The Sims is a game that seems to produce a very strong reaction from the people that play it - either they absolutely love it and find it impossible to put down or hate it with a passion and proclaim it to be one of the worst, most boring games ever. Having never played it before I jumped at the chance to review it for Gamecube and although I suspected I'd find it dull, I couldn't have been more wrong.

I rarely relate personal gaming experiences in my reviews but I'm going to make an exception because something happened to me when I began playing The Sims that has never (to my recollection) happened before. I've been addicted to many games in the past- Laser Squad on the Spectrum, Doom on PC, Super Mario Kart on SNES and Star Control on Megadrive to name a few of those from my yesteryears. Halo had me playing from the minute I got in from work until the early hours of the morning and I've pulled all-nighters with Xbox Live classics such as Whacked! and Ghost Recon, going to bed when everyone else is getting up. But never before have I been so possessed by a game that I played it for 24 hours with only food and toilet stops breaking up the gameplay!

I started playing at about half midnight on the Tuesday night, thinking I'd do a couple of hours then go to bed. I was playing the Get A Life mode and I was determined to get away from Dudley, my lazy loser housemate who viewed me as his personal maid and refused to help with the chores. Every time I looked up at the clock an hour had passed and I thought to myself, "I'll just play until 4 then call it a night… I'll just play until 5 then call it a night…" By the time I got to 8am I realised I had no intention of going to bed and embraced the madness. By the time I got to midday myself and my sexy lady friend, Layla, had a pretty nice place going. I somehow managed to quit the game because I was curious about how the main game worked (Get a Life is a goal-oriented version of the main game). This was my big mistake! Another twelve hours later and at half midnight on the Wednesday night I finally went to bed!! My addiction is under control, at least a little, otherwise you wouldn't be reading this review but I am greatly surprised that such a simple little game that boils down to statistic juggling could have immersed me so completely that in giving life to simulated beings I temporarily lost my own.

So then, what is the aim of the game in The Sims? It's simple on paper; you must manage the lives of a household of people down to the smallest detail, catering to their entire range of needs within the restraints of the time lost either asleep or at school and work. As the game progresses, so do your Sims' talents, abilities and material wealth.

The game begins with your Sim family - you can choose from a couple of preset families (which can be fully modified) or create your own. Naturally I chose the latter option and created a family of four (the maximum you can have) with a dad, mum, son and daughter. The first aspect of a Sim to define is personality - you name them and you can choose male or female, adult or child (the child's age seems to be around 9 or 10) but sadly there didn't seem to be any options for babies, teenagers or old folks. It would have been nice to allow for a larger family too, although due to the amount of attention you must give each Sim and the way time passes so quickly, greater than 4 would be very hard to manage. You then define their personality traits by assigning a limited number of points into each trait, defining how active, neat, nice, outgoing and playful your Sims are; alternatively you can choose preset traits for any of the twelve star signs. This is an important part of the game and giving different Sims different strengths and weaknesses will allow for better teamwork, as long as you play to the strengths of each Sim.

The second aspect to define is their appearance. There is a reasonable range of looks to choose from but I have to say I found this aspect a bit limited and disappointing. There aren't many faces to choose from and they all look pretty artificial and scary, in the way that ventriloquist dummies are scary! The hairstyle and skin colour ranges are good but again the clothing and accessory choices seem limited, although at least you can define the colour once you've found the style you like. I created the Pigeon family, consisting of Woody who has big hair, sideburns, a shirt and tie, boxers with hearts on them and knee high purple boots; his wife, Kerry with a spiky green punk hairdo, freaky make up with a tight top, short pants, fishnet tights and boots; their son Homer, an albino child with pasty skin, near white eye pupils, big hair like his dad but white, some weird glasses and green casual clothes; and finally Claire, with brown hair and pigtails, freckles and regular clothes, being the most normal looking of the family. As you can see there are literally millions of possible combinations and I doubt any two people will ever dream up the exact same Sim.

With your family ready to go, you can view the 6 available locations in the Neighbourhood - 3 are already occupied with houses and families, 3 are empty and awaiting a house to build. You can either evict a family, moving in on their turf, or you can build your own house from scratch. Although the building editor is a little tricky to get to grips with at first (with no tutorial and a useless instruction manual) it will not take long before you're a budding architect, decorator and interior designer, bringing life to what you ultimately aim will be the perfect house. To start with though you're working on a very tight budget and the first house I built was very poky and only had the basics but it was nice enough to call home.

The building editor, which can be entered at any time, has a number of sections that you will need for creating the house. You can build walls, picket fences and iron railings, then put textures on the walls with various wallpaper, wood, cement, brick and other surfaces to choose from. Next come floor textures such as linoleum, carpet, wood and an assortment of stone tiles. There is a limited range of floor and wall patterns to choose from but some of the designs are atrocious (perfect if you're trying to make your family look like complete dweebs). Also there aren't many wall and floor combinations that really seem to go together. The other aspects to building include adding in doors and windows from a very small selection, plus plants, hedges, trees and even a swimming pool for the garden.

With your house created you must now buy stuff to put in it. Every room needs some form of lighting and you can choose from an assortment of wall, floor and table lights. The bathrooms must have a toilet and preferably a washbasin, plus a bath or shower is essential. In the kitchen at the very least you need a waste bin, cooker, fridge and sink, with optional items including a coffee maker, dishwasher, and trash compactor. A table and chairs for eating is pretty vital too, preferably near to the kitchen area. Fortunately you don't have to buy cutlery and crockery but you will have to clean up the old plates lying around or flies will start to gather! In the living room a couple of comfy chairs or a sofa is good, along with a budget monochrome TV and small stereo to start off with. In each category there is a good range of items to choose from, most having budget items with much nicer models at much higher prices. There is also a wide range of extras to buy - workout bench, guitar, fish tank, pool table, telescope, craft bench, toy box, Jacuzzi, model railway, basketball hoop, chess board - the list is almost endless with a wide range of imaginative items. You can also scatter plants around the house for decoration but remember to water them or they'll die. Sadly no house pets are available.

Now you've got your house and you've got your family and all you have to do is, simply, live. This is of course a real challenge as most of the time you are reacting to circumstances and constantly battling against the clock. There are several factors you need to consider with your Sims and they are income, skills, motives and socialising. Obviously you can't live without money and at least one member of the household will need to get a job. There are a variety of career paths to choose including military, entertainment, musician and even criminal! Initially your job is for crummy pay, but as you enhance your skills you will earn promotions and pay increases. So what skills will you need? There are six skills - Cooking, Mechanical, Logic, Charisma, Creative and Body - and initially you have 0/10 in all of them! These can be improved by studying books for cooking, playing chess for logic, painting or playing an instrument for creativity and so on. However, finding time to spend on these skills is where the real challenge lies because your Sims will not be willing to develop their skills if they're not motivated.

This brings me to the crux of the game - catering to the Sims' motives, of which there are eight - Bladder, Hunger, Hygiene, Energy, Fun, Social, Comfort and Room (which is how much they like the room they are currently in.) Catering to these needs is fairly obvious - if a Sim is hungry he must eat, if he's lacking in hygiene he must wash and sleep is essential to increasing energy and comfort. But it's the way these motives tie in with each other and every aspect of the game that makes it so fascinating and challenging.

For example, you had a late night because time goes very fast as it takes the Sims a long time to do anything and 1 Sim minute is equivalent to one second of our time. Everyone's in bed but Woody will have to go to the toilet and have a wash before work, however his energy is low too so he won't have time to do this and eat. Meanwhile Kerry's fun is at rock bottom and must be improved before work, so she must do something recreational instead of cooking breakfast for everyone (she's the only one with enough cooking skill to do it). The kids will have to fix themselves a snack and go to bed without washing because Woody will be hogging the bathroom, there are plates to clear up from last night (with flies on them), the toilet needs cleaning and the fish need feeding. Even worse, there was a burglary in the night and thanks to your alarm the criminal was caught (you get a lush $1000 reward, thank you very much!) but Woody was woken up and lost precious sleep. You set everyone about their tasks (all of them throwing tantrums when they awake without enough sleep) and just before they're due to leave the dishwasher breaks down and water floods all over the kitchen floor - Woody will have to spend the evening studying mechanics to gain enough skill to fix it but only after you've cheered him up as he's depressed and needs some social contact. And so it goes on.

That's not to say it's like this every day but bad days like this make the good ones all the more satisfying. The final part of the game is socialising and you must make friends with other Sims from your Neighbourhood in order to advance your career (it's who you know, not what you know, you know…) Here's a good day: you come home from work and school and the kids have enough energy to clean up and water the plants whilst Woody and Kerry have a kip for a couple of hours. Then Kerry goes out to the barbecue and starts cooking whilst Woody phones a couple of people to let them know he's throwing a party. Guests soon arrive and the kids greet them and show them round to the back, where they help themselves to burgers and drinks from the cooler then sit at the table on the patio and eat them, admiring the flowers and trees in your garden. After food some take a dip in the pool whilst the kids play on a mini adventure playground and other guests play pool, dance or even play strip poker. After a great night your social and fun is up, you've made new friends and you get to bed around midnight - you'll be a little tired the next day but it was worth it.

Hopefully from these two examples you'll see that the gameplay in The Sims is very open-ended yet strictly regimented at the same time. Once you get used to taking care of the basic needs before they get too desperate you'll be able to focus on the more fun aspects of life as a Sim. You can stop time whenever you like in order to examine your Sims' motives and prioritise their actions (you can assign a sequence of up to ten actions). You can also speed things up when you have everything under control and the time goes extra fast when all Sims are asleep or out of the house at work and school.

The graphics, sound and music in The Sims are good but are in no way pushing the power of the Gamecube. They fit the gameplay very well but could be a lot more detailed and varied. However, the amount of detail on the various items of furniture and the Sims themselves is very good and the animations are excellent and often very amusing - especially when someone is dancing, jigging around because they need the toilet or falling asleep on their feet! The sound effects are fine but can be annoying (especially the damn buzzing flies and some of the voices) and the music is okay but very repetitive, with only four variations of style available in game by switching the stereo on.

This version of The Sims also comes with a couple of extra modes - firstly you can play the main game with two players, where you both have full control over the family of Sims so you and a friend can split the work and work together, which is a big bonus as it's as boring to watch as it is fun to play. The Get a Life mode is a series of set situations where you must achieve goals to progress to the next level, each goal unlocking a new item for use in this and the main mode. In the first situation you must learn basic cooking and mechanical skills and once your mother thinks you are competent enough you can get a job and move out. Next you must clean up your cousin Dudley's house, which he trashed partying - once it's spick and span you can move in with Dudley, who is a lazy, low-paid oik and treats you as his personal slave. Your objective here is to throw a raucous party and move in with one of Dudley's mates. And so it goes on. Various bonus levels are unlocked during this mode, where you and a friend can go head to head in different settings and situations, in a race to see who can achieve the objectives first. All of these extras are a big bonus and add a lot of replay value and lifespan to an already limitless game.

The Sims is by no means perfect however and there is plenty of room for improvement in the range of items available, the character generation and the graphics, sound and music overall. Also, there are strange gaps in reality - for example there are no curtains or blinds for your windows and your Sims don't have different outfits to wear just for their everyday activities. This means there no laundry or washing machine and you don't ever have to shop for food either. Perhaps with these additions it would be too much to manage, still it does seem a bit strange. The biggest omission is the lack of a weekend - you must go to work and school every single day and this becomes a real grind after a while with no chance to catch up on yourself. One extra Gamecube-related gripe - this game requires 60 blocks (yes, 60) with only 59 blocks available on 4MB memory cards, meaning that unless you've bought a bigger one you'll have to buy a new memory card as well.

The Sims is like nothing you've ever played before - sure, it shares a lot in common with other simulation titles but as its name suggests this is the ultimate in simulation games as it deals with the individual on a very detailed scale. Intricate, challenging, totally absorbing and greatly rewarding gameplay combined with an excellent interface and graphics that fit the experience very well, you will find this to be incredibly addictive or incredibly boring - either way it's worth a try just to find out if you'll be the next gamer to succumb to the lure of The Sims.

Reviewed by Geoff Holland for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).