Back in the offline world, the first sequel to The Sims was released. The Sims 2 came out in 2005 and although some things remained the same, a lot of things were changed. Firstly, detailed sims could now be properly created in 3D and the world was now in complete 3D with a camera you could move near enough anywhere. Houses and community lots could be built to higher levels than before, plus the long awaited gable-end roofing made an appearance.

As well as that, these new sims got to age and you could follow the different generations from baby to toddler to child to teenager to adult to elder and then to their graves. They also had aspirations, wants and fears that affected their behaviour. Instead of coming with just one neighbourhood, it came with three, all with their own personalities. You could take snapshots and even movies of your sims in action. In my opinion at the time, The Sims 2 was incredible and a worthy successor to The Sims.

A series of eight expansions and nine stuffpacks came out, which was to be expected considering the success of them for The Sims. Expansions added items and new gameplay whereas almost all of the stuffpacks just added new items. You could send your sims to university where they could get qualifications that opened various careers and generally live the student life and progress towards a major lifetime want, visit or live in downtown, meet vampires, own cars and also see beyond the edge of your lot; run your own businesses and build robots; have and train your own pets; live in four different seasons with appropriate weather and even garden or fish your way to riches or food; go on vacation and learn the local customs; learn new hobbies with added benefits to the appropriate aspirations; and learn magic and even live in apartment buildings.

With all of the stuffpacks and downloads from the official site, you could also furnish your home with furniture from IKEA® while your sims wore clothes from H&M® Fashions and drove around in Ford cars.

I felt that with the last EP, the stuffpacks and community-made custom content continually being made, The Sims 2 was almost the perfect game. The original game was now so much better than it had been. Personally, I could not imagine playing the game without any of the EPs or SPs. Also, The Sims 2 was even more customisable and with an active exchange and numerous fansites, the online community was even more active than before, being able to create a lot more custom content than they could for The Sims. Although it required a bit of talent with other software, almost anything could be created and customised.

Nothing lasts, nothing remains the same. Even the longest, most glittering reign must come to an end some day.

We’d seen various trailers for it and they even crept publicity material within the last two expansions of The Sims 2. Could anything beat The Sims 2?

After delays for advertising, Electronic Arts come up with a well-hyped campaign, The Sims 3 is finally and officially was finally and officially this last week. The major question is as to whether it is worthy of the hype or if it is just a minor upgrade of existing ideas.

In the review that follows, you will be getting my conclusion first as to whether I consider it to be a worthy successor and reboot to the Sims franchise or just an overhyped rehash of a game that we already have.

Dag dag!


P.S. This is my first attempt at simming myself. I definitely need to exercise.