The Sims

The Sims, EA's mega popular PC title arrives on the X-box

The Sims is an example of a truly non-stereotypical game. It is loved by many, loathed by some, but played by men, women, boys and girls. You only need to look at the sales figures and the many add-ons that there have been to see that it's been very successful for EA and is much loved by many games players. Now EA try to get console owners involved with this Xbox release. At this stage I probably should admit that I've never played The Sims on PC, so this is truly a fresh look at the game.

SIMulate your life in little triangles

You can make your sim have a Mohican, a hat or just about any hairstyle.

The Sims is almost unique in the way it allows you to control nearly everything in your Sim's life. You can make them wet themselves (and suffer the consequences if you're in company), make them be disgusting by not cleaning up or even taking a shower. But, for many people that's not why they play it. For them, it's the allure of controlling someone's fortunes, being able to flirt, insult or even ignore anyone of their choosing is just the thing for many people. Then you get the homes that your Sims live in. Just about anything can be bought and placed in your Sims house. Want a wide screen telly? No problem. Vanity mirror where you can change appearance mid-game? Again, no problem.

Just about everything has been thought of, be it alarm clocks, coffee machines, aromatherapy machines and even exercise bikes. Unfortunately all this stuff isn't free, and money has to be earned. This means finding a job, moving out of your mum's house after borrowing lots of her money and starting to make friends in the big bad world of the Sims.

Your behaviour is disgraceful

You can even get into a game of Strip poker!

Your Sim's life is governed by how they feel, behave and act. You need to tell them to shower or bath, when to go to the toilet, when to sleep, when to get up and almost everything else. This can be a little bit overwhelming to begin with as your not sure what needs to be done to keep your Sim happy. No fun makes Jack a dull boy they say, and indeed it can make your Sim depressed. A depressed Sim will not want to do anything really, least of all go to work, so scheduling some play time in your day is important. Your Sim also has to clean up and empty trash, feed fish, fix things that break down and also cook.

Your "child" really appears to be thick as two short planks at the beginning, not even knowing how to cook, despite looking like an adult. Attempts to cook without studying start a fire, bringing on panic and hysteria throughout your house. Luckily a fireman responds automatically. Attempts to fix your Mum's faulty TV without the requisite mechanical reading before hand results in electrocution and a vibrating control pad. This can be a bit long winded as reading a book (in order to acquire skills) takes a while, especially on the higher skill levels.

Time flies when your not having fun at all

Regular exercise is a must for your Sim!

Often doing all the necessary tasks and trying to get some fun in, and keeping your Sim clean and healthy can take up all of your day, resulting in your Sim not going to sleep until 2 or even 3 AM. This ends up with your Sim having low energy levels and low comfort levels due to lack of sleep. This affects just about all of your Sim's feelings and behaviour. It's like the clock moves too quickly. Preparing dinner and eating it takes up to 2 hours, your Sim spends an hour just having a bath.

Everything takes ages, although you can speed the time up, it doesn't affect how long your Sim takes to do things. The saying "Not enough hours in the day" is certainly true here! I did find the job aspect a little confusing. When you get a job, your Sim goes away and you're left looking at an empty house until your Sim returns. This is, well, boring, as you can't affect anything in the house without your Sim. Following your Sim to work would have been far more interesting. An opportunity missed I think.

There's no sexism here, both Male and Female Sims can be created.

Sometimes the Sims do things of their own accord, going to the toilet for example, other times they'll just wet themselves. This inconsistency is frustrating as well as annoying. In fact it irritated me so much so that I ended up turning off "Free Will" so they did nothing without my saying so. This proved to be much easier to get the Sims to do things you wanted them to, but also more time consuming, as they needed more attention. Sometimes I just wish they'd do as they're told the first time!

Sounds good?

The hot Tub is a great place for increasing your social standing.

The sounds are merely average. The "Sim speak" is nothing but gibberish whereas proper speech would have made a much easier to understand game. Music is understated unless a dramatic event happens and this is keyed in well with the event. Graphics are nothing special, the animation is good with the Sims walking and moving around realistically, but the overall look is one of slight blandness, with indistinct menus and slightly fuzzy textures. It could almost pass for an older PlayStation game if I didn't know it was an Xbox game.

Snooker has a clearly defined goal - unlike The Sims

Writing this review was difficult for me as I never seemed to "get into" the game. I have always prefered "goal" games where there is a purpose to it. A "Do this to win/complete the game/go to the next level" kinda guy. The Sims didn't seem to have a goal to me, but this is precisely what attracts some people to the game. There is no real "end" to the game. My wife, Lisa, however, loved the game to bits and I had to ask her to let me on the Xbox to play it. I have to work you know!

Scoring the game was even harder. I don't want to score the game down just because I didn't "get" the game, but I also want to give an honest opinion of what I thought. If I were to ask some of the Sim fans I know, they'd undoubtedly say it's one of the best games ever. Others I know absolutely hate it with a passion, proclaiming it to be one of the worst games in existence.

The popularity of the game and all it's add-on's for the PC shows that there is a market for such an open ended game, but I'm not convinced that this type of game works well on a console. Console owners (more often than not) want quick thrills, something they can get into within a few minutes, not something that takes over an hours playing just to move out of mum's house and get to the main meat of the game.

If I could score this game twice, each score giving a different players point of view, I would, But I can't! I only suggest that you please read what I've said and don't take the values in the databox too harshly. If you loved it on PC, you'll love it on Xbox.