knotheadusc's Full Review: The Sims™ (Deluxe Edition) for Windows
I bought the Sims Deluxe because I have Sim City 4 and was addicted. I thought maybe I'd like to create a Sim or two of my own and import them into Sim City 4. Well... I ended up getting addicted to the Sims, and now in the course of just three months I have bought all of the expansion packs! I'm writing a review of the Sims Deluxe because this is the game that started the madness of my addiction.
I have to mention that the first Sims Deluxe game that I brought home was defective and I had to exchange it. I had no problem with that, however. The second one I brought home worked okay. As soon as I loaded it up, I had no trouble figuring out what I needed to do, thanks to the tutorial house in the first neighborhood. I was very impressed with watching the actions my Sims could make... flirt, kiss, dance, hug, talk, gossip, just to name a few. No doubt about it, this game is pretty smart, and as you add expansion packs, the game gets even smarter.
Before I go further, let me mention that it's necessary to own either the Sims or The Sims Deluxe before you can start using expansion packs. I think the Sims Deluxe is a much better deal, mainly because it tends to be less expensive and it comes with an expansion pack already bundled within it, as well as the Sims Creator. Once you create your first family, you quickly start learning the importance of certain things, like why you should buy a smoke alarm and burglar alarm when you furnish your home.
Since I have all of the expansion packs, I have to say that the Sims Deluxe by itself actually seems quite primitive. With each successive expansion pack, there are new objects to be bought, new outfits, walls, floors, and head and body skins to be had. But the actual game itself has evolved a bit. In the Sims Deluxe, when you first meet someone, it actually tells you if you're a friend or an acquaintence or the love of someone's life. But when you add expansion packs, that feature goes away and new ones take its place. The phone directory changes. You can do new things. You have new career tracks to choose from. You can see how your relationship with another Sim has evolved over time. You can leave your neighborhood and go somewhere else... of course, every time you add an expansion pack, you pay about $30. And really, after awhile, you'll want to add expansion packs because just having the Sims Deluxe will probably bore you after awhile.
The Sims official website is pretty cool. Go there to find houses and families made by Maxis. Also, you can download new objects and patches for the game, as well as new Sims made by other users. It's a lot of fun to download new Sims because you end up with new skins and new characters... almost like hiring new soap stars for your own private soap opera. You can also use the Home Creator and Art Studio to make your own walls and floors and pictures that the Sims can purchase and hang up in their houses, too.
Of course, there are also plenty of fan sites with other objects made by computer savvy Sim fans... use those at your own risk lest you wind up with a corrupt file that causes your game to crash. But if that happens, EA games has pretty good tech support, which includes a BBS/message board, live technical chat in two different places, and a phone line. The phone line and technical chat, however, are only open at certain times and they are based on the Pacific time zone... just so you know. Still, they helped me out a couple of times. You can also download the Maxis sponsored Sims File Cop, which will check over all of your game data to make sure everything is okay.
All in all, I have to say that I really enjoy my time with the Sims, although it's embarrassing to be 31 years old and living in a dreamworld on my computer. But then again, when I was a kid, we didn't have computers this powerful... which brings up another issue. If you decide to join me in Sim Land, make sure your machine has a lot of memory and is relatively fast. The Sims Deluxe is a cool game concept and it has great graphics and music, but all that cool stuff needs lots of power in order to work properly. Older computers with slow processors need not apply.
Start out with the original Sims -- a hilarious game where you actually have to control a person's life from start to finish! Give them a look, find t...More at Amazon Marketplace
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.