The Sims 2 Pets review

Cooking, cleaning and using the toilet are, we hope, not the highlights of most people's lives. Why, then, do we find it so fascinating to watch those modern day sea monkeys, the Sims, go about these same insignificant routines?

It all comes down to fundamentals- gameplay and presentation. Ordering a Sim to serve dinner to his family, take out the garbage and then hit the john is so effortless and intuitive that, in the same span of time, you could also specify for him to serve grilled cheese sandwiches, take the trash to the compactor but not the curb and wash his hands in the bathroom but not flush. The Sims 2 isn't a digital dollhouse; it's a digital universe with you as its god.

The universe isn't a sterile one, either. It's bursting with quirky detail and colorful animations. Every object, every interaction and every facial tic is recreated with accuracy but also a skewed sense of humor. Simply watching your Sim cook that grilled cheese sandwich can be a rewarding experience.

Yup, The Sims 2 is a downright fun game... on your PC.Unfortunately, thisis a review of The Sims 2 Pets on GameCube, a combination of the original console Sims 2 and some elements from the latest PC expansion pack, Pets. Here, both the gameplay and presentation are so cut down and mangled from the source edition that there might as well be a neutered puppy pictured on the box.

On the GameCube, sending your Sim to the toilet actually is tedious. You must take control of him yourself, running through doors and around corners in what feels like the most uneventful action game ever, to finally get within range of the commode... where you scroll through a menu and click "Use." If you want to have him do something else afterwards, you're going to have to wait for him to finish his business and then guide him all over again. On the PC, this stuff could be taken care of in two clicks - two! - and you'd be on to planning the next task.

To be fair, the game does enable you to play in Classic Mode, which attempts to recreate the feel of a mouse. As you might guess, that attempt is sluggish, unresponsive and unsuccessful.