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{{The Sims series}}
{{The Sims series}}

Revision as of 13:40, 21 June 2006

The Sims 2
The Sims 2 Special DVD Edition US box cover
Developer(s)Maxis
Publisher(s)EA Games
Designer(s)Will Wright
EngineCustom
Platform(s)Windows, Mac OS X, GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, Nintendo DS, Game Boy Advance, Sony PSP, Mobile phones
ReleaseWindows:
United States of America September 17, 2004
European Union September 16, 2004
November 17 2005
Mac OS X: June 13, 2005 2005
(See more)
Genre(s)Life simulation game
God game
Mode(s)Single player

The Sims 2 is a strategic life simulation game developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts. It is the sequel to the best-selling PC game in history, The Sims. [1]

The game was released on September 17 2004 in both CD-ROM and DVD-ROM formats. The DVD-ROM version, called The Sims 2 Special DVD Edition, contains a "Bonus Disc" with broad information on the Sims 2, interviews with the game developers, and commercials of past Sim products.

A port to Mac OS X was performed by Aspyr and was released on June 12 2005. The Sims 2: Holiday Edition, a re-release with holiday-related content, was released on November 17 2005.

Description

Sims age through 6 unique stages: baby, toddler, child, teen, adult and elder (although another stage, "young adult", was added with the University expansion pack). Unlike the previous game, when children stayed children and there was little game progress, the stages of life encourage players to move the game along and create relationships between Sims. Family relationships are much more integral to this version of the Sims than the previous version. As Sims age, get married and have children, these relationships are recorded in an extensive family tree.

In this installment of the series, Sims can have more realistic marriages with engagements and parties. Sims are pregnant before having children (unlike in the previous version, where children just appeared). Other unique events such as deaths, birthdays and a first kiss also take place in a Sim's lifetime. Good and bad experiences are kept as memories and can affect the Sim's behaviour.

File:TheSims2 Windows In-Game Screenshot.jpg
An in-game screenshot of The Sims 2. In addition to taking place in a fully 3D environment, aspirations of a selected Sim are also available for view, indicating the Sim's "Wants" and "Fears".

The graphics and house design engines have improved with more choices for houses, neighborhood design, food and clothes. The Sims 2 Body Shop, a tool which allows a user to design a Sim's body, clothing, genetic features, etc., was available well before the game's release.

The Sims 2 introduces a new aspect into the game: Aspiration. Aspiration manifests itself in two ways: the aspiration which each Sim has, and the Aspiration Meter.

Sims will each have an aspiration which is set either when they are created by the player, generated by the game (if they are an NPC), chosen by the player when they become a teenager, or by assigning a Sim to use the ReNuYu aspiration reward from the Nightlife expansion pack. The five aspirations are: Romance, Family, Knowledge, Popularity and Fortune. A sixth aspiration, that of growing up, is possessed by all sims when they are toddlers and children, and a seventh aspiration, the Pleasure aspiration, was included with the Nightlife expansion pack. Also, an eighth aspiration, the Grilled Cheese aspiration was included with the Nightlife expansion pack as the negitive effect of the ReNuYu aspiration reward object.

There are six levels to the aspiration meter: The highest is platinum, beneath that is gold, followed by two levels of green and two of red (red being negative aspiration and therefore an undesirable state). The level is raised when a Sim fulfills a "Want", and is lowered when a "Fear" is realized. Wants and Fears are different for each sim depending on several factors including aspiration type, age and aspiration meter level. They may change on a daily basis, and are displayed graphically in slot-machine fashion on the toolbar. When the Aspiration Meter is high, aspiration rewards may be properly used. For example, the Elixir of Life aspiration reward allows a Sim to live longer. If this aspiration reward is used before the Aspiration Meter reaches the gold level, however, it sometimes backfires and the Sim loses life days. There is also a lifetime want added with the "University" expansion pack which depends on their aspiration, for example a family aspiration could make the lifetime want "Graduate 3 children" and so on. When the lifetime want is fulfilled that sims will receive platinum aspiration for the rest of his/her life. The Aspiration Meter also affects how long an elder will live for once they enter this phase of their life.

This also means that while the game still has no set goals, there is a new strategic level to balancing a Sim's life as players now have a limited time in which to fulfill Aspirations, meet needs, progress in a career, socialize and possibly have a family.

Social Bunny

The Social Bunny is a NPC in the The Sims 2. Although the player sees the bunny, it's comparable to an imaginary friend to a Sim, which means other Sims will perceive a Sim affected by a Social Bunny to be "crazy". The Social Bunny only shows up if a Sim's social level is low for a long period of time. The Social Bunny will help boost up the Sim's Social Level a little bit. Once a Sim has recovered a small amount of social, the bunny will disappear.

"More Realistic"

When The Sims 2 was in pre-release stages, game creators stated that they were removing the robots and genies from the original game to make the game "more realistic". However, when the game was released, aliens and the Grim Reaper were already embedded into the game, which most fans did not consider normal. Since aliens the expansion packs have also produced zombies (University), vampires (Nightlife) and robots (Open For Business). Fans have little doubt that something else will appear in a future expansion pack.

Many people have complained about the sudden idea of using supernatural creatures as a background for the game, people have stated that the game is revolved around reality, and that having aliens, zombies and vampires can ruin the game. Maxis, has stated that all of these aspects of the game can be entirely avoided at the player's wish [citation needed]; this depends on how much of the player's Sims have been involved with certain characters or using certain equipments.

However, some other aspects of the game are more realistic compared to the original when it comes to everyday life. For example, in Sims 2 features pregnancy, achieved with the Try For Baby interaction, if the Sims are a male and female pair. Male pregnancy is achieved through getting abducted by aliens; whereas, in the first The Sims, if two Sims kissed repeatedly, the player would receive a dialog box asking them if they wanted a child. Also, The Sims 2 has life stages, memories, aspirations, fears, and more control over their life.

System requirements

The system requirements for The Sims 2 (from the official The Sims 2 website) are as follows:

Windows

  • 800 MHz processor for systems with a T&L-capable video card with at least 32 MB of video RAM. 2 GHz processor for systems without a T&L-capable video card with at least 32 MB of video RAM.
  • 256 MB RAM (384 MB recommended for Windows Me and XP in the manual)
  • Windows® XP, Windows ME, Windows 98 or Windows 2000 Operating System or better
  • At least 3.5 GB of hard drive space

Mac

  • 1.2 GHz processor
  • PowerPC G4/G5 or Intel Core (1.0 D patch required)
  • (ATI) Radeon 9000 or better.
  • 256 RAM
  • Mac OS X 10.3.8 or better
  • At least 3 GB of hard drive space

At the time of release, many criticized The Sims 2 for needing extremely high system requirements. In fact, just the required (and not optimum) system specs meant that many PC's purchased as late as 2001 would not even be able to run it at all. A similar complaint was levied against another Maxis game, SimCity 4, released more than a year and a half ago.

Bugs

The Sims 2 contains a number of bugs. Many of the bugs listed below have been corrected in a downloadable patch (Note: The installation of The Sims 2: University or any subsequent expansion packs should correct most of the problems below).

  • "Firstborn Clone": All Sims produced in the game are random, but only to a certain point. For instance, the first twelve 'randomly produced' Sims could be recreated if you exited the Sims 2, then re-opened it, started up CAS, then clicked the randomize button. If your Sims create a child without using the randomizing tool in CAS, it will be a certain combination of his or her parents' genes and personality. If you opened the game again a day later, and Sim A, who gave birth to Sim C, gives birth to another Sim, Sim D, it would be an exact copy of Sim C, in personality. However, if before birth of Sim D, E, ect. you exited the house of Sim A, B, C+, opened CAS, then pressed the randomize button an arbitrary number more than twelve, it would restart the game's randomization engines, and subsequent children would have personalities.
  • "Liney" Sims: Graphical glitch with ATI Radeon 9000 GPUs. This problem has been fixed in the new version of ATI's drivers.
  • "Jump Out" Bug: Time-out/scripting bug, causing characters to abort ( "jump out of" ) certain animations and interactions. Solved by the Maxis patch.
  • Memory Leak: Memory leak, sometimes caused by hiring non-player characters, causing abnormal use of system resources.
  • Invisible Colleagues: Graphics glitch involving colleagues visiting by helicopter, causing colleagues to be invisible. Solved by the Maxis patch.
  • "Vanishing Family Members": Hardly anything is known about this glitch except that it occurs when a family member goes to work or school for the first time, they don't come back and vanish off the portraits of the family members on the left of the screen; there is no memory of the disappearance in any of the other family members.
  • Unused objects designated as in use: Engine bug which makes unused objects appear as in-use, like doors that don't close. Caused by proximity to other usable objects.
  • Floating Teddy: After a few uses, the object of the bear will float in the air and there will no longer be proper animation of use of the bear. Can be fixed by buying a new teddy bear. Also would float if use was cancelled during the talk-through action. This was fixed by the Maxis patch.
  • Carpool bug: All Sims living on a lot refuse to enter cars, taxis, buses, etc, causing them to fail at their job or at school. Can be fixed by moving the family to another lot.
  • Build Mode Bug: This was documented as a bug, however, it is known by players that this build mode bug was caused by a cracked application of the game.
  • Stove Bug: If a child has a play stove and leaves a muffin in it, the stove can't be deleted until a child takes it out. If the child grows older no one in the household can empty the stove, so you're stuck with it unless you have another child, or if you use a cheat.

Bugs have also surfaced relating to all three expansion packs. These have been tackled with patches that were made available after the release of the game and expansion packs.

Various editions of the game

As of 2006, three different editions of the game have been released:

  • The Sims 2: This edition contains the original core game stored on four CDs with no additional content.
  • The Sims 2 Special DVD Edition: This edition contains the original core game stored on one DVD with a second DVD containing bonus content that is watchable on DVD players. This edition was released alongside the edition mentioned above.
  • The Sims 2 Holiday Edition: This limited edition contains the original core game along with content from the Holiday Party Pack.

Expansion Packs

The Sims 2: University

Main article: The Sims 2: University

Maxis released the first expansion pack, called The Sims 2: University, on March 2, 2005 for PC and December 12, 2005 for Mac. In it, Sims can be sent to college in a new neighborhood type called University. A "Teen" sim sent to the university will become a "Young Adult," a new age group introduced with this expansion, and that sim will become an "Adult" when it graduates or flunks out. Sims that don't attend the university will skip Young Adult and become Adults, as in the original version of the game. A more minor introduction in University is the addition of "influence points" that can be used to influence others to do a certain thing.

The game also introduces zombies and 4 new careers which are only available to graduated Sims.

The Sims 2: Nightlife

Main article: The Sims 2: Nightlife

The second expansion, The Sims 2: Nightlife, was released on September 13 2005. Based loosely on the original Sims expansion Hot Date, it includes entertainment options like nightclubs, restaurants for romantic dinners, and bowling alleys, in a new neighborhood type called Downtown (much like the University Town in the first expansion pack). A new attraction system introduces turn-ons and turn-offs that cause Sims to be attracted to or disgusted by other Sims. Players will now be able to see other lots in the neighborhood from inside a lot. In addition, players can now own cars instead of taking the carpool. Maxis also added vampires that bite Sims, thus turning them into vampires as well.

Nightlife also added two new aspirations:

  1. Pleasure: Pleasure sims' wants are extremely variable as they seek only to enjoy life.
  2. Grilled Cheese: Accessed only by unsuccessfully using (using while in an aspiration level of green or lower) the ReNuYu Senso Orb. After receiving this aspiration, your Sim will want and fear nothing but things involving grilled cheese sandwiches. This can be fixed by re-using the ReNuYu Senso Orb when in gold or platinum aspiration.

A special car download (the HotRod Hauler Chop Socky Special) was available to those who preordered the game.

The Sims 2: Open for Business

Main article: The Sims 2: Open for Business

The Sims 2: Open for Business, the third expansion pack for The Sims 2, allows your sims to operate their own businesses. They are able to manage their staff and develop their talents. Create prized items to bring in top dollar or watch as things go haywire while they are making the next big thing. Players can choose to set up businesses like an electronics store, a restaurant, a beauty salon, a boutique shop, a lemonade stand, and much more. It was released on March 1, 2006.

This expansion pack also offers robots as Sims in the nostalgic form of Servo from The Sims: Livin' Large and also robots which help with various housework so that maids and gardeners are not needed. They can water plants, pick up garbage, keep your house safe from robbers, put out fires, and even bring back food when they sense that your sim is hungry. Also, in addition to robots, elevators were added to the game with this expansion pack, providing a new element to the The Sims 2's UI.

A special Mascot download (a chicken suit) was available to those who preordered the game.

The Sims 2: Pets

Main article: The Sims 2: Pets

On May 10, 2006, a video shown by EA at E³ provides a glimpse at a possible new installment of The Sims 2. The video may be viewed here.

Stuff Packs

The Sims 2 Stuff Packs are packages that offer approximately sixty new objects, NPCs and textures, but contain no new gameplay elements that are not already featured in previous expansion packs. Two stuff packs and one expansion pack are planned for release in every six month cycle.

The Sims 2: Holiday Party Pack

Main article: The Sims 2: Holiday Edition

The Sims 2 Holiday Party Pack (The Sims 2: Christmas Party Pack in Europe) is a semi-expansion available only through the EA Online Store, select Costco stores, and other video game retailers. This adds over forty new objects to the game, allowing for better depiction of holiday celebrations (mostly Christmas) by sims in decorative ways not possible with the standard game. This comes alongside the limited-edition The Sims 2 Holiday Edition core game, which contains the Holiday Party Pack already in the core game with most bugs removed, in a way similar to the way that The Sims Deluxe Edition included both The Sims and The Sims: Livin' Large in a single package. However, the pack on its own is available through European retailers in a CD-ROM. Although not officially announced as such, this pack can be considered as the first stuff pack since it contains new objects but no new gameplay elements.

The Sims 2: Family Fun Stuff

Main article: The Sims 2: Family Fun Stuff

The second stuff pack, The Sims 2: Family Fun Stuff, was released on April 13, 2006. It includes over sixty all-new items including all new underwater and fantasy themed sets composed of castle beds, sun dresses, tropical wall-hangings, and more. Some European stores offered a special outfit (a green dress) to those who preordered. Target stores also offered this item.

Humor and inside jokes

Template:Spoiler

Veronaville

The neighborhood Veronaville is supposed to be a spoof of Verona (the Italian city in which William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet takes place). In this neighborhood, there are two families who are supposedly conflicting with each other: the Capp family and the Monty family (obviously reflecting the Capulet and Montague families in the play). Supposedly (according to the story of the neighborhood) the conflict started when the leader of the Capp household broke a promise to the leader of the Monty household. The memories of Consort Capp and Patrizio Monty suggest that the broken promise may have been to help Patrizio out in time of need. They were best friends. Instead, Consort apparently conned Patrizio and the result was that Consort became a CEO and Patrizio got fired. Memories also indicate that Patrizio Monty was once involved with Consort Capp's wife Contessa, before she met Consort. Just like in the play, there are two lovers from each family: Romeo and Juliette. The other teens from either household are named after actual characters in Romeo and Juliet, except for Hermia. Her character (as well as a third family, the Summerdream family) was pulled from A Midsummer Night's Dream, another Shakespearean play. Characters from other Shakespearean plays can be found in the family trees in Veronaville. Although these spoofs are supposed to parallel the plays they parody, the Romeo and Juliet parody is significantly less tragic than the actual play. (E.g., Tybalt cannot kill Mercutio to imitiate the conspiracy and suicide of Shakespeare's play, but can still laugh if he sees Mercutio die from a satellite falling on his head, etc...) Other names based on plays include King Lear, The Tempest, The "Hal plays", Othello, The Merchant of Venice, Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, Love's Labour's Lost, Measure for Measure, Macbeth, Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, and The Taming of the Shrew.

See also: List of pre-made Sims in Veronaville

Llamas

Llamas appear in The Sims (as in many Maxis titles). Speculation suggests that this is an inside joke due to one of the producer's love of Monty Python movies (specifically, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, where its opening credits credited llamas for the movie's production). An alternative explanation is that this is paying homage to the work of Jeff Minter, a legendary games programmer who began programming games, featuring all sorts of fluffy animals, for the Vic-20 and Commodore 64 for his company Llamasoft.

Michael Bachelor

Should one take a look at the Goth family tree, they can find out more about Bella's branch of the tree. As it turns out, "Michael Bachelor" is her brother (now deceased). The Bachelor family was one of the pre-packaged families that came with the original The Sims. Only one person was in that family...a man named Michael (his urn/tombstone can be found in the Caliente house in Pleasantview). Furthermore, examining the memories in Pleasantview shows that before he died Michael married Dina Caliente - the woman who now wants to marry Bella's husband, Mortimer Goth...

Mary-Sue Pleasant

One of the characters living in Pleasantview is named "Mary-Sue Pleasant". This is a reference to the original The Sims, wherein there was a pre-packaged family named the Pleasants. In fact, Mary-Sue's husband, Daniel Pleasant, was from the original Sims. Daniel is the brother of Jennifer Burb (formerly Jennifer Pleasant), who is the wife of John Burb and mother of Lucy Burb. (The Burb family is available as a package in Pleasantview, and a Burb family is also available in The Sims: Unleashed expansion pack.) John was a child at the time, his mother was Tiffany Burb).

Angela and Lilith Pleasant

Angela, the 'good twin', is named Angela because of its similarity to 'Angel'. Lilith, the 'bad twin', is named Lilith because Lilith was supposedly the first wife of Adam, according to the Jewish Midrash. She was a seductress, and therefore 'bad'. [2]

Bella Goth

Bella Goth, the wife of Mortimer Goth in The Sims, is absent from the family when the game begins, as it is revealed she was abducted by aliens. A missing person's photograph of her appears on milk cartons seen while preparing some foods, but she can also be found as a townie in Strangetown without her memory of her old residence and family. Although some say she can be found in the hot air balloon which is a neighborhood decoration, the figures in the hot air balloon are actually taken from screenshots of The Sims Hot Date. Several family photo albums also reveal her past actions prior to her alien abduction.

The Newbies

Looking into the family tree of the Broke family will reveal that Brandi's parents are Bob and Betty Newbie, the tutorial characters of The Sims. The family tree will also reveal Bob's parents and Betty's parents. The characters shown in the family tree strongly resemble their original selves from The Sims.

Template:Endspoiler

Television channels and content

Television channels in The Sims 2 mirror those found in real-life television networks:

  • SimStation Sports - A reference to sport channels such as ESPN
  • Sim Broadcasting Network (SBN) - A reference to the major broadcasting networks such as NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, and The WB. The channel also features shows similar to ER, The O.C., Survivor and The Oprah Winfrey Show. The station also shows a satirical version of the many half hour local news blocks found on most basic networks.
  • SimStation Dance - A reference to the music TV networks such as MTV, VH1, and Fuse TV.
  • KidzTube - A reference to Nickelodeon, the Disney Channel and Cartoon Network, though the scenes are similar to the children's live action shows of the 1950s like Howdy Doody, Captain Kangaroo, and Sesame Street in the 1970s.
  • The Yummy Channel - A comical parody of a channel like Food Network, with two of its programs ending up with a fire breaking out in the kitchen.

It should also be noted that several city scenes are in-game video clips from SimCity 4, including a KidzTube television program depicting a giant robot (which was based on Servo, a robot introduced in The Sims: Livin' Large) destroying a city, and various news reports taking place outdoors in the Sim Broadcasting Network.

Furniture and electronics

Miscellaneous

Console/handheld ports

The Sims 2 was released on the following consoles and handhelds:

Platform NA release date EU release date
Nintendo DS October 24, 2005 November 4, 2005
Game Boy Advance October 24, 2005 November 4, 2005
GameCube October 24, 2005 November 4, 2005
PlayStation 2 October 24, 2005 November 4, 2005
Xbox October 24, 2005 November 4, 2005
Cell phone December 1, 2005 availability/release date varies by mobile carrier (see mobile game info for details)
PlayStation Portable December 7, 2005 January 13, 2006
File:The Sims 2.jpg
The Sims 2 PAL game cover for PlayStation 2

The game made its debut to the console/handheld market during Q4, 2005 (source). GameSpot gave all the console versions a 6.5, and said "The Sims 2 loses something in translation from PC to consoles. Namely, its addictive, entertaining gameplay." On several websites, the Sims 2 for PlayStation2 was considered an outrage and many people wanted their money back; saying that all the qualities from PC mode (getting pregnant, aging, etc.) had been taken away.

As with the port of the original The Sims to consoles, the game will most likely feature greatly different mechanics and goals as compared to the original computer version. The Nintendo DS version has a few mini games including painting a picture. Also the console games have 2 modes of control, direct control, the default mode which allows you to walk your sim directly, and classic, where you have a light tower starting above your sim, where you can move it to select objects to use; e.g: The PC.

User Modifications ("mods")

The Sims 2 enjoys a large fanbase of users who enjoy modifying both game content and behavior. Such fans are often called modders.

Modders have developed websites to share and distribute modifications to the "base" or unmodified game. Using programs such as SimPE, users are able to examine and edit game objects. Such edits can be as simple as a "recolor" (where a user provides an alternative color or texture to an already-exiting game object) to the creation of completely new items,"meshing", for use in the game.

Other modders work to directly modify the game's original code. Such modifications can be as simple as disabling a game interaction (such as removing the sim's ability to play "kicky bag" with one another) to expanding or enlarging a game interaction (such as enabling teen sims to become pregnant). Some mods are even designed to fix bugs in the gameplay, such as the "jump bug". Mods of any kind can significantly change game play techniques and strategies, and can fundamentally change the "flavor" of gameplay.

Modders are not limited to changing game behavior. Tools exist to modify a specific sim's appearance, gender, memories, skills, personality, and relationships. Modders are also able to modify existing careers and add new careers which can add a new exciting aspect to game play.

Accusation of sexual contents

On July 22, 2005, Florida attorney Jack Thompson attacked Electronic Arts and The Sims 2. Thompson claimed The Sims 2 was "worse than Hot Coffee" (a reference to the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' Hot Coffee mod) because, using a mod, players could see nude Sims. Thompson claimed "pubic hair", "labia", and other genital details were visible if the blur was removed.

Electronic Arts issued a statement correcting Thompson, pointing out when the blur was removed from a Sim, the Sim lacks anatomical definition (there are no visible genitalia much like naked dolls).

Several third-party mods, including custom meshes, are required to make nude Sims have the features Thompson accused the game of having. Most makers of such mods have taken some measures to prevent players under the age of 18 from accessing such mods.

Thompson later retracted his misstatements concerning "pubic hair" and other details about which he was misinformed. However, he defended his fundamental position on The Sims 2, and expressed his opinion that EA should "lose their right to defend their copyright" on the The Sims 2 because the company does not prevent the mod community from making adult-oriented changes to the game. However, while one can lose their rights to enforce a trademark by not defending it, this does not extend to copyrights, so his expressed opinion lacks legal grounding.

See also: Jack Thompson (attorney)

EA executive Jeff Brown told US website GameSpot:

This is nonsense. We've reviewed 100 percent of the content. There is no content inappropriate for a teen audience. Players never see a nude sim. If someone with an extreme amount of expertise and time were to remove the pixels, they would see that the sims have no genitals. They appear like Ken and Barbie.

One Albert Mackenzie from the website illspirit.com claims that he deliberately baited Thompson into his attacks on The Sims 2 as "the Hot Coffee fiasco began to reach dizzying heights of silliness." He reproduces a purported e-mail exchange with Thompson on his site [3].

See also

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: The Sims

Official sites

Producer journals

Resources

Forums & BBS

Fansites


Template:SimUniverse

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