PC Game: The Sims 2

	Publisher:	EA Games
	Developer:	Maxis
	Genre:	Strategy
	Release Date:	September 14, 2004
	ESRB Rating:	Teen (13+) Crude Humor Suggestive Themes Violence

Please note there is a patch downloadable from www.thesims2.ea.com to correct some bugs in the original game.

I installed this last January 16, 2005, but didn't register the game until about a week later. Players of the original Sims will find that families from the old game have also made the transition to Sims2. You get 3 communities at once with the game - with families already having established relationships, careers, and ready to be played. You can add more communities or delete the existing ones. The cool thing is, if you don't like the templates provided with the game, you can create your own in SimCity4 (use small size). One thing I liked with this game is that the Sims grow up, get old and die. This was more realistic, and the idea of a Sim family existing for generations is cool.

I wasn't into playing households really. What I was immediately hooked to was building houses. I would building house after house after house in one community. We've got lots of magazines full of floor plans of houses. My parents bought them when they were building our (real) house.

I started uploading my houses to the sims2 official site in February. Then I deleted them afterwards when I realized while playing a Sim family that I made the houses too big. Only left the "San Marco model" because someone signed my guest book to say he liked the house. Remade all of the models and plan to upload them soon. Have to do that before I install the first expansion pack (University) which I bought tonight on a whim.

Things I've noted:

1. On Sims
   • No matter how old your Sim is when you create it, if you attached a family aspiration to it, that Sim will want to have at least one child or go loony thinking it.
     
   • You cannot create a Sim with alien features. You can only get the green skin if you marry an alien who happens to live in one of the communities.
     
   • Children always bring home assignments and you have to take note where they place those lest you forget to make them do homework and get a D.
     
   • If you forget to give the kids study tables, they'll do their assignment sitting on the floor.
     
   • Your Sim may get hit by debris from a satellite if it watches clouds too long ... that means death.
     
   • You can have another Sim bargain with Death to bring back a dead Sim.
     
   • Some Sims like to play in a bathtub if they have nothing more entertaining to do.
     
   • You can flirt with the "service" NPCs (maid, newspaper boy/girl, gardener, etc.)
     
2. Building Houses
   • A flower bed may be cheaper than a bush, but in the long run it's best to get the bush because it's low maintenance. You don't have to water bushes, potted plants and trees.
     
   • There is actually a shortage of good, cheap, practical, and small houses. Most people who upload like creating fancy lots.
     
3. Uploading Lots to the website
   • The default screen shot that goes along with the uploaded lot is always taken from the front. Upload additional screen shots (max. of 3) so that your creation will look attractive to those looking for lots to download.
     
   • If you connect to the site via dial-up, an message box will appear telling you there was an error in uploading, when actually if you look at your Sims webpage, your lot is already uploaded. This is a bug in the either the game or the website.
     
   • Some players would not be bothered by building houses, so there will always be someone downloading your lots.
     
   • If you install a lamp in an empty house/building while it is night outside the lot, the light is turned on for that lamp. This is cool if you want to take "night shots" of an empty building/house.

Just purchased Sims 2 University

I haven't explored all of the original Sims 2 and here I am buying the expansion pack (EP). The one thing I'm looking forward in this EP is that you could have characters with different family names staying together. It's the frustrating thing in the original game - you could have as much as 8 sims living in one lot but they must all have the same family name.

Am also looking forward to the new objects and the fact that apart from residential lots and commercial lots, I could now have dorms.

Hopefully the loading of the game won't be long as it was in Sims (1) wherein if you have all the EPs installed and you create a new neighborhood, it takes almost an hour (okay, I may be exaggerating) to load them all.