The idea behind The Sims is this: the ultimate goal of life is to achieve happiness, and the way to achieve happiness is to satisfy your Sims' needs. That's right, The Sims allows you to create, direct and manage the lives of SimCity's residents. Each need (eg: Hunger, Comfort, Hygiene) can be met by interacting with other Sims or objects--throw a party with the help of a rocking stereo system, and watch your Sims' Social and Fun ratings improve. Mismanage your new, simulated family, and you'll be faced with the worst of MTV's The Real World: jealousies will ignite, fights will break out, jobs will be lost and the house will fall apart.
One gameplay goal is to improve your Sim so he or she can climb the career ladder, which nets him or her more money, which allows the purchase of higher quality stuff. Eventually, your Sim will have a mate, kids and a mansion with an indoor pool.
Triumph or tragedy, each significant event in a Sim's life is captured in a snapshot and saved in a photo album for later viewing. Players can also take photos any time they wish and the best part is that you can upload the album to [Link removed - login to see] and share your Sims' sagas with the world. Entire families can also be uploaded and downloaded, as can houses. Want to re-create and manage your own version of Friends? Download the free face and body editor and make Sim clones of Ross, Rachel, and the rest. With The Sims, you can create whatever--and whomever--you desire.
Toying with the lives, successes and emotional states of dozens of little Sims is undeniably fun--limitless gameplay, endless variety, cool Internet features, and the ability to play matchmaker/landlord/counsellor The Sims a great way to increase your own Fun score. --Mike Fehlauer
The Sims Livin' It Up: Whether you're the occasional Sims player or the die-hard fan that knows after playing it for a hundred hours you are congratulated, The Sims--Livin' It Up expansion pack will rekindle any flame starting to go out for this game.
The Sims--Livin' It Up expansion pack has more swings and bells on it than a Christmas tree in a castle, and of course in true "Sims" style all this is possible.
Whether or not you choose to be the king of the castle, with your turrets, armoury, banqueting hall and dungeon--skeleton in cage on application--or a hip funky Austin Powers-esque man in your retro 60s psychedelic bachelor pad is up to you.
The range of new gadgets and gizmos to play with is just as impressive--and if you are an avid Web fan then you will notice some of the downloads here, especially the gerbil and balloons--but Maxis have realised this and have been busy creating many other features.
New career paths with over 50 jobs have now been included. Become a psychic investigator or a musician, a slacker or a journalist and they all come with new toys to play with at home. If this isn't enough, the game also includes new neighbourhoods to try out if you've run out of space in the current one, although the only drawback is that you can't move from neighbourhood to neighbourhood.
The Sims--Livin It Up is a great addition to the original, having you completely hooked again in no time, and saving up for those ever-elusive expensive items, in this case the automatic robot maid.--Stuart Miles
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