Our affiliate SimsZone has posted 2 more articles about the Sims 2. This time they're discussing the collections and community lots. As usual there are some screenshots as well. For info from other parts of their review, please click the following links: Part 1/2 (Installation, First Impressions), Part 3/4 (Create a Sim, Neighborhoods), Part 5/6 (Build and Buy mode). For info about yesterday and today's articles, please read on. See the Sims 2 Review Index at SimsZone for all the original articles and the screenshots.
CollectionsSim players often collect a lot - downloads that is. In the Sims 1 it was easily possible to lose track of all the downloads, making it hard to find them. In the Sims 2 that's been made easier thanks to the Collections. Collections can contain any installed object, window, doors, walls, floors, plants - basically anything your Sims can have in and around the house. You can find the collection menu in both the build and buy modes, in which every collection has its own icon. The game ships with a few pre-made collections, which have been mentioned in January as well: Modern, Moroccan and "Pictorial" (the last is machine translated, so I'm not entirely sure of the name!). If you're not happy with just that, it's of course possible to add a new collection.
As any other selection, you can give yours a custom name and icon. Even the icons can be custom made, so if you want to sort your downloads by website, you can make a collection for each site with a name and the website's icon. You can easily add content to a collection using a button in the interface. Content can be put in multiple collections, and will of course also remain in the standard menus.
The current state of Brands, mentioned at The Sims 2 University is unknown, as the central download server is not operational yet. Brands would allow creators to mark their content as theirs, so they'd automatically appear in a collection from the author of the file. For now, it won't matter much anyway, as creating custom objects, walls, floors, etc. is not yet possible. Once that is available, the collections will really show its use. The use of brands is questioned by SimsZone, as it would only be possible for use with downloads put on the Maxis server - and not those from a fansite. Either way, the collections are a big improvement from the cluttered menus in the Sims 1.
Community Lots
Your Sims won't be very happy to sit at home all day long for their entire lives. There's the option for them to go out, to the community lots. A sim can go on their own, but also with the entire family or with another Sim. All you have to do is make a call, and the free Taxi service will pick your Sims up and drop them off wherever you want. In fact, your Sims might sometimes have to go to a shop to stay alive. Buying food is a necessity to fill the fridge, with the advantage for lazy Sims to get it delivered at home after a phonecall or ordering it online. It's kept simple though - you'll just buy food, and no specific ingredients. A full fridge will cost §400, which lasts about a week for a family of 3 Sims.
Sims can also buy some new clothes, and although it's fairly expensive (§200 per piece), the old gear won't go lost. Your Sim can always change back if you want them to. Clothes also belong to the household, so a male sim can buy the clothes for his wife, or vice versa, etc. And while you're in the shop anyway, you can also buy a magazine or video game. There are 6 different magazines, so your Sim must have interest in something. Some of them are for the Workaholic Sim, the Teen or for "Travel, food and more". The games are all from EA, and as is shown on the screenshots the games are SimCity Rush Hour, SSX and the Sims Bustin' Out.
If your Sim is bored there's also enough to do in the community area. There are pools, pinball machines, and dart games. Of course you can also build your own community lot, and it can be filled with necessary objects to sell things or to keep your Sims happy when they're visiting the place. Many home objects, like beds and kitchen appliances or kids toys are not available though.
Although it may seem a bit like it, the community area is not really the downtown area from Hot Date, but more like the Old Town area as seen in Unleashed. There isn't much to do in the Sims 2 community lots, except the basic things that Sims can do at home as well. Buying is limited to food, clothing, magazines and games. Don't expect to build your restaurant, although you can put a (free) hot dog stand in your own space. Nevertheless the community areas are nice to meet new Sims from the neighborhood. SimsZone concludes with saying that there's still quite a lot to be done in expansion packs when it comes to the community area. Although it costs §50 more, they rather let their Sims get their food delivered at home, rather than buying it in town. The Sims 2 simply doesn't offer enough on that area to make it worthwhile.
Written at 19:49 on Monday, 16 August 2004 by ChEeTaH.
