Editorial Review

The Sims: Deluxe Edition combines The Sims, the most popular PC game of all time, and the top-selling Livin' Large expansion 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 in The Sims with this easy-to-use tool.
• 25+ Exclusive Objects: Furnish your Sims' homes with two completely new design sets with over 25 objects exclusive to The Sims: Deluxe Edition.
• 50+ New Clothing Choices: A selection of modern and extreme fashion choices await your Sims.

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's The 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 of Friends? 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 that SimCity players develop a condescending attitude toward real-world city planners, The Sims players 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 makes The Sims a great way to increase your own Fun score. --Mike Fehlauer

Pros:

• Unique, addictive, fun gameplay
• Included photo album feature records triumphs and tragedies
• Free uploads and downloads expand the game and allow swapping with other players
• Sims are smart--it's sometimes best to just let them act on their own

• Addictive gameplay may cause loss of sleep, job
• Complex behavioral modeling program--requires serious computing power
• No pets other than fish

New characters (including a gladiator and Xena-like warriors), and, moreimpressively, new decorations are the reasons to buy this game. Thefurnishingsare mostly grouped by theme, with the medieval dungeon option the mostauthoritative of the bunch. (Little Cassandra Goth has been longing toread by torch light all along.)

Our personal favorite is the futuristic theme, with an optional, butexpensive,maid/gardener robot to take care of the fabulous modern furnishings. ClearlytheSims team has been doing its research over at Herman Miller, and you'll have abright red, flowing-foam sofa to show for it.

But it wouldn't be The Sims if only good taste prevailed. Bring on themai tais with a tiki-heavy islander theme. There's also a startling collectionof carpeting and objects best grouped under the design ideal we call "dementedclown."

The attention-getting rarities include: a lame fortune-telling ball (ouradvicemostly centered around hiring a maid), a voodoo doll for hexing roommates,and agenie who delivers as much bad as good (dead plants, anyone?). And, yes,there'sa vibrating bed to give your Sims the spice they've been missing.

Features

• NEW GAMEPLAY
• All new gameplay centered around a new fame score in the game UI.
• Build skills and win famous Sim friends to advance through ten levels of fame.
• Sign up with the Talent Agency to embark upon your dreams by looking through the tabloid, which is delivered to your house.
• Win a variety of different awards for achieving gameplay goals, including The Simmy Award and The Sim Choice Award.NEW LOCATION AND OBJECTS

Reviews (156)

Awsome!
Here are some cheats that cheats that will help!

first save the game at your house. Hold down Ctrl+Shift+C and the cheat box will come up type move_objects on and then go to buy mode and click on your sim and delete them, go to live mode and click their face and they'll come back refreshed and you can continue practing etc. and this is a way to help you become famous faster.

Fame all around!
The Sims Superstar is ok, if you want to become famous! But if you want to stay at home and have parties then you have to get another expansion pack. Once you begin trying to become famous you have to visit Studio Town reguarly, and practice which gets boring really fast, thats all i have to say :D

Features

• The Sims Unleashed gives players dozens of new social interactions and expands their neighborhood. Thirty all-new residential and community lots featuring new homes, lush parks, a hip new cafe, cool shops and a farmer's market are available for Sims to explore.
• Now the Sims can walk their pooch in the park or bring their cat to a cafe and build their relationships with their neighbors through their adorable animals.
• Your Sims can teach Fido where to go themselves or hire an efficient Pet Trainer to do all of the dirty work.
• Sims can also enter their kitties and canines in the local Pet show. The competition is "dog eat dog," as Sim pets try to impress the Pet Judges for prizes in obedience, tricks and good pet mood.
• Also new to The Sims Unleashed is gardening. Your Sims can now grow a variety of vegetables in their own backyard plots using seeds purchased at the local garden store. Proper care of the garden will yield a crop that can be picked and stored i

Reviews (361)

A somewhat spotty EP
MIXED FEELINGS
Ever since having bought Deluxe back in 2003, I've been a diehard fan of the Sims, and I've enjoyed both Hot Date and House Party. I have to say, though, that I have mixed feelings about Unleashed, which on one hand expanded the game wonderfully, but on the other hand, screwed things up considerably.

WHAT'S GOOD ABOUT UNLEASHED
What's good about UL is the obvious-- if you ever wanted your Sims to have pets, this is the EP to get. You have your pick of animals, from traditional favorites (dogs and cats), to more exotic animals like iquanas and turtles. UL also expands the game considerably, adding an additional number of lots to the original ten lot neighborhood, as well as a new place to visit (Old Town), and a chance for your sims to live off the land as farmers by allowing them to grow vegetable gardens. You also get new Maxis families (Hicks, Burbs, Goth Sr.s), interesting new NPCs, a beautiful set of New Orleans-inspired objects and furnishings, not to mention a new batch of surprise visitors (mostly of an animal-like nature) to deal with. One last good thing is that if you like to build houses for the heck of it, you can now build and peak inside of them without having to move a Sim in first or use the Rosebud cheat.

WHAT'S NOT SO GOOD
Okay, here's where the mixed feelings come in. I found the game very buggy. Before I bought this EP, I had to deal with the 360 shuffle (a bug where the males of the game will turn around 360 degrees before washing the dishes or picking things up). It was no big deal pre-UL then because it didn't happen too often. With UL, not only does this condition worsen, it afflicts the women too! They will almost always turn around full circle or make two extra steps to the left or to the right before doing anything! There's a patch at the official Sims 1 site to deal with it, but it doesn't treat the problem at all.

Another thing I didn't like about UL were some of the creative changes Maxis made to the game. You know, there's a good reason behind the saying "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." You could wind up spoiling a good thing otherwise. Maxis seems to not have heard of it, because it made some "fixes" to the game that soured me completely to this EP, despite my liking some of its other qualities.Major change #1: if you thought it was annoying when the sinks flooded constantly, you're just gonna *love* how the puddles now seep under objects, forcing you to go into Buy Mode to move them in order for the sims to clean them up! (No, this is not a bug, as commonly thought! Maxis actually thought this cute idea would make the game more realistic!) Major change #2: the women walk significantly differently than before, with stiffly held arms, butts sticking out and hunched up shoulders. This new change irked fans of The Sims so badly, they coined a term for it-- the Gorilla Walk. There's a patch at the official site for the first change (the puddling under objects), but no patch for the 2nd change. The Gorilla Walk didn't really bother me too much, but it's one of those changes that was really unnecessary and took away from some of its earlier charm.

There are so many other things like that I found frustrating about UL (to the point of uninstalling it after a week), but space limits prevent me from listing them all. At any rate, as you can see, although I was pleased by some aspects of UL, I was frustrated by other aspects of it. In fact, this was the first Sims 1 EP I was severely disappointed with. I'm almost a little heartbroken, because while some of the new stuff in it was astounding and added a lot to the game, the bad ideas and bugs totally killed whatever excitement those new things brought. Don't get me wrong: UL has a lot of good points, but some of its flaws at times detract from what's good about it. So it's three stars from me.

The Sims is my favorite PC game!!*_*
Sometimes, I enjoy playing Playstation, but I like Sims better. It helps me learn more a bout saving money. Sometimes, I do a cheat to get lots of money but I don't use that so much because the game is about using money and life time, not about getting cheats to win. But if you want to know the cheat, I may tell you. First, in the middle of the game, you press the Shift key, the control key,(Ctrl) and the C button. Then, you write "rosebud" to start and then !;!;!; (keep on doing it). If you one to get money MORE faster, you press !;!;!;!;!;!;!;!;1 ( keep on doing the same thing and at the last part, you do a 1.)

I like getting pets especially when the family in the house is bored and quiet. My favorite part of the game is, buying pets. shopping and building buildings. I usually name the pets in regular dog names. I also like big and fancy houses with a BIG back ground. Once, I had 4 birds, 4 iguanas and four of each pet. (Good thing I learned english to understand the game!)

At the first time I played Sims, I thougt there were no actions and I didn't know that much english. So, i made fire in the house a lot of time. Then years of practicing, I became better and better. Now, I don't have space to build stuff!

Editorial Review

The Sims: Hot Date Expansion Pack represents an entirely new experience for your Sims--dating! With exciting new characters, interests, romance objects, and an all-new downtown area filled with restaurants, shops, and parks, Hot Date will get your Sims off the couch and into the singles scene. Play matchmaker for your Sims and watch them become Casanovas or Casa-nevers.

Players can have their Sims ask each other out on a date, or they can try their luck with an in-game dating service. Arrange to meet another Sim downtown at exciting and romantic locations that the player can create. Everything from a candlelit dinner, a drink at the bar, or a rendezvous in the park is possible as your Sim attempts to orchestrate an evening to remember.

Once your Sim is out with that special someone, additional interests and new interactions keep the conversation flowing and chemistry clicking. Sims can now flirt, play footsie, engage in a little tonsil hockey, or converse in Simlish about new and diverse interests. Being a fun and fascinating date gets your Sim one step closer to a goodnight kiss, or more!

Editorial Review

Being a Sim must be pretty nice. Through the magic of expansion packs,the little virtual people have been given party favors (House Party),magic genies (Livin' Large), and hot dates (um... Hot Date). Withall these creature comforts, what more could a Sim want? Well, how about afamily vacation to a luxury fantasy resort? Vacation Island is an idyllic placethat has sun, fun, and beaches on one side of the island, snow and skiing on theother, and, in the middle, a forest perfect for camping. A trip to VacationIsland is the perfect reward for your hard-working Sims, and a fun diversion foryou--like all Sims expansions, Vacation is full of quirky Sims-stylehumor, and not everything on Vacation Island is good for your Sims.

A trip to Vacation Island isn't cheap; you have to pay for travel andaccommodations for the entire family, as well as entertainment. And just like areal vacation, you can run out of money fast. Thankfully, while on vacation yourSims' needs are slowed down significantly. They're having fun, and you don'thave to micromanage them nearly as much as you do at home. This allows you tosit back more and just observe your Sims playing with the often-funny new stuff.Stuff like a boardwalk Whack-a-Will (named for Sims creator Will Wright) game, aguy dressed as a shark who tries to terrorize the tourists, and new activitiessuch as camping, building snowmen, playing volleyball, snuggling on a bear skinrug (or picnic blanket), and hitting the ski courses and snowboard half-pipe.When it's time to go home, your Sims can take a few reminders of the trip, bothbeneficial (souvenirs that increase happiness) and detrimental (a commontropical illness). Hint: Fans who remember the Brady Bunch Hawaiianvacation episode would do well to learn from Greg Brady's mistake. --BobAndrews

Pros:

• Over 77 new items and things to do
• Truly expands the game

• It's probably time for a full-blown sequel

Editorial Review

Toga party, anyone? Now your Sims can do that and more withThe Sims: House Party Expansion Pack, which makes it easier thanever for characters from The Sims to make friends and quicklyrise to the top ranks of their professions.

They'll need all the extra money they make from promotions to pay forall the cool goodies included in this expansion. Party themes rangefrom Wild West campfire cookouts to Hawaiian luaus and room-shakingraves, with plenty of objects provided to keep guests entertained.There's a costume trunk to guarantee everyone will be dressed for theoccasion, and it's even possible to hire a caterer to keep the food anddrink flowing. If you're really lucky, a famous star may pop in for aguest appearance. Every party is packed with surprises, and theinclusion of extra neighborhoods ensures there's always a bash to plan.This is one expansion that no fan of The Sims should be without.--T. Byrl Baker

Pros:

• More than 100 new objects and characters
• Guaranteed social interactions can really help a Sim's career
• Great music and fun themes
• Plenty of surprises

• Takes time away from real parties

Features

• Breath-taking graphics (using the latest Unreal engine) that go beyond the cutting edge
• 100-200X poly count increase over Unreal Tournament
• Incredible physics engine controlling weapon and characters taking skill and control to the next level
• 6 races, over 50 characters, over 30 maps
• Latest version of the Unreal Editor, making customization incredibly easy and intuitive

Reviews (192)

this game is good but it lags for some reason
I Have broadband connection with a 1.2 AMD pc powered bya radeon 9600 graphic card and the game sometimes lags. Others times when I enter a room a black screen shows up giving a percentage of how long it will take to enter a room and sometime its take up to 2o minutes. Thats a long time even with dsl. I am newly introduced to the series so it will take me a while to get the hang of the multiplayer experience and the game in general.Other than that the game is fun to play. I recommend your get unreal 2004, but you should have a descent computer with a powerful graphics card. oh yeah if you dont have dsl dont bother playing online.

Very innovative
Brand new game engine [for 2003], new gameplays [bombing run].
The game is fun, however it drifted away from the Unreal Tournament franchise. There is no assault, there are a lot of Unreal Tournament 1 characters missing and there are no vehicles, as the developers promised.
The game is not worth your money, you are better off purchasing the next title, Unreal Tournament 2004

Features

Reviews (120)

Regular Gameplay good , but not other parts.
I got this game yesterday and I really like it. The graphics are pretty good. The only problem I had with it was that the driving part was awful. It was overall very good!!!

FULL SCREEN MODE NOT FOUND
If anyone can answer my problem I would be so greatful! I just bought Enter the Matrix for PC and i cant get it to work. I installed it, registered a direct X, i have windows media player 10! But all it says is FULL SCREEN MODE NOT FOUND. Whats wrong, how do I play it! Someone help me out, NOW.

Features

• ESRB Rating: Mature
• Genre: Action/Adventure
• Mission: Take on missions to build your reputation in the underground world, or wreak some havoc carjacking/hijacking 120 different vehicles using some of 40 weapons in your arsenal.
• Platform: Windows 98/98SE/Me/2000/XP

Reviews (135)

my other favorite game ever!
this is quite possibly the most anti-establishment game ive ever seen.there are hours and hours of fun to be had just cruising around and raising hell.you can run people over,get into fist fights,steal civil servent vehicles and do thier jobs,shoot stuff up............then you realize after weeks and weeks of this that theres actualy a game in thier with a storyline.here it is.........you are a bad man who does highly illegal things for crime bosses.things like stealing faster drug boats,shooting rival dealers,running over his unfaithful wife,shooting up buildings,intimidating witnesses.........and much much more!the really cool thing is that beyond all this,theres really hilarious talk shows on the radio.the music is all 80s all the time but from many genres.but,guess what?if you play it on an x-box,you can actualy program one station with all songs you put in!its awesome!so my advice is,put on a song that makes you tremble with frenzied aggression.crank it all the way up.then rip the knobs off your tv and go on a rampage thatd make the la riots look like candyland!you can and its all in this abselute milestone in video game history!gta!

The glittering, jeweled stepping stone
Hellooooooooooo Vice City!

That voice, that sound.Radio Espantoso.Palm trees shot through with pinpricks of slanting afternoon sunlight.Sand wedged between the toes.The passersby on the sidewalk mutter and grumble, proposition and carp.A bikini-strung roller skater darts and loops in scratchy figure 8s.My car of the moment--a baby blue Phoenix jacked mere minutes before--sits astride half a lane of traffic, idling.A column of vehicles is beginning to form behind it."Move that piece of ****!" someone bawls in my direction.Soaring above, impossibly remote, jetliners leave arcing white tracers drawn against a perfect cerulean sky in their wake: real people are in those planes, coming and going to and from Vice City, their lives self-contained baubles--solitaire storybooks set apart and in progress--which may or may not intersect with the time line of my existence.People here are the hunters or the hunted, the unaware or the just-passing-by: tourists seeing life on the surface, unaware of the bugs struggling for control under the glass.

As afternoon descends into the twilight of dusk, rainbow-colored neon lights crackle and hum into life on the beachfront hotels.Headlight and taillight glare reflects off Ocean Beach Boulevard.I make my way onto the beach proper, nearly run down in the process by a skittering moped, engine whining and buzzing like a crazed housefly.The sky does a slow burn from deep blue to amethyst to black; stars poke their noses through the curtain of night, twinkling eyes in the roof of the world.Dark clouds impinge, blowing in with alarming rapidity, bringing with them succinct, intense thunderstorms.The lighthouse on the shoreline is a beacon in the night, a finger pointing to the heavens, to the realms of forever.The rain passes; the night becomes still.From this vantage point, the distant, low murmur of traffic--both pedestrian and vehicular--is somehow comforting, somehow secret, a thing to be known and heard by only me.I stay here until morning, when the sun glints magically off the clear blue ocean, sparkling and wondrous.I have work to do, I know that: grim, bloody work, the work of a killer.Soon, but not just yet.For now it's enough to just stand here, wrapped in this pocket of time, reveling in the unreserved reality that is Vice City.A school of shiny, colorful fish zigzag off the shore.Yachts and small boats patrol the harbor.A shark snakes coolly near the shoreline, hunting, somehow menacing and beautiful at the same time: just one more predator in the land of vice.

The year is 1986.Somewhere along the sun-kissed coast of southern Florida is a place called Vice City (modeled after Miami), a resort city, a tourist destination, yet overflowing with mobsters, gangs, drugs, corruption and a multi-cultural populace ranging from the extremely rich to the extremely poor.There's a little bit of everything here, from the most beautiful and exotic to the most unseemly and callous aspects of the criminal underworld.The player takes on the role of Tommy Vercetti, a 35-year-old convict just out of prison after serving 15 years.He's associated with the Forelli crime family in Liberty City (modeled after New York City, and the setting for Grand Theft Auto III), and upon his release they send him to Vice City to expand their criminal empire.

Vice City is a third-person action game, but it's also about a million other things in addition to that.The city is organic and teeming with life.It lives and breathes.And it does so without your interaction.The NPCs who inhabit this space have seeming agendas and lives that subsist outside the realms of the player's discernment, and they go about them regardless of you.Citizens strutting or lurching or strolling by on the sidewalk have thoughts and voices; they will talk to each other and to you, their dialogue oddments everything from mundane to wacky to comical to threatening.Traffic patterns around the various neighborhoods of the expansive city and islands alter in course with changing times of day, and the vehicles present in each area generally reflect the type of neighborhood it is.See a product advertised on a billboard, later hear that same product advertised on a radio spot.It brings it home, makes it seem authentic somehow.Police hound criminals in cars and on the street (and you can get a $50 "good citizen" bonus if you help them nab their quarry).Blimps glide in lazy ovals above the downtown area, white cigars against the indigo sky.News and police helicopters buzz around importantly.Someone gets hurt, an ambulance will rush in and tend to them.Break the law, the police will come after you.It's all there, that and so much more.More than anything else, the city itself is the star of Vice City, the siren that keeps beckoning, that won't let you go.

The game is mission-based, although a player could spend as much time as that just tooling around in various vehicles and pounding around on foot, observing, interacting and maybe causing the occasional mayhem.There's so much to see and do here outside of the basic game structure, it's almost addicting, spellbinding, to reflect on it all.But when it's down to the missions proper, they're divided between a thread of main story missions--obligatory to finish the game's central storyline--and secondary, optional objectives. Assignments are relayed via game-engine cut scenes, and it's here that the colorful cast of characters truly springs to life, thanks to voiceovers by the likes of Ray Liotta, Burt Reynolds, Dennis Hopper, Gary Busey, Philip Michael Thomas, Lawrence Taylor and others.The cut scenes also serve to flesh out the game's story arc.The missions are designed in a way that certain key undertakings must be completed before others that follow can be unlocked.Vice City's missions find you doing a little bit of everything, starting off slowly, developing game skills and familiarity, and then successively adding to them. Or sometimes going in a completely new direction.You just never know what to expect.

Eluding the police quickly establishes itself as a central theme in Vice City.Six "wanted" stars onscreen measure the degree of interest the police have in you at any given time.For minor infractions and illicit behavior such as colliding with another car or running down a pedestrian (!), just one star is generated.In this instance, police pursuit is one cruiser, halfhearted and easily avoided.One star can be eliminated by laying low for a short time or by finding a police bribe.Police bribes are located at various points throughout the map; finding them and remembering their location can be quite valuable.One bribe eliminates one star.If you commit further infractions, two stars will be generated.Multiple cruisers will take an interest in you.They will not fade with time, so two police bribes must be found.Alternately, there are auto paint shops around town called Pay-N-Spray where, for a minimal fee, your vehicle will be repaired, painted a new color and all your wanted stars--regardless of how many--will be eradicated. Three wanted stars brings a helicopter after you, as well as plain clothes detectives in speedy sports cars called Cheetahs.Four stars adds the SWAT teams and the roadblocks, five stars brings in the FBI, and six full stars brings in the military with their tanks and trucks. Hightailing it towards the nearest Pay-N-Spray under heavy fire from police, FBI and even military pursuit is something you'll find yourself doing again and again during the course of the game.

As Tommy Vercetti, you'll be able to carjack and operate any vehicle: car, truck or motorcycle, as well as helicopters and boats.When in such a motorized transport, you'll find an extensive array of radio stations available for your perusal.A myriad gaggle of genuine, authentic 1980s period music, everything from pop to R&B to new wave to heavy metal to a Spanish-themed station and more.It's a great crash down memory lane for those of us who grew up in the 80s.The DJs hosting these stations are, simply put, brilliant and entertaining in the accuracy of their lampoon.And there's also talk radio stations, arguably the most enjoyable audio segments of the game.Talk about parody and satire on a grand scale, this stuff is as good as Spinal Tap.The hosts and guests on these stations are so authentic and sincere in their dialogue that it's sometimes difficult to catch all the nuances they're throwing at you.It's great, great stuff, all of it: a mocking mirror thrown up at these aspects of the culture.

From the lighthouse at Ocean Beach to Escobar International Airport, from Little Havana to Hyman Memorial Stadium, from the mall at Vice Point to Fort Baxter Air Base, the pulse of Vice City beats.From Ken Rosenberg's office in Washington Beach to Colonel Juan Garcia Cortez's yacht, from Avery Carrington's limousine to Aunti Poulet's Haitian voodoo brew, from the usurped Starfish Island mansion of kingpin Ricardo Diaz to Sonny Forelli's last stand, the line of Vice City runs through it.Wide open and free-roaming in nature, few-if any-games have the immersive impact the Grand Theft Auto series has had since Grand Theft Auto III.Vice City is more than simply a worthy successor to that title; it is a landmark in gaming-embracing all the previous entry had and adding more layers and textures to it: the glittering, jeweled stepping stone between Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

Features

• Four different races to command including Orcs, Humans, Night Elves and Undead, each possessing unique units, magical abilities and weapons of war.
• Skeletal and skinning animation process allows infinite frames of animation resulting in true fluid movement of 3D models.
• Advanced world design tools allowing players to customize every aspect of the game including tile sets, character art, quests, mission objectives, and unit types, AI, attributes, special abilities and spells.
• Expanded multiplayer options over Battle.net including a larger number of players per game and multiple game types including team play and questing.

Reviews (437)

Warcraft 3; Upsides and downsides
I really liked Warcraft 3 alot and I would definately recommend it to anyone willing to give up about an hour of their timeevery day and have fun. You might not accomplish anything in particular but you will be awe-ispired by this game (and if you think this is cool, you should by World of warcraft). Once you buy the game you have to buy the expansion, because it makes it way cooler than it already is. The "World Editor" feature is sweet, because you get to create your own maps and dungeons (look for this feature in the annals of your comptor after installation). This game is altogether sweet and I seiriously recommend it. I also reccomend purchasing any other BLIZZARD titles that strike your fancy. Please excuse the poor typing, Sincerely, Nick

WarCraftIII + Apple + a buddy = where the time go...
Super fun - I took my powerbook over to a buddies - hooked up an ethernet cable and bam - we were having a blast.Must admit the little lady was a little bent because I lost all sense of time and was a bit late for dinner.I will say it was worth it - great maps - great connection - and Blizzard just makes the best games ever - they are all about making games fun.
I can't recomend them enough.

Features

• Access to a thriving player community brimming with content and support
• A captivating Dungeons & Dragons role-playing experience
• Based in the Forgotten Realms, rediscover the magic or explore it anew
• Features Shadows of Undrentide and a number of stand-alone modules
• Includes an 80-hour official campaign, Aurora Toolset, and Dungeon Master client

Reviews (26)

Typical RPG problems, disappointing toolset.
While the game itself is fairly entertaining, it still has those typical design flaws programmers just can't seem to see. Inspite of being told to stay put, characters with you magicly show up next to you as you pass through some doorways, often right into a scene best handled alone. More often, very imaginative strategies will gather fewer experience than rushing blindly into battle. "Scripted events" (where your character is magicly thrown into a new situation or plot line which he or she has the power to control, but can not) can make thinking gamers feel cheated.
The much hyped toolset is a disaster for imaginative Dungeon Masters as the vast majority of "monsters" are of the humanoid type. If as game creator, you don't mind using the same basic type of creaures over and over, the toolset will work for you. Anyone very creative however, will see that most of those fantastic creations from the Monster Manuals can not be included in their game. Professional graphic artists may (in a conciderable amount of time) be able to create unique creatures. Anyone else however, is out of luck. Even if one would be satisfied using the provided monsters, they will be bombarded with the program language "scripting" needed to make events happen within their world. NWN with the expansion contained here had the potential to be great, but falls victim to typical computer RPG problems and unproductive tools for one's own imagination.

Neverwinter Nights Gold
Enter a world of magic and adventure in Neverwinter Nights Gold Edition. This pack includes both the original Neverwinter Nights and the Shadows of Unrentide Expansion. This game is a RPG with both single and multiplayer modes. It is my opinion that this exciting game is well worth your money and time.
The storyline of this game is well-developed and the characters fill their roles well. The campaign also includes many sidequests so you can take a break from the main story. Much freedom is given to how you create your character and how you go along with the storyline. Also, your inventory is easy to use and you are easily able to access anything you carry.
This is a fun and versatile game that is definitely worth playing.

Editorial Review

From the makers of EverQuest comes PlanetSide, a massively multiplayer online first-person shooter where thousands of players wage war in a battle of planetary proportions. A newly designed 3D engine drives PlanetSide's player-to-player combat and vehicular warfare across ten continents.

Three distinct factions battle it out, each with composed of distinct combat, leadership, support, and espionage roles. Players join the fight online, conquering territory or defending established bases as the ever-changing situation demands. Success in battle brings social prestige as well as access to advanced vehicles and weaponry.

Reviews (6)

Dont order the card, you will never receive it.
I have had this card on order since Dec 23.I have approved to extensions for the delay with a ship date now of mid Feb.

At this point I consider these cards Vaporware.

BTW, the sony web seite isnt much better, they cant seem to even process the order.

The best First Person Shooter available today.
There is simply no comparison to planetside.Planetside does require a good system for the best performance.However the game works so well.16 on 16 FPS shooters can't compare to 100 vs 100.13 continents per world to wage war on.Unlimited certification combinations.10 minutes from patch to actually being able to play the game.Level playing field.A battle rank 1 character is the same as a battle rank 20 character in terms of armor and health.This game rocks hard core.

Editorial Review

Early Adopters Pick: November 2002. Best image quality in a graphics card to date and best card for PC gaming.

Through a combination of incredible 3-D rendering performance, sophisticated real-time visual effects, unsurpassed image quality, and cutting-edge video features, the Radeon 9700 Pro takes the PC entertainment experience to a totally new level.

Featuring fast 3-D gaming performance with next-generation VPU architecture, complete DirectX 9.0 support for unprecedented realism and sophisticated visual effects, and ATI's Smoothvision 2.0 technology, the Radeon 9700 Pro provides breathtaking image quality.

Features

• Sleek, silvery design with translucent black
• Wireless RF connection works up to 3 feet from computer, Windows or Mac compatible
• Flexible USB receiver fits any port configuration and stores inside mouse for all-in-one travel convenienceCompatible with devices that utilize a standard Type I and II PC Card slot
• A user says - The ability to stick the USB receiver in the bottom of the mouse is very convenient. Overall this mouse performs very well, and is sufficiently small to be carried anywhere
• DiamondEye¿ optical technology tracks precisely on any surface so no mouse pad needed

Reviews (40)

Needs own drivers; Short battery life
Ergonomics are fine.Weight/shape/optical are fine.I got this mouse to use at work on a daily basis.My workplace tech people "installed" it for me.I was having a lot of trouble with the mouse until I figured out they had not installed the driver specific to the mouse; once I got the correct driver, the mouse has been functioning as expected (except for the horizontal scroll always coming on).I do store the usb port inside the mouse each day when i leave for the evening so that the battery life can be conserved.Despite these efforts, the batteries only last me about a week or so.While this may be fine for travel use, it is not fine for everyday use.I am going to have to replace it with another mouse.

Better than reviews, but not for presentations
I read the reviews AFTER I ordered the mouse as part of a Dell laptop package.Hence my expecations were very low.However in general, it exceeded these expectations.

I'm going on 3 weeks using it on the desktop all day and the batteries have NOT died yet.Hence I can only assume that the mouse is smart enough not to transmit when it is not being moved.Maybe I got a better revision, but this mouse has far more battery life than the 3-5 days I've read in reviews.

The movement is fine.It is sensitive, but you can adjust this.

The only disappointment is that the range is indeed quite small as indicated.3 feet is about right.Therefore this mouse CANNOT BE USED FOR PRESENTATIONS.It is too bad really.If the range was even 6 feet, it might have worked for my presentation purposes.

Editorial Review

Whether intended for a business or leisure environment, the Compaq Presario 6370US Desktop is right at home. You'll need to purchase a separate monitor and speakers, and you may want to eventually upgrade the video card (particularly if you're a fan of complex 3-D applications), but the Presario 6370us is otherwise a capable rig at a palatable price point.

Compaq has selected a powerful 2.53 GHz Pentium 4 processor for the Presario 6370US, and complemented it with 512 MB of fast SDRAM memory and a 64 MB NVidia GeForce MX420 graphics card. This system "engine" is more than enough for virtually any application currently on the market, although ardent gamers or 3D animators may want to add a faster graphics card at a later date.

Sporting a massive 120 GB hard disk, the unit offers plenty of on-board storage room for all your programs, files and downloaded MP3s. If you need even more space, you can backup and archive your files on the integrated 40x (Write) 10x (Rewrite) 40x (Read) optical drive, which also allows you to listen and burn audio CDs and enjoy the latest cinematic releases.

Editorial Review

Small enough to carry around and costing not much more than a top-of-the-line consumer camcorder, the XL1S produces such high-quality results that it is sure to be the top choice for many independent filmmakers who demand full features and controls. Like its predecessor, the XL1, this camera uses three separate 270,000 pixel CCDs (one for each primary color) for the best picture quality. The XL1S records digital audio, with two channels of 16 bit/48 KHz sound or four channels of 12 bit/32 KHz sound. The body is based on a magnesium-alloy frame for maximum durability. It ships with a 16x optical zoom lens with optical image stabilization, but is also compatible with other XL camcorder lenses. With an optional adapter, you can use Canon EF (EOS) still-camera lenses--some of which also feature optical image stabilization.

The electronics of the XL1S have many advanced features, including a number of programmed AE modes, as well as both shutter and aperture priority modes. There are two different auto modes, one of which allows you to adjust any setting manually, if you want, and the other, which adjusts every setting automatically and lets you adjust nothing. A spotlight mode automatically compensates for difficulties when shooting a subject bathed in a spotlight. The computer-shooting mode gets rid of monitor flicker that happens when shooting a computer screen. There are also three different shooting modes: normal movie, digital photo, and frame movie. Normal movie mode is for any time you want to shoot video footage. Digital-photo mode records a still image for six seconds on the MiniDV tape and also captures any accompanying audio for a commentary track. The frame movie mode records 30 noninterlaced still images per second, instead of capturing 60 fps interlaced images. This mode isn't intended to be used for shooting video (playback may not look completely smooth). Rather, frame movie mode should be used as a burst, or continuous, shooting mode, like you'd find on a still camera.

The XL1S offers many new and updated features over the XL1. There is a 16:9 shooting mode where electronic lines draw are displayed through the viewfinder so you can compose your shots flexibly for later conversion to HDTV, where 16:9 is the standard. SMPTE color bars help establish a proper color reference for shooting and editing. Interval recording lets you shoot time-elapsed motion video with intervals from 30 seconds to 10 minutes. Zebra patterns help you determine overexposed areas in your shot so you can adjust the aperture and shutter accordingly.

The MiniDV format supported by the XL1S delivers more than 500 lines of horizontal resolution -- a 25% improvement over analog systems. The DV format allows for near lossless transfer within digital editing environments for faster creation, increased productivity and improved production quality of final prints.

The XL1S maximizes the capability of the DV format by using a 3 CCD (charge-coupled device) system with a separate CCD for each primary color (red, green, blue). A beam-splitting prism separates light passing through the lens into individual color components and each is sent to its own CCD. Compared to a single CCD, the 3 CCD system achieves outstanding detail with highly accurate color reproduction suitable for the demands of high-end video production - wide dynamic range, low color noise, high-contrast detail, natural color resolution and low-aliasing. The 3 CCD system also makes advanced Pixel Shift (for increased image quality) and Low Light Recording (for increased flexibility) possible.

The three CCD image sensors in the XL1S, each with 270,000 pixels, were specifically designed to capture as much image detail as possible and for shooting under extremely low light conditions. The size of each pixel is 72 square microns - 150% larger than the pixel-size on comparable DV models. The result is an approximate 4 dB improvement in sensitivity. This improved sensitivity means that each CCD can capture more information at all light ranges. In super low light, the XL1S still captures crisp and clear digital data. Under extremely bright conditions, the Pixel Shift capabilities of the XL1S greatly reduces vertical white streaks and smears, making it a consummate field recording device for all conditions.

Because human eyes see green more clearly and readily, the green component of a video signal contains 60% of the picture detail whereas the red and blue components together comprise the remaining 40%. With the advanced Pixel Shift on the XL1S, the green CCD is physically shifted the equivalent distance of 1/2 pixel horizontally from the red and blue CCD, and the green signal is electronically shifted 1/2 pixel vertically. This shifting of the green CCD increases the sampling points, resulting in a system that is comparable to 410,000 pixel CCD systems in terms of resolution. With a larger pixel size and the process of Pixel Shift, the Canon XL1S gives wider dynamic range, better low light recording, reduced vertical smears, and high quality still images without sacrificing the highest resolution DV available.

• XL1S Camera
• Zoom Lens 16x XL 5.5-88 mm IS
• BP-930 Battery Pack
• CA-910 Compact Power Adapter
• DC-900 DC Coupler
• SS-1000 Shoulder Strap
• WL-D32000 Wireless Controller
• SP-100 Shoulder Pad
• S-150 S-video Cable
• STV-150 Stereo Video Cable
• Lens Hood