Do Not Disturb, Sims, Busy (The Sims (Xbox))

Member Name: josarah

Product:	The Sims (Xbox)
Date:	10/11/04 (287 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fun, Fun, Fun

Disadvantages: Addictive

I recently was asked to go and have a look in our local GAME store to see if they had a copy of Crazy Taxi 3 for the Xbox. Lo and behold they did, my other half would be so pleased, exactly the game he was looking for and at the bargain price of £15.99.

But soft, what light from yonder Xbox game breaks,
It is the price, and Juliet is the 2 for £25 sticker on the front
Arise fair maiden and search for another game
That you will be able to play on your own.

That is a basic version of how I came across my copy of Sims for the Xbox. After searching through the rest of the ‘Offer’ games my palm rested on the Holy Grail of games, ‘The Sims’.

Quickly I snatched it up and took it to the counter. Having bought the game (s) I now had to wait for the end of the day to get home and play them…Doh! The joys of working ‘flexitime’ meant that at the strike of 4pm I was out of the door quicker than a quick thing. Jumped in the car, slammed on the gas and sped (at a reasonable 70mph Ociffer) down the motorway to my humble abode.

On arriving home I dashed to the TV, turned on the Xbox and waited with baited breath to see whether The Sims on Xbox could live up to it’s sister game on the PC.

When you start the game you are given the options of either playing ‘Get a Life’ (applies to me I think) or play the standard PC version of the game. As I fear change I jumped into the standard version and started to create my character. As with the PC version of the game you are able to customise your own sim to some extent however the Xbox version allows you to control a number of different parts of the body. You can choose the size of your sim (Cuddly, Slim or Skinny) and your facial features. There are a greater number of options for your hair and clothes, and you are given the option to accesorise your sim (is it me or is this a computer game of Girl’s World). After you have finished the creative bit you have to give your sim a personality and name. There you go, you are now ready to start the game (about 1 hour later). If you don’t want to spend time creating a sim you can choose a pre-made family and move them into the neighbourhood.

When you move in your sim or sim family you are given the option to either buy a plot of land, or move into a pre-made house. I normally choose to buy a plot of land and build my own house as you then know where things are. By pausing the game you are taken to a menu where you have a number of options, you can build your house from this menu, and buy items of furniture to accesorise it. There are the expected options also (to save, quit, etc). So, you build a house, decorate it and furnish it to your taste, filling it with wild and wonderful objects.

This is where the fun begins, you can interact with most of the items that you have in the house as in the PC version. The controls are however slightly different (what do you want a mouse and keyboard attached?) To speed up the game you pull the right trigger, to pause you pull the left, simple enough? To select an item you press the red (A?) button and use the joypad to select actions. To cancel actions you press the green (B?) button. To move around the house you use the joystick which allows you to move over items and select them. There are a greater number of items available to play with in the Xbox version of The Sims. Items of note include the Strip Poker Table, the Drinks Cooler and Treadmill (for increasing you Body skill) The new shower system is pretty groovy too.

Tah Dah, you now know how to play The Sims. The aim of the standard game is basically to live long and prosper, get yourself a job, increase your skills, make friends, get married, have children, whatever you want to do with your sim you are allowed to do. A little word of advice however is not to kill your sim by letting them cook with no skill, use the Study Cooking option from any bookcase.

Any way after about 90 minutes of playing around I decided that I wanted to know what the ‘Get a Life’ section was all about. Not being bothered to create my own sim again I used the readymade ‘Newbie’ Family. On starting this game I noticed that I had some Goals. The Sims has always been a task oriented game for me (psychology degree worth something there then) but now the EA people are trying to change me into an evil goal oriented person, I like it. Giving you goals makes The Sims a bit more interesting, but takes away from the sheer simplicity of doing whatever you want to a fantasy person. Those people that are not impressed with the standard Sim game should give this a go, it gives a bit of meaning to the game, but not that much.

By attaining the required goals (some are actually quite amusing, such as ‘try and score at a party’) you are able to unlock a number of features. One of the features is the ability to play 2 player Sims. Not only have the nasty people at EA games made me hungry for success, they want me to interact and play with real people. Seeing as the other half is tight fisted and only has one controller i cannot profess to know anything about this, so will not say anything. Other things you can unlock are ‘create-a-sim’ features for the beginning of the game, and items from the buy menu.

As you might have guessed I like this game. The simplicity of the concept makes for very entertaining gameplay. You can do what you want, when you want, to whom you want, great.

If you have a spare lifetime I would advise you to start playing this very addictive game, if not, what are you doing here on Ciao? :o)

In terms of value for money, I got this game for the princely sum of £12.50, although for that price I do have to deal with the other half moaning about never getting to play Crazy Taxi 3.

All in all I would say that between Ciao, Dooyoo, Big Brother 5 and The Sims I have myself covered for the next few years. Please do not Disturb!

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