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Xbox | Simulation | The Sims

Boxart for The Sims
The Sims 12 screen shots
  • GRAPHICS: 4.5
  • SOUND: 4.5
  • CONTROL: 4.5
  • FUN FACTOR 4.5
  • AVG USER SCORE 4.4
  • AVG CRITIC SCORE 3.9
Winner of the GamePro Editor's Choice Award

Review: The Sims

Welcome to a world where the workday whizzes by in seconds, you can take every other day off if you want, and ladies come by just to hang out in the Jacuzzi?and no, it?s not the GameProoffices.

Work and Bathe, My Minions
When Maxis announced that its multi-bajillion-selling PC game was headed to consoles, gamers doubted whether or not it would work. After all, The Sims was designed with a mouse in mind, and the building and human interaction just might not jive on a console. After playing The Sims on the Xbox, the official answer to that is, ?Ha ha! Told you it would work!?

The Xbox version of The Sims trades the PC version?s precise control for much improved presentation and more directed gameplay. An easily controlled cursor replaces the mouse and does so swimmingly; the building and buying interface suffers a bit for the lack of a mouse but not badly enough to hinder construction. The Sims? jump to consoles also brought them from 2D to 3D; the facelift looks great, even if a wider range of zoom levels would have helped. The Sims? silly language also sounds superb, and the music reinforces the ?wacky suburbs? atmosphere. The console versions of the game also feature a new objective-based Get a Life mode, which gives goal-oriented gamers a list of problems to solve and hidden objects to unlock, which players can then buy in the freeform Play the Sims mode.

Voyeur in Charge
If getting a job, making friends, and learning to cook or repair stuff doesn?t sound like fun to you, well, that?s too bad. You?ll miss out on a great time and a game unlike any other on the Xbox.