Rooms with a view

From dolls and toy soldiers to David Brentian managers tormenting their office underlings, human beings love meddling in the lives of others. Hence the popularity of The Sims, the series that puts the daily activities of little computer people onto your screen, and under your thumb. Or, here, your stylus.

For the DS version of The Sims 2, the focus is on a hotel - that classic goldfish bowl of human interaction - which you’ll customise and manage in the Sim city of Strangetown. We’re not just talking choosing curtains and wallpaper here: you’ll indulge your artistic side designing paintings for the art gallery, and record your own music (or Muzak?) in the hotel’s soundstage. You can then swap your tracks with other Sims 2 owners via the DS’ wireless link.

As you establish your hip hangout and please your guests, Strangetown’s Sims will reveal their secrets and pop over to offer you missions, or even call up your in-game mobile phone. These can lead to increasingly bizarre minigames, which range from exploring an alien-infested desert with a metal detector to operating a vacuum cleaner by blowing into the DS’ built-in microphone.

Of course, all play and no work wasn’t how Holiday Inn or Travelodge took over the world. As hotel manager, your aim will be to run the most popular cash-magnet in town, winning fame for your Sim character and, err, the game for you.

EA says the DS, GBA, PSP and mobile versions of The Sims 2 will all be different. We hope that’s because they will get the best out of each console’s quirks; we suspect it’s a way to sell two copies to Sim fans with more than one device.

Either way, we’ll let you know whether to make a reservation for one when The Sims 2 is released this November.