The Sims 2 - Game and Expansion Packs

The Sims 2:
Double Deluxe



 

The game is set in a suburb of the city, but this is not your average suburb. The inhabitants are small polygonal characters whose actions you control. They behave in human like ways, they talk to each other and make gestures and hunker down for TV. They even fight and hurl insults. They tell jokes and even take baths.

The audio for the game is quite good, the background music is excellent and the sound effects such as door slamming and toilet flushing are close to authentic. Their speech is mostly gibberish but they are easy to understand due to facial expressions and tonality.

The graphics are of the quality Sims fans have come to expect, quite detailed and colorful.

You can start the game with a pre generated family or a single character. Each character has his own personality traits and job skills. These come together to determine how well the Sim will do at his job and be able to provide for his family. The Sim has to look through the paper to find a job and once he does, a car appears at the same time each day to whisk him off to work. It is vital your Sim finds a job because he can't buy things if he isn't employed, including food.

You must also watch over your Sim's needs. Each has a lifebar for such indicators as hunger, comfort, energy, fun, and bladder. The bars continually drain and then fill back up when you meet a need. If you neglect your Sim, he will suffer and possibly die.

You also have to help your Sim buy kitchen appliances so he can cook, and furnish his house with suitable objects so the environment meter will not drain out.

The Sims is a lot of fun and is a unique game which will soon get you hooked. It's good for some laughs and unexpected things happen frequently like your Sim setting the house on fire while cooking. It takes a lot of work to monitor your Sim to keep him safe and happy.

In the world of video games, there are game categories such as shooters, adventure, action and role playing. Then there is The Sims. This game was introduced by Electronic Arts* in February of 2000 and became a cultural phenomenon. It sold twenty million copies and generated the development of hundreds of fan sites devoted to their own personal Sims environment.

The Sims was the first game that introduced a significant degree of online socialization through the use of a game platform. A Sims player creates his own family, buys or builds his own home, and has numerous encounters with other characters generated by the game's AI (artificial intelligence). Your Sim character, or "avatar", goes through life experiencing career changes, family development - many of the real-life experiences that lurk outside our real-time doors. Its unique character, in-game quirks (such as the gibberish in which Sims communicate) and capacity for infinite change made addicts out of millions.

The game makes the player the "deus ex machina:" the off-screen God controlling individuals lives. As a player, you can help your Sim build not only home and family, but an entire neighborhood. Sufficient quirks and human neuroses are built into the game's characters as they are introduced that the game remains an addictive fascination for its players. As one reviewer put it; "Want to play it straight and watch the lives of a typical nuclear family? You can do that. But what if you'd prefer to dress your Sim like a Viking and have him play his guitar for spare change in the subway while living with two women - she's a slacker and she's a paranormal - who are a couple? Go for it."

 

The company followed its initial success with seven expansion packs and in 2004 launched a completely new version, The Sims 2. The new version has better graphics and many more choices for your Sims and their families, who happily are still speaking Simlish. The video engine is more 3D than the original 2D; characters in your game have more choices to make and more characteristics that make them interesting, down to genetic similarities when new family members are born. You can customize the family dog - long hair or short? Blue eyes or crossed? Intelligent companion or clumsy doofus? It's up to you.

By 2005, the audience for The Sims and its various expansions had swollen to over 52 million worldwide. The game has been translated into 17 languages, and the franchise has seen life on platforms ranging from the Xbox to mobile phones.

One of the principal characteristics of the Sims phenomenon - and one that probably made it a uniquely popular game - is that it has drawn large numbers of female players. The Sims has pulled the neat trick of building a player base evenly split along gender lines, drawing in women without alienating male gamers. Game publisher Electronic Arts estimates women could account for up to 60% of Sims players.

According to Psychology Today, "most long-term players say designing Sim households is the chief delight of the game" and in fact, The Sims' construction and interior design aspects are as impressively realized as its "human" element. Players can easily mirror their real-world homes; one game analysis called Sims "the Ikea game." Most video games have a product popularity curve, like every other consumer item. The Sims seems to be either defying or redefining this characteristic for the video game market.

Introduction written by Jeff Clark, a staff writer at Games Enthusiast* and is an occasional contributor to several other websites, including Technology Digest*.

The Sims Phenomenon by Madison Lockwood, a customer relations associate, specializing in small business development, for Apollo Hosting. Apollo Hosting provides website hosting*, ecommerce hosting, vps hosting, and web design services to a wide range of customers.

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