The Sims 2

[Cadet Ember McLain]

On a scale of 1-10, (1 being "Nah, don't bother", and 10 being "OMG RUN RIGHT NOW, SELL EVERYTHING YOU OWN, YOU MUST HAVE THIS!") how would each of the expansion packs rate?

I enjoy my stock-standard Sims 2 game, but it does feel a little lacking.

[IAceI]

I've done a ranking list, from memory I think it's about

Seasons

Nightlife

University

Open For Business

Pets

Bon Voyage/Free Time

Bon Voyage/Free Time

I won't number them but I'd say the top 3 at probably must haves, the rest you can do without most likely but are kinda luxuries. Definitely get Seasons though - and then if you can University & Nightlife. After that go with whatever tickles your fancy.

[AlphaOmega]

Quick question: Who is Mrs. Crumplebottom? I was at a club and she came out of no where and began to beat on a random person.

[GhostMachine]

Quick question: Who is Mrs. Crumplebottom? I was at a club and she came out of no where and began to beat on a random person.

She's a snooty old prude who can show up whenever you're trying to have fun downtown and either lectures people (which interrupts whatever they're doing - and bitch can lecture the same person multiple times) or hits them with her purse. The problem is there's nothing you can do about it, because unfortunately the prank option won't work and I don't think you can actually fight her. Not sure if you can befriend her, and I don't really care.

The problem is she shows up in places that realistically either wouldn't let her in at all or would toss her out on her ass for harassing customers, and if you grill out while you're at the place, she can end up being one of the people you feed.

If I remember right, she only bothers people in swimsuits or people who are dancing. I don't remember if she bothers anyone doing karaokee, and I think she even uses the juice bar herself so she leaves people there alone.

She was actually in the first Sims, too. Hot Date expansion pack, I think.

Whatever you do, DO NOT influence a vampire to bite her, or let one of your sims who is a vampire do it, because it apparently corrupts the game.

And I hope to heck she's NOT in The Sims 3, unless its her tombstone in the cemetary.

Edited April 7, 2008 by GhostMachine

[Guest strongarm85]

Speaking of Sims 3 it does look nice. Not only is the whole neighborhood and all the sims in it loaded at once, but time passes for every sim wither your controlling them or not. The only downside I can think of is the massive amount of memory it must take to run that game.

I'm going to think out loud here, so all of this may not be coherent...

Even if the graphics where only Sims 2 quality, (and they do seem to have had a slight overhaul), loading the whole neighborhood at once would require huge amount of RAM. We're talking 2 or 3 Gigabytes easy, maybe more if you have an particularly expansive Neighborhood...

I guess the only way to make it work would be if you could loaded part of the town into memory at one time, but had the town as a whole going threw simulation without being loaded into video memory.

I'm done being incoherent now.

Anyhow it looks like its going to be pretty bad ass. It just in my case that playing it is going to require that I buy a new computer that can run the darn thing when it comes out.

[Benji]

Speaking of Sims 3 it does look nice. Not only is the whole neighborhood and all the sims in it loaded at once, but time passes for every sim wither your controlling them or not.

Since when? Nothing like that's been confirmed even in the slightest to my knowledge.

[IAceI]

Ms. Crumplebottom just interrupts any kind of intimate behaviour. So cuddling, dancing, kissing etc.

[Guest strongarm85]

Speaking of Sims 3 it does look nice. Not only is the whole neighborhood and all the sims in it loaded at once, but time passes for every sim wither your controlling them or not.

Since when? Nothing like that's been confirmed even in the slightest to my knowledge.

Thats not what my 10 page article in the April 2008 Games for Windows magazine says.

Here is a quote from that Article from the Sims 3 Exectutive Produce Ben Bell:

While you're playing in one home (in The Sims 2) nothing else changes in the ohter homes in the neighborhood... If you had a little boy next door you where fond of, but you kept playing your family on your lot and didn't move the other family along you'd be 30 years old and he'd still be a little boy...

(In the Sims 3) everything you would expect to be happening is happening, whatever the time of day. all of the character in town are changing together. You can zoom in on your Sims. You can go next door to visit your neighbors. You can knock on the door or peek in the window. You can go downtown, and the people you meet are people in your Sims' lives. What would happen if you ran into your boss on the weekend in town? Would you ruin your Sim's life by doing something embarrassing?"

The little boy next door from The Sims 2 now ages and changes alongside your own child. "They can become high school sweethearts," says Bell. "They can grow up together, get married, have a family of their own--- and those characters will advance along with your family. These Sims will act out their lives in an inteligent way depending on the personality traits they have."

So yeah, it pretty much has been confirmed.

Speaking of Personalities, those have had a complete overhaul in this game also. Instead of personality bars that measure things like outgoingness and things of the like.

Instead theres a list of 80 "Personality Traits". Each Sim can choose about 5 of them. You can pick traits like "Charismatic" or "Nerdy" or "Commitment Issues" or "Mooch" and these traits will determine how the sims act when your not controlling them.

So yes, the whole neighborhood will be running at the same time. Not only that but the neighborhood will continue to grow and change as the sim your controlling grows and changes.

You can also affect the body shapes of your sims in way you never could before. The Sims themselves from what's been release look more realistic also. The Sims 3, from everything thats been shown recently, is actually pretty far along in its development. From what I understand from IGN, and Games for Windows they're probably shooting for a Fall to Winter 2009 release

Edited April 9, 2008 by strongarm85

[Benji]

Eurgh that's horrible, I hope Sims have a seriously expanded lifespan or else it's going to be impossible to build a story out of the whole town and keep tabs on them all.

[Guest strongarm85]

Pretty much, I think the plus side is though is you can change control on the fly without any load times so at least that'll help. You'll probably be able to make use of the Aging off code again from the Sims 2 if you really wanted also.

Edited April 9, 2008 by strongarm85

[Animal]

So I'm once again installing this game but I want to play it without getting bored quick. Last couple of times I started a game, went for 2 days of in game time and then just didn't look at it again. Anyone got any advice as to how to keep the game fresh and interesting (without cheating)?

[PkmnTrainerJ]

So I'm once again installing this game but I want to play it without getting bored quick. Last couple of times I started a game, went for 2 days of in game time and then just didn't look at it again. Anyone got any advice as to how to keep the game fresh and interesting (without cheating)?

Just try and write yourself a storyline in advance, as though you were writing a diary and then fuck with your original storyline from time to time.

[Guest strongarm85]

Personally, I usually bounce around between each of my families and spend about three days at a time with each family. And sometimes, when I really don't like a family, I'll ruin their lives by doing something just to spice things up.

EDIT: 4/14/2008

So, theres a new challenge that started in the last couple weeks that getting some attention called the Nickle and Dime Challenge. Its based on a book with the same name. The idea is to try and simulate conditions that of the book which is about a single and unskilled parent with a kid and toddler. Your only allowed to take jobs in these fields

Business

Culinary

Slacker

Gamer (Seasons)

Music (Seasons)

Architect (Free Time)

Dance (Free Time)

And you can't look for a job on the day that you get fired from a job, you have to wait until the next news paper comes and take a job from it. You also can never mis a day of work unless you have a paid vacation day and if you do you have to quit that job. Basically then only money your allowed to make is threw going to work and special bonuses your kids might pick up for going to school. If you have Pets, they can't get jobs either. The idea is that you live a poor neighborhood too so that means no burglar alarms, smoke alarms, or sprinklers, and no aspiration rewards.

Now this is the hardest part of the challenge. Your starting adult Sim can never earn more than 1 bar in any of your skills besides cooking and cleaning. You can never study for cleaning after getting the first bar, and you can only increase cooking by watching the cooking channel on a TV and by actually cooking. The only exception are chance cards that give you additional skill points for choosing the right answer.

If you want the detailed rules you can find them here.

Edited April 15, 2008 by strongarm85

[PkmnTrainerJ]

Gonna try and start playing this again, just got to remember what I was doing when I left.

[GhostMachine]

If you buy any of the stuff packs, stay away from the new Kitchen & Bath one; apparently its got quite a few bugs.

[Cadet Ember McLain]

How worth it are the "Stuff" packs? Are they on par with the Family Fun Stuff, or do some give more items?

[GhostMachine]

How worth it are the "Stuff" packs? Are they on par with the Family Fun Stuff, or do some give more items?

Not really sure, since the K & B pack is the first "Stuff" pack I've bought. I do know that some of the packs come with houses and clothing in addition to items, not just the H & M pack. The K & B pack has some clothes (mostly bathrobe outfits, but there's a few other pieces of clothing) - I think it also has one or two new houses, but I installed it and OFB at the same time and haven't booted the game up in a couple of days, so I could be mistaken about the houses.

I've never seen the Holiday or Celebration packs anywhere around here, I haven't seen the Family pack anywhere in a while, and the Teen pack is the only one that's widely available (ie, the only one I've seen every place that sells the actual game and packs).

Now I just need to get University, Pets and Bon Voyage to have all the EPs, but I need all the Stuff packs except K & B.

Question for anyone with the Pets EP: I know pets die in the game eventually, but is there a pet version of the Elixir of Life aspiration reward or any other way to prolong their lives?

[PkmnTrainerJ]

There's a little golden food bowl for Pets that I think prolongs their life a bit under the Aspiration objects.

[EddieRuckus]

The Glamor Life Stuff pack comes with some decent additions, not only to clothing, but there are a few new things, like CD boomboxes, furniture/decor, and other stuff. Really depends on the Stuff pack you get, as I'm sure some are mainly just clothes. Celebration stuff has to be one of the worst though, haha.

[PkmnTrainerJ]

So, me and Benji are restarting on this now. Is anyone else still playing or wanting to restart with us?