Customer Reviews

The Sims Superstar Expansion Pack

5 star:		(88)
4 star:		(44)
3 star:		(23)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

Many reviews have already described all of the new interactions and items that come with this expansion pack, so I'll focus on some of the things that may not be mentioned that I would have wanted to know before buying it.

1. Overall I would say this expansion involves more work than the others. Becoming famous is an all consuming occupation leaving your Sims little time for anything else. Sims must spend countless hours in Studiotown.

2. The game cannot be saved while a Sim is in Studiotown (much like the downtown area of Hot Date). This is a problem if you experience frequent crashes with your game. I find I need to take my Sim home where I can save the game every time he/she has raised their fame score, so that I don't lose it because of a crash. This is time consuming.

3. Sims run out of energy very quickly in Studiotown so not much can be accomplished in each visit. (only one visit is allowed per day)

4. Sims need famous friends in order to become famous. I find it very difficult to make friends with these famous Sims, the friendship scores don't seem to increase as quickly as with regular Sims.

5. This one only applies if you have downloaded objects from online Sims sites: I have a user-created teleporter in my game, and it no longer works. The game crashes whenever I try to use it. This forces me to use the phone to invite other Sims over, leaving it up to chance rather than being able to import them at will. (Much harder to increase the friendship score this way). Teleporters worked with every other expansion pack, but not Superstar as of yet (hopefully someone will fix this).

I don't mean to point out only the negative aspects of the game, I do enjoy this game but am a little disappointed that it takes so much more work than I had expected. I do love all of the new interactions that are available, and like watching my Sims sing, act or model. I'm still looking forward to an obsessed fan following my famous Sim home. My Sims don't have a high enough fame score for that yet :) (Also, there aren't really 3 separate career paths, Sims access all of the items one at a time as their fame score increases, so they are essentially rock stars, actors and models).

Overall, if you love the Sims, you'll love this expansion pack as well. But be prepared to spend a lot of time trying to become famous.

Want a collection of great new objects for your Sims? How about the most dreamed-about person - a personal butler! The Sims Superstar brings you all this and more.

This expansion pack adds on to the basic Sims (or Sims Deluxe) game and brings a whole new atmosphere to your Sim World. You have a "Studio Town" that you can visit to persue your interests in high fashion, music making or movies.

There are tons of new wallpapers, skins and objects to expand your sim world. There are fun new places to visit too, from a Sushi Bar to a Mud Bath.

If you really want to persue a high style career, just like in real life, it takes a TON of work and a ton of time. Be prepared to give up some of your old sim-hobbies and to focus exclusively on pounding the pavement and working on your connections. It's well worth it, though, if you meet the challenge and become a star!

Those of you who are serious Sim-ians know: there are times when your adults sneak off to work and leave the baby unattended, or take a bath, or whatever. Next thing you know, here comes the lady from social services to take your baby off to a more-deserving couple. After Superstar, this will no longer be a problem as you can have your butler take care of the lil darlings. This is probably one of the best developments I can think of. Repossessed children are a thing of the past! Hallelujah! Now if kids would just grow up into adults, and adults into senior citizens, and if old age actually brought illness and death after a while...Oh well.

I fell for the very flashy (I own the Collector's Edition), orange cover art of this game, and I completely bought everything it said to me, but I've been a bit disappointed. The Sims Superstar can start to lag and be very tedious especially once your Sim has achieved 2 stars. The modelling for swimwear and winterwear is endless, and I always hope in vain after every shoot that the chart would be upgraded for my Sim to have 2 and a half stars. I'm still in the midst of playing it and none of my Sims are superstars yet.

I recommend you to install this expension pack or if not, sign up with the Talent Agency only if your Sims already have high points in Creativity, Body and Charisma for you to go into the nuts and bolts straight away. It's almost impossible to work on it after you've signed up with the Talent Agency as Body for instance tires Sims out easily, and they tend to sleep the whole day away, and once they wake up, its their Fun that's lacking which takes half a day to satisfy, soon its back to their Energy bar dropping again and there won't really be a time to go to Studio Town which isn't all fine and dandy since postponing trips might cause your Sims to drop or lose star power all together.

Also, I recommend your Sim having a roommate. It's the social bar that's usually close to being empty through frequent visits to Studio Town, as other sims ranking higher than yours won't bother talking to you and other sims who are ranking low would only wantto hug you or ask for autographs. The fame-seeking sims are usually tired to bother going all the way to Downtown just to exchange a few words with their friends which could boost the social relationship immensly, while having a roommate is much easier. A quick hug or kiss will do, and the social bar's already a pale green.

I got off well with this expansion pack, and it was fun to watch my Sim progressing from a nobody to a somebody, but it's been quite stagnant for a while, which is boring. Still, it's not bad, maybe a little patience is required, that's all.

After installing Superstar, I haven't been this addicted to the game for a long time. It's a wonderful expansion pack; truly a revolutionary one since Hot Date(in the sense it made dramatically drastic changes to the game). Livin' Large introduced fantasy elements into the game. House Party wasn't much of a drastic change. Hot Date was a big change, making the Sims' relationship building more complicated (by adding 2 levels of relationships as well as various interests) as well as enabling the player to play with Sims outside their homes. Vacation wasn't as drastic because only expanded on the leaving-the-house interface. Unleashed enabled pets, expanded the neighborhood - nevertheless, it wasn't as big a change as Superstar is. For the first time you can actually take your Sim to work (as a model, actor or rock star). There's plenty of cool new challenges here - accumulating and maintaining star power to remain at the top of the fame game; the puzzles of attempting to figure out capricious instructions from directors, producers and fashion photographers; dealing with stalking by an obsessed fan. By adding this type of goal-based element to The Sims has refreshed the franchise without compromising its open-ended gameplay and thus re-invigorating a 3-year old game (which needless to say, is quite elderly in computer years). There's a few minor bugs which I won't go into here, but at least on my end they seem to be fewer of them than in Unleashed. If you've felt that the franchise has started running out of steam, Sims Superstar should change your mind.

What's inside the game:

You of course get a new place to visit: Studio Town, a new career to chose from: become a singer, actor, or model (I refer to it as a career since you get paid for it), new objects like a skydiving simulator, a skuba diving tank, or a satellite dish, hire a butler to handle EVERYTHING in your household, and you have new celebrity social interactions.

What you can do in Studio Town:

There are many things to do in Studio town, but the most fun things you can do are interacting with famous stars, the paparazzo (aka paparazzi) and devoted (and sometimes, obsessed!) fans of yours. You can preform on stage (singing/acting), and as your fame increases, you can pose for professional pictures, model on the runway, make albums, star in a soap opera, or even star in a movie.

Playing the game:

Your fame is rated from zero to five stars. You must preform often to increase your fame, but also to keep it from falling (just like relationships). Skills in the body, charisma, and creativity area are a must if your sim doesn't want to get boo'd off the stage, so I suggest working on these BEFORE trying to become famous. Your success also depends on who you know famous wise; if you're talking to a has-been, stop befriending them and start rubbing elbows with the top ten list! The top ten list fluctuates daily, but mainly, most of the people on the list stay there only in different positions (*Note: You can find out who's hot and who's not by reading the new news paper that will be delivered to you daily along with your regular paper). Increasing your fame through stars isn't as hard as it sounds; a 3 star top ten friend will count as 3 stars, not one!

Overall:

As other reviewers have said, it is a bit hard to become a superstar but not impossible, and it's fun becoming one too! Even if you don't make it to becoming a superstar, it's still fun being at other levels of fame; people treat you differently, and you get obsessed fans! Now who could pass that up? The game is fun to play no matter what level of fame your at. I give it 5 well deserved stars!

...but then it's not that great. The novelty of the spa items, the new interactions, and seeing Marilyn Monroe and the like wandering around keeps it highly entertaining...for a bit. Then it becomes a chore. Getting your sims even slightly famous is pretty much impossible without using cheat objects, and boring with. Also, as some others have mentioned, the load is UNBELIEVABLY slow. Often I start it up and by the time it's ready to be played, I've completely forgotten about it and gone off to do something else. And I have a pretty decent computer. I can't imagine using this with an older processor. If you're anything like me, you'll buy this just because, but if you're seriously capable of not buying every expansion pack...skip this one.

I was always hoping my character to be a superstar. And with this expansion pack, it is possible! You can be a singer or actor! There will be a new set of neighborhood for you to visit. It is just like Hollywood. You can come there and meet some artists like Marilyn Monroe or Avril Lavigne. And yes, they're look similar with the real one! :D

You can be a superstar here. Starting from zero, you will have to practice a lot and visit the 'Hollywood' regularly and sing/act there. You'll get paid as your career rise. You'll have a star rating, from 0 to 5 indicating how popular you are. When you are popular enough, there will be some fans coming to your house asking for your autographs. When you find that this is disturbing, you can put a special door on your house so that only superstar can enter your house. :) You can buy equipments that support your career such as singing stage, acting stage, DJ machine, etc.

If you are fond of the Idols shows on TV or you were dreaming to have your character to be a superstar, you may like this expansion set. For me myself, I really like this expansion pack besides Makin' Magic.

Here are some cheats that cheats that will help!

first save the game at your house. Hold down Ctrl+Shift+C and the cheat box will come up type move_objects on and then go to buy mode and click on your sim and delete them, go to live mode and click their face and they'll come back refreshed and you can continue practing etc. and this is a way to help you become famous faster.

When I first purchased this, I played it for hours. My opinion, this is my least favorite expansion pack.

The objects are excellent! I think one of the reasons to purchase this pack is for the great objects. The new location offers poster and clothing shops, spas, movie sets, music studios..etc. The celebrity Sims are all right, as well (athough I disagree with some of the celebs Maxis has chosen to 'sim'"). What's funny is if your Sim earns a few star points, you get an "obsessed fan" who follows you everywhere.

So what are the bad things about this game? Well, it just gets pretty repetitive. Earning star points at first can be easy if you are close to maxing out your abilities, like charisma..etc. When you finally reach stardom (but not super stardom), making music videos and walking down the runway can be quite annoying. you don't really know what the directors want. you can be fully refreshed and you have maxed out your skills, but it gets annoying when they disagree with what you're doing.