Several reviews and screenshots of the Sims 2 have been posted again. First of all there's the German thesims.de, which has posted some more shots from the Games Convention, held in Germany a while back. You can find the shots in this newspost and this newspost. The British The Sims 2 Website has also been able to see the game. They've been to Bluewater, Kent, where EA was as part of the Sims 2 UK Tour. To read the impressions of The Sims 2 Website, visit their Sims 2 Preview page. There's also a new German review at Gamers.at. In 2 pages they discuss the game, and rank it as "Very Good". The third page contains some new screenshots, which makes it interesting for English readers too. Click here to read it, and follow the "Seite" links at the bottom for the other pages.
And finally, our affiliate SimsZone has posted 2 more parts of their huge review. One article, about the aspirations, wants and fears, was posted earlier this week. Today they've also added pregnancy and babies to the list. To see the screenshots, go to their review special. For the information from the review, in English, read on.
Aspirations, wants and fears:And finally, our affiliate SimsZone has posted 2 more parts of their huge review. One article, about the aspirations, wants and fears, was posted earlier this week. Today they've also added pregnancy and babies to the list. To see the screenshots, go to their review special. For the information from the review, in English, read on.
Sims had a bit of a personality in the Sims 1, but those were just several traits like neatness. In the Sims 2 this is far more enhanced thanks to the aspirations. The wants and fears are unique for every Sim. As soon as a Sim grows up to be a teen, you will have to select one of the five aspiration tracks for them: Fame, Knowledge, Romance, Family or Fortune. Every aspiration track has different wants and fears which you should make come true... or not. Sims in the Knowledge track for instance might like to buy a telescope, while the romantic Sim dreams of nice bed stories or the one with a Fortune aspiration will try to hunt the big money. At any given time, 4 wants and 3 fears will be active. They can change every morning, when the game picks a few new wants and fears. That way Sims can wish almost anything, from the small wish of becoming friends with another Sim to having a baby. Depending on the difficulty, your Sim will gain (or lose, in case of fears) a certain amount of points on the aspiration score. There are extremely many wishes for your Sims to fulfil, and almost every want has an opposing fear. Besides the aspiration track, the current state of your Sim will also influence the wants and fears they have. The track is the biggest influence though. Every want is quite reachable too: your Sim will not want to marry a Sim they only just met. The age of the Sim is also crucial. Toddlers for example will want to learn to walk and talk, children want to get good grades at school, and teens dream of getting their first kiss and many dates.
The aspirations are a major part of the gameplay in the Sims 2. By fulfilling wants, or by making nightmares come true, the aspiration score will either increase or decrease. It can go into red, four types of green, followed by gold and platinum. If you can make a Sim get into a red life score, they will go mad, and start talking to broom sticks, or imaginary friends. When things are really bad, only a shrink will be able to help your Sim out of misery - but instead of sending a clown who makes things worse, the shrink will actually help in the sequel. On the other hand, if your Sim achieves gold status, they will be able to use aspiration rewards, which are described later on in this article. In platiunum state, your Sim will be happy no matter what. All the bars will be up high in the green. It makes some things, like making friends, a lot easier for your sim.
If you're not that interested in the aspirations, you can just play and ignore them. This will usually keep the life score quite average. However, if you make sure the life score is up high when your sim ages, your sim may live a considerable longer time. Also, using the aspiration score, you can get special objects money can buy. They can get you a nice way of honest cheating. Imagine the money tree, which gives your family ยง25 every time it's harvested. However, only Sims with a gold or platinum aspiration status will be able to use the objects without risk. The lower the score, the more risk there is that they backfire and do more bad than good. An example is using the thinking cap if your Sim is not feeling good enough. Although normally you will be able to easily gain skill points with it, you can also lose them if you use it at the wrong time. An energy drone (I'm not sure about the English name) can get your Sim in a good mood by making the mood bars green, but of course this can also have the opposite effect. The most valueable object is the Elixir of Life though, which can extend the life of your Sim by a couple of days. You can use it only up to 5 times, but you can buy it as many times as you want - which isn't too hard to achieve.
Where in the Sims 1 expansion packs could mess up the balance of the game, the aspirations have found their spot in the Sims 2 perfectly. They work like mini-missions, and add a bit of a change to the gameplay. But they do not take over completely, and it's really playable. Aspirations make sims more realistic, but you can completely ignore them if you want. Where you used cheats in the past, you can now try to unlock the aspiration rewards and cheat in an honest way. SimsZone manages to summarise it in one sentence too: Maxis couldn't have made it any better.
Pregnancy and Babies:
Where in the Sims 1 Sims would never grow up (except when they used a spell), sims in the Sims 2 grow old and eventually die. They start as baby, and then go through the life stages child, teen, adult and geezer until they die. You can create Sims of any of these ages in the Create a Sim mode, but that's by for not as much fun as playing the game. When playing the game, you can get your family a new child in two ways. The first is by adoption. Your sims can call the adoption agency. When the big day has come, and if you have enough cash, you can even choose the age of the child to adopt. You cannot pick a child though, you'll just have to be surprised what the social worker brings home the next morning. She'll drop off the kid, and then disappear again.
Better than adoption is to have two Sims get their own baby - of "textures and programming code", as SimsZone says. If the mood of a male and female Sim are good enough, and they have a good relationship, they can try for a baby. A one-night-stand may not be so successful, but a married couple may have more luck. There is simply a "Make baby" (or "Try for Baby") option with any double bed or hot tub. New is that a baby won't just appear in a cradle anymore, but the female Sim will actually have to go through a pregnancy of 3 days. That means morning sickness and a fat belly for your Sim. Pregnant sims will be able to go on maternity leave from work though, so they don't have to work. The baby didn't look great in the test version yet, but hopefully that will be improved in the final version.
Baby sims do not move by themselves. In fact, they are completely helpless and the parents will have to carry them around. As player you cannot control a baby at all. They do require a lot of attention though, and will cry whenever they're hungry or filled their diapers, no matter what time it is. The mother will get enough holidays from work to take care of the baby though, as they will be up long nights. It will also not hurt to socialise with the baby Sim every now and then, so the relationship with the rest of the family is good.
At times of stress, the sim parents will not have to worry. A nanny service is available to do some babysitting whenever necessary. The old lady watches the baby and does a bit of cleaning, but can be found watching the telly most of the time. She is required though - babies which are left home alone, will be taken away by the social worker without discussion. Grandparents can also play nanny though, which is helpful if your Sims don't have much money. After 3 days, it's all over, and although that may seem short, the time of feeding, changing diapers, playing, talking, etc. isn't particularly interesting. Baby sims can be compared to the aquariums in the Sims 1. If you don't take care of them regularly, the social worker will take the baby away. It becomes a bit boring after 3 days and you'll be glad the child grows up. In the end it's a lot of fun to watch the little Sims grow up though, and it's definitely worth watching the little guy (or girl) master the first bits of life. In the next article, you'll be able to read what Child sims are like.
Written at 01:13 on Monday, 30 August 2004 by ChEeTaH.
