| Gaming and Electronic Entertainment | |
| October 2000• Vol.8 Issue 10 |
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The Sims & Livin' Large Expansion Pack |
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SIMS
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There is no aspect of your little Sims lives that is off-limits here. Although they do have lives and wills of their own, your job is to be their primary motivator. You design and decorate their homes, filling them with the objects you can only dream about owning in your real life. You can push your Sims into marriage, parenthood, and careers, creating whole neighborhoods that adhere to your every whim. One of the more interesting aspects of this game is the extent to which you create the game and its characters with the Internet and other users in mind. Like a proud parent, you can show off your Sims by creating family photo albums with intricate storylines and lots of screen shots. Then you can upload them to the Sims Web site ( http://www.thesims.com/ ). Your Sim family will then be stored there with the thousands of other families in categories such as horror stories, romances, and tragedies. Log on to browse through the categories (or search using keywords) so you can get an idea of how varied—and occasionally unsettling—this game can get. Storylines set in insane asylums and haunted houses share space with the cast of Simmigan’s Island and Tarzan and Jane. You can even vote on your favorites. The Livin’ Large expansion pack adds new career tracks, such as musician, slacker, hacker, and paranormal specialist, and interior décor styles, such as castle and Vegas lounge. You’re also given many new items, as well as new everyday situations that can befall your Sims, such as alien abduction. Since its release, The Sims has consistently been one of the top selling games, and with the recent introduction of a Mac version (not to mention the Livin’ Large expansion pack), its popularity won’t fade any time soon. Not bad for a game in which there are never any winners. 
by Rich Gray |
