I’ve never been the first to try a new game, always hopping on the bandwagon way after everyone else. Saying that however I’ve owned the Sims and played it for a long time, and only this weekend did I decide to reinstall it on my pc after a long long time. Already I’m finding it’s taking over my thoughts. Instead of thinking what I need to buy at the supermarket this afternoon, I’m wondering how I can get my Sim to be in a better mood to get the promotion I so want for her.
The Sims first came out in the year 2000, and the whole series is still hugely popular today, with lots of add ons to be found. None of these extra games can be played however without first installing the original Sims game.
When you first install the game and start playing, you are faced with a neighbourhood. Here is where you can choose which house or plot of land you are going to house your Sims in. There is a handy tutorial feature attached here so if you are completely at a loss on how to play, here is a good place to start before creating a family of ten Sims and not being able to control them all at once. There is also a help activation screen which you can take use of during the game. Little hints will pop up in the top right hand corner. I’ve found this option very helpful when I have had too much going on at once.
**MY FAMILY (of the moment)**
I chose to have two females living together (because they should be less messy than men, but maybe not in Simville). I have Carole Harris, and Sarah Harris, so I guess they must be sisters as well. Carole and Sarah only started off in the world with 20,000 simoleons between them (Sim currency).
We will soon find out that 20,000 simoleons wont go very far when all I had was an empty shell of a house with no furnishings. A sofa, beds, TV, fridge, cooker etc later, my money pot was looking very bare so I think a job was in order to keep the girls occupied. Luckily the
paper is very kindly delivered free of charge (as far as I am aware) every morning. There are lots of different items to be bought, covering lots of different areas, such as hunger, fun, comfort, hygiene etc. Too many to list here and you can always find more on the web as well)
A variety of careers are on offer, but only one is offered in the paper per day. As I’ve found, my Sims sometimes decide they don’t want to go to work some days, especially if they’re in the land of nod. This is ok once in a while but if your sim misses work two days in a row they get the sack, possibly proving difficult to get another one if they’re depressed, therefore the money disappears before long and we’re all left in a big state of poverty, playing a not very enjoyable game.
Carole and Sarah both seem happy in their careers at the moment (give it time), both have had a promotion in the last week or so. To gain promotions however sims have to learn certain skills, such as creativity, charisma, body skills. These skills usually require additional items to be bought for the sim to be able to “learn” their required skill.
I have found that Carole is better at making friends than Sarah is, and this can be very vital to a Sim life. Having friends makes them happy and can also contribute to future promotions as well. Carole likes to invite her friends over using the phone I so kindly bought for them when they moved in. (without a phone it gets difficult to invite people over, and also to order food when they don’t feel like cooking)
Sarah will happily talk to Carole’s friends but she’s not very hospitable and doesn’t cook them food or let them sit down when the visitors want to. If the visitors aren’t happy then they will leave and can be reluctant to revisit in the future. If a Sim is depressed due to his/her social life then they are also very reluctant to learn new skills as well, hindering their career. (It’s a complicated life)
When Carole makes more friends and finds one she gets on with particularly well, I’m hoping she’ll want to get married and have a baby. In a previous game I’ve had a baby, and it comes with it’s own little cot and cries etc at inconvenient times. I used to go to work and leave it on its own in the house, which is frowned upon by the way. Babies don’t stay babies for long though and when they grow up they get to go to school every day on the bus that comes to collect them. Children get grade passes that reflect on their moods, the same way the adults get promotions. They also get into trouble if they miss school too often.
Having the baby has always been a breeze for me in a Sim game, but I can’t quite master the marriage. No man ever wants me, I never offer him enough food before asking etc or haven’t been affectionate enough. I just hope it doesn’t reflect on me in the real world.
On the cleanliness scale, I find that Carole can be quite messy. We hired a maid and a gardener for this reason, freeing up a few precious minutes a day for other things. The service rates of pay are very reasonable, but I did run out of money the other day and couldn’t pay the maid. She wouldn’t come back to work for me for ages and Sarah had to do all the cleaning! There is also a repairman available if your bath floods etc or if your toilet gets blocked up (not a nice sight on the screen).
There are lots of items you can buy to put into your houses, and these all reflect on how much money you have, so a good idea is to start off basic, and replace items with better ones as you go along. A couple of necessities I would insist on are a burglar alarm, as Mr Burglar always nicks my new TV when I’ve bought it when I haven’t bought the alarm. Without it the police can never find him, but with it I always get a nice pay out to replace my items. The other being a smoke alarm, as Carole isn’t very good at cooking and alas I don’t want to lose her in a fire. (That’s happened to me before in a previous game. I lost a housemate and a token tombstone erects itself in the exact position they die in, and you have an option to mourn the stone!!!!) Having a smoke alarm installed automatically alerts the fire brigade to your house as opposed to having to phone them, losing half your house in the flames during the wait.
**SCREEN**
The screen you look at when playing the sims can be zoomed for your preference. You can rotate the houses to suit your needs. I’m quite fussy about which way I look at the house, and I also like the option of having the walls down so I can see the sim walk from room to room, but some people like to view the house so it looks like a proper house.
As you have the option of building your own houses, this can be don from scratch by building a plot of land, or you can build to add on to another house you may be living in. This can include, adding an upper level (although I find game play a bit harder this way), and adding swimming pools etc, extra rooms, levelling out terrain to make the property bigger and worth more money.
All this helps when you come to move your family into another property, they have more money to get nicer furniture etc to start again.
***EXTRAS**
A couple of things to watch out for during the game:
- Bills arrive in your mailbox and if you don’t pay them a bailiff will remove furniture from your house to pay for them.
- Don’t place items in doorways as sims can get stuck
- Answering the telephone can get you money if you’re very lucky, as a relative may have left you some in a will for an example.
- Try not to let your sim get too depressed, as it’s hard to make them completely happy again.
****GAME CONTROLS****
The game is played using the mouse and the keyboard. The mouse is used as a point and click feature on the screen, whilst the keyboard has various shortcuts to use during the game, such as controlling which speed to play on (there are three), and to pause, save, leave the game etc.
I do find sometimes the game can slow down a bit when you have a lot happening at once, and then all of a sudden it spurts back to life again. This can get a bit frustrating sometimes.
***GRAPHICS***
The graphics on this game are brilliant. Everything is very clear, and the sounds that come out are very realistic. The doorbell can sometimes be mistaken for an alarm (alarms in my games go off too often), but everything else is very spot on.
DO I RECOMMEND IT?
Without a doubt yes, the only fault I can find with this game is that is seriously can take over your life if you’re not careful. I’m surprised I’ve spent so long writing this review, and haven’t left it to go and play the game.
I’m sure nearly every household has a copy of the sims now, but if you haven’t go and spend the £29.99 needed to take you out of reality.
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Mar 15th, 2004
exceptional by (4%):
very helpful by (94%):
helpful by (2%):
