Playing Sim God (Updated)

For over a year now I have been a Sim-manipulator. This Christmas I got the expansion packs "House Party" and "Hot Date". I was thrilled because I had long outgrown the original "The Sims"; and after seeing the commercial on television for "Hot Date" I knew I had to have it.

But I digress, and address those of you who haven't played the original game yet. Now with all of the expansion packs available to consumers (Livin' Large, House Party and now Hot Date), "The Sims" has become a hobby, not just a game. Surf the net for Sims-sites, and you'll find a plethora. Voyeur? Ultimate manipulator? Like to be in control? Then this game is for you!

Made by Maxis for the PC, "The Sims" is a spin-off of the first Sim games, like Sim City. Instead of building cities, you are building lives. Actual, computerized individuals who do and go at your command. The goal is to build their skills, their careers and their relationships with other sims. Okay, so what's so hard about that?

In the beginning I was frustrated with a number of things in the game. It was because I didn't have the experience necessary to get the hang of it. Like any strategy game, you must go through trial and error in order to learn the best way to approach obstacles. Sim-time is the first obstacle (and always the most prominent) to overcome. Every 60 seconds of real time is one hour of Sim-time. Every day you make your sim shower, use the toilet, prepare food, work, socialize and build up their skills. If you don't do your job and make sure they take care of themselves, you could end up with a dead sim, and nobody wants murder on their hands!

The Sims is an interactive game that takes time and forethought. It puts your human skills to use, as much as a computer game can. If you are hoping for instant success, don't play. It's the fruits of your labor that make the game worth-while to play. Although, if you are one of those people who like to torture innocent souls for fun, you might find instant gratification from this game! :-)

The graphics are amazingly smooth given the amount of content involved in the game. However, with the latest expansion packs (I stress this) I have found that the game gets slow fast. If I play for more than an two hours (which is easy to do), I lose animation quality. I find that if I want to maintain the speed and the response time necessary, I have to exit the game, restart my system and start all over. But that doesn't keep me from returning to the game whenever I get the opportunity.

The sound quality is still very good. The control panel is easy to work with. The buy/build modes are powerful. You build your home on a grid. Starting from the floor up. You pick the wall paper, carpeting, windows, light fixtures and furnishings for your sim's home.

The user manual is easy to follow, and gives you the basics about everything involved with the game, to an extent. You wont find a ton of hints or added information in this text. That's part of the challenge!

Prepare your family and friends before playing by letting them know that they may not see you for a while. Time flies when you've got the fate of a Sim in your hot little hands.