The Sims Deluxe Edition and Expansion Packs (The Sims (PC))

Member Name: mjw_001

Product:	The Sims (PC)
Date:	05/01/03 (392 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very different, Great fun to play, Very addictive

Disadvantages: Expansion packs around £19.99, Sims needs deteriate too quickly

"The number 1 PC game of all time" is the claim of Maxis and EA Games production of the Sims. The Sims is a people simulator in which you can control the lives of people, making them do whatever you want them to do!

I started playing the Sims on 18 November 2002, after I received it as a birthday present. Since then I have got the hang of building houses and creating families. I managed to get to grips with what the Sims want and how to give it to them. With The Sims, I got The Sims Unleashed expansion pack. This meant I could add pets to the families and go to the Oldtown to visit shops and pet places to train your beloved pets. You can also bring home turtles, fish and birds to add in the appropriate tanks that you have at home. Adopting cats and dogs mean that you can make your Sims more happy.

The Deluxe edition includes The Sims, The Sims Livin' It Up, The Sims Creator and Exclusive Deluxe content. When playing the Sims, many obsticles face you, including repairs needed on items, cleaning up the house, fires, burglaries and a whole host more. Telephones allow you to call neighbours and call the police, repairmen, fire brigade and many more. You need an expansion pack to call a cab to a shopping centre!

The Sims creator allows you to create your own Sims and use them in the Sims game. You can add photos of family members and manipulate them over a main Sims body. This is not available in the normal Sims.

I also recently bought the Sims Hot Date. This is a great way to grab a bite to eat, for your sims, and meet new people that you can later call. More items, more people and a new downtown neighbourhood.

Now to the opinion! A lot of the explaining of the Sims is difficult to put accross, so I apologise for anything that I have not explained fully or clearly. In my opinion, The Sims is a great game that I have had great fun playing. The people in the Sims have their own needs that deteriate or improve th
rough using different items. If you have free will ON, your Sim will take it on their own head to amuse themselves/bath/go to the toilet e.t.c.

I feel that although the Sims is a great game, the needs deteriate too quickly and when going out, it can prove a pain! Especially when you smell like a skunk and go on the prowl for the opposite sex in Hot Date! Getting used to the controls can be quite difficult and I STILL have the manual beside me when playing.

To get good gameplay, you do need to buy the Sims Expansion packs, and aster paying about £44.99 for the game, you need to fork out another £19.99 for each expansion pack. There are about 4 or 5 of them. So, this can prove to be an expensive game. I enjpy playing for about an hour then, it can be very boring. Changing the speed of the game means the day goes VERY quickly, and you cannot do all what you wanted to do before your Sim needs another sodding bath!

Even on the lowest speed, it takes about 30mins for a Sim to move from one side of the room to another, not very realistic. But, if with company some of the fun items can prove to be very fun. For instance, the voodoo doll, inflicting pain on another Sim, gives the one doing it a lot of fun!

Jobs also prove a big part in the sims, they always seem to be working or going to the toilet. You need to work to eat and so more of the day is taking up. If your sim goes to work hungry and bored, chances are they will come home depressed - bad news! This means that they will not want to go to work or play. The obsticles are taxing and meen a sim day is never dull.

I advise Sim players to use the cheat to get more money so that you can do more of what you want to do, and less of what you don't! CTRL + SHIFT + C releases the cheat box, typing in rosebud gives you 1000 simoleians (sim $). This can mean it is boring to get money as it is slow. So, type it in once and use CTRL + SHIFT + C and !; in the box to repeat. You c
an copy and paste this into the box using (CTRL + C copy, CTRL + V paste). Use more !;!;!;!; to repeat even more and be a millionaire!

To conclude, the Sims is a good game that takes a fiar while getting used to! Sometimes you may even find you take more interest in the Sims lives then you do your own! Expansion packs are a let down, these should all be included on the main game itself - who wants to pay up to £100 to play a decent game of the Sims?! My suggestion is by the Sims Deluxe, it includes 1 expansion pack and allows you to get used to the game, then buy expansion packs gradually.

I hope this opinion is useful, I think it may help those who are not sure whether to buy the Sims or not. TheSims.com means you can upload and download different families, objects and houses. Being that millions of others enjoy the game, chances are you will find it interesting!

Min Specs

Deluxe Edition:
------------------------
OS: Windows 95/98/XP
Processor: 233MHz Pentium II
Memory: 64 MB Ram
Hard Drive: 1.4 GB
CD - DVD: 4 Speed
Graphics: 2MB
Sound Card: Direct X 7.0 compatible
Direct X: Version 7.0
Input: Keyboard, Mouse

Unleashed Expansion Pack:
------------------------
Need Sims/Sims Deluxe to play
OS: Windows 95/98/XP
Processor: 350MHz Pentium II
Memory: 64 MB Ram
Hard Drive: 1.3 GB
CD - DVD: 4 Speed
Graphics: 2MB
Sound Card: Direct X 7.0a compatible
Input: Keyboard, Mouse

Hot Date:
------------------------
Need Sims/Sims Deluxe to play and have 600MB free hard drive space to play this expansion pack. Original system spcification still apllies. The Sims Hot Date needs 64MB Ram.

Enjoy the Sims if buying it!

Summary: