into the second to largest house in the game. They even have a child (it was an adoption), who has grown up into a small boy who goes to school and plays with his toys. Dinner time is getting chaotic in my household.
    And, as my roommate found out, you can even have gay and lesbian couples, just to show you how much you can do with this game. There's really no template to follow, you can do whatever you want
    I hope to get the expansion pack tonight, which adds a lot more characters and some new problems and objects including:
    Alien abductions
    Roach infestations
    Chemistry Set (you can make love potions and clone people)
    Genie in a lantern
    Fortune telling crystal ball
    Exploding garden gnome
    Holiday decorations

    How could you go wrong?
    Anyhow, I'd definitely recommend it for some fun original gameplay! I mean, it's not as intense as Diablo II, but it's a kick in the ass!
  • Andrew Pratt
    Moderator Emeritus
    • Aug 2000
    • 16507

    #2
    joey joey joey I'd tell you that most definately need a life but it appears you've got two Sounds like an interesting game.




    Comment

    • Joey Millison
      Moderator Emeritus
      • Aug 2000
      • 1022

      #3
      I know, it was a lame review, but I had an extra few minutes and it was either write this up or finish my writing assignment I'll post better ones in the future. And I'll tag on the review to the new expansion pack here after I play it

      Comment

      • Bing Fung
        Ultra Senior Member
        • Aug 2000
        • 6521

        #4
        This is a great game Joey, as I was fairly addicted to this when I first played it. Alas, I found that I could not keep up to my duties as a career astronaut and maintain my relations.

        It is a hilarious game thoug in how one of my friends "Micheal" was trying to have an affair with me. It's funny how by default I pushed him away and gave him a shove ....

        And you gotta love how they will pee thier pants if you don't get them to the bathroom on time... heheh




        Bing
        Bing

        Comment

        • Lexman
          Super Senior Member
          • Jun 2000
          • 1777

          #5
          Sounds very interesting, and strange! This group should fit right in, lol. :B

          Oh yeah, what platform is that from? As in console? PS?

          Lex

          Comment

          • Bing Fung
            Ultra Senior Member
            • Aug 2000
            • 6521

            #6
            Lex it's a PC game. The Sims

            Here are some screen shots of the game world I have built. It is a scratch built house with all the toys a person could want. Plasma Tv's, Martin Logans.... MY Sims Place




            Bing
            Bing

            Comment

            • Lexman
              Super Senior Member
              • Jun 2000
              • 1777

              #7
              Oh, cool Bing, like the audio video setup! :B

              I had some Sim project once, and it seemed to be a total flop. But this looks definitely interesting!

              Incidentally, I noticed someone ordered it over at Amazon using our click through. It's there for anyone looking for it. How many times to I have to tell you, Just use the click through! lol.

              Lex

              Comment

              • Joey Millison
                Moderator Emeritus
                • Aug 2000
                • 1022

                #8
                Okay, I got the expansion pack tonight, Livin' Large, and it was incredibly interesting!

                I built a house from scratch, a DREAM house! I utilized a lot of the explansion pack's new items, like knight armor, model rocket set (how could I resist?), jukebox, etc... With the help of a cheat code I had a family that had like $200,000 to burn. It was awesome.
                I played with all the new toys (I especially like the robotic maid, VERY cool), and then the father got hungry, so he went to cook...
                *POOF* the kitchen burst into flames. First the over, then the surrounding cabinets, etc. I tried to put it out myself without having to call the fire department and then *POOF* HE caught flames and started to freak out. I had the wife call the fire department but by that time death had entered the house. I had the wife plea for the husband's life, but death said no and walked away. The flames were all put out, and all that remained was the urn, filled with his ashes. Everyone in the house gathered around it and started crying and screaming. Neighbors came over and did the same. My god, what a disturbing game... heh heh
                So I turned it off, and I'm kind of scared to go back I'll try again tonight, but this expansion pack adds a whole new level to the game...if you liked the Sims you should DEFINITELY give the expansion pack a try! Or shall I say, explosion pack

                Comment

                • Greg Stone
                  Senior Member
                  • Aug 2000
                  • 895

                  #9
                  "So I turned it off, and I'm kind of scared to go back"

                  Dang Joey, you made me spill my OJ with that line!

                  This game sounds fun, looks like I will have to pick one up!




                  Greg's DVD's

                  Comment

                  • Bing Fung
                    Ultra Senior Member
                    • Aug 2000
                    • 6521

                    #10
                    Lex, unlike Sim City, which is a study in municipal planing and management, The Sims seems more a game of time management. The idea is you are given so many hours per day to conduct your home life, A bank of hours are taken away as work time which you have no control over (it is accelerated / compressed time during game play).
                    Your sim person requires a basic set of needs, those being, energy, happiness, comfort, hygene, relationships (with other sims).... In order to full fill those needs, you have get a good nights sleep, have toys(sounds like real life ehh?) surround yourself with comfortable furniture, take a bath, empty the blatter, have parties and social interaction...etc.

                    The real trick is, as your day progresses, those basic needs are depleted, it's your job to maintain the needs levels of your sim. It's not an easy task, for if your hungry, you just can't whip something up with out cooking lessons first or you'll risk burning down your house. So you have to take cooking lessons, this takes time, sure you can eat something quick, but it does not replenish your levels enough and costs you more money expense wise.

                    This carries out through all aspects of the game. Buy the cheap entertainment center and it take more time to replenish your fun levels, buy the plasma and bell'ogetti, and your fun levels are replenish much faster, are you starting to see the trick? But it takes more money to buy the good stuff, so to get more money, you need more work hours....etc, leaving you less personal hours to play.

                    This game has very funny game play actions as you try to progress your sim. You will find that others want to have relationships with you and no matter how hard you try, some sims just don't like you. There are extra marital affairs, guys tying to like guys, as in "Micheal" or just good friends. One nessesary evil, in order to amass money for toys, you should marry to double the household income which will then require you to manage both sims basic needs, see the trend?

                    The game is like real life in that you have domestic duties like taking out the trash, cleaning the house, toilet, social interaction, burgalurs trying to steal your stuff, police knocking on your door if your parties go to long, bills to pay, personel development such as mechanical knowledge for when that sink over flows, cooking, logical thinking, oratory, it's freaking hilarious! My wife on free will mode always wants to play chess, and is very adept at fixing the expresoo machine...

                    One cool feature is you can port your own set of mp3's to your entertainment center to be played while you play, your file of MP3's just becomes a playlist for your bello'getti & Martin Logans, way cool!

                    That's my quick take on the game and certainly it is a quick one, for there is so much more to this game than covered here. Highly recommended if you are remotely a fan of the Sim series type of games. One thing is, this game can get old as you realize it is just like real life and you are limited by actual life problems and day to day requirements, that makes you ask your self "Why am I doing this here? I've got my own real life to tend to!" That's how real it can be. Still the gem of this is seeing how far your relations and sims can progress. Sure you can take a maniacal approch with this game and see how many ways you can kill your sims, but that's not the point. I have heard of people building a bathroom house, waiting for the sim to enter it to use it, while he's in it, remove the toilet and doors. He eventually dies because of hygene and starvation... cruel! Or how about having a pool party and while everyone is in it remove the ladder, they all drown... wicked!

                    I see a day when we will never need to leave the house anymore, for ours daily jobs will be to manage our Sim people in a Sim city environment, hey, could we make a show based on this...? "The Matrix" that would be a good title.




                    Bing
                    Bing

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