Pros: Variety of trophies and characters to adopt. Weather. Day and Night cycles. Many random events.
Cons: Impossible to expand the area to explore. No ability to redesign the house or garden. Unpolished graphics. Some funky character movement.
I love playing The Sims, so I looked forward to the release of Virtual Families. It’s the first casual simulation game where you manage everyday life of virtual people as opposed to trying to survive or travel to isolated lands like in the Virtual Villagers series. Unfortunately, Virtual Families fails to live up to my expectations, which were probably too high.
Right away, I notice the graphics and game play looks unpolished. The idea is a good one, but it needs more work.
If you have played Virtual Villagers, then you'll recognize the concept of Virtual Families as both use similar game play mechanics of drag-and-drop. The game also plays in real time and your little people live on when your computer is off.
The game opens with adopting. In choosing your adoptee, consider the following characteristics: age, profession, salary, budget, likes and dislikes and the desire to have children. These factors affect the person's behavior.
After adopting, your person moves into the house. First order of business is to find a perfect match. You will get emails with proposals and it’s up to you to decide whether to marry or reject. When you find the ideal mate, the new family member appears in your house and both celebrate the event.
One of the most important things in Virtual Families is to teach your family members to maintain the house and do what they should do. You can praise or punish your virtual family members, thus forming their habits. To encourage good behavior, just touch them with the green glove while they do the right thing. If you don’t like their behavior, use red glove in the same way.
You can grow your virtual family. But remember, if one of the members or even both don't want a baby, it will take several attempts before they add a new family member. Mom takes care of her child while doing some work around the house, but not in her profession.
Virtual Families has many puzzles and occasional events. For example, an empty bucket sits next to the sandbox and a leaking hose in the backyard.Some of the tasks require house upgrades or additional items that you can buy in the store.
The store offers a variety of items. Here you buy groceries, home improvements like an aquarium or barbecue, medicine for sick family members and pets and upgrades for repair work.
Aside from many possible characters to adopt and buyable upgrades, Virtual Families has a long list of trophies to earn. For example, "Praising for turning off TV" or "Marry rich," which means you married someone with more than $200 in the bank. You can also collect various things like bugs, nuts and twigs, old coins and picture pieces. Your folks sell some of these online to earn money.
What I like about Virtual Families are the unexpected events. Some of them demand investment, while others bring money to the family budget. At times, your family members email you letting you know what bothers them.
A few things about Virtual Families disappoint me. First, they walked in a strange way, trying to walk through a wall or walk on the bed. Second, I couldn’t understand why my family members were "extremely weak." I drag them on the bed to go to sleep, but after I return to the game, they are still "extremely weak" and awake.
It doesn't take long to feel bored with the static house and the garden, which you cannot design or change. You live in the same house with no place to explore.
It sometime rains and there are day and night cycles that help add variety to the location. The graphics don't compare to Virtual Villagers. Virtual Families is a disappointing attempt to create a The Sims game. You decide if it 's a success or not.
Virtal Families is one of my fav games. It's like Sims, but not so complecate...lol
And... Has anybody already played this latest 'virtaul game'? I mean Virtual City. Is it a worthy one?
C'est de la follie avec tous ces Virtual jeux!!!!!! Il y tout ce que vous voulez: city, famille... Et surtout la serie avec les villageois perdus! La quatrième partie déjà: Virtual Villagers 4: The Tree of Life
One of the best simulations i've ever played) Of course, it comes after Virtual Villagers and Farm Mania 2. Anybody knows if they are going to make Virtual Families 2?
[/B'> `Hello im Zoe and virtual families is very good but when you have babies they don't grow so i decided to buy it btw people its 99p if you got to Eazyplay then the first one but dont buy it yet because when i get the game i will come and tell you if it works or not xx BTW IT IS SOOOOO ADICTING I WENT ON LOADS OF GAME SITES JUST TO DOWNLOAD IT!!!! LOOL!
Golden Trails: The New Western Rush™
`Hello im Zoe and virtual families is very good but when you have babies they don't grow so i decided to buy it btw people its 99p if you got to Eazyplay then the first one but dont buy it yet because when i get the game i will come and tell you if it works or not xx BTW IT IS SOOOOO ADICTING I WENT ON LOADS OF GAME SITES JUST TO DOWNLOAD IT!!!! LOOL! 
