IGN Highlights SimsVille

Maxis has taken the justifiable leap and created a new sim that promises to have the town-building fun of SimCity and the personal touches that made the Sims so damn enthralling....Now it looks as if we have the best of all Sim worlds with the upcoming release of SimsVille next year. With its personal but wide look at the life of a town with its bustling grocery stores, tennis courts and city halls, SimsVille is that perfect mid-magnified look at life in the Sims universe.

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SimsVille

Squeeze SimCity or inflate The Sims -- any way you call it, set your phasers to fun.

May 11, 2000
E3 2000 Update

You love the Sims, you really love the Sims. And you've loved SimCity so long that you probably even forgot that it started the whole inter-capping (shouldn't that be InterCapping?) thing. So why not blend them together in a milkshake and making something completely new, like SimsVille? Oh. Right. They have.

Maxis has taken the justifiable leap and created a new sim that promises to have the town-building fun of SimCity and the personal touches that made the Sims so damn enthralling. You start by creating a town, placing the homes, shops and other businesses that it will take for the area to survive. But unlike SimCity, you'll actually be able to follow your individual families as they move through that town, meeting friends, playing, shopping and working.

Don't confuse the concept with the Sims however. You won't actually control the individual families, but you'll be able to select interests and attitudes in order to reflect a more personal set of neighborhoods. Lazy families may want to enjoy a beer on the front yard, while an energetic family might be too busy jogging and working to settle down and relax once in a while. The developers have promised that the personalities will affect all aspects of the game, from the restaurants the families favor to how rich or poor an area of town becomes.

Jenna Chalmers, Assistant Producer of the game, elaborates on how important community is in the game: "For instance, you might have a family that's really into Jazz. It might be to your interest to move a family with similar interests into the city, because the might start a Jazz club, or even host Jazz events at the local park, which will bring up your city rating." But remember that you'll be creating a community and an environment for the residents to thrive in, not actually controlling them. That doesn't mean that you won't be able to customize your residents, however. Though it hasn't been officially decided, Jenna hinted that you'll probably be able to create some custom characters for your city – and you'll definitely be able to import your characters from The Sims into the game. How will that work? They'll pop in at their current level of wealth, and with their personalities intact in SimsVille. Cooler still, Jenna talked about being able to import SimsVille neighborhoods into future versions of the SimCity series, which would be a major step for the Sim series – integration between the games themselves. Bring it on, Maxis.

With SimCity it was always hard to find out exactly why problem X was happening, but now you'll know exactly what's going on. If the Jones family can't find groceries easily, or a good restaurant to dine in on a Saturday night, then they'll find another town that does. Just as with all the Sims games, it comes down to creating a nice balance between their work, play and free time in order to keep your residents happy, and funding your city. And just like all the Sims games, you'll see immediately how a specific business is doing. The grocery stores will have dirty, empty windows when the business isn't doing quite so well, while a family with a new family pet will set out a dog house for their new housemate. It's the little touches that make Maxis' games so enjoyable, and you can expect the same high level in SimsVille. Speaking of which, the screen shots just don't do this game justice. Though it may look 2D, the game actually moves in a ¾ 3D perspective, with trees and other detailed objects rendered as sprites Though buildings and cars look hand drawn, they're actually polygonal, and the effect brings you right into the stylistic Sim world.

And what about online support. Right now Maxis isn't releasing details, though they have promised the same level of add-on support and integration as The Sims, which frankly is pretty damn high. We can assume that means extra buildings, tweaks to gameplay, and of course, loads of community support. And of course, a scrapbook features has already been confirmed.

This was an unexpected but unsurprising treat from Maxis this year, seeing as how the company tried to pull of a similar sort of trick for what was to be the 3D version of SimCity, which later became SC3000. Now it looks as if we have the best of all Sim worlds with the upcoming release of SimsVille next year. With its personal but wide look at the life of a town with its bustling grocery stores, tennis courts and city halls, SimsVille is that perfect mid-magnified look at life in the Sims universe.

-- Vincent Lopez