The Sims 2 is weird. That's a fact. From the original game to this, the final expansion pack, there has been weirdness in the original game, it has increased with each expansion and I have endeavoured to point out what is new in weirdness in each review. Now we're coming up to the end of the series with The Sims 3 less than six months away, I believe that they may have saved the greatest weirdness of The Sims 2 until last.

Magic.

I admit that when I reviewed "Making Magic" (MM), which was the last expansion, for The Sims (1) back in 2003, I was not too impressed with it and it was certainly not my favourite expansion. It just did not appeal to me. However, magic is a concept that appealed to a large part of the community and when I heard that there was going to be magic for The Sims 2, I was somewhat apprehensive but thought I'd approach it with an open mind. After all, almost everything that was weird in The Sims has got the TS2 treatment and I believe that the developers and producers have been successful in improving on what is old as well as adding a new twist.

When the idea of including witches with Apartment Life was concocted, I did wonder if some of the developers had been watching Disney's "The Wizards of Waverly Place" as that seems to mix them both. Whether they did or didn't, I suppose if magic had not been included in the TS2 series, the series would not have been complete.

In this part of the review, we see how witchcraft can change the game in general and the Cartman family in particular. Let's see what Ricardo Cartman has to report about the start of his journey into the world of witchcraft.

Ok, so I'm a warlock. I guess I wanted to be one for a while and now I am. I'm not an evil one, though. Not yet anyway. I was doing okay at college with a 4.0 GPA but I kept coming back to Belladonna Cove. It was there i met Phoebe. She was some cool looking witch with white robes, a white cat. Although I had a girlfriend back on campus, I wanted to get to know Phoebe better and I did. We dated for a bit and then when I asked her about teaching me witchery, I found I'd got these cool white robes and hat too, plus a cool spell book and a cauldron. Also, I don't get to walk anywhere now. I can just fly on a broomstick.

It wasn't long after I'd become a warlock, I decided to see where else I could travel. I found this cool place in a Magic World called the Palace of Neverending Light. I flew there on my broomstick and found this really snazzy castle on one side of a massive chasm. This seemed to be Phoebe's pad. On the other side, I could see a black castle. I guess that's the Fortress of Eternal Darkness where the bad witches go. I bet vampires don't have cool places like this. Anyway, I went inside, got back in my cool warlock threads and sat down on this big chair. Hey, I felt completely refreshed in minutes. I'm certainly going to come back here more often.

I then got down to doing some reading. There was a grimoire here too with magically turning pages. No paper cuts for warlocks and witches. A grimoire is the witchy word for spellbook. I found I could already do some good spells, neutral spells and evil spells. I just needed reagants. That's the witchy word for ingredients. So, I read up a bit more about good witchery. A few hours later, I'd found out enough to do some more spells and also make all these potions. I could put that gypsy out of business with what I now know or at least put up some competition, but what is this Witchbegone potion? Sounds scary.

So I got down to making reagents. Loads of them. About six or seven of each. It was tiring work but every time I got too tired, I just sat on Phoebe's throne and was soon better. I even found I could make some magical objects. So, I did one of them too. A Little Miss Wendalyn sculpture. After what seemed like a few days, I got back on my Simbus 6 ® and flew out of there, back to the dorm. When I landed, it was if I hadn't left. A bit like a community lot trip, really.

As it was quiet, I decided to cast my first spell. Beautificus Locus. I waved my wand, said the witchy words and suddenly, the dorm was bathed in a golden glow and the night was filled with fireflies. Far out! This is something I know I could get into. I even found I'd been renamed as "the Good Warlock". It certainly beats just being called "nice".

No Brainius Maximus spell yet so back to my studies if I want to keep this 4.0 GPA. More in this blog soon when I've tried some more zany witchy stuff out.

Of the weird classes in RLC, this is one of the easier ones to become. I did not like "Making Magic" so much as I felt that Magic was "in your face" whereas I feel that in "Apartment Life", it is still optional. In order to become a witch, you need to become good friends with one and then the option becomes available for you to ask to learn their ways.

You are immediately transformed into one and are wearing the robes and hat of the alignment you have chosen. White for Light and Goodness, Black for Darkness and Evil. Muahaha. As well as that, you will find a grimoire (spell book) and a cauldron in your inventory.

In order to know one, you have firstly got to find one. With just a little bit of patience and being in the right place at the right time, you will ultimately find a witch on one of the community lots. You can't help but notice them as their arrival is quite distinctive. If your sound is turned up, you'll hear the cackle as they arrive. They tend to hang out by the telephone box either beautifying the lot or despoiling it. Once you've found one of the High witches, you've got to make friends with them, which is done the same way as making friends with any other sim.

As Ricardo had developed a relationship with the High Witch of Light, his robes were white and he became "Ricardo Cartman the Nice Warlock". However, as he learnt more and made more reagants, he became "Ricardo Cartman the Good Warlock", which is a bit of a promotion.

Yes, your witch or warlock can also be one of the other forms of weirdness - Alien, Zombie, Vampire, Servo, Werewolf, Plantsim and Bigfoot. Unfortunately, I have not yet been able to interbreed with one of these to find out what a Warwolf, Plantch, Vamlock or Witbie look like.