The Sims 2

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If having to control your own life is not enough responsibility for you, you may choose to control the life of others. No one likes a real control freak though, so why not become a virtual one? The updated version of the Sims, brilliantly entitled “The Sims 2” has a stunning new graphics engine and a shiny new interface for you to control to your heart’s desire. Enjoy!

Roughing It

There are two ways to play the Sims: with cheats and without. When you play with cheats, it completely changes the game- you don’t have to worry about basically anything monetary, and you can always do something to give your Sim a quick happy fix. In order to experience the real game, I started out on my own, totally without cheats. I built a family from scratch and then moved them into an 11k dollar house. So we had about $9,000 to begin with. Not too bad. This is the family (they are called the “Gessler’s” by the way) that I used to test the entire Sims 2 experience. Let’s see what I’ve learned.

Building a Family

Some of the newest things about the Sims 2 are found in the create a family interface. For each Sim you create, there have never been so many options for customization. Your person to be stands like a model in full 3D while you change around basically anything you want. This person design interface I thought was very clever, because you could do a basic design or you could go crazy and do a really detailed one.

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There are six basic steps to designing a Sim, going from head type to astrological symbol. If you want to design a quick person, just breeze right through the six steps, choosing a regular outfit, pajamas, underwear, presence or absence of facial hair, face paint, different hair styles, makeup, etc. However, if you want to design a person to look just like… say…. YOU, you can customize each aspect of your Sim’s face, playing with dimensions and stretching or shrinking things. How far you chose to get involved with Sim design is up to you, and this interface makes it really easy. A+ for the new design a Sim toy!

So Really, Bella Goth, What Do You Want?

Once you get your family set up, you will see that the basic interface is the same as the original Sims. You tell your Sims what to do, they obey. Usually. One of the new big deals about the Sims 2 is the “aspiration meter,” which introduces a whole new facet to Sim life. In The Sims 2, your Sims actually have desires and fears! No longer are you an absolute monarch! This time around, your Sim actually has something to say before you go ahead and get her pregnant. The aspiration meter, which works just like the mood meter, tells us how happy our Sims are. Each day, Sims want new things and are afraid of new things (just like real people!) Little icons on the interface will tell you what your Sims want and what they’re afraid of, and if you do things they want, their aspiration meters will go up and they will be happy, and if you do things they’re afraid of, it goes down. So at this point, there’s more to keeping your Sim’s bladder under control. Aspirations aren’t the biggest deal, because you can ignore them and continue with your game relatively the same. By doing things to make your Sim happy, you build up points, which can be used to buy special items like a money tree or a thinking cap. Overall, it’s a nice thing to have, especially since it doesn’t rule your game. Because after awhile you’re just going to say “STFU” and not listen to your Sim. Hey, it happens to the best of us.

Same Old, Same Old

Many things featured in the original Sims are present in the new Sims. My one character, Becky Gessler, (beautiful name, no?) kept falling asleep at every opportunity she could find! She missed a day of school because she fell asleep in front of the bus, she missed a day of work after plopping down on the sidewalk, and after coming home one night she just collapsed in the middle of the road. Well I left her there to teach her a lesson.