After setting up the basics for your Sim, the big work begins. Creating a Sim is similar to Body Shop which many people have already worked with. The menus look a little different. The clothing options to choose from was a bit limited according to Sims Zone (in the test version anyway) - and the clothes are sometimes a bit tasteless. Finally, after tweaking and clothing your Sim, it's time to give them some personality as well. First you have to pick the Aspiration track (Fame, Knowledge, Family, Romance and Fortune). SimsZone will post a separate article about the aspirations later. You also have to select the starsign of your Sim or give them some personality traits similar to The Sims 1. For your information: At The Sims 2 University you could set the character traits more smoothly, without giving 1 of 25 points (it was still limited). It seems that Maxis has gone back to the original methods for the final version, as shown in the screenshots posted now and a while back.

One Sim doesn't make a family yet, but you can make more Sims in the same way. But you can also make Sims in a slightly different way: children can be made 'automatically' by picking the parents in the family screen, and the click of a button. Once you have all your Sims created, all that's left to do is to set the initial family relations - who is married to who, whose childs are the little ones, etc. As final remark, SimsZone says the given screenshots do not show the level of detail when creating a Sim very well. Also, if you don't do anything for a while when creating a Sim, they will express themselves.

Neighbourhoods
The Sims 2 comes with 3 of them: Neighbourhoods. You've all read the stories of Pleasantview, Veronaville and Strangetown. If you don't like the names you can always change them. An impressive bridge is your entrance to Pleasantview, an "idyllic" neighbourhood located between the mountains and the sea. StrangeTown is entirely different. The desert with Satellite dishes and a UFO crash site makes is look like well-known Roswell in the USA. Veronaville is a bit more Shakespearean. Every neighbourhood has its own (repeatedly told) story, which you can read using the photo album features.

When you enter the neighbourhood you'll be flying through it highlighting some of the locations. It's also alive, as there are cars and school buses on the street, and boats in the water. Besides that there are of course houses and community lots. Unoccupied lots are also there. You can "play mayor" for a bit and place the lots wherever you want. Choose the lot size (they are 3x2, 3x3, 4x3, 3x4, 5x3, 3x5, 4x4, 5x4, 4x5 and 5x5 squares as seen on the screenshots, road on the first mentioned side every time). If another lot is in the way, you can easily pick it up and move it around. Of course you can build without having to buy the lot in the Sims 2, so you can fill an entire neighborhood with homes, but no Sims to live in them if you like. You can also put lots in a storage area so you can put them in any (other) neighbourhood later, but that will mean Sims living in the house will loose the relationships with other Sims (yes you can move occupied homes). Relationships are shown in the neighborhood as well, as befriended families will be indicated by green lines in the neighbourhood view.

If you think your neighbourhood looks a bit boring, you can add the so-called "ploppables" (as Maxis called them at The Sims 2 University) to it. You can improve the look by using trees, rainbows, artifacts, and a lot more items. There's an interface for it now as well, so you can easily add them. Of course you can create a completely new neighbourhood as well, using SimCity 4. Maxis has already said they will make a tutorial for that in the near future. If you don't have SimCity, Maxis has 11 templates at your disposal which you can use. Of course there will more than likely be some downloadable neighborhoods on fansites as well. Importing isn't difficult: all you have to do is to copy the SimCity 4 file to the Sims 2 folder. Included in the article is a sample of what a SimCity 4 city will look like in the Sims 2.

On another note, SimsZone will also be holding a chat about the Sims 2 next Saturday at 19.00 (6pm in the UK and Portugal, 10am PST). Of course it will be in German, but whoever wants to attend is free to do so.

You can see the entire review of The Sims 2 by SimsZone, as far as it's done, on their review TOC. Even if you don't understand the German, there are a ton of screenshots to enjoy which show you in-depth bits of the game.

Of course I want to thank Jan and Robert from SimsZone for their in-depth articles and all the info.

Written at 16:18 on Wednesday, 11 August 2004 by ChEeTaH.