The Sims: Deluxe EditioncombinesThe Sims, the most popular PC game of all time, and the top-sellingLivin' Largeexpansion pack in one box with a host of all-new exclusive features and content.In this box you'll find:The Sims: Create an entire neighborhood of Sims and run or ruin their lives with the full version of the bestselling PC game of all time. Help your Sims pursue careers, make friends, and find romance--or make a complete mess of things! Open-ended gameplay gives you the freedom to set your own goals as you chart your Sims' destiny.The Sims: Livin' Large: With over 125 additional items, five additional career tracks with 50 additional jobs, and a cast of wild characters like the Grim Reaper and the Genie, this bestselling expansion pack puts your Sims into outrageous situations and settings.The Sims Creator: Create any Sim you can imagine with this powerful new tool that allows even novice users to customize every detail of how their Sims look. Choose their clothing or create your own. Select from a variety of details like ties, jewelry, and tattoos. Players can even put their own face inThe Simswith this easy-to-use tool.25+ Exclusive Objects: Furnish your Sims' homes with two completely new design sets with over 25 objects exclusive toThe Sims: Deluxe Edition.50+ New Clothing Choices: A selection of modern and extreme fashion choices await your Sims.The ultimate goal of life is to achieve happiness, and the way to achieve happiness is to buy stuff. So saysThe Sims, a game that lets you create, direct, and manage the lives of SimCity's residents.The game begins with the creation of your simulated people: pick a name and a gender, decide on personality/astrological sign, and then choose a look from a variety of heads, bodies, and skin tones. Name, gender, and appearance don't affect gameplay much, but personality determines how your Sim plays with others. A serious, neat Sim might go crazy living with a sloppy party animal--or opposites might attract, and the two could end up falling in love.After creation, the next step is to find a place to live. Again, the player can choose from among the empty houses in the neighborhood or decide to buy some land and design a dream house. Building houses is a blast, and the easy-to-use house design interface could almost be its own game: players design the floor plan, put up walls, pick carpet, wallpaper, and siding, and fill the house with furniture, decorations, fixtures, and appliances. You're limited only by your imagination--and your Sims' pocketbook. But the choices you make in designing and decorating your Sims' house are vital.A good general rule is that the more expensive the object, the better its ability to satisfy Sim needs. Each little Sim person has needs (Hunger, Comfort, Hygiene, Bladder, Energy, Fun, Social, and Room) which can be satisfied by interaction with other Sims or purchased objects: throw a party with the help of a rockin' stereo system, and watch your Sims' Social and Fun ratings improve. Have one of your Sims whip up some food from the refrigerator, and you'll satisfy the Hunger needs of your guests. Or have your Sim engage another Sim in a game of chess: not only will their Fun and Social moods improve, both Sims will gain some points in their Logic skill rating--which might help on the job.One gameplay goal is to improve your Sim so he or she can climb a career ladder, which nets him or her more money, which allows the purchase of higher quality stuff, which lets you improve your Sim even more. With proper care, your Sim can have a mate, kids, and a mansion with an indoor pool.Mismanage your new, simulated family, and you'll be faced with the worst of MTV'sThe Real World: jealousies will ignite, fights will break out, jobs will be lost, and the house will fall apart. Bringing about such a calamity is almost as much fun as guiding your Sims to material paradise, and takes considerably less time.Triumph or tragedy, each significant event in a Sim's life is captured in a snapshot and saved in a photo album for later viewing. Players can also take photos any time they wish. The photo album feature is cool by itself, but the best part is that you can upload the album to www.thesims.com and share your Sims' sagas with the world. Entire families can also be uploaded and downloaded, as can houses. Want to re-create and manage your own version ofFriends? Download the free face and body editor and make Sim clones of the Ross, Rachel, and the rest. Want to perfectly re-create the set? Snag the free wall and floor texture editor. Feeling a little silly? Add Darth Vader to the family and see what happens.With The Sims, you can create whatever--and whomever--you desire.Toying with the lives, successes, and emotional states of dozens of little Sims is undeniably fun. In the same way thatSimCityplayers develop a condescending attitude toward real-world city planners,The Simsplayers will begin to see life as a series of needs-satisfying challenges; the game gets in your head. But that's OK: limitless gameplay, endless variety, imaginative Internet features, and the ability to play matchmaker/landlord/counselor/God makesThe Simsa great way to increase your own Fun score. --Mike FehlauerPros:Unique, addictive, fun gameplayIncluded photo album feature records triumphs and tragediesFree uploads and downloads expand the game and allow swapping with other playersSims aresmart--it's sometimes best to just let them act on their ownCons:Addictive gameplay may cause loss of sleep, jobComplex behavioral modeling program--requires serious computing powerNo pets other than fishSex and aliens. That's really all that was missing from the amazing  original edition ofThe Sims, and the expansionLivin' Largedelivers these new treats to liven up your beloved Sims existence.New characters (including a gladiator and Xena-like warriors), and, more  impressively, new decorations are the reasons to buy this game. The  furnishings  are mostly grouped by theme, with the medieval dungeon option the most  authoritative of the bunch. (Little Cassandra Goth has beenlongingto  read by torch light all along.)Our personal favorite is the futuristic theme, with an optional, but  expensive,  maid/gardener robot to take care of the fabulous modern furnishings. Clearly  the  Sims team has been doing its research over at Herman Miller, and you'll have a  bright red, flowing-foam sofa to show for it.But it wouldn't beThe Simsif only good taste prevailed. Bring on the  mai tais with a tiki-heavy islander theme. There's also a startling collection  of carpeting and objects best grouped under the design ideal we call "demented  clown."The attention-getting rarities include: a lame fortune-telling ball (our  advice  mostly centered around hiring a maid), a voodoo doll for hexing roommates,  and a  genie who delivers as much bad as good (dead plants, anyone?). And, yes,  there's  a vibrating bed to give your Sims the spice they've been missing.While the expansion didn't blow us away, it did provide more of the humor and  novelty trueSimsdie-hards will appreciate. With even more attention  to  detail than the original offering, EA deservesSims-like applause for  this edition.--Jennifer Buckendorff