Product description
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The Sims is a strategic life-simulation computer game developed
by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts. It was created by game
designer Will Wright, also known for developing SimCity. It is a
simulation of the daily activities of one or more virtual persons
("Sims") in a suburban household near SimCity.
.com
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From Will Wright, the creator of SimCity, comes a strategy game
that hits close to home. You are in charge of a neighborhood of
Sims, and it is up to you to show them that they're living in
your world now! Force them into a life of crime or help them live
life in the fast lane. Build them a sprawling mansion or dump
them into a dilapidated shack. Let them party like swinging
singles or fall in love, get married, and raise a family. They
can live out your wildest dreams or experience your worst
nightmares. It is up to you to decide--their e is in your
hands.
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Review
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Maxis' The Sims is about creating, managing, and controlling the
lives of tiny computerized people who dwell in miniature homes.
The game's excellent music and sound effects, detailed scenery,
cleverly animated characters, and equally clever writing go a
long way toward fulfilling this intriguing premise. Yet though
you can exercise a considerable a of control over your sims'
behavior and lifestyles, The Sims' actual gameplay is rather
limited in some respects - either by odd inconsistencies or by
actual restrictions placed on your actions. But to the game's
credit, the most objectionable thing about these occasional
limits is how starkly they contrast with the otherwise tremendous
freedom you have to lead your sims' lives. At a glance, The Sims
looks fairly good, if plain. The game itself takes place entirely
within a small suburb just outside SimCity, and the streets,
houses, and fixtures are all colorful and detailed - and all in a
style consistent with the SimCity games. At first, the fully
polygonal characters might look no better than the scenery. But
if you leave them alone for even a few minutes, your sims will do
all sorts of things; they'll dance to the radio's music, hunker
down in front of the TV, or strike up a conversation. And when
your sims start doing anything, they'll do so with expressive
animation that lends them a great deal of personality. When the
music is playing, sims dance the Charleston together; TV-watching
sims will lean forward and gaze intently at the screen or laugh
out loud; and conversing sims will gesticulate appropriately as
they chat, dish out insults, tell jokes, and more. Despite the
fact that the actual dialogue among the game's inhabitants is
made to sound like complete gibberish, The Sims sounds superb
overall. You can't make out exactly what they're saying, but you
can easily infer their intentions from the tone of their voices.
Sims will speak, then pause and clear their throats while they're
thinking of what to say next, yelp in pain when they cut
themselves preparing a meal, or tell naughty limericks as jokes.
Sims also interact with their surroundings, and everything from
coffee makers to toilets sounds realistic, clear, and in some
cases downright hilarious, like the slapstick noises of the TV
cartoons. The Sims' music is also excellent; even though much of
it consists of vapid easy-listening, those unassuming tunes
provide a perfect ironic contrast in the background against
whatever havoc your sims are wreaking on center stage. Your sims
can get into all sorts of trouble depending on what choices you
make in their design and actions. You can begin the game with a
pre-generated family of sims or create your own using a number of
different 3D models, more of which are constantly being made
available on Maxis' web site. Each sim has five personality
attributes (neat, outgoing, active, playful, and nice) which help
determine the sim's personality and how compatible he'll be with
other sims. Each sim also has six learnable skills (cooking,
mechanical, charisma, body, logic, and creativity), which not
only affect the way a sim interacts with his fellow sims but also
how well he can make use of the objects in his house and how well
he can perform his job. There are ten career paths available in
The Sims; each is best served with a sim trained in a particular
combination of the six skills. Once you find a job in the daily
paper or online via a computer, your sim will be picked up by a
carpool at a certain time each day. Getting a job is advisable,
since it's really the only way for your sims to bring in a steady
income to buy more stuff. One of the most important things to do
in The Sims is to buy things, whether appliances or furniture for
the inside of your house, or walls, windows, or even a second
story for the outside. For instance, a new mirror will let your
sims increase their charisma, and a new stove will help them cook
more satisfying meals. Each product you buy for your sims' home
has its own description; many of these are extremely funny, and
it's worth the effort to simply browse through them just to read
some of the better gags. There's a fair variety of products to
choose from, and Maxis intends to continually provide new
household goods for download. In addition, you'll eventually want
to expand the size of your house's exterior, since a bigger house
means more room for more sims and more stuff. You can do so
quickly and easily with one of The Sims' many user-friendly
interfaces, the build mode, which lets you customize, add, or
remove all sorts of new walls, floors, windows, doors and more
with some clicks and drags. --Andrew Seyoon Park
--Copyright ©1998 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction
in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written
permission of GameSpot is prohibited. -- GameSpot Review
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- Enter here and, you own a plot of land to create your own kingdom..
- Build a house, pizza joint, discotheque, library or anything you dream of..
- Take a walk through the locality around you and meet Sims just like you..
- Enhance your power, wealth, reputation and social standing by bonding with Sims everywhere..
- Here your destiny is in your hands, make it or break it..