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Looks Like the Making of the Best Game of 2004!

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 199 / 316
Date: January 27, 2004
Author: Amazon User

When The Sims first started out four years ago,it was the most critically acclaimed game of 2000.If offered the freedom to live out your wildest dreams.With the expansion packs,you can pretty much do whatever the heck you want.Go on a vacation,audition for American Idol,throw a huge house party,get a hot date with that girl next door,become a wizard,own dozens of pets,and buy outrageous furniture that only celebrites would own.I for one,became addicted as soon as I started playing (back in 2000).I spent hours and hours late at night,staring at a computer screen,trying to level up my Sim so he can get that job promotion.

Now,on to The Sims 2.This game looks like it will be one of the best PC games ever to be released.
Here's some improvements over previous versions:

1.You can now have a house with more than two stories.Imagine:having a skyscraper for a house.

2.There will be a diary for you Sim,that will track important moments in your Sims life.For example,it will keep records of your Sims first kiss,your Sims marrage,divorce (uh,oh) first accident on the floor,ect. (okay,mabey not you first accident on the floor)

3.Your Sims can now die of old age.They can also be struck my lightning.

4.Screw those old prerendered backrounds;Now EVERYTHING is in crisp polygons.Unfortunately,judging by Amazon's screenshots,it will look like you will need one heck of a powerful computer!

5.More animations.In the old game,you would see Sims do the same thing over,and over,and over again.

6.(Possibly) Less glitches and bugs.Once,in the old game,my Sim died because he missed work,and burnt to death...

Overall,The Sims 2 looks like it will be one of the best games of 2004.I'm giving it three out of five stars ONLY because the game hasn't come out yet,and I don't know if it will be the greatest game ever conceived,or the crappiest game ever made.

Gamertag:TurboCircuits

I advise you to buy it, as you will have a GREAT time!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 38 / 40
Date: October 01, 2004
Author: Amazon User

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.

Very good and addictive, but flawed and not quite brilliant

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 46 / 52
Date: September 27, 2004
Author: Amazon User

First off, I didn't knock off points for the bugs the game has. The main reason I gave this 3 stars overall instead of 4 is because it's basically just the original Sims with a few new bells and whistles and a complete visual overhaul. For people who've played the Sims before, it's a solid and worthwhile upgrade although not particularly innovative. People who've never played the original will be in for a treat. Many will be put off by some of the drawbacks, which hopefully will be remedied in the near future.

The new fully 3D engine is the most obvious difference, but not as good-looking as the official screenshots. Expect the game to look very unattractive on slower systems. The minimum system requirements are a joke, which although doesn't affect someone with a high-end system like me, is doing a disservice to the many people with average systems whom this game is squarely marketed to. It can get sluggish sometimes even on my system.

The facial and body animations are great and it's fun to see your sims grow up. There are nice touches like this throughout the game which many will love but they add little to actual gameplay - some gamers will appreciate this more than others. The new create-a-sim is fantastic with lot of options for facial features and clothing. However, you have only one session to create a family, after that you have to start over as you can't modify or export your family. If you want to modify or resuse sims, you must use the included Body Shop tool instead. Why, Maxis? Why overlook something so fundamental?

Trying to build a house is a terribly disappointing experience. The decor options are downright gaudy and none of the furniture matches. The object creator isn't out yet so you'll have to wait for that until you can build a house that actually looks good. For all the money they've made off of the Sims, Maxis could certainly have hired an interior designer to help them, but I guess they want to save that for the Sims 2 expansion packs, which is a shame because the game is already bloated at 2.7GB.

Each neighborhood now has a backstory, but unfortunately this is just window dressing. It's like Maxis considered impelementing fully fleshed-out storylines but then scratched the idea. If they'd figured out how to do this while still maintaining non-linearity (like in, say, Black & White), it would've greatly enhanced gameplay because as it is, it doesn't really feel like you're watching a story unravel before your eyes. The aspirations system, on the other hand, is very addictive because there's never a moment your sims do not want anything so you're always rushing to fill up that bar to platinum level. Having five different aspirations not only enhances personality but gives each sim a distinctive role to play. It's probably the only major difference to gameplay in Sims 2.

The careers are quite boring: The only ways they really differ from each other is the amount of money you make at different levels and that each career requires developing 3 different skills, e.g. businessmen need high creativity points, which can be earned painting or playing the piano. It doesn't make sense, but that's how it is. There are other disappointing limitations, like not being able to see what kind of a person or how wealthy a sim is unless you actually move in with him/her, which makes falling in love and making friends a very random process.

I gave up on Sims 2 after about 30-40 hours of gameplay. It crashed on me over 10 times - blue screen of death (in WinXP!), followed by a reboot. This is certainly not an isolated problem. So far there are 2700 posts on the technical support forum at the official website, mostly unanswered and unsolved. It's hard to forgive Maxis for rushing this game, I think the fans deserve a more fully-featured and stable product for the price. However, once patches come out and people start creating custom objects, I'm looking forward to returning to the game. I know I've been very negative, but I felt I had to point out, unlike most of the 5- and 1-star reviews, what you can honestly expect from this game.

Be prepared to lose track of time...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 31 / 31
Date: September 26, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I have been looking forward to this game for many months and it finally came!! I wanted to give it a good week or so before I reviewed it, so I can find out more about it. This game is rated very highly because they really put in a lot of thought when it came to the upgrade!

The good:
* The most impressive part of the game is the fact that you can fix a camera at all angles and the 3D is just amazing!! You can view a house from every aspect!! You can also zoom a foot in front of two sims interacting!

* The sims movements are fluid and realistic. If a parent comes home, a child may run outside into the parent's arms. If someone comes into the room, a sim won't ignore them until you tell them to do something---they will automatically start talking to them, just like in real life.

* You can download items right into the game as you are playing if you are connected to the internet. There are not too many choices, not sure how to get more, but I have downloaded 2 houses, an entertainment area/shopping center, and a new computer into my game, and it was very quick!

* A previous reviewer complained about this part of the game, but I thought it was great! You can create a sim right down to the details of how big their forehead is. You can put makeup on them and "custom" style their hair in shades of pink, blue, etc. Men can have different styles of facial hair, or 5 o clock shadow. You can alter the size of their lips, nose, eyes, body type, etc. Then, when you have a mirror in the house, you can do it again and again (only the makeup, facial hair, haircut---not the eyes, nose, etc.)

* You can buy many outfits at a time, even for other members of the house! You can mix and match (tops and bottoms) or whole outfits. You can also buy formal, pjs, underwear, swimwear, and exercise clothing.

* Sims age, but you can stop it if it's moving too fast (it does) When the sim is pregant, her tummy will show and the father can rub it or talk to the baby. When the baby is born, you can change their diaper, change clothing, feed, play, etc. When the baby becomes a toddler, you can teach them to talk, walk, and potty train them.

* The sims now have aspirations, wants, and fears. You pick their aspirations when you create them. (Family, knowledge, popularity, etc.) Then, based on their aspirations, you are given choices as to fill the wants and you are given points if they do so. You can buy "rewards" with the points such as simoleon money trees, a "love" tub, mood lifter, etc. As with the genie in the bottle in the first sims, these can also go horribly wrong. Ex: the mood lifter can also ruin your mood and when you have money trees around, visitors that come over will "pick" from your money tree as well, even if you don't want them to.

* You can now chat online, email, order groceries, play video games, and receive emails over the computer.

* Phones can call other sims, order pizza or groceries, call housekeeping, exterminators, repairmen, nannies! You can call for emergency, call a taxi, and call work if you want time off or want to retire.

* Sims have days of the week that they work, days off, and vacation days where they still get paid. You are also given little choices while they are at work. Ex: A sim worked as a police officer, the others wanted doughnuts, she wanted to make nice with the other officers, but didn't want to get into trouble. What do you do? Based on your answer, you could be demoted, or given a raise, etc.

I can go on and on.

The bad:

* There are not as many choices for furniture. There are some, but I have a feeling you are going to need expansion packs (once again) which I'm not happy about, since I spent so much money and have bought every sims game ever made. I will say this though: there are a lot of choices for floors (carpet, stone, linoleum, tile, etc) There are choices for walls (paint, wallpaper, brick, etc) There are new furniture items, not just the ones we saw in the original sims. I will still buy the expansion packs (and there are no animals in this one either) but, like I said, I'm not happy about it.

* Though there is a aging off choice, I cannot find out how to get a money cheat. (if someone knows one, please email :) ) But, at the same time, maybe it will make me appreciate the game more, because I keep moving houses once they make a little more money.

The very ugly:

* Though I have only had one problem with a "glitch" it was still annoying. I will say that my computer has not crashed or frozen during the time I have played the game, but at one point they were playing with a dartboard, but became frozen in front of it. I couldn't delete it because it constantly said it was "in use" when it wasn't. So, family members would stand in front of it, and their needs would go down. Quite annoying. You have to move houses if you want to get rid of it.

* I know a lot of people have complained about the game, how it has not worked on their computer, and I feel bad for those people. I think it may be because I have a DVD rom, and maybe that will make a difference? My computer is not even that fast---it's a Dell, and it's over a year old. I didn't even think the game would work on my computer because sometimes the security gets in the way and games won't even install, but I had *no* problems whatsoever. (Knock on wood)

I hope this helps, I am going to waste more time and play this addictive game!

Not what I expected, but still fun

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 38 / 41
Date: September 16, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I picked up the book and the game yesterday at Best Buy. I'll list some of the pro's and con's I have found so far.

Cons: The game takes an ubelieveably long time to install and then load. I have a fairly new computer with more than the mininum specs and I found myself sitting and watching the screen a lot. Also, the scrolling and zooming on the screen is not as easy as in the first Sims. I guess it's the 3d component I have to get used to. I also found the aspiration part hard to keep up, but I guess I'll get better with time. (Not sure I like this aspiration thing so far.) The last thing is I found it difficult to find things in Buy Mode. It's not as intuitive as it was in the previous Sims. Again, something to get used to I guess.

Pros: The neighborhoods are huge and there are lots of people and lots in them. Should eliminate (or at least reduce) having to create families just to have friends. There are three neighborhoods to choose from. The pregnancy feature is cool (although my sim wife died while pregnant and I couldn't stop it.) There are lots of options for building and buying although the design feature is much more complicated than in the past. (Probably due to the basement.)There are a million new little things too, but if you played the first Sims consistently, you should be able to pick this one up pretty quickly. Overall, I like it so far. I guess I was a little let down, but with all the hype that was bound to happen. Regardless, I am looking forward to getting home from work so I can play again.

sooo FUN!!!!!!!!!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 35 / 38
Date: September 06, 2004
Author: Amazon User

hi im mimi i want to tell you about the sims2 heres a list of new things:
*you can get married and devorced
*people of the same gender can get married
*Sim adults can move out of there parent's house without getting married first
*Teen sims will be rebellious
*Can put on glasses, piercings, tattoos, hair clips, other fun stuff
*Can marry the burglar
*Have to "play" to get pregnant in TS2
*Two teen girls can get in a fight over a boy
*Kids be able to have crushes and stuff
*Cheats in this game
*Cheats in this game
*Several dozen hairstyles
*The could sims smell,and other sims may not like it
*Costomizable weight & height
*New expansions for sims 2
*In create a sim mode, you can you create what your sim will look likewhen they are an adult but then put them into the game as a toddler who will eventually grow up looking like that.
*Can have twins. Triplets are extremelly rare
*Pregnant women get morning sickness
*Pregnant sim's belly grow in size
*Sims visit someone in their house
*Can put your child up for adoption if you do not want them
*Babies puke
*Adults can teach babies/toddlers things like walking.
*Pregnant sim will have her baby 2-3 Sims days
*Must potty train there kids
*Sims plants will be affected by sims talking to them
*Babies are only 2-3 sims days
*Chance there may be cars
*You see more terrain around the house, and the sky
*Sim male could grow bald through his transition from adult to senior
*About 7 expansion packs
*Will be able to record video footage of our sims having events happen to them
*4 skin tones
*Three floors *plus* an attic
*Three floors *plus* an attic
*Sibling rivalry
*Sims care if their spouse dies
*They have aspirations like being rich
*Life Stage: baby, toddler, child, teen, adult and seniors
*Actions will have repercussions, and decisions made when your Sim is a toddler, child or teen will affect their life choices and ultimate happiness as an adult. As your Sims age, they will collect a variety of memories over the course of their lives that shape who they are
*You can place windows and doors in diagonal walls
*Slumber parties!!
*Teenagers be able to date
*Groceries
*Teens get low-paying jobs
*Teen sims can run away
*old age death
*A meter tells you how far along in each life stage you sim is
*sims have b-days
*Teenager sims can cook
*teenagers can babysit
*Teens be able to have their first kiss with a teen of the same gender
*Gothic teens, punk rock teens, and all the other styles of teens you see in real life
*The aging process can be turned on and off during the game
*They get pregancy clothes automatically
*Underwater camera
*Sims can paint personal experiences with the easel
*You can bring the camera as low as 10 inches from the floor
*Alien abductions in Sims 2 can cause the man to be pregnant with a 1/2 alien baby
*Parents can serve dinner as the family sits down
*People will notice if they don't shower
*No millatary school
*They can jump on beds and jump on couches
*Sims gain and lose weight
*Can loan or give money to other sims
*Sims will be meaner if they had a "bad" childhood
*Teens can have parties
*Babies have motive bars, like hunger and hygiene
*B-days, and births, first kisses, etc. These are Big Life Memories and they are pretty important in fulfilling a Sims' lifetime dreams....but watch out, they also have fears
*You can hire a Nanny
*You can earn interactions, objects and behaviors in the game by achieving different goals. In Sims 2 you will get unlocks by helping your Sim succeed at his aspirational goalsMore kisses and romance

*in addition, Sims now have "DNA", which allows children of Sims to have the characteristics of their parents. They will form complex relationships which allows them to determine between family and friends. Their appearance will change over time as they age, as well as through their behaviours. For example, a Sim who sits on the couch watching TV all the time will soon become obese. In addition, offspring will look like and behave like their ancestors.

*the teens will not be able to "play"so the sim teens will not be able to become pregnant

Will kids and teenagers be able to have sleepovers?
Yes, you can invite Sims to stay over for a slumber party, complete with junk food and ghost stories.

Will we be able to do more interactions with babies besides sing, feed, and play? If so, what are some of them?
There will be a lot of special social interactions for babies beyond singing, feeding and playing with them. Your Sims will be able to teach their babies to walk and talk. Adult Sims can toss the babies up in the air and catch them safely. Plus, the babies will need to be changed, bathed and put to sleep. Sometimes, a baby will surprise everyone and toddle over to play in the toilet on their very own.

I HOPE THIS WAS ALL GREAT AND HELPFUL IF YOU NEED ANY MORE INFORMAION YOU CAN E-MAIL ME AT GhBestFan@AOL.COM.THANK YOU FOR LISTENING SORRY IT'S SO LONG
MARIAH
14 YEARS OLD

Another great Sims game...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 29 / 30
Date: October 13, 2004
Author: Amazon User

The Sims 2 is another great Sims games. I rated Fun 5 stars & Overall 4 stars. I became addictied to the Sims when the first game came out & bought the first 4 expansion packs & then I kind of laid back & haven't played for a while. I had tons of fun & played for hundreds of hours but I just felt like it needed something a bit more & I had always wished to be able to build more levels. When I saw that they were coming out with The Sims 2 I was very excited. I played enought now to say that I'm thrilled with this game & I can see that I'm going to be addicted again. My wish came true & you can build multi-levels & there are many more options. I'll list some of the pros, cons & neutral feelings that I have below:

Pros:

* The multi-level homes.
* The fact that you can hire a nanny.
* The fact that your Sims go through different stages of life.
* The aspriations, wants & fears.
* More detail choices when creating the sims.
* Ability to make houses without moving in a family in first.
* Bigger Neighborhoods with more options.
* The fact that you can identify the relationship between sims.
* The eyedropper tool. If you already have something in your house & you want to add another you click the eyedropper & click the object & it automatically grabs the item for you rather then having to look through all the items again to find the same one.
* The fact that you get days off of work & school & vacation days can be earned as well.
* When they are at work now there bladders empty & the hunger is fulfilled. They finally realized they were entitled to a breaks. :)
* The family Tree.
* Career Chance Card. Example- My ambulance driver got stuck behind traffice & I had to pick for him to either drive on the sidewalk or carry the person. Depending on your choice it will either help you or hurt you.
* Rewards.
* Sims can get sick. 1 of mine had the flu & the wife got it as well.
* Some or all of your sims can move out.
* Your sims inhert money from others when they die.
* Ability to change clothes & appearances.

Cons:

* Still very slow to load.
* Slow rotations.
* The fact that you can't place object diagonally. Windows is a great example of something I would like to be able to do that with.
* Pools can only be square or rectangle.

Neutral:

* The fact that you have to call & order groceries
* Aging is too short for the the adult sims but a code can turn that off of you can get an item that slows down the aging process.

I have Windows XP & a pretty fast & current computer but the game is still very slow too load & a little choppy at times. We meet all the requirements so I'm not really sure if this will be a problem for everyone but I'm not going to complain too much because the game is very detailed & has tons of stuff to load so I'll just have to be patient for the loading. Other then that the game is very enjoyable & there are many, many more options. I highly recommend this game to fans of the sims or any newcomers. Can't wait for some expansions but in the meantime I'm still going to have lots of fun.

May Very Well Soar Above the Success of Sims 1

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 31 / 33
Date: August 19, 2004
Author: Amazon User

If the new Sims 2 is even half of what the game designers are promising that it'll be, there is no doubt that Sims 2 will definitely be an awesome game.

And the game designers are promising a lot.

Some of the main changes are listed below:

-Gamers now have more control over how their sims looks, by being able to sculpt their sims to the finest details i.e. eye color, skin color, glasses, make-up, hair color, other facial and body features. Gamers will be able to mix and match tops and bottoms and outfits for their sims.

-Sims 2 has what the designers are calling a life cycle feature, which enables you to create sims in several stages of life. Baby, toddler, child, teenager, adult, and senior. Additionally, your sims will age from whichever stage of life you "birth" them at, and eventually you sims can die of old age. However, I've heard that there is a way to turn off the aging process to stop your sims from aging, if you choose.

-There's a new "DNA" component in Sims 2, whereby if two sims get together and have a child, that child will end up looking like the parents. I also suspect that certain personality traits will be passed on this way as well.

-The sims have a greater artificial intelligence feature, which enables them to be more aware of their surroundings and "remember" their interactions with other people. This, I believe, will make for particularly interesting gameplay because sims will be aware of which sims are family members, enemies, or potential love interests and respond accordingly when they meet each sim. Sim children will remember the neglect of bad parents and become sim teenagers who skip school, runaway, or get sent to jail. A sim girl who has her first kiss can be seen chatting about it with her family and thinking about it days later. Babies who've been played with a little too much will throw up on their parents.

-Instead of making just a photo album of your sim's life you can actually make mini-movies of their lives with the new camera feature.

-The build mode is much more advanced as well. Gamers can now build houses up to four stories high. Gamers will also be able to build basement and place pictures and such on diagnol walls. Additonally, furniture color can be changed now.

Other miscellaneous new features for Sims 2:

1. Sims now have five fingers.
2. Pregnant Sims have morning sickness, show a bulging belly, leave for the hospital when it's time to give birth, and come back a few days later with a baby. Additonally, there's a possibility (though rare) for female sims to give birth to twins and triplets.
3. Alien abductions in certain neighborhoods are common.
4. Ghost sighting tend to be more perilous (another perk of a more advanced artificial intelligence). If a ghost sim died in a fire, he might come back with a red glow and tendency to start fires himself.
5. As the sims cooking skills increase they can different types of foods, as opposed to the generic meals that could only be cooked in Sims 1 no matter how high your sims cooking score was.
6. Sims can decide which schools to sent their sims children to in order to give them a better start in life.
7. The game will have neighborhoods that have fifty lots on them.
8. Sims can divorce, have affairs, move out and keep the items that they purchased. Additonally, sims can marry NPC's, such as the maid, the butler, the mailman.
9. Sims can own two homes. Births, deaths, and marriages are much more important in Sims 2.
10. Sims can now die in several different ways.

It's seems as though the game designers have taken a lot of effort to make this game as realistic and detailed as possible. Pretty much everything that I wanted to be improved from Sims 1 has been implemented in Sims 2. However, I've heard that there might not be a weather feature in Sims 2, as far as rain/snow is concerned, and there won't be any pets. But, I'm sure they'll take care of that in the expansion packs that I'm positive will follow the release of the game.

I'm eagerly looking forward to playing this game. Just designing my first sims family will probably keep me occupied for hours.

Now a word of caution to the gamers. Before buying this game, I recommend that gamers make sure that their computers meet the spec requirments for the game. It would be a shame to spend all that money on Sims 2, take it home to install it, and then realize that you don't have enough memory on your computer or a good enough graphics accelerator to play it.

Likely to surpass its predecessor as the #1 selling PC game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 28 / 29
Date: October 08, 2004
Author: Amazon User

It's hard to to improve on greatness, and sequels usually don't come close to the quality of the original, but the The SIms 2 is an exception to this rule. The Sims 2 has the same general structure and gameplay of the The Sims in that you can create Sims, control their interactions and work toward short and long term goals. What the new game offers that no expansion of the first game can is incredible depth. From the get go, this game is infinitely more personalizable. The "Create a Sim" engine gives you near total control of what your Sims look like, so you can make identifiable Sims of yourself, your friends, your enemies, or movie stars. In addition to appearance and personality traits, you also get to choose what your Sim's aspiration will be. You can choose from Family, Popularity, Fortune, Knowledge and Romance. This will determine what your sim's long and short term goals will be. Far more complicated than making sure your Sims get to the toilet on time and don't burn the house down, you must now help your Romance Sim, for example achieve his goal of having 5 Loves, or making "Woo Hoo!" in public, or help you Knowledge Sim max out her mechanical skill. These and other goals require more thought and planning and make the game much richer.

One of my favorite things about the new game is the introduction of genetics. Now you can have a baby and his or her characteristics will match those of the parents. One of the best things about the new game: CHILDREN GROW UP! They don't stay children forever. You can nurse an infant, teach your toddler to walk, talk and use the potty, help your child with her homework, hope the teenager doens't sneak out with her boyfriend, and then watch her get married on the front lawn. Likewise, adult sims age and become elders and can now die of old age. There are ways around this, through items you can get form "aspiration points", rewards you get for fulfilling your Sims' aspirations. I love the game. It's very engaging to see generations of a family continue to grow and interact, and even the pre-made characters have much more complex stories and problems to solve. What happenned to Bella Goth? Will the Pleasant Twins ever stop fighting? Will Daniel Pleasant pursue an affair with the maid, or remain true to his wife, Mary Sue? it's all up to you to decide in this addictive, engaging game.

This game also has many of the features of the expansions ot the orignal game. you cn now have house parties, birthday parties and wedding parties, take a stroll in the park, but clothes at the strip mall or go swimming in the public pool. it's a great game and very addictive.

One Caveat: Read the system requirements and check them with your computer before purchasing the game. giving the game a poor review because it does not work with one's computer is not fair. It does have pretty high system requirements. I added some more RAM before purchasing this game, because I needed it anyway and the game is fine. It takes awhile to load, but other than that I have had no problems with slow gameplay or freezing or anything else. The new 3D engine is fantastic and the gameplay is smoother than ever. One gripe? The camera panning is still slow, and speaking of cameras you can now take photos and movies of anything in the game to be edited and shared later.

Other cool features:

You can choose what the Sims paint on the easel- even a picture you have on your computer!

Careers now involve choices that can result in promotions, demotions or being fired. For example, will your scientist's assistant report the findings as her own, or pass them on to the head scientist? Will the chef create a book of boring low carb food certain to sell books, or creative asian cuisine? The choice is up to you!

You now ahve added challenges, like impressing the headmaster so your child will be accepted to private school.

The aspiration rewards items are really fun, including a "love tub" which fulfills many needs, "smart milk" for babies and a money tree.

Overall I think this is a fun, immersive and engaging game for all ages. It is certain to surpass the original!

A must have for all Sims fans

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 32 / 36
Date: September 17, 2004
Author: Amazon User

The original Sims was the biggest selling game of all time, and from the looks of it, Sims 2 will be as equally successful. At its heart, the sequel is a bigger, better version of its much loved predecessor. The graphics have been updated, although it does require a faster PC, so the updated visual look doesn't come without a cost. The control interface is almost exactly the same as the old game, so Sims veterans won't have any trouble diving straight into the game. The user interface is incredibly intuitive, and cleverly designed. There is a much wider variety of music available in the new game, and it adds a whole new dimension to the environment that wasn't there before.

Due to the new graphics engine, houses look more beautiful than ever. One subtle example is lighting - when installing windows into your house, it's amazing to see how rooms can be perfectly lit. It's also much easier to create multiple storey houses than it was in the original game. So if you love designing the perfect abode, the Sims 2 is definitely for you.

The biggest improvment for the Sims 2 is how the new Sims interact with the environment around them. There's no more need for the user to micromanage every single aspect of their lives. If a Sim has an urgent need (eg. relieving your bladder, showering, etc...), they will do this without any user intervention. This frees up more time to focus on the fun part - seeing how Sims interact with each other. These new Sims have a much wider range of facial reactions and body language, so seeing them play patty-cake with one another can be quite amusing.

The new aspirations system is a new innovation that is well implemented into the game. I didn't find it at all annoying - it was actually an advantage for me to have goals that my Sim could aspire to.

All-in-all, the Sims 2 is an excellent game, that is a humongous improvement over its predecessor. If you're looking for an enjoyable open-ended game that the kids can play, as well as adults, then get the Sims 2 - you won't regret it.

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