Replying to Sims 2

Sims 2 IssuesSims 2

I want to get this game I really do but there are a few issues involved. Money, I can't just throw money on a game. Getting it for free off the Internet is not an option. I have heard it will not work without a disk and the download size is over 2.5 Gigabytes. I will end up paying more for my Internet than if I get it from the store.

If we forget about the issues with getting the game there are other issues. The game sounds really exciting but from my experience that excitement will quickly fade. Yep, I got the sims 1 a few years ago after sims 2 came out and it was really exciting at first but then it got really boring and I wished I did not get it in the first place. I am sure sims 2 will have the same effect. It will be the same waste.

I could also create a game similar to the sims 2. I have created games with much bigger AI before such as Dots And Boxes which compared to Dabble. That will be much more exciting and I will be left with the feeling of acheivement that wow that I have created this game and not just playing someone else simulation.

Other things I did not like was in the actual game. Children/babies would get taken away by the social worker.She would just magically worp to the child/baby and then worp away.

-reply by Jay Estux

On a fairly random note, inspired by a mix of RoDanie's post and the nearing of Christmas, anyone care to comment on the Sims 2 expansion packs? A certain relation of mine spends more time getting annoyed at her Sims for spending all day playing computer games than she does off of the computer.

What ones are available, which are the best, and are they worth the money?

Sims 2 is definitely improved from the first one.

• Better graphics
• More age groups (babies, teens, and elderly)
• More in game music
• Better expansion packs
• Better and more jobs
• You actually have food choices
• Bigger houses
• Bigger lots
• Bigger neighborhoods

but there are some things they could add to make it even better.

In the first Sims, I LOVED Makin' Magic. I would also LOVE to have a Makin' Magic expansion pack for Sims 2.
And this may not make THAT much of a difference, but it WOULD be cool to be able to make your sims the height you wanted.

The way I figure it, there are two types of people in this world. Note that I said, “people”, not gamers, not computer nerds, not geeks, but people. In the one group, which is obscenely large in comparison, you have the people who play The Sims. In the other, you have the people who inevitably ask, “Why would I want to do in a game, what I struggle to do in real life?” It should be noted, from my own experience, the people in the latter group spend an awful lot of time trying to sneak a peak at the computer screen of those in the former group. (You thought I hadn’t noticed, didn’t you Mrs. Bearer?) And the reason I made the distinction between “people” and the usual stereotypes attached to computer gamers, is because The Sims is one of those rare, once in a dozen generations, type of games that transcends the culture lines between the masses and the gamers. The Sims, probably more so than any game since Pac-Man, has brought the non-gamer to the world gamers in massive, wonderful droves. People just can’t seem to get enough of running and in some cases, ruining, the lives of these little doppelgangers, which has been multiplied ten-fold with The Sims 2.

For the uninitiated, all three of you, The Sims and The Sims 2, put you in complete control of the life or lives of little people who go about their lives on your monitor. Anything and everything you can imagine, you have control over. From the Sims home, to their furnishings, to their jobs, friends, and when and where they go to the bathroom is completely up to you. As in the previous game you are presented with the same meters for your Sims various needs and how you deal with these needs remains the same. You can physically act on their needs by directing them to the toilet when their bladder meter drains, or you buy that remote control car you’ve been eyeing when the fun meter bottoms out. As before, you are presented with a near infinite amount of ways and methods in dealing with you Sims’ needs. The basics of the game remain the same, but that’s where the SIMilarities end.

Probably the biggest addition to the game is the introduction of aspirations and fears to The Sims, or in other words, your Sim now has goals for his or her life. Your Sim has aspirations for his career, his love life, and his popularity. Being goal driven, your Sim is never satisfied. Attain one aspiration and new, better, and in most cases more difficult aspirations appear. Each aspiration is given a numeric value with which you are rewarded when your Sim attains its goal. From there, you can spend your aspiration points on special rewards that cannot be purchased with your Sims’ hard earned Simoleans. All of these rewards have valuable effects, like elevating your Sims’ moods, or accelerating the development of your Sim babies, or my personal favorite, the Simolean tree which periodically sprouts money. However, these rewards can be alternately dangerous if used under the wrong circumstances, which comes into effect with the mood meter. Your Sim now has a mood meter, which is directly affected by not only the state of your Sims’ needs, but also his aspirations, ranging from red (bad) to green (okay) to gold (great) to platinum (does life get any better than this?). Using any of the rewards below a gold level can have disastrous effects on your Sims well being. The opposite of aspiration of course is fear. Fear of being rejected by a friend or significant other, fear of losing your job, and even fear of losing control of your bladder are the types of things that haunt your Sims dreams. Fears that become reality cost not only aspiration points, but if enough fears come to fruition your Sim can become depressed, despondent, and more neurotic than they already are. Aspirations and fears combine to form the basis of your Sims’ memories, which also has a direct affect on your Sims’ progression through life.

Now for you astute, Sim veterans, you probably noticed that I made mention of babies. Also new to the Sims is the fruits of procreation. That’s right, your Sims can reproduce, creating an offspring that is truly the result of its parents. Like real, human babies, Sim babies are created from the mixing and melding of the parents’ DNA. Absolutely brilliant!!! Which brings me to the next new addition; your Sim will now age, and eventually face the same end we’ll hopefully all meet, death from old age. (For those demented gamers that take pleasure from torturing and neglecting your Sim, they can still die well before their time. Missing pool ladders anyone? Mysteriously disappearing doors in the midst of infernos anyone else?) But wait, there’s more. How you raise your Sim babies has a very real effect on the type of Sim adult they will grow into. Raise them with love and caring in a nurturing environment and you’ll have a well-adjusted adult Sim. Neglect your Sim baby though, (I can already here the maniacal laughter of the demented Sim gamer group) and you’ll have an adult Sim with some serious issues. It is also in the raising and aging of your Sim where the Sims’ aspirations come back into play. By completing your Sims’ aspirations you can increase your Sims’ lives, holding the dreaded grim reaper at bay a little longer.

Some of the other new additions to the formula are that each neighborhood has its own soap opera like story that plays out in the lives of the Sims. Most of them are pretty interesting all on their own, but you’ve also got the ability to change the story in any way that you like. This is a pretty fun little diversion, creating and editing the story as you go along. You’ve also got the ability to take snapshots and film short movies of your Sims going about their lives, which can be saved into their family album for posterity sake, or for uploading to the Internet to share with the world. You are also periodically presented with a question you must answer concerning a decision your Sim must make, which also affects the gameplay. For example, I had chosen the military as a career for my Sim since it was the highest paying job at the time. After a few days I was presented with short little story about how a fellow soldier Sim had been caught sneaking a doughnut into his footlocker and my Sim’s drill instructor was asking me how he would punish the offending Sim. From there I was given two options and I obviously picked the wrong one, because the next thing I knew my Sim had gone AWOL because the local professional sports team began rioting, necessitating the need for military intervention, and my Sim didn’t want to tell his grandkids how he had been a part of the great Hot Dog war. (I guess you kind of had to be there) How my Sim went from punishing his fellow Sim with a ration of vitamins and water to going AWOL in order to escape a war of thrown hot dogs I’ll never know, but I must admit that it was strangely entertaining.

When talking about new additions and features, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the reworked build mode since building and adding on to your humble abode is so integral to the gameplay. In the original Sims this feature was often frustrating and on the difficult side, usually resulting in spending more cash for the improvement than what you needed and still having not created exactly what you had intended. These days are no more. The build mode has been streamlined and simplified to the point that newbies will have absolutely no problem creating their dream home the first time around. Speaking of dream homes, you can now build four story monstrosities that would have MTV’s Cribs salivating at the thought of doing a show from your home. It’s amazing how something as seemingly insignificant as simplifying the build mode tools can add to the experience, but there is no denying it once you set out on adding that new addition.

Graphically, the game has also seen great improvements. The game is now presented with a pretty impressive 3-D engine that really brings the world of The Sims to life. The world looks better, the environments look better, and the Sims themselves certainly look much better. They appear so much more lifelike, despite still maintaining that trademark “cartoon” look, that it amps up the immersion and your attachment to your creations to frightening levels. The animation created in this game is also stellar. The move to 3-D has allowed Maxis to include so much more expression and personality to this world, that it really blurs the line between the living and the polygonal. Many of the animations and actions of your Sims will have you laughing out loud. Along with the bump up in the graphics, comes one of the most in depth create a player features ever. EA in recent years has really ramped up these features in their games and it shows here. You are given so many options, with so many slider bars for every facet of personal appearance (except for height and weight) that if you cannot create a carbon copy of yourself or anyone you’ve ever seen, you’re just not trying. It really is almost scary the accuracy you can attain with these tools.

The sound department is the lone area of the game that has not seen massive improvement over the last iteration, but that is not to say it hasn’t improved at all. The gibberish with which the Sims converse has been noticeably expanded. This may not seem to be that big of a deal considering none of us can understand a word they’re saying anyhow, but it is. There is so much more inflection and emotion in their gibberish that it is much easier to have some sort of understanding as to what they’re babbling about beyond the sometimes vague thought bubbles that sprout above their heads. It also adds to the humor and immersion of the game to hear your Sim heatedly arguing with another or doing his or her best to sweet talk the pants off their chosen target. The classic Sims music also makes a return.

Overall, Maxis and EA have lovingly taken everything that people loved about the first game and made it better. They’ve also taken great pains to fix the things some did not like and most importantly of all, they’ve added enough new wrinkles and content to make it not only its own game, but also a worthy successor to the best selling PC game of all time. If you loved, or even just liked the first Sims, run, don’t walk, and get this game. For the small minority that haven’t allowed themselves the pleasure of playing this game’s predecessor, I dare you to give this one a chance and you’ll no doubt see what the craze is all about. Just be sure to temper any plans you might have had for that free time. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

I bought sims 2 a couple of years ago when it first came out, for about 80 dollars, but unfortunately I thought I could run it on my computer with only minimum requirements.. I bought the special dvd edition too. It's really choppy on my computer and slow so I haven't really played it on my computer for more than 10 minutes. So I have a basically new sims 2 game as a paperweight lol.

I've played sims 2 on my friends machine, and it's really good squeal to the first game, the graphics are improved so much, and there is a lot of new features. I really like how if you have a kid, they will grow up to be an adult. Because in the first one I hate how if you made your own character it stays a kid. Also I like in the special edition, there is a lot of videos come up when you do things. And you can also make your own videos.

Just like any other sim game though, it gets repetitive and it gets kind of boring because you're doing the same things.. but then I buy new expansions and it's fun again. The only sim game that doesn't get really boring is Sims online, but it 's kind of pricey for monthly payments.

I love this game, I play it almost everyday. I love the fact that in the sims 2 the kids grow into teens and the teens go thru what all teens do. I also love the graphics witch is much better then the first sims. So much has changed since the first sims. If you haven't played The Sims 2, I say go buy it and try it out!

I have to say I loved both the Sims and sims 2 when they were each respectively released. You're right that its similar to the first, but it's a SEQUEL haha, if it was drastically changed people who liked the original would be annoyed when buying the second expecting a new sims game and got something completely different.

Honeslty for a sequel I think it hit the mark dead on. The graphics got a nice update (sure not custom emotions per character as metnioned, but gotta leave room for improvement and not rape processors hehe), the objects in the game were redesigned, amount of things you can buy/build/use were increased, professions increased, added generations and other little nifty ideas, etc. They basically took the sims, a core life simulator, and fleshed it out, which is exactly what I had hope for and expected and they delivered.

Both games captivated me, the first more then the second only because it was a 'fresh' idea, with the time management aspect. Just like in RTS games time management is a HUGE factor in the sims that some people tend to overlook. Sure with one sim in a basic job and no objects in the house its not too bad, but once you have a few sims with complex jobs needing training and trying to maintain various relationships all while designing a nice home and possibly even stop to smell the roses it gets pretty hectic and insanely fun. I know Back when sims 1 came out there were times I'd start a new game, start playing at 8pm and it'd be 1 or 2a.m. before I'd even realize what time it was (and usually most of that time was spent just on deciding on a character/home design haha).

Frankly while I've spent longer times playing other games, and gotten a more visceral fun out of many others, the sims will always hold a respected place in my heart. It did what it set out to do and did it well and made a compelling game in the process. Kudos to both the first and second sims games.

i find sims 2 to be the best game well...best simulation game for psp with all the updates and stuff and rate t a 9.5/10

I have to disagree with the origional post in this thread. The Sims 2 is very different from the origional Sims. If you were to consider just the menu that you have at the bottom of the screen, you would realize that they are nothing alike. I am quite sure that there was some serious coding involved in creating the new and improved menu/control panel. Multiple stories also couldn't have been an easy addition to the game and adding it was probably inspired by feedback from Sims 1 gamers. I am all for sequels when the crowd really wants them. If we didn't have sequels, say goodbye to Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and Star Wars, unless of course your only considering computer games. I won't even begin on that one

So lets see. My review of the Sims 2 is considerably higher then most peoples because of my facisnation with the ability to go through many generations of sims. They are born, they grow up, and then they die, but not before having kids who will repeat the same cycle all over again. I have to admit that I don't really play the game much anymore but my sisters and my mother do and when I walk by, its always a laugh to see them fighting to control 8 different sims, while the 2 teenagers are putting food in the over and going to sleep, leading to an inevitable fire, Or maybe when the two younger children don't get on the bus because noone woke them up to go to school. Thats just too good for 7 or even 8 out of 10.

I rate the Sims 2 a 9.5/10. It is a great game. I can only look forward to getting the countless expansion packs to go with it.

Sims 2 Is a very impressive game! Really nice graphics , good gameplay , nice sound no history at all :/

I would give a 7.5/10

Probably when sims 3 come , sims 2 will become 5/10 and sims 3 8/10 xD

but... It will take a while ; because i think it would take a long time coding a game better than sims 2