Kudos is a nifty little game from a great independent developer, a must for fans of life simulations.

User Rating: 8 | Kudos PC
Kudos is a most excellent life simulation game from Positech Studios, the genius behind Democracy. Unlike the Sims (or the Sims 2), Kudos takes a most awesome new angle on the simulating of lives in a video game, and all the truly mundane and boring aspects, like showering, are left out. Instead you do the important stuff, living the life of a wash-out from Slough for ten whole years, with nearly everything that entails.

So you make, and lose, friends. You take evening courses, get promoted, buy and subsequently neglect a range of pets. Read books and even play on your very own games console. I like to pretend it's a PS2, the thought of my virtual avatar enslaved to an Xbox doesn't really appeal.

Kudos is visually un-stimulating. This is not a bad thing. After ten hours of playing Black and dying over and over and over again in its beautifully rendered war torn environments, the graphical plainness of Kudos is a God send. There are some nice little touches; the screen gets dirty when your house needs cleaning and the lines connecting you and your friends glow brighter the better your relationship. More is promised.

Yes, more is promised. Unlike other popular virtual life games, once you've bought Kudos, you've bought it. Every future new attachment, addition, feature, patch, consumer consumable - everything is free and easy to download. As with Democracy, there is already a good modding base which can only expand. Don't you wish more games were like this? Don't you? Yes you do.

So, dudes, buy Kudos. If anything, it's value for money - a game continually expanding through player mods and additions by the developer, for no extra charge. Although I'm the only person that's ever going to read this, and I've already bought Kudos.