The Sims Preview

With nearly 6.5 million units sold worldwide, The Sims has surpassed Myst to become the best-selling PC game franchise of all time. Maxis and Will Wright's highly addictive people simulator struck a chord with gamers from all walks of life when it was first released almost three years ago, and with subsequent expansion packs like Hot Date, Vacation, and the recently released Unleashed keeping interest in The Sims alive, there's no sign of slowing down for this unique series. Up until now, though, The Sims has been relegated to the realm of the PC, and an entire population of console game players has yet to find out what all the fuss is about. Next January, all that will change. Maxis and codeveloper Edge of Reality are currently putting the finishing touches on a PlayStation 2 version of The Sims, and as we pleasantly found out a few weeks ago, this game will be much more than just a straightforward port. In fact, The Sims for the PS2 isn't really a port of the PC product at all. In addition to being the first 3D Sims product ever, The Sims for the PS2 will also have mission-based gameplay and a multiplayer component.

The designers at Maxis have always wanted to bring The Sims franchise to consoles, but they were faced with a practical dillema. How do you adapt the best-selling PC game of all time onto a different platform without losing that classic Sims magic? The answer to that question, apparently, lies in the PlayStation 2's Dual Shock 2 controller. Before writing a single line of code, Will Wright and a few of the Maxis designers spent weeks studying the control schemes of a variety of different games, before finally deciding on a set of variables that they felt were completely intuitive for a console version of The Sims--variables such as button pressure, zoom speed, and the sensitivity of the analog sticks. In that sense, the team really took its inspiration from Shigeru Miyamoto's design philosophy of perfecting a game's controls before actively starting work on its development. Ironically, you probably won't give a second thought to the control scheme of The Sims for the PS2, since its intuitive nature means that you won't have to fumble with the controller to get your sim to move and interact with the gameworld.

You'll be able to do everything you could do with the mouse and keyboard in the PC version of The Sims using the PlayStation 2's controller. The two analog sticks let you rotate the camera and move the cursor, while the circle button collapses any walls or solid objects that you have highlighted to allow you to see as much of your surroundings as possible. The square button centers the camera on your selected sim, and the X button makes that sim interact with his or her surroundings. You can fast-forward time in The Sims for the PS2 using the R1 shoulder button, while R2 switches your control to nearby sims. Likewise, your motives, friendships, personality, and job requirements can all be accessed with the D pad, and by pressing pause, you can get to your buy, build, budget, and options menus. Longtime players of The Sims won't have any problems adjusting to this new control scheme, and those who've never played a single game in the series will find it quite intuitive.

But the controls aren't the only aspect of The Sims that's changed during the jump from the PC to the PlayStation 2. The most obvious enhancement is the game's new 3D engine. The Sims games have always had a stylized look to them, but their sprite-based technology was admittedly clunky and didn't exactly make the best use of PC hardware. Not so with this PlayStation 2 version. All the objects in the game--your sims, the furniture, the house, and even the neighborhood itself--are all rendered in the three dimensions, which makes for more fluid character animation. What's more, this 3D engine is capable of generating an unlimited number of light sources, which means that light fixtures and lamps will throw shadows across rooms, objects, and even your sims.

It's easily the best looking of all the Sims games, but The Sims for the PS2 is more than just a pretty face.

Get a Life!

What's noteworthy about The Sims for the PlayStation 2 is the addition of a get-a-life mode, which is a mission-based minigame that marks the first time that a Sims game can actually be finished by players. Your primary goal is to move into the neighborhood's mansion, and you'll do this by completing a series of puzzles and missions that have a distinct Sims twist to them. You'll start out the game in a small house, where you're tasked with doing a number of menial chores like fixing the TV, cooking dinner, and borrowing 800 simoleons from your mom. Upon completing these three missions, you'll get to move on to a slightly bigger house, where you'll be faced with a more challenging set of goals. However, as any veteran of The Sims will attest to, getting your sim to execute even the simplest of tasks is no easy feat without the proper training. Try to fix the TV without reading up on electronics, and you'll get electrocuted. Try your hand at cooking dinner without having any prior experience, and you'll set the kitchen on fire. Ask mom for money while she's in a bad mood, and you might end up getting a quick slap to the face. By building up your skills and fulfilling the needs of your sims, however, you'll be able to accomplish these goals, much in the same way that the original The Sims game required that you micromanage every aspect of your characters. There will be seven houses in all in get-a-life, and Maxis says that it will take novice players about 10 hours of gameplay to finish all the goals in this mode.

As you complete goals in The Sims' get-a-life mode, you'll unlock objects that you can purchase in the game's classic mode, which will also be included in this PlayStation 2 version. The open-ended gameplay of the PC game has been left untouched in the console game, though it'll now be completely in 3D and make use of the new control interface. You can play this portion of The Sims in any way that you see fit, though there are 10 career paths that you can follow, each of which will earn you money that you can use to buy the goods that your sims require. According to Maxis, The Sims for the PlayStation 2 will include all of the objects and furniture items from the original PC game, as well as those from the Livin' Large and House Party expansion packs. Additionally, the game will also feature 14 brand-new objects that are exclusive to this console version. These include objects like a tepanyaki table, the CharisMaster vanity mirror, a strip poker table, and a loyal (though sometimes smelly) monkey butler. All said, there are about twice as many such objects in The Sims for the PS2 as there were in the original PC game.

Another interesting addition to the original The Sims formula is the ability to play either the get-a-life or classic modes on a split screen. In the get-a-life mode, two players can compete against each other in a number of unlockable environments. In the park level, for instance, two players are tasked with getting as many food points as possible within a certain amount of time. The player whose sim has the higher number of food points at the end of the round wins. There are a number of ways to pull this off, including grilling your own food, begging NPCs for a few scraps, or stealing the other player's lunch from underneath his or her nose. But like in the single-player portion of get-a-life, you'll need to build up certain skills before being able to pull these tasks off. Specifically, you're more likely to have NPCs take pity on your sim after joking around with them beforehand, rather than simply begging them right away. Two players can also play the classic mode cooperatively, though since doing so effectively splits the task of managing an entire sim family in half, it can also be considered a cheat. On the other hand, it's just as easy to purposely disrupt someone's game using this split-screen mode, so invite others to play at your own risk.

With improved graphics, an intutive control scheme, a brand-new gameplay mode, and the ability to either compete against or play cooperatively with another player, The Sims for the PlayStation 2 is clearly much more than a simple console port of the PC game. There's a lot for fans of the series to experience here, and for those who've heard about The Sims but have never had the chance to play the games on the PC, this PlayStation 2 version serves as a great introduction to Maxis' addictive line of people simulators. The Sims for the PS2 is currently nearing completion, though Electronic Arts recently announced that it would delay its release until January of next year so it doesn't get lost in the holiday shuffle. We'll have more as the game's release date approaches.