Niggles: Dating Sim or visual novels? (seem very similar to me....and i like visual novels..)
The sims tend to have gameplay mechanics, such as building up your character's skills in order to woo ladyfolk. Visual Novels are much more focused on writing, due to eschewing mechanics.
Emachine9643: There's a Clannad game?! Shit that series made me cry.....
Edit- If any one decides to watch that anime from the beginning, please note that the first season is very cheesy but adds to the last season so just power through....
If I remember rightly, Sekai Project did a Kickstarter awhile back to translate Clannad. In any case, I expect that the game would be superior to the anime. VNs tend to have a lot more time to let the atmosphere and characters develop, since writing is less expensive than moving pictures.