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In the original SimCity, Sims were the little dots that represented the citizens of your city. The little dots went from home to work to shopping. Life as a Sim was never much of a life. No more! The Sims is a people simulator inspired by the Sims of SimCity. It tries to make your life interesting and fun, but I felt that I spent far too much time micro-managing the Sims on the basic necessities of life.

A typical day in the life of my Sims was to wake up a little early, take a shower, have breakfast, clean up, go to work, come home, bring in the newspaper, have dinner, watch a little TV and go to bed.

Whoa! Embarrassingly that sounds remarkably like what my life is now (though I squeeze in a little computer gaming before going to bed).

My first partner didn't like me and we couldn't get a relationship started.

It just wasn't meant to be. I think it started to go downhill when her job suddenly switched to the night shift.

Also, trying to save money, we didn't install a burglar alarm.

That was a mistake because . . . all through the house not a creature was stirring, except the burglar that came in and stole our TV and stove (don't ask me why he left the stereo).

Eventually I lamed out, quit and started again.

My next partner and I hit it off right away and we were quite happy together.

I soon got a job as a daredevil stuntman and she got one as a medical technician. None of the neighbours liked us. Maybe because we always had other things to do. Rush. Rush. Rush.

In the people simulator there is never enough time to enjoy life.

If this sounds too much like real life to you, believe me it does to me too.

Despite the rushing around, you can smell the roses occasionally.

We did manage to have a baby together. The little bundle of joy changed our lives.

We did our best to raise that kid, but apparently it wasn't enough as a social worker came by two days later and took our little one away for not taking good enough care of it.

Later as we saved up more money - my wife got a promotion - we were able to upgrade the furniture and accessories in our house and get some cool toys.

At www.thesims.com you can download new people and items such as new televisions - something I need to replace by the way.

The graphics and animation are nice.

It was fun watching the Sims kiss and dance. I also liked the way the animations for baths and showers were handled.

The game manual is fun to read but I felt a crucial part was missing.

Sims have thought-balloon icons to show what they are thinking and the manual is not really clear about what each icon means.

The game interface is simple and you can queue instructions to your Sims. It is also easy to remove instructions from the queue.

Sometimes there is a frustrating delay between you giving the order and the Sim carrying it out.

Sims are moody and won't even look for a new job if they are down.

You have to inject fun into their lives. TVs, games and dancing are good for injecting fun.

If you want promotions you have to upgrade their skills through studying books. Studying gives you more skills. More skills get you promotions and money.

There are 10 different career tracks. You start at the bottom rung for each of them.

If you decide on the business track you start in the mail room.

Medicine starts off as a medical technician.

Pro athletes start off as mascots.

You can even begin a life of crime. Hmmm. Maybe I can get my TV back after all.

There is no end or winning in The Sims since the game simulates life. The nearest you get to ending the game is death.

Death is a part of life in The Sims. They can get electrocuted or die in fires. I had two fires start up on my stoves, but never had anyone die on me.

This game didn't appeal to me all that much. Too many mundane chores reminded me of chores I wasn't doing in real life.

Apparently, I'm in the minority, people are snapping up enough copies of The Sims to make this game a chart-topper.

Maybe those people have much more interesting lives than mine.

Any questions or requests on games, e-mail Peter at bigdawg zdnetmail.com 



Typical day in the life of a Sim sometimes too close to home