|
|
| Product: The Sims |
Company: Maxis/Electronic Arts |
| Web: www.thesims.com |
Phone: ?? |
| Platform: Win95/98 |
SRP: US$50
Street Price: $40 |
Cred Rating: | Special Award: |
I was very sad when my best friend died in a fire because he didn't call the fire department, and I felt kind of awkward when a complete stranger walked into my house and started eating the two-day-old pizza I had lying on the counter. But the saddest thing was when my child was taken away by Child Services. I wasn't mistreating him, I really wasn't!!
This is a typical day in the life of Paul Layman and his wife, Jane, who live on 4 Sim Lane with their second child, Sally, who they're taking really good care of. The world of The Sims may seem a little bizarre at first, but the only real strangeness is re-entering your real life when you leave.
The Sims is the latest creation of Will Wright and the simulation masters at Maxis Software. They've done SimCity, SimTown, SimEarth, SimCopter, Sim-Just-About-Everything. Pretty soon, they'll have the entire world simulated and they can link all of the games together into a true alternate universe. You think I'm kidding!
The Sims live in a sunny suburban neighborhood of eternal summer. To build a house for your Sim family, you can choose from nine different sized lots which are all connected by one big circular road. First you create the members of your Sim family however you want. Maybe you want a total party animal who leaves the floor covered with old newspapers and half-eaten dinners from several nights ago, or a neat freak whose trash is even neat and tidy. There are lots of choices in creating each Sim that determines what kind of person they are, such as neatness level, outgoingness, activity level, how mean/nice, etc. And, of course, you can choose how they look. You can even go so far as to scan in pictures and make simclones of your entire family!
Once you've created your Sims, you can buy them a plot of land and start building them a house. You only start with 20,000 Simoleons, the Sim currency (which is less than $20,000), so you won't be able to build their dream house just yet! Your Sims will need to scrimp and save and be clever to get more money (just like in real life!). You'll also want to get your Sims a good job. There are a bunch of jobs available, ranging from a lowly business clerk working in a mailroom to doctors, lawyers, scientists, and professional atheletes. Or perhaps you'd like to get your money by less conventional means as a full-fledged burglar.
Though The Sims are very much like their flesh and blood counterparts, they don't completely and accurately mimic human interaction. For instance, their table manners. Unless I only hang out with super neat freaks, and believe me, I don't [Gee, thanks, son -Editor/Dad], most people usually clean up after they're done with dinner. Sims will leave their dirty dishes out on the counter and the table until there's no more room. But then, there's always the floor! And then there's the Sim's IQ and dumb logic. If the TV's on in their bedroom and they can't sleep, they'll go into the bathroom in hopes that the TV will turn itself off if they're out of the room. Then there are their...ah...independence issues. If they're left alone for too long without your attention, they'll pee on the floor or pass out from exhaustion. This playing babysitter to adults, even simulated ones, can become boring. It's much more interesting to see your Sims do unexpected things and interact with the world you've made for them.
There are no weekends in the land of Sims, so your poor family never gets any time to just relax (again, like real life!). There are no winters, either -- no simsnow for you -- Simville must be someplace in Southern California. And there are no cars, so your Sims won't be going out for a night on the town or having fun over at a friend's house.
Like a lot of games and geek toys like Mindstorms, the most interesting aspect of The Sims is what's happening with it online. The official Sims site is great and has some cool downloadables. One amazing thing that Maxis is doing is "hiding" (they call it "trojaning") various game effects within the furniture, clothing, and other stuff you can download. So, if you download a lamp, it may also contain a flu that will hit the family that puts it into their home. Or a T-shirt may make the wearer win the lottery! Bug fixes are also contained in these downloads. Other Sims fans have been hard at work creating items to populate their worlds. Here are some of my favorites:
- The Sims Resources Very comprehensive site with lots of news, downloads and more.
- Sims Hangout A British Sims site with great downloads, links and a nice Sims FAQ.
- Sims Top Sites A tops list for the Sims universe.
- Mall of The Sims
A great place to go to get stuff to add to your Sims world: furniture, clothes, electronics. It's amazingly like a real mall. Hey, where's the food court?
While there are aspects of the Sims that are dissappointingly unrealistic, it's still a very fun and expanding world, and one you may never get tired of.
- Blake Maloof [3/30/00]
Street Tech Tip: If you load MP3 music files into the SoundData directory within The Sims program files, these tunes will play on your Sims' radio! How cool is that?
Check out:
Today's Tech Term
Today's Software on Cool Tool of the Day
Today's TV on TV Ultra
|
