The Sims: Superstar Expansion Pack (PC CD)

The Sims Superstar is really great and the new items are fantastic. But personally I think the game is too hard to complete. Every day a little magazine from Studio Town appears allowing you the options to read it, find out who's the hottest sim in Studio Town and allowing you to get and agent. If you decide to get an agent you will start at the very bottom of the superstardom ladder. Where your job description would normally be there are five stars and a famous friend rating. Although there are five stars there are ten levels of fame. As soon as you get 2 and a half stars it becomes really difficult to progess. You must deal with your fans and if you neglect them the Obsessed Fan will appear. He'll follow you around everywhere taking pictures. The hard bit is the famous friends rating. Normally to get promoted in a regular job you'd need a certain amount of friends. Now though it doesn't matter how many famous people are your friends. It's how famous they are that matters. The REALLY annoying bit though is it's hard to be friends with them because until you gain that smiley face you can only do a few interactions with them. And their fame rating changes every couple of days so you could be friends with the hottest sim in Studio Town and your famous friends rating would be rocketing. Then they'd dissapear and the rating would plummit!

All in all a good game but Maxis need to ease down a little on the challenges. And if some people like that it's so hard they should offer you what most games offer. An easy/medium/difficult option. Also if like me you're a big Sims fan you'll probably be annoyed at how much disk space all the games have taken up.

But it's not just the new activities and items that make the expansion pack so good, it's how you unlock them. As a budding actress, singer or model you won't have anything given to you. Practice your talents at home and networking and working your way up the social ladder will both be required for you to succeed. In essence, the new "celebrity" status is another career. You'll have to work hard at it just like any jobs your sims have had before. Although this can get slightly frustrating [How many more famous people's universe-sized ego's must I flatter to get the role in that movie?!] it's mostly enjoyable and the rewards are all the more sweeter for your endevours.

Baisically, this is a very well thought out and executed Expansion Pack. The whole idea of making your sims worldwide celebrities is a very appealing one, and the new items, interactions and gameplay ensure that reaching your goals is as enjoyable as reeping thier benefits. If you own The Sims and are getting bored with it's 'everyday' approach to life, this is sure to give you and your sims a dose of decadance you both need.

Studio Town, by far the most expansive new area ever introduced into The Sims has a world of new things to offer: e.g., spas featuring mud baths, massage tables, and oxygen bars, sushi carts, and star trailers. There are so many new things to do in Studio Town that EA provides a guide of sorts at the top of the screen with which you can quickly identify which lots offer which types of new activities. There are a number of different gigs available for your rising superstars as they advance through the ranks of their chosen field, including recording studios, soap opera sets, and high fashion venues. Your sims don't just get up on stage and mumble, either; Superstar finds them putting on some impressively expression-laden displays.

The list of new objects, some 150+, this expansion pack adds to The Sims is also quite impressive. A butler is now available for hire; let him take care of running the household, hiring staff, caring for the baby, etc.; you are now far too important to be bothered with common everyday household chores. Your new lifestyle brings with it awesome new toys and diversions such as satellite dishes, new stereo speakers, skydiving simulators, tanks for scuba diving, and loads of new furnishings to fit your new lifestyle of the rich and famous. One very important innovation provided by this expansion pack is a much improved and more orderly phone book. In addition, new build mode tools let you customize your property in a number of important new ways.

While I would not call Sims Superstar an absolutely necessary expansion pack to own, I do consider it essential for devoted Sims players. It is one thing to offer an impressive number of new objects, but to offer on top of that a vast new area in which to use these new objects (as well as preexisting ones) in an entirely new and exciting way is not far from being everything this Sims gamer could ask for.