Singles: Flirt Up Your Life Review

Now the key question here I guess is does this game play approach work? The short answer here is yes, it does. The longer answer has to do with what you're looking for in your Sims-like games. As for me, I was more concerned with working on the relationship between the two characters than just piling up HDTV's and working on the goddamn garden. I guess that part in the relationship for me comes when your Johnson becomes blurred out for real, hopefully a number of decades from now. (If it just gets a bit blurry, count your blessings. - Six)

So in that sense, Singles is this zanier, jazzier, more offbeat version of The Sims, which should appeal more to guys and gals in their early twenties and teenagers or course, rather than soccer moms looking to get in a few hours of game play while the kids are messing around the room. Then again, the very fact that Singles deals with characters that are in their early twenties could very well appeal to soccer moms and dads, as those days of frivolous fun are long behind them.

Try not to spoil the sheets, will ya?

Aaah! I needed that!

As far as some of the game's obvious drawbacks, I would have to mention the very steep hardware requirements and the rather sluggish camera movement which irritated the hell out of me. Singles looks good, and the models are highly detailed, not to mention anatomically correct. You only need to take a look at the screenshots to figure this out for yourselves. However, the engine code obviously hasn't been optimized well enough as the game doesn't look anywhere near as good as to make my AMD 3000+, 9800XT 256MB RAM, 1GB RAM rig slow down while rendering more detailed scenes. I don't know if it's the sluggish camera movement or simply poor 3D code optimization, but this game definitely should've worked smoother considering my system specs. Another minor problem I had with the visuals is the screwed up gamma which makes the bright, lighted sections in the game overly bright. Other than that the jazzy sound effects and soundtrack as well as the rich appearance of the characters were enough to satisfy my eye candy needs.

Another obvious problem people might have with Singles is the question of replayability. What happens once you own all the designer furniture and your young couple is in love and getting it on every 20 minutes? What then? It takes about 10 hours of game play (or there about) to get to that point and then you are left wondering what there is to do in the game. Fair enough, you can always start over with two lesbian chicks (which is what any self-respecting full-blooded heterosexual male would do), but that's about it as far as the game's replay value is concerned.

Finally, seeing how the game is Adult rated and it can only be purchased on-line in the U.S., I was left wondering why in the hell didn't the designers make the sex scenes raunchier and without the goddamn blanket over the lovers. Not only that, but it appears that our two lovebirds are not really creative when it comes to sex as they only really prefer one sexual position. If you're going to make a zany game about sex and young people having fun, let them have some friends come over for some group sports, make them get a little kinky by being able to buy some cuffs, or hang from the chandeliers. The idea here is to offer adult gamers something that is provocative and interesting enough to keep their attention. Expanding the game play in such a way could still have been done in a tasteful and off-beat manner while adding much more content and replay value for the player. The possibilities are endless, but the Singles design team hasn't exploited them too well.

In a nutshell, Singles is this zany, uncensored version of The Sims. Relatively sluggish performance and lack of more replay value indicated by the deficiency of online play or more creative off-line sex options are its crucial drawbacks. The up side, however, is that up to the point where you've done just about everything in the game, it plays very nicely and you will be having fun. Singles is spirited and entertaining enough to play for as long as the spirited entertainment lasts ... which is regrettably not very long. Was it as good for you as it was for me, Six? (I don't know...the first time is always a bit of a letdown. A little muscle control, a little more imagination...who knows? - Six)