Mods, if you wish this to be in the sims 2 thread below, that's fine with me
The Sims is one of those games you either love or you hate. I've seen very few people sitting on the fence. However, I think a lot of the people who hate the game are truly missing out on just how deep and innovative this game is. Allow me to explain. In The Sims 2 your characters that you create have needs, aspirations, fears, memories, feelings, and relationships just like we would. Throughout the time you play your character, you'll be asked to satisy some of these requirments and yet given the option to deny them at the same time. In fact, some of the most memorable moments of The Sims comes from denying your character certain aspirations, or as the game refers it, recognizing their fears. For instance, let's say you've created the ultimate bachelor. He's a ladies man through and through. You've created him to be nice, active, playful, and outgoing. His aspirations end up something like this: makeout with 3 different sims, marry a rich sim, have a political career, and earn some money. To go along with those aspirations, he has fears. In this case let's say they are: getting fired, getting turned down to makeout, and having his stuff repoed. Now it is up to you on whether you meet his aspirations or fears.
Now let's say there's a hot sim down the street that comes to welcome you to the neighborhood. Over time you become best of friends. She too has aspirations and fears. Let's say one of her aspirations is to have a family, and one of her fears is to be cheated on. After several meetings with your friend, she develops a crush on you. However, she doesn't know that the whole time you've also been seeing another sim down the street. Eventually your relationship with the first girl gets to a point that she wants to get married, so she pops the question!? You grudingly accept and she moves in. The two of you throw a party to celebrate. Then your other girlfriend decides to show up. At one point in the party you are in the bedroom waiting to use the bathroom. She enters and plants a big kiss on you. Just then your wife enters and catches you. Hilarity ensues as the two of them tangle. Your wife now mopes around the house and has lost a lot of her mood because one of her fears has been realized.
The thing to remember here is that you are only in control of the bachelor you created. All the other actions and feelings of the two women are on their own. The Sims 2 truly recreates a real life soap opera with real feelings, needs, desires, and fears. The visual level of detail really helps sell each feeling as well. There are so many facial expressions for each sim and feeling, that you really get a sense of what they're going through. Ocasionally you'll see your sims think about past events that were important in their life, like say a burglary or a wedding. Their aspirations and fears may change because of that event too. Once robbed, your sim may develop a fear of being robbed again. Once married, your sim may develop an aspiration to have kids. Once again, the choice is yours on if those are met and how.
Visually The Sims 2 is outstanding. Everything is in full 3D and animations are abundant and smooth. Watching their exaggerated moves on the dance floor, or how they react to social situations provides endless laughs. Even their Simlish is almost understandable, and really fits the scene at hand. TV's play actual shows, whether it be cooking, news, kid shows, etc. It's not just static images either. It's The Sims 2 watching The Sims 2 on TV. The one I like watching is the Survivor rip-off. It's hilarious watching their animations, facial expressions, and listening to their simlish as they bicker and fight with each other. Mirrors accurately reflect the world around them. Textures are clean and crisp. You can even see what kinds of food they're cooking, like Mac and Cheese or Spaghetti. The world is even more convincing than the last edtion of The Sims.
One of the biggest highlights of the game is the home building tools. Maxis has dramatically expanded these tools and you can create some truly amazing designs. I dare to say it's even better than most professional architectural software available. New roof types, foundations, decks, railings, foiliage, and terrain tools allow for some authentic designs. Objects in the build and buy modes are catagorized easily by room, function, or set. It makes it much easier to find the right material you are looking for. There is an abundance of styles to choose from as well. Not only that, but objects allow you to choose different colors or patterns for each stlye of object. It really adds to the number of cominations available.
The addition of the video camera this time around, makes it easy as ever to capture important moments in your sims' lives. You can then use the movie editor to combine a series of events to play out a short story. It's like your own soap opera. If movie directing isn't your bag, you can always use the still frame camera to capture moments in their life. Then you can place a description or caption to accompany it. Maxis offers a great resource on their site for users to upload and download houses, stories, sims, objects, etc with relative ease. Most of the functions are built into the game itself, making it streamlined for new users. This really expands upon the game replay value, allowing you to grow your collection of sims and their objects.
The Sims 2 comes with 3 general pre-built neighborhoods. Each has their own residential and commerial lots you can build on. Commercial lots are there for sims who have the day off or are on vacation. There you can spend the day meeting other local sims, buying clothes and objects for your home, or just getting a change of scenery. You are also free to build additional neighborhoods at your discretion. In fact, owners of Simcity 4 can design their neighborhood layout ingame, then import it into The Sims 2. I'm sure some really creative people will have excellent neighborhood designs online soon. These options can really expand the gameplay, allowing you to custom tailor your experience.
Overall The Sims 2 took the foundation of what was great in The Sims, and expanded upon it. The game has become deeper and more addicting than the original. It really is a marvel of modern programming, and Maxis has truly created an impressive life simulator. Even if you despised the original title, I urge you to give The Sims 2 a test drive. With gameplay less focused on the basic needs of hunger, hygenine, bladder, etc it really opens up the game for some amazing expereiences. You'll catch yourself wondering many times if the sims were concious of actions they just performed or not. It can at times become frightenly real.
The Sims is one of those games you either love or you hate. I've seen very few people sitting on the fence. However, I think a lot of the people who hate the game are truly missing out on just how deep and innovative this game is. Allow me to explain. In The Sims 2 your characters that you create have needs, aspirations, fears, memories, feelings, and relationships just like we would. Throughout the time you play your character, you'll be asked to satisy some of these requirments and yet given the option to deny them at the same time. In fact, some of the most memorable moments of The Sims comes from denying your character certain aspirations, or as the game refers it, recognizing their fears. For instance, let's say you've created the ultimate bachelor. He's a ladies man through and through. You've created him to be nice, active, playful, and outgoing. His aspirations end up something like this: makeout with 3 different sims, marry a rich sim, have a political career, and earn some money. To go along with those aspirations, he has fears. In this case let's say they are: getting fired, getting turned down to makeout, and having his stuff repoed. Now it is up to you on whether you meet his aspirations or fears.
Now let's say there's a hot sim down the street that comes to welcome you to the neighborhood. Over time you become best of friends. She too has aspirations and fears. Let's say one of her aspirations is to have a family, and one of her fears is to be cheated on. After several meetings with your friend, she develops a crush on you. However, she doesn't know that the whole time you've also been seeing another sim down the street. Eventually your relationship with the first girl gets to a point that she wants to get married, so she pops the question!? You grudingly accept and she moves in. The two of you throw a party to celebrate. Then your other girlfriend decides to show up. At one point in the party you are in the bedroom waiting to use the bathroom. She enters and plants a big kiss on you. Just then your wife enters and catches you. Hilarity ensues as the two of them tangle. Your wife now mopes around the house and has lost a lot of her mood because one of her fears has been realized.
The thing to remember here is that you are only in control of the bachelor you created. All the other actions and feelings of the two women are on their own. The Sims 2 truly recreates a real life soap opera with real feelings, needs, desires, and fears. The visual level of detail really helps sell each feeling as well. There are so many facial expressions for each sim and feeling, that you really get a sense of what they're going through. Ocasionally you'll see your sims think about past events that were important in their life, like say a burglary or a wedding. Their aspirations and fears may change because of that event too. Once robbed, your sim may develop a fear of being robbed again. Once married, your sim may develop an aspiration to have kids. Once again, the choice is yours on if those are met and how.
Visually The Sims 2 is outstanding. Everything is in full 3D and animations are abundant and smooth. Watching their exaggerated moves on the dance floor, or how they react to social situations provides endless laughs. Even their Simlish is almost understandable, and really fits the scene at hand. TV's play actual shows, whether it be cooking, news, kid shows, etc. It's not just static images either. It's The Sims 2 watching The Sims 2 on TV. The one I like watching is the Survivor rip-off. It's hilarious watching their animations, facial expressions, and listening to their simlish as they bicker and fight with each other. Mirrors accurately reflect the world around them. Textures are clean and crisp. You can even see what kinds of food they're cooking, like Mac and Cheese or Spaghetti. The world is even more convincing than the last edtion of The Sims.
One of the biggest highlights of the game is the home building tools. Maxis has dramatically expanded these tools and you can create some truly amazing designs. I dare to say it's even better than most professional architectural software available. New roof types, foundations, decks, railings, foiliage, and terrain tools allow for some authentic designs. Objects in the build and buy modes are catagorized easily by room, function, or set. It makes it much easier to find the right material you are looking for. There is an abundance of styles to choose from as well. Not only that, but objects allow you to choose different colors or patterns for each stlye of object. It really adds to the number of cominations available.
The addition of the video camera this time around, makes it easy as ever to capture important moments in your sims' lives. You can then use the movie editor to combine a series of events to play out a short story. It's like your own soap opera. If movie directing isn't your bag, you can always use the still frame camera to capture moments in their life. Then you can place a description or caption to accompany it. Maxis offers a great resource on their site for users to upload and download houses, stories, sims, objects, etc with relative ease. Most of the functions are built into the game itself, making it streamlined for new users. This really expands upon the game replay value, allowing you to grow your collection of sims and their objects.
The Sims 2 comes with 3 general pre-built neighborhoods. Each has their own residential and commerial lots you can build on. Commercial lots are there for sims who have the day off or are on vacation. There you can spend the day meeting other local sims, buying clothes and objects for your home, or just getting a change of scenery. You are also free to build additional neighborhoods at your discretion. In fact, owners of Simcity 4 can design their neighborhood layout ingame, then import it into The Sims 2. I'm sure some really creative people will have excellent neighborhood designs online soon. These options can really expand the gameplay, allowing you to custom tailor your experience.
Overall The Sims 2 took the foundation of what was great in The Sims, and expanded upon it. The game has become deeper and more addicting than the original. It really is a marvel of modern programming, and Maxis has truly created an impressive life simulator. Even if you despised the original title, I urge you to give The Sims 2 a test drive. With gameplay less focused on the basic needs of hunger, hygenine, bladder, etc it really opens up the game for some amazing expereiences. You'll catch yourself wondering many times if the sims were concious of actions they just performed or not. It can at times become frightenly real.
