The Sims

"The Sims, worse on consoles, stick to PC's."

The Sims was a huge hit, which took computer gaming world by surprise. In 1998 Maxis released the next evolution in simulations. The Sims actually let you take control of another life and do with it as you please. You can accept a variety of jobs ranging from police officer, computer programmer, military personal, or even a criminal. Then you purchase various items to decorate your house with. The Sims for PC became the largest selling computer game in history, and numerous expansion packs were released. They had add-ons for pets, second story houses, online modes, etc. Well now it’s on the consoles so how does it fare?

Gameplay:
New to The Sims franchise, you can now play a story mode. Unlike the PC one where you only could play a free mode, you can now play “get a life” mode. This is story based mode where play a series of levels with set objectives. Like you will start by living with your mother and you must get enough money to move out. Later you may have to throw a raving party. Playing “get a life” mode is where you unlock other modes and furniture. There are also some fun story scenes like when you are living with you mother, the game will open with a fantasy of you and some hot babe in a hot tube naked. You wake up a few seconds later to the angry yelling of your mother. Scenes like these always make you laugh and are a welcome addition to the Sims franchise. This can be a fun diversion but it’s not the same as the freedom you remember from the PC one.
Well lucky they did add a free mode as well. Here you can create a neighborhood and new families to move into a house of you choosing or design. You cannot however play this mode right off that bat. Instead you must play some of the “get a life” mode to unlock it. This is what you remembered about the PC version right here, although it does lack the same depth leading the biggest and perhaps most damaging problem with this game. You will start in a house, either pre build or of your own design. You must then decorate your house with a variety of wall papers and carpets followed by big screen TV’s and swimming pools. But of course you cannot just skip to buying big screen TV’s and $5000 beds, but instead you must get a job. You can select a variety of jobs to move up the ranks in ranging from a cook to a pickpocket. You must master skill and keep you character happy to move up the latter. If you send your character to work without sleep and an empty belly, don’t expect a job promotion.
You get the full version of the first Sims, but you only get bits and pieces of the others. This leads to a huge problem due to the nature of this game. The whole game is based around customizing your house and making it something unique. When you only get 4 choices of dinning chairs and 2 choices of counter tops, this can be difficult. Also unlike some of the newer Sims, this game omitted pets, second story houses, online, and various items. Even with Microsoft’s beautiful online plans and service, you neither get online gameplay or downloadable content. If there was one game on the Xbox that desperately needed DL content, this was it.
You also get another new addition to the Sims universe on the consoles. The Sims now features a multiplayer. You and a friend can now create characters and live together. This is actually like the PC version except instead of living alone you have a friend playing a roommate or even a lover. This can be a lot of fun and my favorite element of the console version of this game. I had great fun playing a house wife and being my friends bitch. Something I’d never get to experience in real life (not that I wan to). I never could get him to sleep with me; I guess it’s hard for women too. It was fun letting him burn to death though. See in this game if you are bad with skills like cooking you are liable to set the house on fire, or if you are a bad mechanic you are liable to shock yourself. That’s why you always by a smoke detector before the big screen TV. Anyways this mode was a lot of fun and the only real addition to the console version.

Graphics:
The graphics have been reworked for the console versions of The Sims. Instead of the 2D modes and backgrounds on the PC version, this one has full polygonal characters. Unfortunately this doesn’t really make the game look a whole lot better. The textures are rather bland. Nothing really stands out as many of the items blur together. While not a bad as the PS2 version this is still a small problem.
The characters models show the biggest improvement from the PC version. They look like decent PS2 character models. There’s nothing to write home about but still a solid improvement. For the Xbox however, you can really see the age. This game does feel like a first generation PS2 game. We have seen tremendous improvements, rendering this unacceptable. Remember Tony Hawk 3, from last year. This game is has about the same quality character models, and a little worse backgrounds.

Sound:
The sound in this game is horrible. Remember the PC version; well that’s the sounds for this game. 5 year old sound effects with no added music. This, too me, is unacceptable. The sound effects, while important, are painful to listen to. The sound effects are actually very important in the game, as they tell you when to go to work or if the TV’s been left on. Everything sounds bad tough.
The music is actually worse then the sound effects. On the PC you can always minimize programs and add music you want to listen to. That’s great; you can do that on the Xbox as well, just not on this game. There was no reason not to support the custom soundtrack on this game. You need to hear the sound effects, at least to play effectively, yet you want to listen to your own music. This game needed to offer your own personal choice of music.

Value:
Even though all its faults (and god knows there’s many of them) this game is actually kind of fun. It’s the same addiction you remembered from the PC version. You can still get wrapped up in another life, forgetting about your own. You’ll find yourself parked in front of the TV for hours, managing a new life or lives. You’ll forget to eat because your sim was hungry. You’ll forget to sleep because if you sim doesn’t get a good nights sleep, he may not get a job promotion.
There are 2 things that are dragging the value lower. The first thing is the slow fast forward. Like, for example, when you tell your character to take a shower, he/she will take about 1 minute (real time) to complete their task, when you fast forward it takes about 45 seconds. This is completely unacceptable when you are doing hundreds of little tasks all day. You will spend more time watching then commanding. Luckily when you are at work or sleeping it will automatically put it at a faster speed. Then, the second problem, already mentioned is the lack of custom sound track. If you read my reviews you know how important this is too me, no matter what game it is. This game, however, desperately needs this feature. You will play for hours with no music or horribly annoying music. This is unacceptable since other sound effects are essential, eliminating the use of out side music.

Brakedown:
I cannot safely recommend this title to anyone. The only thing it has going for it is the multiplayer. If you don’t have friends or people to play this game with, then don’t get it. If you have a PC, which you probable do since you are reading this review, then get the PC version. If you insist upon getting the console version then wait until its $20. This title is not worth more. Remember the PC version is 5 years old and cost about $5.

Gameplay: 6.5/10
Graphics: 6.5/10
Sound: 3/10
Value: 8/10
Overall: 6.5/10

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 05/19/03, Updated 05/19/03