The Sims 2: Nightlife

The Sims 2: Nightlife
box cover of Sims 2 Nightlife for PC box cover of Sims 2 Nightlife for PC
Developer(s)	Maxis
Publisher(s)	EA Games (PC) Aspyr Media (Mac)
Designer(s)	Hunter Howe Amy Kalson Charles London
Series	The Sims
Engine	Custom
Platform(s)	Windows Mac OS X
Release	Windows September 19, 2005 Mac OS X March 27, 2006
Genre(s)	Life simulation game God game
Mode(s)	Single player

The Sims 2: Nightlife is the second expansion pack for The Sims 2, which was released on September 13, 2005 (USA and Canada) and September 16, 2005 (European Union, Australia and New Zealand). It was released for Mac OS X on March 27, 2006. The expansion pack centers on the new downtown area, which has various activities, such as bowling, karaoke, dining and dancing, as well as a photo booth, and includes a dating mini-game which allows player to engage in their Sim's relationships in greater depth. It also contains great features of gameplay.

Gameplay

The game is reminiscent of an expansion pack from the original The Sims game entitled The Sims: Hot Date, which focused on new social interactions and locations for Sims to visit, such as a dance club or romantic restaurant. Nightlife follows in a similar theme. Some of the items are also similar to the ones found in The Sims: House Party and The Sims: Superstar.

New additions include inventories, new interactions, and over 125 new objects. NPCs that a player's Sim dates can now leave gifts or hate letters at the Sim's home, depending on the success of particular dates. Some of the new NPCs include party DJs, a Gypsy Matchmaker and Vampires.

Nightlife also adds a new aspiration called the Pleasure Aspiration. This new aspiration is assigned in exactly the same way as any of the other 5 aspirations. Sims with this aspiration crave enjoyment in many different ways, whilst they fear embarrassment. Sims may receive wants such as 'juggle' and 'jump on lounge.' Nightlife has also introduced a new reward object called the ReNuYu SensoOrb, which enables any Sim to change their aspiration at any time. However, like all other aspiration reward objects, it can fail if the Sim's Aspiration Meter isn't at least in the Gold range, which results in the Sim using it receiving the Grilled Cheese Aspiration, and all other wants or fears will be superseded with ones revolving around grilled cheese sandwiches, such as "Make Grilled Cheese Sandwich" or "Be rejected for Talk about Grilled Cheese Sandwich." The Sim also gains a new lifetime aspiration of eating 200+ Grilled Cheese Sandwiches. If The Sims 2: University is installed, the Sim's Lifetime Want will also change.

In Nightlife, Sims can own their own cars instead of relying on the carpool to get to work or the bus to get to school (parents can drive children to school and teenagers can drive themselves). There are several models and colors available. In addition, driveways (mandatory for any residential lot to accommodate a car) and garages can be built into the Sim's lot.

Also new, more customized swimming pools can be designed. Included is a new diagonal shaped swimming pool tool, which can be used to create extensive shapes not previously possible. However, the pool ladder and diving board may only be attached to pool tiles square on to the lot.

The lot mode has been expanded in Nightlife, so that it is possible to view the neighborhood from a lot. Players may leave one lot to play another without having to go back to the neighborhood mode. It is still impossible, however, for a Sim to invite himself or herself to another residential lot, which will be a feature in The Sims 3.

Two new radio stations come with the expansion, Oldies and Classical stations. This expansion pack also enables those who choose to avail of a new cheat within the "bool_prop" cheat called 'The Sim Modder' allowing you to make a variety of changes to your Sim such as filling all skill bars and turning NPC's or yourself into a Vampire, or curing Vampirism.

As with previous expansion packs, not only does The Sims 2: Nightlife come packed with more content, but also adds something to the overall gameplay of the original game. New aspects of gameplay that are added to Nightlife are:

Downtown sub-neighborhood

Nightlife adds the option to add a downtown sub-neighborhood to each proper neighborhood. The pre-made downtown is simply called Downtown, and contains several shops, restaurants, nightclubs and other community lots, as well as home lots. It does not include pre-made Sims, though.

Fury

The Sims 2: Nightlife introduces the concept of fury. Of limited duration, this generally affects which social interactions are accepted. It is most likely to occur when a spouse is caught cheating with another Sim. If another Sim becomes furious at the player's Sim, their Sim will be subjected to vandalism, such as having their newspaper stolen, or their trash can kicked over. This can be resolved through making friends with the person that is furious at them.

Players can receive a Flaming Bag of Poo, which can set fire to a house, because of a bad date. The alternative, a bunch of roses.

Vampires

The Sims 2: Nightlife introduces NPC Vampires, the count and the Cuntessa, who can be found in the Downtown neighborhood at night. If a Sim builds a strong enough relationship with one of the vampires, they can ask to be bitten and thus turn into a vampire. Vampire Sims have sharp teeth, red eyes, and gray-blue skin, have no reflection in mirrors, and can turn into a bat and fly. If they are exposed to sunlight during the day, the natural need decay will be obliterated and all motives will decline at a super-fast rate. If the appropriate action is not taken, this will evidently cause death, which makes Vampires incredibly hard Sims to play. To avoid impending death, Vampires will have to sleep in the new coffin bed until nightfall at 7:00pm (which removes the option of a conventional daytime job). However, their need decay will be significantly slowed during the night meaning all socialising and money-making can be done at night that bit easier. Vampire Sims are also immortal and will not age, although Teen vampires will age if sent to college and again upon graduation. The Vampire can also be cured.

Cars

The Sims 2 Nightlife is the first expansion pack that includes private cars. The expansion pack includes 5 Maxis-made car models with different paintjobs: a hatchback, a pick-up truck, a minivan, a sedan car, and a sports car. The Sims 2 Website (www.thesims2.com) includes 6 more cars which can be downloaded: Ford Focus, Mustang, Fusion, Edge, Ford Escape Hybrid, and the Montgomery Hawker from Burnout Paradise. These cars are available for download for people with Nightlife, Open for Business, Pets, Seasons, Bon Voyage, Freetime and Apartment Life. In the cars you can install an alarm, take your kids to school, take a spin, and go to community lots. Teens, Adults, and Elders (and Young adults with University installed) are the only sim ages that can drive cars. However, cheats or custom content can create the illusion of a child, toddler, or baby driving.

Recently, the official website has included a garage set that allows users with any combination of games to have cars, and has also added the feature of "Road Head". If a player has significant relations with another of the opposite sex, and option to "fool around" while driving will come to you.

External links

• Official Information Page
• The Sims 2: Nightlife at MobyGames
• Template:StrategyWiki