The Sims 2

by Electronic Arts

• Sequel to the hit lifestyle simulation
• Manage your Sim's dreams and fears over a lifetime
• Mix Sim genes and see physical and personality traits inherited down through Sim generations
• Movie-making feature lets you control the camera and capture the action into mini movies
• Also available in DVD Edition

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00009WNZA
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 2 inches ; 5 ounces
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: September 14, 2004
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (945 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #876 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #10 in Video Games > PC Games > Games > Strategy
  • #16 in Video Games > PC Games > Games > Simulation
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Platform: PC

Amazon.com

The Sims was one of the most popular games ever made. In it, players micromanage the lives of a family of virtual people, or Sims, and influence their paths toward success or something akin to a nervous breakdown. Its open-ended blend of cartoonish behavior and everyday living is unique in an art form otherwise obsessed with carnage and sports. With The Sims 2, long-time fans now have a deeper game with lots of ways to customize and share their experiences. The game will also attract first-timers because the goal-oriented gameplay and the luridly fun starter families make it easier to get into the action right out of the box.

Now Sims are born with the traits of their parents, families grow, and Sims grow old.

The People in Your Neighborhood
The game starts at the neighborhood level. Here you can create a housing development from scratch or start with one of three premade neighborhoods, each with its own theme. From there, you'll settle on a house and a family of Sims to control.

Create your own Sim (above) or your own house (below) from scratch with advanced tools.

Aside from the basic needs carried over from the previous game, Sims now have aspirations, wants, and fears. The wants and fears are the day-to-day things that occupy their minds, like wanting to see friends or get married and fearing death or being rejected for a kiss. Satisfy their wants, and they become more efficient at completing tasks you assign them. Realize their fears, and Sims become lethargic, cranky, and unresponsive to your commands. Aspirations are the big-picture things, like raising a family, becoming wealthy, and gaining knowledge. Succeed here and you'll be able to buy odd gifts for your Sim to improve his or her life, like a money tree that pays dividends or a "fountain of youth" water cooler.

What Else Is New?

Of course, you wouldn't be able to juggle all that if it weren't for the improved "Free Will" option, which makes it easier for Sims to fulfill their basic needs. The artificial intelligence of the game is noticeably improved; they won't turn on radios just as a family member is going to bed but, strangely, they do occasionally put their dishes on the floor.

Another big change in the series is the concept of the lifespan. Now Sims are born with the traits of their parents, families grow, and Sims grow old. Not only does this go hand in hand with aspirations (growing up is the first aspiration that a baby Sim will have), it provides a limited time with which your Sims can achieve their goals.

The Universal Control Panel helps you manage your Sim family.

A Family Affair
The Sims 2 not only lets you create just about any type of Sim in any type of family, build elaborate houses, and even create a neighborhood from scratch, but it also allows you to start the game in medias res, with premade households. These families all have backstories that are smart spoofs of soap-opera plots--lots of scheming, romance, ghosts, and family fighting. Parents of teens shouldn't worry, though, because nudity is tastefully blurred out and "woo-hoo" between Sims takes place completely under the covers. The ESRB has given this a Teen rating. If The Sims 2 were a film, it would likely land between PG and PG-13.

The makers have included some nice tools to help share the universe you've created. For example, you can capture in-game stills and video to show friends the private moments, family interactions, and house parties of your Sims. You can even package a household to share as a blog or an album on a special Web site.

The Sims 2 is for patient gamers. Like life itself, the game is filled with mundane details, like getting ready for work and doing dishes. The game also demands a level of creativity from its players that the run-and-gun game genres wouldn't know what to do with. But those who stick with it will be rewarded with an absorbing, amusing diversion and a virtual family history that they've created themselves. --Porter B. Hall

Set Up a Sims 2 Machinima Studio
Amazon.com contributor Porter Hall reveals how you can make movies using the Sims as your actors. See his guide to setting up a Sims 2 Machinima Studio.

Product Description

In The Sims 2, your Sims will be more lifelike, more responsive, and more complex than ever before. You'll be able to control your Sims over their entire lifetimes, taking them from their first steps to their golden years. Guide them through "Life's Big Moments" and build their "Life Score" with every decision you make. And since every Sim will have its own DNA, their appearance and personality will be passed down through the generations. Life in The Sims 2 will take on a whole different dimension with our entirely new 3-D engine.

See all Product Description

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1,402 of 1,493 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Maxis #1 All Time Sims 3D-Game Ever! September 10, 2003

By SimSational...

Platform for Display:PC

I believe this game will be the best Pc selling game ever!
Why?

This is all the options that we will enjoy and have for thesims 2.
****************************************************************
Building Options - Create mountains, build multiple story homes, with basements, put doors and windows on diagonal walls.

Calendar - The new sim calendar will work by the week instead of month. (ie your kids birthday is next Monday).

Cameras - Now you can place cameras all around the room to capture a party from all angles.

Careers - For adult sims, there wi.ll be 18 careers, with 10 levels each. For teen and old sims there will be 7 careers, with 3 levels each. Also elderly sims will receive a pension upon retiring.

Diaries - Now you will be able to create video as well as snap shot diaries of your sims life.

Family - The family limit will still be set at 8. But new to TS2 is the ability to create all ages, except infant, in the create-a-sim area. So you could start out with a Mom, teen, and toddler if you wanted.

Leaving the house - The only option to leave the home right now, is to send your sims to their second home, which you can also create. However a communal area is being considered.

Life Moments and Big Decisions - These will effect your life score, and also have an effect on your sim as they get older. Some of these included: Toilet training, first step, first kiss, first crush, getting a job, getting married.

Will Sims actually get pregnant? Will they still have to kiss to have a baby? - Yes! Sims will get pregnant but instead of kissing, a 'play' feature can be used in a bed or hot tub.

What is the Create-a-Sim tool? Is there going to be a demo of it?... -The Create-a-Sim tool is a program that will allow you to completely customize every aspect of your Sims facial featurues. This will allow you to make any Sim you want! Even yourself! And yes, there is to be a demo release of it between August & September.

What about clothing customization? - Clothing articles will now be seperate from each other! Meaning that a pair of pants will be seperate from a shirt, creating alot more ways to mix & match!

Can you customize hair/make-up, too? - Yes! In the Create-a-Sim program you will be able to change hair color & style, & apply make-up to your sims. You are also able to do this during game play using special objects such as mirrors.

Will there be more than 2 floors? - Yes! I've seen as many as 3 floors, plus a basement, for a total of 4!

And More... Read more ›

68 of 71 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Makes the original Sims Look like Pong September 21, 2004

By Avalon Daughter

Platform for Display:PC

Fun: 4.0 out of 5 stars   

WOW am I impressed with this new version of "The Sims". My gut feeling tells me that you're not going to be able to sell your old versions because everyone is going to want this one instead. I knew it too because when I saw the previews, I stopped buying the expansion packs, immediately, just to wait this one out.

How is it? Fantastic. The graphics are fluid and smooth, the characters have fingers, wedding rings, facial expressions, man, you name it they've worked on it and it's obvious. The clothing has fluidity (the hair too) and zooming in close up to a character's face really shows some detail. Nice, nice job. Playing the game *is* pretty similar to the first but you can tell Maxis did their homework and I can just see Will saying: "Okay, THIS is what the fans want" cause it sure looks like they worked on it.

For instance, its the little things that make a difference. When a sim walks in the room, the other sims react, say hello... I had a dad come home from work and the child he was close to dropped her toy and ran out to greet him by jumping in his arms. They are no longer stiff like the first Sims, they have reactions which are pretty cool. Also, there's an amazing amount of detail. The fridge has a variety of food (and can be emptied now, unfortunately, but you call the grocer) and the more a Sim knows how to cook, the different varieties of food they can make. A Sim can cook either Salmon or Mac and Cheese and they look exactly like they seem. That was pretty wild to pause and inspect.

What else? They age. Yup, they sure do. It's better than the first and more difficult as well. My Sims tried for a baby -- and first of all ended up with twins! Holy cow, that was work.... Now, the infants cry for different things and just feeding and holding them doesn't work anymore. They're specific. Changing the diaper... bathing them... all the little things you'd expect with a baby, except they're babies for only a few days, then toddlers for a few days, then they turn into kids and teens and so on.

Think its easy? Nope. You gotta nurture the kid through your Sim. Early nurturing calls for good development. Teaching them to walk, talk and communicating makes a better child who is better in school eventually. Unfortunately, I've got some lazy sims who don't want to help their kids with homework and the social worker keeps coming to take them away. It goes pretty quick, too. This isn't your old Sims games, either... they don't just sob a bit when this happens -- the parents endup traumatized.

Neglect the Sims and there's consequences. Let's say... the sim's social meter is really, really low. They can actually snap and start babbling. Next thing I know, a therapist drops in and starts helping the sim out. Funny part of that -- the therapist is only visible when you click on the sim that is nuts. How funny is that?

Oh... remember the ghosts? They're actually pretty creepy in this one. They move things and will animate other things as well. Apparently, they have a certain colored glow for how they died. Haven't figured that one out yet.

Building the homes is pretty cool, too. Yup, you can actually put in a basement, but you have to dig a hole first and that kind of thing. Windows can be put in for multiple floors and staircases are customized. I miss the circular staircase, though. What else is new? Lots of furniture, customizing the roofs yourself, which is definitely a bit tricky if you're not creatively adept and spraying the grass different shades... i.e., brown, green, light green... like that. Learning how to build the houses takes as much time as learning the new Sims habits.

Good stuff? You want the "fun" stuff? Oh, the Sims are a LOT more flirty, little more R-rated but never oversteps the line. "Playing in bed" is no longer -- it's called Woo Hoo! You can "goose" a sim and flirt different ways.. you can have Woo Hoo in the hot tub and apparently in public as well (by the way, you can travel to little park areas like in the expansion packs of the first Sims.) I may point out that there is a difference between Woo Hoo and Try for a Baby. Woo Hoo I believe is w/contraceptives (LOL) otherwise, try for a baby seems to be no problem as my Sims get knocked up pretty quick.

Oh! The neighborhoods... you have three different neighborhoods (and you can customize how they look... there are quite a few similarities between these neighborhoods and SimCity... hmmm.... I wonder why?):) Well, you can add all kinds of things... rocks, wildflowers, ocean surf, rainbows, clouds...etc. The only thing I wish is that you can see this stuff when in the homes. Example? You place 20 giant rocks in the lot next to a Sim home -- inside the sim home you see nothing but a plain. Maybe they'll fix it later, who knows?

But each neighborhood has a "story." I got the guidebook and apparently, you should visit certain houses first before others. They have a chain reaction. But that's if you want to actually work on the storyline. You dont' have to. The funny one would be the Strangeville neighborhood which Bella Goth has been sighted in (LOL) and there's a crashed space ship nearby. People do get abducted by aliens, yup, but it's the MEN that get impregnanted. That's pretty hysterical.

Anything bad? Just a few. It does play like the first, but technologically-wise, we're not up to artificial intelligence, yet, so I'm pretty happy with what they've got. There are a few glitches in the game I've come across already (i.e., a fire starts, fireman comes... but the fire just keep burning for eternity.) As for loading it, I had some pretty big problems and couldn't do it for four hours -- massively ticked me off. Ended up returning the discs to get new ones and they worked fine. Got problems running it? I'd recommend checking their site for tech issues. It helped me. but I have no doubt a patch will be coming out soon.

Oh, and there's no rain. I checked and waited. Apparently, they've had problems getting the rain to work so they took it out.

Great game. Lots of fun -- can't wait what to find out next. Read more ›

46 of 48 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars I advise you to buy it, as you will have a GREAT time! September 30, 2004

By Raiful Tompkins

Platform for Display:PC

Fun: 5.0 out of 5 stars   

This game (The Sims 2) exceeded my expectations alot. I have had this game for about 2 weeks, and I am really happy with what Maxis gave us. I only had 1 crash, and that is when I was playing it alot!

*Good things about game*

1. You can detail your Sim SO MUCH that you know what Sim it is when they pass by on the sidewalk etc.

2. The realism in this game is so incredible, that I could relate to some of the things my Sim were doing!

3. Aging. I thought that I might not like this feature, but I LOVE it! Sims now have generations and genes!

4. You can turn aging off. There are some people that don't like change, so there is a cheat to turn off the aging. The best part about it is, that you can turn it back on!

5. Neighborhoods. The game ships with 3 neighborhoods, but you can make your own neighborhoods.

6. Wants and Fears. Your Sims now have wants and fears. There wants and fears change every day, but you can lock a want or fear in place.

7. Building Options. Houses now have 5 storys, and you can build basements and attics! Foundations are given for un-even land.

8. Genes. You will be able to look at a Sim and tell who their Father and mother were.

9. Families. You can make HUNDREDS of Families, and put them in a neighborhood. Families from other houses in the neighborhood can visit you, and children bring home freinds from school.

*Bad Things*

1. If you want to turn off aging, you need to do it every time you enter the house.

2. The neighborhood does not age evenly. So you need to toggle families for the 'hood to age evenly. It is able to be done, but it takes some time....

*Overall Review*

This is a great game, and It will keep you entertained for a long time!

I only gave it 4 overall stars because every game can be improved. Read more ›