Pet Vet 3D' and 'Sims 2: Pets'

By George Haas Pop culture writer

“Pet Vet 3D: Wild Animal Hospital”

2 stars

$29.99 (PC only)

Rated: E for everyone

“The Sims 2: Pets”

3 stars


$49.99 (for Wii)

Rated: E for everyone



I’ll say one thing about caring for virtual animals. Cleaning up after them is a lot less mess. If only my back yard could be cleared of doggie land mines with the ease of clicking a button from the comfort of my chair.

“Wild Animal Hospital” is the follow-up to an earlier pet veterinarian game. Instead of caring for dogs and cats, you’re working at an animal hospital in Africa where critters such as meerkats, zebras, leopards and elephants are in dire need of your expert care.

Normally, I’m less than thrilled with simulation games of this variety. Cleaning house, buying groceries and walking my real dog already take up too much of my time.
But then I had flashbacks to “Daktari,” a family adventure show from the ’60s that revolved around a veterinarian in East Africa. This just might be fun, I thought.
Then I was introduced to Blondie, a cute sim whose first words — “Africa. This is amazing” — were delivered in the unconvincing tone of the woman who calls numbers at the grocery deli counter and says, “May I help you?”

Basically the game allows you to set up a wild game hospital where you’ll take in sick animals and learn how to diagnose and treat their illnesses.
This being a kids-oriented game, the diagnoses are pretty easy to figure out (it’s multiple choice). For instance, animals with less than normal weights might be malnourished. You think?!

You’ll also build pens, shop for feed and supplies, play with the animals, sleep, pay bills, eat, and relax on the couch watching TV.

You’ll also spend every few minutes answering the blasted cell phone. The virtual phone rings to tell you your feed order was received, a customer has arrived at the front desk, the construction crews have finished the meerkat pen or your bank deposit was made.

If you don’t answer it within a prescribed time, you could lose a customer, to which I wanted to say fine, leave already. Where’s he going to go? I figure the next doctor is a jungle and a half away.

Besides the mediocre voice actors, the graphics and 3-D environments are just OK. On the plus side, the animals are cute and the controls are fairly easy to master.

There’s not much intentional humor here, but the doc does resemble a spastic monkey when she has to move faster than a walk.

Older kids pondering a career as a vet might get a kick out of it.

It’s a little late arriving, but “The Sims 2 Pets” has finally made its way to Nintendo’s Wii. It’s pretty much the same game that’s’ available for the PC and other consoles, although the Wii’s unique controller system distinguishes it somewhat from its close cousins.

“Pets” takes the popular “Sims 2” game and adds dogs, cats, birds and guinea pigs to the mix. People work, play, hang around the house and interact with some animal house guests.

Dogs and cats have the most potential, and you can create your own critter from a variety of models, sticking with the traditional breeds or crafting one of those designer dogs that are all the rage.

If you’re familiar with the series, you know you have to choose a particular path to follow with long- and short-term goals. Interacting with others and performing menial tasks are the orders of the day.

You can get your virtual cat to play with you, take the mutt for a walk in the park or even put the big Rottweiler to work as a watchdog.

Graphically, the game looks about the same as it did on the PS2 and Xbox. Game play may be a little awkward at first because you need to use the Wii’s nunchuk and controller in tandem, but it works well once you get the hang of it.


source: dailysouthtown.com