The Sims 2 (PC CD)

The original The Sims is the best selling PC game ever but after four years and seven expansion discs it's finally starting to look a bit long in the tooth. As the first official sequel almost everything in The Sims 2 has been expanded and improved on from the original, even if the basic idea remains the same: to create and control the lives of your virtual characters.

The entire scope of the game has now increased--your characters age and give birth to children. Sims remain children only for a few weeks, before spending most of the game as adults and then eventually dying and the game carrying on with their children and grandchildren--if they have any. Another big new feature of the game is the introduction of specific "aspirations" for your sim, which can be anything from a specific career to marrying a particular person. Each sim also has their own "fears", which can be anything from living alone to losing their hair. Which of these situations end up coming true becomes the main influence on whether your sim is happy, the attainment of which is the only true goal in the game.

Apart from all these new features the graphics have been severely overhauled are now in full 3D and more in line with the recent console spin-offs. This is a must buy for anyone that's ever enjoyed the original titles, but the new features should also be enough to entice sceptics to the fold as well. --David Jenkins