With 300 people working on the several Sims games in total, on 8 platforms (including PC), a lot of work is being done. Each of the games will have their own experience, and they are all unique. Nevertheless the core is the same: you have Sims you can control, wants and fears, aspirations, needs and so on. There are several features the games on consoles and handhelds all have, like direct control, but more about that later. First it's time for the consoles edition, being released on PS2, GameCube and XBox.
The Sims 2 is not the first Sims game to be released on these consoles. So far The Sims Get A Life, Bustin' Out and the Urbz have been released in the past three years. Last year the Urbz went too far away from being a Sims game, but now the Sims 2 is going back to its roots. It's a bit more like Bustin' Out was, with the best things taken from the Urbz.
After putting the disc in your console, starting it up, and watching the new intro movie, you'll see the neighbourhood screen - or rather the world. It's not as much of a neighbourhood like Pleasantview, Veronaville or Strangetown. Instead you'll have one world with both temperate and desert areas. There are 16 lots in total, 12 of which you'll visit in the "story mode". The other 4 are available for you to build a house on, move a family in, and just play freely like you could in Bustin' Out.
At the bottom of the screen there's a short menu. You can choose which mode you want to play - story or free play - and if you want to continue a previous game, or if you want to start all over again. Once you've made your choice, the game really starts. As usual it'll take a bit of loading time to get from one place to another, but these shouldn't be as bad as the Urbz.
Of course Create a Sim is also in the game. And it's been improved again. First of all you can randomly create a Sim, which basically means that four parents are generated randomly. That results in two children using the genetics of those parents, and you can pick one of them, or just create two all over again. This is also the only way there are genetics in the game - otherwise you won't find any children or so. Sims will not age like they do on the PC.
Another option is to manually create a Sim. Although it's different from the PC, there are still very many options. Using morphing techniques, similar to those in the Urbz, you can morph a face or body to give it the shape you want. Besides that you can choose from many hairstyles and colours, pick some facial hair, choose eye colours, and so on. After that it's time to dress your sim up. On the body they can have three layers of shirts which simply overlap. For all these shirts you can adjust the length of the sleeves in three different length. But that's not all - of course Sims wear pants as well, and there too the length can be changed. Shoes can be set separately, and again like in the Urbz there are tattoos and jewellery. Even MP3 players, eye patches, glasses and hats belong to the accessories Sims can wear.
In the Urbz you had to change your clothes to match those of the district, but that's no longer the case. Unless you get the want to change your clothes, you won't need to. Nevertheless you're always able to change the clothes of your Sims while in the game, using a wardrobe. This will load the CAS screen again, but only for dressing up your Sim. All the clothes you have unlocked will automatically be in the wardrobe, so you won't need to buy them in a community area - simply because they don't really exist.
As if that's not enough, Sims also need a bit of personality. This is similar to the PC version: pick some personality traits (Sloppy/Neat, Shy/Outgoing, Lazy/Active, Serious/Playful and Grouchy/Nice) or a starsign to define the personality of a Sim, and an aspiration for the wants and fears. There are five aspirations: fortune, knowledge, popularity, romance and creativity. Family sims won't exist, probably because you can't have any kids in the console game either. The new creativity aspiration is - as the name says - all about creating stuff. Whether it's paintings or other things, it'll help. The new food creation system is very useful for creativity sims as well, but more about that later.
As you start the game in story mode, you enter a tutorial which will last roughly 15 minutes. This is to get you acquanted with the game, the controls and more. Direct control, which is actually the default, is introduced, the interface is shown, and anything you need to know about the game is being told. It may be easy for those who know any of the previous games or the PC version already, and it probably won't be possible to skip, but for those who aren't familiar with the Sims it will be a good way to get the hang of the game.
Almost as soon as you start, you'll also be able to see your wants and fears. As on the PC you get four wants and three fears at a time. The wants are split up in two though. The normal ones, with a green background, are the normal ones. Similar to the PC version, these are for your aspiration. Besides those, you'll usually have one or two golden wants. These help you complete the game, and make some progress. Basically they replace the separate goals in previous versions on the consoles. By pressing a button on the D-pad you can see your wants and fears on the left of the screen, similar to watching your needs or skills. Another button shows you descriptions of your Sims' wishes. Besides that you can get detailed descriptions in the pause menu, where you can also get many other details like statistics of your progress.
Playing the story helps you unlock new clothes, objects and locations, as does meeting new people, making friends, and more. A new status screen shows you the progress you've made in the game. You can focus on this if you want, but the game also gives you a lot of freedom, so you can play what you like. Maxis has really learned from the Urbz, which was considered too repetative. Just like the Urbz there will again be about 60 characters in total in the game. 35 Of these are known from the PC version, but there are 25 new characters. They live on the lots you can visit, so even though you can control them (and actually will need to), you can't take them to other lots. You can only travel your Sim around by taxi, simply by making a phone call using the taxi stand on every lot.
Besides the story mode - which you don't really have to stick to - the freeplay mode is back again. It disappeared in the Urbz after making appearances in the other Sims consoles games, but now you can create a family of up to four Sims again, and move them in one of the four empty lots. You can build your own house there, although your are limited to one floor. No foundations or stairs - that is just not possible on the consoles as they are technically too limited. Also, due to memory limitations (at least on the PlayStation 2), there will be a "fire limit" again. This means you can't just place as many objects and walls as you want, simply because of the limitations of the consoles. This limit also exists in the 12 story lots.
In the freeplay mode you can still meet other Sims, as usual, but there is no story to follow. It won't unlock anything for you, but it gives you more freedom and a type of gameplay that's closer to the PC game. With these two types of gameplay, Maxis tries to let the game appeal to as many players as possible. Exisiting fans of the game will probably like this freedom, but others might just want to be guided better using the story mode.
Wherever you play, all lots will have a background to look at. These are static backgrounds, and won't change if you change the surrounding lots like they do in Nightlife. All in all that is very similar to all previous versions on the consoles. Nevertheless you're not stuck to the outside walls anymore as you were in the Urbz. You can build houses any way you want again, and aren't limited to the default walls, which were set due to the roofs in the previous game.
As with the previous console versions, there will also be a co-operative split-screen mode so you and a friend can play the game at the same time. You won't be able to leave be on different lots, and basically you both control a different sim. Other than that, it's the same as the default modes. The gameplay isn't any different. Network or Internet support is not included in any way.
