News

Game Reviews

Book Reviews

Movie Reviews

TV Reviews

Mod Squad

Other Stuff

Forum

Links

Staff

 

 

Name: The Sims
ESRB: Teen
Console: x86 IBM-compatible
Genre: Simulation
Average Rating: 8.5
Developer: Maxis
Publisher: Electronic Arts

 

There is no story.
Thus...

There can't be an overview.

 

Linus - Rating: 8

As you enter the Sims, you might be thinking, "Who in the world thought this stupid idea up?" But as you get going, you'll realize you can't stop, and it will eat up your entire first day, like it or not.

In the default neighborhood, there are six pre-made houses, two of which are already inhabited. One is a tutorial house, already filled with furniture and the people have jobs. The other is in its most basic form; It's like you just moved a family in.

You can move into any of these six houses, or build your own in one of the other neighborhoods, or even in one of the vacant lots in the default one.

Each lot is a different size, the bigger ones cost more, obviously. You won't be able to afford the two largest lots at first, so you'll move into the smaller one... duh.

Okay, you move in. You have nothing except wallpaper and flooring. When you're done buying furniture, you'll be flat broke, but at least you have a nice house. Now, you'll need to keep your Sims happy and find them a job.

Keeping your Sims happy is extremely aggravating. You'll need to make them go to the bathroom, get showers, sleep, play games, watch TV, eat, and be comfortable. This makes it nearly impossible to do anything fun or funny with the game, because you'll be too busy keeping everybody in check and then they go to work for half the day, so I recommend downloading the rejuvenation chamber so you'll have some time to do other stuff, like increase skill levels and have your Sims interact with each other.

Now, to jobs. You'll be able to find jobs in the newspaper, but there's only one per day. You can also buy computers to look for jobs, which will have three per day. The first jobs you'll find are usually a low salary, but it gets the job done. After a couple days on a job, you'll usually get a raise. If you don't, find a better job, because this job is not right for your Sim. You might job-hop a couple times, but you need that dough.

If you're the sadistic type, don't give your Sims any skills in cooking or mechanics, because then they'll catch stuff on fire when they cook and electrocute themselves when they try to repair the TV. But if you want them to live, read up on cooking and mechanics! It's not fun when your Sims start a fire and die a fiery death. Plus, the Grim Reaper is pretty scary.

Sims interacting is the best part of the game. There's a pretty wide variety of things to have your Sims do together, ranging from fighting to proposing marriage. No, there's no ceremony, no priest, no nothing, they get married on the spot. Never seen that one before...

Also, building your house is fun. If you buy the smallest lot there is, you'll have quite a bit of money left to make a nice little house, but it might take a few days of working to get enough money to actually wallpaper the place. It's cool to be able to make a virtual house just like your real one and do stupid things with a virtual you that you would never actually do, such as... burn yourself to death! Break the TV and electrocute yourself! Use that toilet that, for some reason, was placed in the living room, where people are watching TV! (No, I'm not smoking crack.)

There's a little to be desired with the Sims itself, so you'll probably end up wanting some of the expansion packs, but it's still pretty cool.


Snoopy - Rating: N/A

N/A


Woodstock - Rating: N/A

N/A


Marcie - Rating: 9

The Sims can’t be based on a few people’s ratings alone.
It depends on the person, really.
The Sims for the PC, aside from the glitches, is a lot of fun.
There’s a tutorial house in the beginning to teach you how to do everything, but you should probably just skip that.
It’s easier just to learn how to use all of the tools by yourself.
Now, onto the actual gameplay. There are a lot of pre-built houses in the game, but they contain no furniture, and are usually made with extremely tacky wallpaper. (Just LOVE the Cheetah-print wallpaper. I like the kid’s room too, there are enough colors to give the poor guy a seizure.)

Of course, you’ll want to build your own house. Much more fun. All of your Sims are on an extremely strict budget, and all you can afford to build in the beginning is a tiny little ghetto shack. (IT’S DA LOVE SHACK! BABY!)

Of course, you’ll just want to get the bare necessities at first. So don’t get mad when your Sim is screaming at you because there isn’t anything pretty in the house.
Now, what you’ll have to do to get money, of course, is get a job.
Now this is where things can get a teeeny bit tedious.
Now, you have to juggle your Sim’s job, their EIGHT, count them, EIGHT different health bars, AND their skill points. The most important thing is, of course, their health. If you’re the sadistic kind of person though, you don’t have to worry about this.
Their skill points take a very long time to build up, as it usually takes 3 to 5 minutes to build it up one point. Each different skill bracket can hold up to 10 skill points.
When you have more skill points though, you can get a better job, which means getting more money, which let’s you get more stuff for your Sim, which makes them happier.
Now, why do all this, when you could just simply cheat?!
That’s right, there’s a cheat box in this game to give your person all the money they need, AND a code to use up your entire lot to build your house.
Even after doing this though, it’s not easy keeping your Sims healthy.

Sometimes, it can get really annoying, which can sometimes cause you to stop playing the game for a week or two.
This game is addictive, but not in the way that you would play it for hours on end. Most of the time, you’ll play it for 30 minutes. An hour or so later, you’ll come back, and you’ll play it again. This can cause some sleepless nights.

Now, the best part of this game is that it can be expanded. The expansion packs add many more items, features, and more ways for your Sims to interact with each other.
You can also download skins, objects, and pretty much anything else for your game online. You can even add your own music to the Sims if you don’t mind screwing around with some of the folders.
The Sims is having ANOTHER expansion coming out soon, called “Superstar”.
This lets your Sims become a celebrity, and many other things.
If you’re the kind of person who has a decent attention span, and can also play a game that doesn’t make people gib, you should try this out. And yes, you can kill your Sims.