amphibian

So, I know I'm a geek because I put down $5 for a pre-sale at EB. It is supposedly released on the 17th, however my local EB guy said they'd have in on Wednesday two days earlier. The reason I'm writing is to guage whether or not anyone else is feeling bloody rabid over this game. I am experiencing withdrawls from CoH and cannot wait for this to come out to alleviate this awful misery of (ghasp!) not having a current game. I even bought used version of Rise of Nations to get me by.

Any other Sims 2 Fanatics on TFP?
Haters?

Amphibian

omega2K4

I enjoyed The Sims (and I didn't buy any of the 90,000 expansions). I'll probably pick it up. From what I've read of it, it seems to be a major improvement over the original, which is really cool.

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Halx

I only played The Sims once.. wasn't into it.. the thought of all the options that I didn't have because I didn't have any of the expansion packs sorta made it a dreary game

I will check out Sims 2 though, because it looks better and I'm assuming that it will have much more to begin with than the original had.

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Mantus

There is something rather disturbing about living life in VR. Now if I could be a serial killer in the Sims then I would play it for sure. Otherwise whats the point when I am already plaing the Sims every time I wake up and I must say the graphics and sound in RL are outstanding

portwineboy

Since I need to fill the void between the end of the WoW stresstest and Rome:Total War, I'll likely pick this up come Monday. I've looked at the movies and preview articles and I'm interested. I played Sims casually for about 6 months and then never touched it again but it looks like some of the biggest issues I had with Sims have been addressed here. You no longer spend most of your time worrying about your Sims bathroom and food needs, they take care of them on their own. Now you worry about their aspirations and fears...much more interesting to me.

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amphibian

Monday?
Where did you hear it will be out Monday?

Anyway, The first Sims was addictive at first, like a lot revolutionary games. I didn't purchase any of the expansions, and unfortunately did get sucked into that most abysmal of MMOs, The Sims Online. The most intriguing thing about the new version is the aspirations system, coupled with behavior having a pronounced effect on the look of the Sim. For instance, if they don't exercise they will start to get fat, etc. I think it is fascinating from a philosophical standpoint, what aspects of RL do they include, what don't they include. It could be seen as a model of a particular ideology, and trying to undermine that ideology could prove fun.
There was something fun (and a little twisted) about building a fence around a Sim and waiting for them to starve to death.
Or filling a huge lot with beds and nothing else and betting on who would survive.
Not that I don't enjoy playing it the way it was meant to be, but truly great games have more latitude, and it is this that makes them more replayable, IMO.

amph

portwineboy

Sorry, Tuesday, 9/14/04

http://www.gamespot.com/newthisweek/title/20040912.html

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MageB420666

I am definitly going to get it, if for no other reason than that my girlfriend loves the sims and has all of the expasion packs, plus I like the game too, glad to hear that the Sims2 won't have such an emphasis on intake and output.

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thriolith

I'll probably wait for a friend or something to get it first, and check it out then, lol. Then I might consider getting it.

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punx1325

I enjoyed the last one, my sister had almost all the expansion packs, but i dunno. I am afraid I will get addicted again, not to mention I don't want to shell out that much money for another game....

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whocarz

I bought the game way back when it first came out. I played it for a couple weeks at most, then got really bored with it. My siblings on the other hand, loved it. They bought all the expansions, and my sister constantly plays it. I suppose I'll give Sims 2 a look when she gets it.

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Kodega

I'll probably get this game. I loved the original Sims and have almost every expansion (missing Making Magic.) But I'm going to wait a couple of months first because there are other games coming out that I want more. (Fable and the CoD expansion.)

ghettoblaster04

The Sims wasn't for me. I hated having to wake up the guy to make him go to work every day. This is dreadful in my own life let alone in video games. They should have an option to make him automatically go to work.

Dibbler

I remember when the first sims game came out one of the PC gaming magazines showed how to make your sim a serial killer. He would bring people into his house, get them to like him and then call them over to a spot in the back of the house, leave and then build a wall so the sim friend couldn't get out. Then just wait till the sim dies. Repeat and often as you want. At the time I thought it was a little disturbing

nanofever

Didn't you see the Sims serial killer expansion? I swear Amazon had a nice sale of "The Sims: Lotion, Hoses and Basement Holes" last week. I did notice it recieved an "M" rating, so I would imagine that expansion isn't for the whole family.

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la petite moi

OMG, I ordered it. I wasted a whole paycheck, but I have been looking forward to the Sims 2 for SO LONG.

The Sims was probably one of the only games I really liked.

kiwiman

it's already leaked onto torrents, 2gb worth is too big to download, i'll just wait until the weekend.

portwineboy

My roommate picked it up yesterday morning. I got home from work last night and he starts telling me he has a crush on this girl and such...it took me 15 minutes to realize he was talking about the game and not RL.

His impressions are that while it isn't revolutionary, it is a great sequel. I'll probably pick it up at some point soon...

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Mikado

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.

Delirious

Mikado did you cut and paste that ? Jeez..

So far in my experience Sims 2 is just like the first one (addictive yes) Updated graphics and you can now boink other sims (aka woohooing)

However I ran into a few bad bugs that show there wasn't enough testing put into the game. Also my computer (Athlon 64 3400) can run Doom 3 no problem but Sims2 can really slow down at times.

One of the bugs happened when I was having a party and one of the sims got stuck under some stairs. I hadn't figured out how to use the editor at that point so there was nothing I could do to let her out and after awhile I guess the sim died and an urn ended up appearing. After that her ghost would show up in the middle of the night scaring the hell out of my sims which was funny but had a negative effect on them.

The other bug which is really bad was when I hired two nannys at the same time. Well it just so happens that they both decided to move in with me and there was nothing I could do to dismiss them. It basically made the game unplayable.

stonegrody

I was hooked on the the first Sims game. I'm afraid to get Sims 2 because I don't want to fall into the same addiction. I had to end my first game by killing off all my Sims. I actually felt guilty about it. Well, my hunger bar is getting low, time to go eat! Damn...

skier

This sounds great. I hated having all the focus on keeping the bars at peak to win.

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Mikado

I wrote that review for another website. I do freelance writing from time to time. So technically it was a copy/paste, but I am the original author. I didn't take it from anyone.

Delirious

I figured it was something like that. Judging by your other posts you seem well written.

crony

Get your Sim an alarm clock. It works

crony

I'm such a perv. One of the first things I did was create the "Lesbian" family with members Haught and Eyema, and created sunflower pasties as a shirt for one of them.

Halx

I just picked up the DVD edition.. I'll tell ya all how it plays in a while

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keeb

i got the dvd editionand i am enjoying playing it immensly

MrFlux

I beat up the Social Bunny

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MichaelFarker

The original sims was pretty good but fell a bit short of great due to frustrating controls and artificial limitations. The Sims Breaking Out for the XBox is much better and a lot of fun to play. It still isn't addictive for me though. After reading your comments on the Sims 2 I'm looking forward to experiencing it.

Reese

LMAO, I had the perfect screenshot but I forgot which key took screenshots so I missed it, Anyways, Picture my guy doing Yoga, Bending over looking between his legs, while the Social Bunny stands Directly behind him waving his arms slapping my guys ass, or at least it looked that way, a friend and I were both rolling on the floor laughing.

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Halx

This game has a lot of charm.. i haven't played it much at all, but it's very very charming. I like it.

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amphibian

So, I am a good way through my first family, that is, I started with a bachelor sim, he got married to Dina Caliente (Pleasantville) and had a daughter, though that didn't happen until much later, actually not until he became an elder. Anyways, I am beginning to plan for his death, which seems like a new experience in gameplay, that the amount that he contributes to the family, through cooking skills, schmoozing abilities, and, being retired has more time to get stuff done, will be sorely missed. I have not focused much on improving Dina's abilities, save what she needs in her career, and I am afraid she will be too old to attract another mate, leaving the kid alone during the day...

This rant is typical of the sort of dialogue I get into when describing sim antics to my girlfriend, who thankfully thinks it is interesting enough to listen, most games she gets the same glossy eyed stare I get when she talks about shoes or shopping.
My point is, I can imagine a really deep mid to late game with this, where the house, the family tree, and the paintings (I have done a few still lifes of family scenes) add significantly to the feeling of real legacy.

A couple of issues I have however, are:

No basketball hoop (sucks!)
No restaurants as a community lot (Can you build them? I haven't tried...)

Otherwise, I am quite happy overall, and realized that since I got this I haven't (until now) thought about City of Heroes at all. That is a good thing.

amph.

xepherys

Damn, if Halx gives it any good word, it must be a decent game. Halx is always so stingy with the supportive words... ;-)

MrFlux

My sims had a kid... and then the kid got taken away by Social Welfare because I'm a terrible parent. At this point I turned the fridge to face the wall so that the Sims would die of starvation, except one of them ran out of energy in the bath... and if that happens, they can't die, and they can't get out of the bath. Gah.

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lemans

how much is the game?

Xenomorph

$50 for the DVD or the CD editions. Lots of disks with the CDs.

I didn't get the appeal. I enjoy Will Wright's signature 'make your own damn objective and don't wait for me to tell you you've won' style of game design, but in the context of a digital dollhouse I just can't get excited about it.

Now that it's in the spotlight I'm getting a hankering to go build a SimGolf empire again...

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gobble

i'm addicted, although i get annoyed at how busy you have to be to keep your sim in the green

Halx

Speaking as someone who did not grasp onto the original Sims concept very well, this game is much more task-oriented. The original was more, "Spend a lot of time making your sim happy and maybe it'll be successful." Sims 2 removes a few menial things that made the first one very tedious and replaces them with open-ended opportunities. Add to that some great graphics and animations... I really like this game.

Does anyone else get a hard-on when they make their sims go at it? C'mon.. admit it...

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crony

Only when my lesbian sims are gettin' it on.

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v484/crony/sim.jpg">