The Sims games have a big legacy behind them. With the Sims and the Sims 2 being the best selling PC games of all time, they define fun simple game play at its best and I consider myself a fan of the series.
The Showtime Expansion pack gets you in a new town called Starlight Shore based off southern California towns, like Venice beach, where people go in hopes of making it big. The town has lovely locations and many places both you and your Sims can visit (you can’t get an inside view of some locations) such as karaoke bars and museums. However the game’s biggest features are the three new careers available for your Sims. They can be an acrobat, a magician, or a singer. These professions come with their own noble lifetime wishes, Master Acrobat, Master Magician, and Vocal Legend, which all require you to reach level 10 in your career. To try all the new careers, I made one household with an acrobat, a singer, and a magician.
What all three performers can do is perform for tips and also venues, and as you become more proficient at your job you come closer to becoming famous. To get a gig you must audition in front of the proprietor. This doesn’t guarantee you’ll do well however, as there are many times when you begin you will mess up, even if it’s somewhere as embarrassing as SimFest.
The magician can be made to perform trademark magic tricks such as flowers from wand or instant cards. However, he can become extremely repetitive and mess up a lot, but he’s still in his first level so maybe he learns some new tricks later on.
I’ve been keeping my Sims living poor because it seems time is against me and I can never get enough money as a performer, even as a group of three! Maybe it’s just that controlling three Sims at once can be a challenge, but the energy bar is my worst enemy.
Also, everything in my house constantly breaks and needs cleaning. I would buy new fixtures but everything can be
fixed for free and my Sims don’t make much money. I gave the magician the neat trait and later on the speedy cleaner trait with his Lifetime Rewards points. I then made him the unofficial household maid and repairman, which hasn’t given me much time to develop his magic skills. Even so, the other Sims constantly need to be kept energized, fed, entertained, socializing, and all that good stuff. Also he complains about staying in the house, I thought because he’s family oriented that wouldn’t be a problem but apparently stay at home Sims need a life too.
My Sims experience overall has been pretty fun, the graphics are decent and the houses are very customizable. One of the best things about the game are the smooth controls where you can use either your keyboard or mouse to adjust your view, which is an integral part of the game. If you use Origin to play the game you can download new content, some of which is free. SimPort is a feature that I have not yet tried. This option allows you to travel to the town of another friend or transport him or her to yours. I’ll be playing some more and see if I can make my Sims’ Lifetime Wishes come true and showcase some more of the game. I hope you look forward to the second part of my review, because I know I am.
