Infendo: "Sims games have been a metropolitan affair since their inception, but Electronic Arts is ready to take the Sims for a walk on the wild side.
Infendo visited EA headquarters Friday for a demo of SimAnimals, the company's newest Sims franchise heading to Wii and DS next January. A departure from the traditional people-focused Sims approach, SimAnimals challenges Sims veterans and newcomers alike to manage the only creatures more unpredictable than humans:
Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!
SimAnimals charges players with the responsibility of restoring once-beautiful natural areas to normalcy. The unfavorable current state of the environments implies a backstory; man has polluted each of the varied areas, and the wildlife have long-since evacuated. Players must improve the ecologies, clean up the messes, restore the areas' livability and ultimately, bring back the animals."
The first instalment of the series takes us back to the wintery depths of January 2009 when most would have taken advantage of the high street sales. Here's our list of the new releases that shouldn't have been overlooked and that we recommend you look out for when on the search for a bargain in this years sales.
Gamervision:
"There is something terrifying going on this week, and I'm not talking about Halloween. No, the real horror is the amount of shovelware being piled on store shelves this time of year. Last week was pretty bad, and it doesn't seem to be letting up. At this rate, approximately one billion Petz games will be released between now and January. Ahhhhh! Can anything save us? Maybe DJ Hero will come to the rescue..."
SimAnimals started off as reasonably interesting, but after a while became somewhat repetitive, although (or perhaps because) there's a large amount of animals and plants to keep an eye on – there's around 30 species of animals and an unknown quantity of different plants. After unlocking the animals and completing the objectives in each area, there's not a lot to continue with – unless you're into being a virtual forest ranger (or you want to raise the Happy Bar as high as possible in each area) – but Sims fans and younger audiences will more than likely lap this one up. It's best tried as a rental first, though.
