I’ve heard this is a really cool game. What can you guys tell me about it?
Meh, I can see why its addicting, but I just couldn’t get into it.
It involves creating a household, and then micro-managing the family in its day-to-day concerns. It sounds boring, but it was actually surprisingly well done. Someone who’s a fan of the game might be able to sum up the positive points better, but I can say that what turn me off was the ridiculously difficult pressure to try to “balance out” all the stats (like hunger, tiredness, bladder)
The game AI is completely usless for keeping these stats at an acceptable level, and I simply couldn’t find enough time in a Sim-day to satisfy all their needs AND progress the game, by improving their career or social lives.
Here’s a hilarious journal of one person’s attempt to run a family of Sims: http://somethingawful.com/articles.php?a=109
The sims is a lot like a little electronic people aquarium… you buy them things, feed them, keep them clean… and watch as they amuse themselves. You can cause strife by befriending neighbors… even marrying someone from another household who’s married… you can make friends and enemies.
In some expansions you can take your little sim downtown for shopping and fun, send them on vacations (tropical, woodsy, or wintery), you can buy pets in some expansions and grow food in your garden to sell or enter into fairs.
Your little Sim can do many different jobs… some expansions offer more jobs… including military, culinary, life of crime, mystical, witchcraft, superstars and more.
If you get tired of your sim, you have plenty of space in the neighborhoods to make more.
It’s a micromanager’s dream… it’s the Ominscient freak’s dream… it’s a great way to lose 9 hours and not even know it.
Things to know about The Sims:
You can’t mention it on the internet without at least one person telling you how it sucks and it’s pointless.
Even though (or more likely, because) it’s the best-selling PC game ever, very few people will admit to actually liking it.
I like it a lot, and play it obsessively for a couple of weeks every time they release a new expansion pack.
There are seven expansion packs total. “The Sims Double Deluxe” version includes the first two packs.
The sequel “The Sims 2” will be released early next year.
You manage the everyday lives of your “Sims,” building and/or modifying their house, taking care of their daily needs (like making dinner, going to the bathroom, going to work) and their leisure time (watching TV, falling in love, having children).
Some people use it as a virtual dollhouse and just like building houses. Some people like establishing storylines or modelling their own families or friends. Some people just concentrate on driving their Sims up the career ladder to get the most lucrative jobs. Some people just gather Sims in houses and torture them.
It’s got a huge player “community” who provide new skins, new furniture, wallpaper, etc. for the game.
I’ve played and/or reviewed every expansion pack except for Unleashed (the one that gives you pets). 60% of its audience is female gamers, and the number of extras available from the user community is crazy. You can decorate with tens of thousands of objects, different wallpapers and floor tiles. If all you want to do is build an awesome lot, or you don’t care about the challenge of earning money, there’s a money cheat code to give you as much money as you’d like.
There’s an online version called (oddly enough) The Sims Online. Every Sim has a real person behind it. In the single player game, you can control a family of up to 8 people (any combination of adults and kids, but at least 1 adult in a household). The expansion packs are:
Livin’ Large
House Party
Hot Date
Vacation
Unleashed
Superstar
Makin’ Magic
I think that may even be the order they were released.
The Sims 2 (www.thesims2.com) looks un-freakin-believable. I sent an email to one of Maxis’s PR people with some questions on Makin’ Magic (no, there is no Magicoin cheat) and mentioned how excited I am about The Sims 2. She said there’s going to be a lot more information on it soon. I noticed the latest PC Gamer had a short feature on it. Gamespot hosts developer diaries sometimes.
Unless none of this sounds interesting, my advice is to buy The Sims Double Deluxe and give it a try. If you like it, you’ll have something to do in the 4-6 months before The Sims 2 comes out.
I recently pulled this one off the shelf. I had played for a while a couple years ago, got highly addicted, and removed it from my PC to keep myself from playing. It is the stupidest sounding game ever. The concept’s seeming stupidity is deceptive, given that it is the best selling game ever, Maxis is pretty happy they trusted him (the same guy who designed Sim City) - they didn’t want to do it at first. It is addictive as hell. Stay away is my advice. Should you choose to ignore my advice and risk sleep, your social life, and a couple of cool points then . . .
My new family started off with one guy in a studio apartment on the cheapest lot. I have since gotten married, added a master bedroom, a deck, a basketball court, a game room, and I have surrounded the lot with hedges pools and gardens. I sent the woman on the Law Enforcement career track and my main man (Johnny Cashmonie) on the Criminal track. Right now my wife is the chief of police and I am a bank robber. I love the irony. My plan is to save up about $100,000 and then get the woman to quit her job when I become the Mob boss. Then we’ll have a baby. Maybe two. She’ll stay at home and manage our social life and take care of the kid, while I go out and run the Sim City underworld with an iron fist. Then I’m going to cash in and by the biggest lot on the top of the hill and build a mansion. Neat stuff. This is just one of thousands of ways for the lives of your Sims to unfold.
The Sims 2 is going to really up the ante. Currently, Sims don’t age or die (maybe you can starve them to death, but they never die of old age). The next version will allow the Sims to grow old and die. They will have DNA, however, so your offspring will have traits like their parents. They will also inherit your money. The interactions between sims are going to get alot more complex, and the world is going to get alot bigger. Their faces and bodies will be able to relay a much broader range of emotions.
Ultimately Sim City and The Sims will merge into one game where you can zoom in and play one person or family, one neigborhood, one city, or one country depending on how far you want to zoom in. This is the beginnings of a good type of matrix: a detailed realistic simulation where the player is basically a god. With the internet you will be able to populate your worlds with real people. What started off as a single player game has become very social. When you are in a room with someone online a chat bubble pops up. Marriages (real ones) have resulted from people meeting online as Sims. Crazy days. Here is some stuff about the Sims 2 (featuring screen shots). Here is the Official Sims 2 Page with a link to the press release.
DaLovin’ Dj
DeadlyAccurate, the “Unleashed” pack is my favorite of the bunch. The pets were the big selling point, and they’re neat and all, but the biggest improvement IMO is the expanded neighborhood. You can zone lots within a neighborhood as being residential or commercial and families in that neighborhood can visit the commercial lots for free instead of having to pay to go to the downtown area from “Hot Date.” Plus, more lots were added to neighborhoods with this pack, I believe.
There’s a preview CD for the Sims 2 included with “Makin’ Magic”, but I haven’t seen it yet; so far I’ve only played with the exp pack for a few minutes.
The coolest thing about the franchise is that all the expansion packs actually add something significant to the game, instead of just shovelling a bunch of new objects or skins onto a CD (since you can download plenty of new objects & skins from the internet, anyway). Maxis could’ve taken the easy route, but it’s cool that they keep changing things up and making the game more sophisticated. The other coolest thing about the franchise is the audio work; the music and sfx and especially the Simlish is hilarious and gets better with every expansion. People don’t give the game enough credit for being one of the funniest series available.
I love the Sims and go through periods where I play every day and then dry spells for weeks or months a t a time. I have one family which is really functional, the rest have their good days and bad days. I find it helps when I feel like my life is a little out of control and hey, it’s cheaper than therapy!
I hadn’t even heard of Sims2 until I followed the links posted in this thread, and OMG, I can’t wait!
Oddly enough, I just got my free copy of The Sims today, and bumped into this thread…
It is used in clinical settings as well - a friend who is a counsellor uses it to help teach social skills to kids, and work through relationship issues in families.
I am one of the non addicted however - when my son got the game he played it non stop for weeks- I finally got a go - and ended up with my family’s kids running like mad things all over the neighbourhood at 3am while their parents were tucked up in bed. I could not get them to go inside until the (then) 9 yr old pointed out I hadn’t actually provided them with any beds. It is a nuisance of a game - real life is hard enough for the organisationally challenged.