I have to admit, it was with some reluctance that I booted up The Sims for Xbox. Like practically everybody else out there apparently (The Sims is the best-selling PC game of all time), I bought into the hype for Will Wright's latest creation that scaled down his popular simulation titles into managing a single household and the lives of all its inhabitants. The concept was undoubtedly refreshing, and I was hooked into a virtual facsimile of the daily activities, social engagements, and career aspirations common to all families. Ordering my people around to take a shower or to invite friends over, as silly as it seems, became amusingly satisfying. Perhaps dangerously too much so, as at the crack of dawn, I would already be telling my virtual alter ego to make his bed while my own bedsheets were strewn haphazardly about from just waking up. Yet the game only stays fresh for so long, and pretty soon I had burned myself out. The numerous subsequent expansions failed to rekindle the initial wonder and fun I had, and the new Xbox edition didn't seem likely to revitalize my interest either. How wrong I was.

The greatest improvement to the tired, rehashed PC game is an impressive, new 3D engine. Gone are the 2D style and the rather stifling camera angles. Now you can zoom in and out and rotate the camera at your whim. The facelift does wondrous things for the game; it feels so refreshing. The almost tedious attention to every single colorful detail is astounding, and the improved characters and animation really come into life and make the gaming experience just that much more believable and pleasant.

So right from the get-go, I was already feeling good vibes from this game. The feelings continued with the controls, adapted from the PC for the home market. One aspect I appreciated about the PC game was its smooth controls that made such a complex game even playable. The intuitive interface has been tweaked slightly, given the obvious omission of a keyboard and mouse. However, the resulting configuration fits so perfectly that I only had to check which buttons were assigned to what actions and, from that point on, I never looked back to fumble with the controls.

A yellow pillar acts as the cursor, and the entire game is played by moving it around and selecting characters and elements of the environment. This opens a menu of context sensitive options. For example, clicking on a toilet will allow you to either use it or flush it, and if it's really dirty, you'll have an option to clean it. Different items allow you to perform different actions, and it is great fun to click around and just witness all the possibilities the game has in store for you.

The main feature for The Sims on Xbox is a new mode called "Get a Life". The original PC version, as well as all subsequent installments in The Sims series, had an open-ended style of gameplay where you could never actually beat the game. Sure, you could set little objectives for yourself such as advancing to the pinnacle of your career path, having tons of meaningful friends, or getting married, but never is there a point where the end credits roll and you can lean back, proud of your accomplishment of completing the game. To satisfy console gamers who yearn for that kind of finality, Maxis created this new mode complete with missions and levels.

Upon starting the game, you'll have to create a custom character. Practically every feature of theirs can be customized, from eye color and facial hair to personality traits and astrological sign. You'll have to distribute twenty points among traits such as neat, nice, and active. And don't think this won't have an effect on the game, because it subtly will. Assigning more points to neat, for example, will make your character more liable to automatically flush the toilet and clean up after dinner. Want to neglect his neatness and make him outgoing? You'll end up with a party animal who invites friends over to his house littered with pizza boxes and discarded leftovers. These customizations allow you to make literally any character you want. This complete freedom is characteristic of the entire game.

After you spend enough time cycling through all the different appearances for your person and actually start the game, you will find that you are a poor, jobless shmuck totally devoid of skills and still living with your mom. Ouch. But this is where the fun starts. Your objectives for the first level are to mooch money off of Mom, repair the broken TV, cook a meal without burning the house down, and finally, get a job. Afterwards, you'll "graduate" and look for a place of your own, and the game expands from there.

But it's not as easy as it sounds. Your persona has eight constant needs always needing to be satisfied such as hunger, hygiene, and social. Status bars of green and red indicate the level of demand for each need. A full bar of red for any need will result in a grumpy character who complains and will not do anything. So the trick is to balance the time so that all eight of his needs are simultaneously satisfied, at least adequately. This can be difficult since while taking a bath to satisfy his rapidly declining hygiene, he is concurrently becoming hungrier. And all the time while he's fixing a snack, his energy level is dropping. Simply satisfying his basic demands, let alone progressing in the game, can be rather overwhelming at first and becomes a delicate balancing act. But once you get the hang of it, monitoring his needs becomes automatic and you can focus on completing objectives and getting to the next level.

Besides taking care of your character, you can also customize every single aspect of your house. There are hundreds of diverse and colorful items to buy and fill the house with (assuming you have enough money), ranging from stoves and tables to plasma TVs and statues. You can also customize the very building of the house itself, creating new rooms, planting flowers in the new garden, and constructing fences. Improving the appearance of the house can't be neglected as well, since a nice looking room helps the character's "room" need.

The missions to direct you through the "Get a Life" mode provide welcome guidance and are fantastic additions. The full, original PC game is included as well in the "Play the Sims" mode. As noted before, there are no objectives or goals, you just do whatever you want and set your own personal wishes. This time around, the updated graphical engine and just overall improved quality made it more enjoyable and every bit as addicting on the Xbox.

Multiplayer has been added as well. "Play the Sims" supports two player simultaneous play, which lets you and a buddy take control of two separate characters in the same household. It gets hilarious when you end up arguing over who has to take out the trash. This is a true replica of real life, is it not? You can tell a lot about someone's personality by seeing how they play the game. There is also a mode with scenarios that have objectives such as seeing who can pick up the most trash or score the most friends at a party. It's a nice diversion, but the meat of the game is still living in the house, going about ordinary business.

I have to say, The Sims on Xbox managed to blow away all of the limited expectations I had for it. But did it seem fresh again to me simply because some time has passed since I last played the PC version? You would think so, but no. I was wondering the same thing, so I pulled out my dusty CD case and reinstalled it on my PC. After playing the Xbox edition, I could not go back to the original at all. It seems so unrefined and clunky compared to the sweet console version. After extensive playtime with The Sims, my enthusiasm for it still has not died down. With my 20/20 hindsight, I feel slightly apprehensive about the inevitable time when I will eventually lose interest. But it's certainly a blast while it lasts, and it's a testament to the quality of the game that it is able to revitalize my interest in this game. Those who have never played The Sims ever should definitely check this out, while veterans of the PC game (even those as jaded as I was) should be able to rediscover what captured their imaginations all those years ago.

Our Final ScoreExcellent

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