The Sims

The Good
The first time I heard about this game I was told that you could pretty much do what ever you wanted to do. As in you could go down and rob the local store if you wanted to. So when I got the game I was obviously disappointed that I couldn't even leave the area of my house, so that being said here is my review.

The first thing I noticed when I started to play the game was the graphics, smooth around the edges and the game didn't seem to jump at all or have many bugs. I think that the Maxis / Electronic Arts team took about three quarters of the time spent making the graphics of the game perfect and then just adding a bit of game play in at the end.

The sound in The Sims was great. The little language that the Sims speak in can get a bit annoying after a while but it is still a nice touch to the game. And the language also makes the conversations between the Sims a lot more interesting. You can also hear you Sim / Sims grumbling if they are unhappy or if you have just woken them up in the middle of one of their peaceful little naps.

The game play, though the downfall of the game still had its high points such as, making the house is one of the most fun things to do in the game, and getting a job and watching as your house and your bank account expand. There quite a few jobs that the player can choose form such as a Army recruit or a journalist. If you get bored of just being a bachelor / bachelorette then you can try and get a person to marry and maybe even give you some children. And when you get a child then your character actually gets the pleasure of waking up at four in the morning because the baby is hungry or needs to be changed, and if you decide to neglect it then a social service person will come to your house and take the bundle of joy off your hands.

The Bad
As I said in the good review when I heard about The Sims I had quite a different idea of what I thought it was going to be like compared to what I actually played. Even though the graphics in the game were quite good they still had flaws such as, swimming around in the water there are no ripples or anything and it looks like he’s floating around in his own little patch of sky. And when the house was getting built and you could choose what kind of roof you wanted on top of your house, there was one size which looked quite normal but the other two just looked stupid and it was a waste being able to have them.

The Sims have their own little language. And it would not matter if the language was English it would still get incredibly annoying after a while and to be able to play the game I had to mute the sound so that I could not hear the sounds of the annoying Sims any more.

And now we come to the worst part of the game. You have to give your Sim(s) the attention that you have to give to a newborn baby. And its even worse when the Sim is a new born baby, and if you are not up within 30 minutes after it starts crying then the bloody social service woman gets there and takes it before it can even become a child. The most annoying thing by far about the Sims though is this: it takes so long to do ANYTHING. If you want to have a snack it will take your Sim about an hour to finish it, and its even worse if you want to actually have a full dinner. For example if I wanted to be up and be ready for work in my game then I would have had to be up four hours before my car pool arrived otherwise I would've been cutting it extremely close.

The Bottom Line
The Sims is a fun game for a while even though it takes the Sims ages as I said to do ANYTHING. If you are someone who is looking for a game that has no real ending and you have to be watching like a hawk every time you are controlling then go ahead and buy this game. If not then you will probably find The Sims to be annoying after a while you will be discarding it quite quickly.

The Good
I like the game, heck, I love the game. It's a lot of fun if you want to kill four hours and then look back sadly, wondering where they went. On the other hand, the gameplay is fun and often funny. Good graphics, good music. I never considered myself much of an interior decorator, but I have to admit, building houses is one of the most enjoyable aspects of the entire game.

The Bad
There was, however, a lack of substance within the game. I didn't really see much of a reason to have a personality modifier when you were creating new Sims. The only way they really factored into the character is how much your Sims clean up after themselves, and how often they took showers. I would have definitely loved to see more diverse personality options. I always tried to make "tough guy" Sims, like a Mafia Family, but I could never get my Sims to cooperate with that idea. I don't think John Gotti would wave to people he didn't know and answer the door for every Joe Schmoe who comes a'knockin'. In any case, the only other complaint that I have is in all of the expansions coming out now. For a newbie Simmer, the choices at the store can be quite intimidating. You have the original Sims, House Party, Livin' Large, Hot Date, Unleashed, Vacation, Superstar, Makin' Magic, and the soon-to-be-released Bustin' Out...I mean, come on! I love the Sims as much as any gamer, but I have to say, someone is going to be putting a pretty penny into trying to collect all of these and try to stay on top of Sims releases.

The Bottom Line
A good game for those of you who have way too much free time (like myself). It's fun, it will give you a chuckle at times, and all and all will add up to a relatively entertaining gaming experience. A word of advice though; Don't blow all of your money buying every Sim expansion out there right now. If you're like me and most others, you have bills to pay and something more worthwhile to spend your paychecks on. If you've got about three-thousand dollars to spare, however, I'd say GO FOR IT!

The Good
The game is very promising. It has a great idea, a "people simulation" is one of the best simulation ideas ever.

The Bad
However, making a "people simulation" is a great challenge. A "person" is much more complicated than something that walks around doing "some stuff" to get by. They made the game really really restricted, to a bunch of activities and a couple of houses where you can't even leave the tiny neighborhood, so that they could publish numerous expansion packs to collect more money for the big fat zero their game offers. And what really pissed me off is the stupid time concept which leaves you without enough time for ANYTHING in the game. You get up, and that's 15-20 minutes even though you KNOW you have to go to work in half an hour. Every meal is about 30-60 minutes. Walking from a room to another is at least 5 minutes. So, basically, if you want to have a breakfast and go to work at 9 a.m., you have to get up at 5 a.m. so you can make it.

The Bottom Line
This is not a game, but a toy. People you control are not interesting at all and get boring really easy. Especially because they're too stupid to be human. So, you don't do anything, you just play around. If you're interested in watching someone miserably trying to live, then you might have fun, like many people worldwide who made this stupid game the best-selling computer game in history, breaking the record of a legendary game like Myst...