Release Date: Out Now!
Developer: EA
Publisher: EA
Singleplayer: Yes
Splitscreen: No
Multiplayer: No
PEGI: 12

The Sims has arrived with their first Xbox 360 title, and one that manages to fit the vast majority of Sims features onto its game disk without falling foul of control problems, or at least not too foul.

The premise is simple enough: you guide your little Sims through a life-like world, getting them jobs, relationships and more.
At the start you create your little Sims using a varied creation tool, of which EA are fairly well-known for, and build their looks and clothes.
The best part of creation comes in the form of moulding your Sims personality by selecting from a range of Traits such as: Absent Minded, Genius, Charismatic, Clumsy and more. By mixing and matching these personality traits it creates a unique feeling character, and each mix of traits can make something wildly different and varied.
The Traits you pick out also result in a selection of LifeTime Wishes of which you can pick just one, and then completing it will give you a massive boost to your Sims LifeTime Happiness, which in turn gives them a nice boost.
In-game, if you carefully manage your Sim, you can mould their personality to be further like yourself if you wish, by getting them to do things you would do you’ll find later than when left on their own they tend to react how you would.

Through the game you’ll have to keep an eye on your Sims and make sure they’re happy, which is no mean feat at times.
Green Bars keep you informed of how hungry they are, or if they need sleep so you need to make sure that your Sims are kept nice and healthy, but happily they are self sufficient and if you leave them alone they will do the vast majority of things themselves, but they’ll rarely look after themselves as well as they should so micromanagement is often a must.
Along the way, just like humans, they’ll have wishes to be fulfilled, ranging from simple things such as just watching TV up to performing massive concerts or writing a book. Complete these wishes and you’ll be awarded points which can be used to buy rewards for your Sims, such as making them legendary Hosts so they can always have amazing parties. These little rewards feel like a great addition, and provide a fairly good reason to complete your Sims wishes.
Other points are handed out in the form of Challenge points which can be spent on unlocks such as more furniture you can buy for your house.

At its heart this is a sandbox game, encouraging you to sample everything you can do, whether it’s playing cupid for your Sims, becoming a Scientist or just causing mass carnage with Karma Powers it constantly encourages you to play with the world and actively seek out daft new things to try in its substantial world.
The  world your Sims inhabit is close to a real world, with Sims walking around and shops to check out.
Each of the different Sims who inhabit the world with you have personalities of their own with likes and dislikes, and each can be talked to and befriended (or just abused if you wish) making for a believable world for all your deeds, good or otherwise, to take place in.
You’re free to check the place out and go shopping, take your Sim to the Theatre or go on dates along with plenty of other things to do, but sadly most of these interactions can’t be viewed by the player so you just have to wait around watching a little bar fill to tell you the action is completed.
Random events such as your house being robbed can also occur adding another layer of realism to the world, and your house can even burn down if your Sims get careless enough, which often leads to a hilarious panic attack.

This is also a huge game with plenty of content. There is no ultimate goal to the game really making playtime infinite in a sense. You can complete your Sims lifetime Wish, but turn of ageing and you have a game that can last as long as you want as Sims can always learn new skills or start new careers.
The real limit is  how much fun you can find such a game as this is essentially a life simulator, and will most likely only appeal to certain people, but it does have a certain calming and compelling effect on the player.
You can also add in your own color and pattern schemes to furniture and clothing and then upload it all to the Exchange which lets you download other people’s Sims, or clothing and furniture making a huge social network, something for which EA has become quite known for lately.

The game does have a few issues however: the graphics aren’t that great, often looking a little rough in places, but the big flaw is without installing the game it does have some irritating load times and stutters. Even with the game installed simply travelling between area’s results in loading screens which becomes quite irritating after a while.
The main flaw in the game is its repetitive nature: you’re often simply waiting around for Sims to complete work or wake up, and you’ll often have to repeated that as they lead their leaves leading to some serious boredom as you find yourself spending more time reading a book to past time than actually playing the game.

The Good:
+ How alike the player Sims can become
+ Becoming a Rock God!
+ Strangely addictive

The Bad:
– Getting addicted.
– Many many find it boring.

Scores:

Graphics: 7
Bright and colorful, but technically lacking in detail.

Sound: 8
The sound effects, weird voices and music are all great.

Story: 6
Hard to rate as you essentially make your own story, but in terms of actual narrative there really is none.

Gameplay: 8
Now you can live your own life on a TV screen! How or why this is addictive is yet to be discovered, but it is.

Lifespan: 8.5
A huge game if you want to unlock everything and see everything. But many people may get bored quickly.

Overall: 7.5
A large and ultimately compelling game that simply may not appeal to all who play it.
As a sandbox game however, this game does excel at letting you simply do what you want when you want to, and that is what will appeal to most players.