Product Description
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Trial and error game, which encourages personalized solutions to
problems.
.com
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The Sims has much in common with Tony Hawk's Pro Skater: There's
a great emphasis trial and error, it encourages personalized
solutions to problems, and overall success comes down to both
balance and timing. Also, like the Tony Hawk games, The Sims is a
very addictive game.
Players micromanage the lives of a family of virtual people and
influence the outcome of their lives, be it success or something
akin to a nervous breakdown. The bestselling PC version of the
game has, in recent years, been upgraded with elements like
parties, pets, and vacations, but this iteration is closer to the
basic formula.
You start the game living with Mom in a one-story suburban
house. You are immediately presented with certain life tasks,
such as fixing the TV and making lunch, which are aligned with
the skills you'll need for the game's main challenge--keeping
your sims in balance on eight conflicting categories. For
example, eating will have an impact on your sim's hunger rating,
but it will also impact his bladder rating. You'll have to make
sure that he keeps himself and the house clean, that he s to
restore his energy, and that he also has time to keep himself
entertained. The free will option lets your sims coast a bit, and
you can also save time by stacking tasks together. Time passes at
the rate of about one minute per second in the game, but you can
fast-forward sim time when you need to, such as when they're
ing.
The controls are justifiably complex, but adjusting to them is
not difficult. You see your sims from an overhead perspective
that you can both rotate and zoom. You direct their actions by
moving a line cursor to where you want them to go or to what
object or person with which you want them to interact.
The game is surprisingly funny. Neglect your sims and they'll
shout and wave their arms to get your attention. Allow one's
energy to get too low and he or she will likely collapse and
right where they were standing. When that happens, Mom is
likely to serve them dinner on the floor.
Gamers may find that it takes a while to get the hang of The
Sims' style and control scheme. Stick with it and you may find
real time fast-forwarding by. --Porter B. Hall --The text of this
review refers to the PlayStation2 version (
/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00006GSO0/${0} ) of the game.
Pros:
* Interesting, open-ended gameplay
* Lots of quirky humor
* Two-player split-screen option Cons:* Can be frustrating for
those unfamiliar with strategy games
* Controls take some getting used to
* Long save times
- Start out with just one Sim, living in a shack. Help him advance through life's important moments and make a better life for himself.
- Meet and interact with neighbors, flirt with attractive members of the site sex, and move into bigger houses.
- Explore a fully interactive 3D world as you try to get love and money.
- Meet and interact with a wide variety of new characters found only on the GameCube version of the game.
- Play with a friend as you play Two-player Sims -- each person controls their own Character in split-screen mode.