Review: The Sims Bustin' Out
Score:
83%
Version Reviewed: 1.00
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I don't want to control the life of a perfectly ordinary American Teenager. I don't want to watch them moving around their boring day to day lives, trying to find a cheap place to shop; or find a girl (or boy) to fall in love; or watch them dissappear into the bathroom with a massive box of kleenex and the latest Mail Order Shopping cataloge with a lingere section when they can't.
At least that's what I thought before I started playing The Sims.
Put simply, The Sims is a bit like a Nestle Caramac candy bar – Insanely addictive for no reason whatsoever. Nothing happens apart from life! I go through life every day, why am I happy to put up with doing exactly the same thing on my
Let's look at this lovely screenshot. My character (I've called him Rafe for no discernable reason) is doing... nothing. He's sitting down in his rent free room behind the Clock in the Tower in the centre of Sim Valley. How exciting. When he's finished sitting around doing nothing, he'll walk round to his Bar job and serve drinks. Then come home and go to bed. Of such things is a hit game series made of. Seriously.
You've got a close up of your face on the bottom of the screen, and then a whole line of green and red bars that represent you, how you feel, what mood you're in and what you're capable of doing. If you ever wondered what all the lines mean on Dr Mc'Coys monitor in Star Trek... now you know. They tell you if you need to sit down, if you need to sleep, take a shower, take a s... loo break, go and socialise, and a whole load of other things begnining with the letter “S." Probably about a third of each game day is spent taking care of yoursef by working on keeping these meters full.
Of course these are just tiny trifling things to deal with when compared to the tasks.
It's almost like an Adventure Game – but one for 7 year olds. “Now go find the chickens” says wizened old Uncle. So you find a chicken and press “5." Or you meet someone by looking up where they are on a map. Now none of this is stunning stuff. In fact, it's pretty mundane, especially given you have a 'toilet' gauge and 'watching TV' gauge. That gives you the kind of idillic life the developers were aiming for. And all the time remembering you need to go to the toilet twice a day, and clean the shower once a week.
But what I really hate about the Sims, more than anything else, is the fact that I must... keep... playing... it... I can't stop! It's so trivial and tedious, but I need to keep those gauges filled! I need to get a new TV in the loft in the Barn. Where can I find a lava lamp? Argh!!!
The controls help this. Or the complete transparancy of controls. To walk around you move the 
The Sims isn't really a game as such. Yes it has goals and things to achieve, but there's no panic similar to whaty you would find in something like Sonic the Hedgehog. Everything is a choice – if you want to run to go to work, then that's up to you. You want to not go, then fine, don't. Go and watch TV or do something less boring instead. But it is utterly compelling on the 
Graphics look like every other Sim game I've investigated. Small and cartoony in a long legged lanky way, clear no matter the circumstances and an amazing amount of animation. I've been watching Rafe admire himself in a mirror, ride a broomstick, polish the shower, make breakfast, play quidditch, climb down the sewers, and be attacked by a Savage Chicken called J H Brenhan. Spooky.
Of course, no 
The mini games you'll encounter throughout the game are used to earn money. For example in the Burning Spike you can get a job as a barteneder, sliding Milk Shakes (!) down the bar like the kids in “Bugsy Malone." Two of these games allow you to upload your progress to the
But whichever sick developer thought "hmm, your Sim has a Nokia phone, better make sure he can play Snake" is evil and twisted - but I like his style.
It all comes down to finding game Nirivana. Get the user in the zone and you have a hit game. The zone is a mythical place where you can sleep all day, play all night, and never grow old. The Sims has the required addiction level, but the realisation of how mundane the game can be means you're not quite there.
Nevertheless, The Sims is, (am I really going to do this?) the best
Reviewed by Ewan Spence at