The Sims 2: Pets

The Sims 2: Pets
Developer(s)	Maxis EA Mobile IronMonkey Studios
Publisher(s)	EA Games Aspyr Media (Mac)
Designer(s)	Hunter Howe Charles London Mike Darga Lakshmi Jalapayan
Series	The Sims
Engine	Custom
Platform(s)	GBA, GameCube, DS, PlayStation 2, PSP, Windows, Mac OS X, Wii, N-Gage
Release date(s)	October 18, 2006 GC, PS2 NA October 18, 2006 EU October 20, 2006 AUS October 26, 2006 Nintendo DS AUS October 26, 2006 EU October 27, 2006 NA October 31, 2006 NA November 1, 2006 Game Boy Advance NA November 7, 2006 AUS November 16, 2006 EU November 17, 2006 PlayStation Portable NA December 14, 2006 AUS December 14, 2006 EU December 15, 2006 Wii NA June 12, 2007 PAL June 22, 2007 INT June 18, 2008[citation needed]
Genre(s)	Life simulation, God
Mode(s)	Single-player
Rating(s)	ACB: M / GGBA, DS ESRB: T / EGBA, DS PEGI: 12+ / 7+GBA, DS
Media/distribution	Cartridge, CD, DVD, MiniDVD, UMD, Blu-Ray disc, Nintendo optical disc
System requirements Windows OS: Windows 98 or better CPU: 1000MHz RAM: 256MB HDD: 1.5GB free space Video: 32MB DirectX 9.0 and T&L compatible Mac OS X OS: Mac OS X 10.3.9+ CPU: 1.2GHz PowerPC G4/G5 RAM: 256MB Disk drive: DVD drive HDD: 2GB free space Video: 32MB ATI Radeon 9000/nVidia GeForce FX5200

The Sims 2: Pets is the fourth expansion pack in The Sims 2 series of games, as well as a stand-alone game for several consoles. It is published by Electronic Arts. The Sims 2: Pets was officially announced on July 26, 2006 and released on October 18, 2006 in North America and via digital download, as well as on October 20, 2006 to the rest of the world, except for Australia/New Zealand, where it was released on October 26, 2006. Aspyr released a port of the game for Mac OS X on November 7, 2006.

It was released for the Wii on June 12, 2007. In Australia, one Australian dollar per game sold, from at least 50,000 copies of the game, was donated to the RSPCA. Unlike the other expansions, this game does not have a new neighborhood. Instead, new lots (with Sims living in them) are available for placement in the existing neighborhoods. The Sims 2: Pets has sold over 6 million copies.

Gameplay

Pets

Sims can own cats and dogs. Pets features 75 pre-made breeds of dogs and thirty pre-made breeds of cats. Create-A-Pet is similar to "Create-a-Sim", where a user builds a human Sim characters. In Create-a-Pet, players may customize a cat or dog by choosing patterns and colors of coat, body shape, facial structure, and personality, which determines playfulness, neatness, loyalty, aggression, and intelligence.

Pets have motives like their Sim counterparts. Sims and pets are similar except for the absence of the "Environment" motive, which "Scratching" replaces in cats and "Chewing" in dogs. Sims may also train their pets to do various tricks.

Pets can follow one of three career paths: Security, Showbiz and Services. When pets get promoted, various pet-related "unlockables" are made available along with a code so players can share these items with others.

Pets have three life stages: Puppy/Kitten, Adult, and Elder. The length of a pet's elder hood is selected at random, however there is an aspiration reward object which will extend the pet's life by a few days with each use. but how Pets are able to breed, and doing so will produce a litter. The number of puppies or kittens is dependent on the number of Sims and pets currently in the house. Players can play with up to eight Sims or six pets at one time, although one can only have a total of six Sims and/or pets in a household altogether.

Training

You can train your pets to do various kinds of tricks, and you can scold or praise them. The tricks would include sit, stay, shake, come here, guard, roll over, sing, and more. In the Nintendo Gameboy Advance version, you can teach it to stand up on two legs and juggle, or other cool and unusual tricks. When your pet learns a new trick, it would put an addition to the Sim and pet relationship. If the pet does something bad, you should scold it. These are a few unpleasant acts: peeing in the house; digging up the yard; chewing up the newspaper or floor; scratching up the furniture; digging out the trash. After a pet has done something correct, however, you should praise it. You could also give it a treat while praising to do the right thing or doing the right trick performance.

A werewolf Sim howling.

Werewolves

Werewolves are a type of supernatural creature which the Sim can interact with or even be transformed into. Sims exist as Werewolves only during night hours. During these hours, the werewolf's energy will go up, but their hunger will decrease more quickly as well. A Werewolf can teach a pet faster than humans and can fight against burglars. They might occasionally howl at the moon, howl at player's command, or howl to summon wolves. When a werewolf howls every pet's bladder on the lot goes down halfway.

To become a werewolf, players must build up a relationship with any wolf with glowing eyes (the werewolf pack leader). The pack leader will eventually "nibble" the Sim it was interacting with, causing it to become a werewolf. Once a Sim has become a werewolf they may "savage" another Sim to turn them into a werewolf. Werewolves are not featured on the Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, GameCube or Wii versions.^{[citation needed]}

Music

There are many new songs that appear in the original Pop radio station from the base game in this game that have been converted in Simlish:

• "Don't Cha" by The Pussycat Dolls
• "Chemicals React" by Aly & AJ
• "I Play Chicken with the Train" by Cowboy Troy
• "Girl Next Door" by Saving Jane
• "Free Radicals" by The Flaming Lips
• "Boyhunter" by Skye Sweetnam
• "The Compromise" by The Format
• "Turn Out the Light" by The New Amsterdams
• "Black Shoes" by The Films
• "I Never Know" by Something for Rockets

Locales other than US English contain more songs:

• Danish: West End Girls - "Booglurbia"
• Dutch: Krezip - "Can't You be Mine"
• Finnish: Roni - "Never Coming Back"
• French: Kisha - "Sowieso"
• German: Kisha - "Sowieso", Krezip - "Can't You be Mine"
• Italian: Finley - "Run Away"
• Japanese: West End Girls - "Booglurbia"
• Korean: West End Girls - "Booglurbia"
• Norwegian: Lene Marlin - "What If"
• Russian: The Smokebreakers - "Baby Let's Dance"
• Spanish: La Oreja de Van Gogh - "Dulce Locura"
• Swedish: Lene Marlin - "What If", West End Girls - "Booglurbia"
• UK English: Finley - "Run Away", West End Girls - "Booglurbia"

These songs are not played in other locales (including US English), but they can be extracted from the game resources.^{[citation needed]}

Motives

Your Sims and pets have several different motives that they want to do. This could include needing to use the bathroom, or the litter box, or needing to sleep, or relax. These needs vary. Here is a list of the motives for Sims and pets and their information.

Sim Motives

Motive name	needed material	if need is not fullfilled
Social	other Sims to talk to or play with	Sim will become very lonely
Bladder	toilet, eco-toilet	start waddling and holding it so the Sim does not pee, but if too late, the Sim will pee on the area its standing at
Hunger	food, water, coffee	start rubbing their stomach; if starved to death, the Sim will go "eek" and crouch down on the floor, faint, and become uncontinous, and then a paramedic will have to come over
Energy	bed, couch, or bench	if too late, the Sim will just doze off, and then just fall flat on the ground; then when awakened, the Sim will go angry, due to no rest
Comfort	chair, couch, bed, or bench	almost the same for Energy, but might faint or lie down (pacifically Comfort and Energy needs are the same at about 80% of the time.
Fun	video game, TV, computer, fireplace, other	the Sim will most likely, if not having enough fun, will become bored.
Room	clean house	nothing happens if its all the way down (often does not affect the Mood), but the Sim will demand an environment that has no dirty areas, no puddles, and no furniture that needs repair.
Hygiene	shower, tub, fountain, whirlpool hot spring	the Sim will plug its nose and wave its hand over, because the Sim will stink; take a bath or shower, or splash in a pool or fountain

Pet Motives

Motive name	needed material	if need is not fullfilled
Social	a Sim or another pet or stray; to play with or meet	the dog or cat will become very lonely, and this puts a big affect on the Mood of the animal
Bladder	a nice spot to pee, like for a dog, a nice tree or mailbox, or for a cat, a clean litter box or mailbox	the pet will do pretty much the same thing a Sim would do; it will just automatically pee wherever it is.
Hunger	a pet dish full of pet food, or approximately a treat	the pet will doze away, and then pass out, then a paramedic will have to come if not revived; it will faint and become unconscious.
Fun	a toy, a Sim to play fetch with, or a chase of the tail	the pet will become bored, and it will put an effect on the Mood
Hygiene	for a dog, a Sim to wash the pet in a tub, or to visit a pet salon if available; for a cat, just to lick itself, or visit a pet salon if available	the pet will whine, but usually for the dogs, it does not effect the Mood, but for cats, yes, usually
Energy	buy a pet bed, pet house, cat condo (cat tree), a fireplace, or a couch for your pet(s)	if the pet eventually does not find a good spot to sleep, it will just lie down and go to sleep; just beware that the pet will become in a bad mood often if there is no good spot
Comfort	just buy the same thing you buy for Energy	the pet will just lie down and if a cat, it will meow
Scratch (cats only)	buy that kitty a scratching post or cat condo (cat tree)	the cat may start ripping up the furniture in the house
Chew (dogs only)	buy that pooch a chew toy	the dog may start ripping up the carpet, the cat's toys, or newspaper

Breeds (Wii version)

There are several breeds or mixed breeds you could create or adopt on the Wii version, in dogs and cats. Here is a list of the Wii ones.

Dogs

• Golden Retriever
• Labrador Retriever
• Labradoodle
• Standard Schnauzer
• Miniature Schnauzer
• Schnoodle
• German Shepherd
• Siberian Husky
• Great Dane
• Bernese Mountain Dog
• Greater Swiss Mountain Dog
• Akita
• Shiba Inu
• Poodle
• Miniature Poodle
• Bichon Frise
• Cocker Spaniel
• Jack Russell Terrier
• Airedale Terrier
• Welsh Terrier
• Staffordshire Bull Terrier
• Bull Terrier
• Bulldog
• Samoyed
• Great Pyrenees
• American Eskimo Dog
• Doberman Pinscher
• Miniature Pinscher
• Dalmatian
• Weimeraner
• Vizsla
• Irish Setter
• Rottweiler
• Beagle
• Bichon Frise
• Pomeranian
• Chow Chow
• Pug
• Puggle
• Schipperke
• Harrier
• Chihuahua
• German Short-haired Pointer
• German Wire-haired Pointer
• Pointer
• English Foxhound
• Rough Collie (can be transformed into a Border Collie)
• Greyhound
• Italian Greyhound
• Mixed Breed

Cats

• Abyssinian
• Maine Coon
• Persian
• Norwegian Forest Cat
• Ragdoll
• Russian Blue
• Chartreux
• Sphynx
• Exotic Shorthair
• American Shorthair
• British Shorthair
• Bombay
• Birman
• Siamese
• Oriental
• Tonkinese
• Scottish Fold
• Mixed Breed (domestic shorthairs and/or domestic longhairs)

Reception

The Windows, Mac, PS2, PSP, Gamecube, and Wii versions of The Sims 2: Pets received mainly mixed to positive reviews from critics, while the Game Boy Advance and DS versions of the game received mixed to negative reviews.

The Australian video game talk show Good Game's two reviewers gave the game a 6.5/10 and 8/10.

See also

• The Sims 2 Pets (wii)

External links

• Official Sims 2: Pets Website (PC Version)
• Official Sims 2: Pets Website (Macintosh Version)
• Sims 2: Pets Reviews at Metacritic.com
• Pets Training Paper