The Sims: Vacation

"Stuck At Home No More"

Intro: The Sims have been around for about two or three years now and in that short space of time has replaced Myst as the best selling game of all time. From the first game where the whole world was just the family's home, the Sims now allows you to take your family to Vacation Island for a relaxing getaway. Once an adult Sim calls a vacation shuttle, the whole family leaves for the Island where you decide if they go to a Winter Resort Hotel, a ''roughing it'' campground, other available lots, or a lot of your own creation. From there, it's up to you to make sure your family or sim has a great time!

Vacation comes with a bunch of new things, including 125+ new objects and more social interactions with kids.

Graphics: 9/10 The graphics remain the same as it's previous predeceasing games and are, as always, fairly good. With a slight cartoony look, most of the objects and people look real and have smooth, fluid movement for most of the game. At times though, some graphics intersect with others, showing through walls, or the grass even once in a while comes up through the floor if an even default, pre made house.

Sound/Music: 8/10 The music in the neighborhoods and, if you have Hot Date, Downtown the same as before. There is new added ''tropical'' music for the vacation theme and you can hear it when the game starts up, when you're traveling to a destination on Vacation Island, and various theme music as the various hotels/campgrounds. Most of it is fairly original, but it does get repetitive and from there can get darn right annoying if you hate hearing things over and over after a while. The music also at times, depending on your computer speed/sound card, tends to be choppy with long pauses between certain scores.

Game play/Controls: 9/10 Game play is very straightforward and if you've played the Sims before, you get the hang of Vacation rather fast. There are some new ''surprises'' in the game, but overall is the same concept.

The controls involve the mouse and keyboard; if you the mouse as your main control, it is very easy after a few minutes. As for the keyboard, it took me a while to get used to all the keyboard ''shortcuts'', so I just stuck with the mouse, but to each their own.

Replay Value: 9/10 Each vacation is bound to be different and interesting, even with the same family. The game is also good and should re-enlighten interest in the Sims if you have tired of the other games by now. Gradually, the Vacation Island will probably become a bit repetitive, but with lots of fan sites out there, and the child aspect of the game is now more fun, since Maxis finally gave the kids more social options than just talk, entertain, play, and insult.

Overall: 9/10 As with the other games, Maxis did a fairly good job and I commend them for finally listening to their fans and giving the kids more social interactions, including the much anguished hug option back (Hot Date took the ability between parent and child to hug for some reason). Just when you think the craze is going to die down, Maxis adds more fuel to the Sims Craze fire. I recommend this game if you're a long time fan of the original Sims and their subsequent other expansion packs.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/31/02, Updated 03/31/02