"A fine game...if you have cable!!!"

THE SIMS ONLINE REVIEW

The Sims Online swings back in full vengeance and lives up to its promises! It indeed is a great game with a few irritating flaws (like money) but is fun for its simplicity yet complex subernation.

TSO is a great game...even a fantastic game...and yet its utter poop if you have modem.

CONTROLS 10/10
Easier than ever! Simply point and click.

STORY N/A

GRAPHICS 9/10
Looks the same. Objects and people are better detailed though. More options in the faces.

GAMEPLAY 9/10 (its like a giant chatroom)
A good way to meet new people and make new friends. I think i read somewhere that there's actually a higher percentage of girls playing this game than boys (so its a nice way how to practice dating). If you are very good with people - that will make you more friends. Making more friends will give you bonus interactions. Skills do take 50x longer to acquire in this game (the skill max is 10). But the skill acquiring speed can be dramatically increased if you our ''working out'' with other people (e.g. playing guitar with 9 other people will get you the skill pellet faster than if you did it alone). Interaction Bonuses will be awarded for acquiring skills. Acquiring skills will lead to getting more simoleons AKA money for doing a job. Though getting simoleons can prove quite limited and difficult. (currently only 6 objects will get you money).

And running your own business? yea you can forget about that too. Why hire people to do tasks for you when you can do them yourself for free??

SOUND 7/10
You can live w/o it, but its decent.

The Ol' Connection:
10/10 = Cable/DSL: Mad Fast

3/10 = Modem: Slow...extremely slow. A few times the game is actually lag-free (about the first 8 minutes), but for a majority of the time - you'll be waiting 30 minutes for the game to update. Then you've got to load your sim into the city...a extra 30 minutes. Now during this time - theres a 50/50 chance that there will be a pop-up reporting a code23 failure and the game will freeze. reboot...

FINAL JUDGMENT
Cable/DSL 10/10
Modem 5/10

FINAL WORD
Perfect. Simply Perfect. Oh yes, and its also a complete bag of crap also when you buy it w/o cable or DSL. Just like the original sim games, but a bit more fun because you can talk with real people. the additional 100 objects and new interactions helps out too. you will have a chance to move in with roomies and become a moocher and make-out with chicks ---that is IF you've got cable/dsl.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 01/01/03, Updated 01/01/03