The Sims 2

The Sims 2

Introduction
The Sims 2, the next generation of the #1 PC game of all time, is in development at Maxis studio. For the first time, players control their Sims over an entire lifetime. Every choice that is made has a relevant and dramatic effect on the life of a Sim. More life-like Sims, all-new gameplay, and the groundbreaking addition of genetics, with the DNA of Sims passed down through generations gives players a more vivid, realistic, and in-depth Sims experience. All of this takes place in a new amazingly life-like 3-D world.

In an interview Will Wright, creator of the Sims, said the Sim's 2 will be a newer more detailed version of the Sims. It will include more realistic building options, and objects. The Sims will be more detailed with facial expressions, and more mood bars and skill levels. The game will not be an add-on but will replace the original Sims and be a whole new system of playing. "It will be like the change from Sim City 3000 to Sim City 4; The game still would have the same concept, but would use better quality and more details to make the game more realistic" says one of the members of the Sims 2 creative team. The Sims 2 will not be an expansion pack, but be an independent stand-alone game. It may include some items seen in the original Sims and it's expansions, but will not include all the features from them, and will also include tons of new ones.

Building the Perfect Sim
Creating a Sim in The Sims 2 is a lot different than just picking a head and a body. With The Sims 2 you can choose gender, age, skin tone, hair style, facial hair, hair color, eye color, weight, height, glasses, hats, accessories, clothes, and more. This new "create-a-Sim" system will totally replace the old way of "dressing" your Sims. Make your Sims look anyway you want. No two Sims will be the same. You start by making your Sims entire appearance up from preset templates called archetypes (Caucasian, African American, Chinese, Persian, and Elf) that can be altered in a variety of ways via a lot of sub-sliders, is a great way for Sims players to make Sims that they can relate to. Than select specific features to make each Sim different and creative. In The Sims 2, The Sims will look greater than ever.

Ageing, Changing and DNA
Sims in The Sims 2 now have DNA. Passing along physical characteristics and traits to their offspring, Sims both resemble and behave like their ancestors. As in real life, the appearance of the Sims now changes over time. In addition to getting older, a Sim that spends too much time on the couch will develop a paunch and a Sim that works out will enjoy rock solid abs. There are now the stages of life you Sims will age through: from a baby your Sim will go into his "toddler years" to become a child, teen, adult and finally a "geezer". For those who don't like their Sims to age and/or die of age, there's good news too: you can turn off the aging option keeping your Sims the age they started with, like in The Sims 1.

Controling and Expressing Yourself
The Sims in The Sims 2 is more aware and responsive to both other Sims and their surroundings. Sims truly come to life expressing moods and feelings through more realistic body animations and for the first time facial animations. They form complex relationships and are able to distinguish between family and friends, platonic friendships and romantic love. Designers have made the Sims' gameplay more complex in possibilities, yet much easier to manage. For example, consider nested interactions. Remember how sleeping or reading or watching television was something you were locked into? In order to take a short break to do anything else, you had to cancel that activity, do what you wanted to do, and then manually reselect the bed/couch/reading chair. Nested interactions let you perform a new action without manually interrupting any consistent action; for example, if you're already watching television on your couch, you just select the fridge to get your snack. The game automatically knows to get you up, retrieve your popcorn, and then sit your lazy self back down, munching on popcorn while boob-tubing out.

Work, School, and Time
The Sims 2 has 18 career paths, with 10 levels each. These jobs are available to all adult Sims. Also Teenagers and elders have separate career paths, 7 of them to be exact with 3 levels each. Elders, upon retirement, receive a pension and will receive money and not have to work anymore. If a Sim advances far enough in a career path, he or she will earn a career reward object, letting him or her continue to hone his or her skills. There will also be weekdays and weekends, and your Sims will establish a work schedule. So while mom or dad could be working on Saturday or Sunday (or may not be working), the kids will stay home since there is no school on the weekend. While there are no specific dates, time is referred to by the weekly calendar, i.e., and Your kid's birthday is next Monday.

Lifes Big Moments
Guiding your Sims through "Life's Big Moments" takes on new importance, as players now get a "Life Score" to measure how well they are playing each individual Sim. The object is to earn a high Lifescore during your Sims' life expectancy. This isn't Maxis forcing you to play a certain way--it's Maxis just forcing you to do something. Your Lifescore will increase whenever an important event happens in your Sims life. Whether it's getting married or getting fired from your job or watching in horror as grandpa takes a dive into an empty swimming pool doesn't matter. Maxis knows that one of the best things about The Sims is that there's no right way to play, so by adding the concept of Lifescore to The Sims 2, the company is merely encouraging players to experiment and have fun. The decisions that players make throughout the lifetime of their Sims now have an impact on their long-term success or failure. A choice made as a toddler has a direct effect on the teen and adult Sim they become. Will players be able to successfully lead their Sims through such important events as a first step, first crush, or marriage proposal, all while the clock is ticking? The game will give events such as weddings, funerals, and birth. Babys won't just appear (like in the origanal sims), but Mom will be rushed to the hospital where after a few days she'll return with the new baby..

Building the Home of your Dreams
In The Sims 2, players are now able to build dwellings over two stories (unlike The original Sims )and have the ability to coordinate and customize the homes of their Sims to a new degree of design with all-new furniture, lighting and objects. The game brings many new build options not seen in the original Sims. You can place objects, like doors and windows, on diagonal walls. You can now build modular stairways with curves, for instance, instead of standard straight stairs. Plus, the families that you create will be aloud to own multiple homes, (AKA - vacation homes and things of that nature.) Just like in the original Sims you'll be able to create many families, and each family can have multiple homes all in the game's large neighborhood (which will have 50 lots total).

Objects, Items and Materialism
The Sims 2 will "still be a game of materialism," according to Maxis. There are more than 500 objects, as opposed to The Sims original 125." The game will have some of the old familiar objects, like sofas and beds. And will have some new objects, like a TV video game system. Also, in The Sims 2 you'll be able to customize objects while in the game. For example, if you pick a sofa that you like, you can then click on it to change the color or fabric pattern. Not only will the Sims age, objects will age as well. For example, if you buy a brand new shiny shower after many years the same shower will look grungy and yucky, and wont work as well.

Intelligance, and Mood Motives
"The Sims 2" will bring a newer player interface, new graphics and a new artificial intelligence powering the Sims. The game's interface appears nearly identical to that of the original, though a few new "motives" (the statistics of your Sims that you need to keep track of) have been added. The "social" mood from The Sims has been broken up into "family" and "friends". A "mind" motive has been added, representing mental stimulation. So after 3-hours of TV watching your Sims "mind" will be mush, but reading will improve it. Also along with hunger you will also have to watch out for your Sims thirst.

Weather
The game will also have some new weather additions. Not only does the sun rise and set each day; your Sims may also experience rain, storms, lighting, and more. There will be hot sunny days, and cold overcast days. The different weather will not only effect how the game looks, but will also change your Sims moods, and actions. Watch out, putting your Sims in the pool during a lighting storm, could be the last thing you make them do!

Albums and Stories
"They'll be more expressive, more interesting and more lifelike, but they'll still have that funny, open-ended, chaotic atmosphere like you see in the first game," Will Wright said. Just like in the original Sims, you can create albums of your Sims lives. In The Sims 2 you'll now be able to capture Audio/Video files of your Sims for inclusion in your albums. So no longer you'll be limited to stills, but you can record great moments of your Sims lives.

Facial expressions play a great part in the new game. "Sims express love, anger, deceit, lust, despondence, and contentment with their faces.. Whether it's the 'come hit her' expression on the French maid's face or the shifty, furtive look of the voyeuristic old man, these expressions make the Sims feel more like people, which then makes their stories more evocative. The game is more story telling based that the first. Wright has been studying visual story-telling techniques and styles lately and would like to include things like cuts, zooms, fades and other movie making tools in his creations. Imagine, for instance, zooming in on the face of your Sim after another rejects him or her, getting a close-up look of the heartbreak. That's a lot different from the wailing you currently view from a distance.

Expansions Packs?
The game will concentrate on life at home; there will be NO out of the house locations (downtown, vacation island, old town, or studio town). Also their will be NO pets (dogs, or cats, or such) This begs the question of whether Maxis will go on to make a slew of expansion packs for The Sims 2, much like what it's done for the original release. Will Wright says most likely, there will be TS2 expansions.

Features
Fully 3D environment. Sims age in 6 life-cycle phases (optional) New Lifescore Children resemble parents (DNA) More detailed Create-a-Sim features Houses can be over two stories tall Basements Better lighting effects More social interactions Better artificial intelligence for Sims (AI) Better reaction/interaction animations Facial Expressions New Moods (Family, Mind, Thirst) Better water effects (tubs, pools, ect.) Placing objects on diagonal walls In-game object customizing Better building options Weekdays and weekends Weather Multiple houses per family 50 Lot Neighborhood Photo album (Still & Video modes) New (and some old) NPCs 18 adult careers (10 levels each) 7 teen/elder careers (3 levels each) Over 500 objects and much more...

 

lol nah it up farther noth it hit nc here in sc where i am we just got wind

 

i wuz up at 4:30 AM with the hurricane it came up in south jersey nugh bout that at least school's cancelled for today! lez talk sims 2 dija ya see any new screens?

 

I'm wondering if better water effects is just how the water looks... or if I can hope for something like rounded corners for swimming pools. I'm excited about the modular stairs too, I'm wondering if I can have a staircase go up several stories, like have a three story house with the staircase going from the first to the third floor without being connected to the second floor.... It would go through the middle of an open area surrounded by balconies on the second floor if my concept could work.

I'm glad to hear our sims can own multiple homes, I was worried the "vacation home" would be a set location but it looks like we just build it on another lot in the neighborhood and have them go there when they're on vacation.

 

From a screen shot i saw at some other place i wont say cuz there seems to be problems with me sayin it on this post site, but it looks like real water

 

yes it does seem to refract light in a watery way, doesn't it? some of the furniture is so familiar yet crisper. I like that pizza leaves grease in the boxes. Shows a lot of attention to detail.

 

cant wait cant wait CANT WAIT

 

not true

Thats not true there's no weather

 

Well the original post was made a year ago. Before we knew that weather was out..

 

This thread should probably be closed...

 

why should this thread be closed supernova?

 

probably because it's been open for a year now.

 

lol so we all seem to be enjoying it ^.^

 

sorry. i agree with supernova here. this thread needs to be closed. make sure to check the date of the last post before you reply to it. even at that, this thread WAS sitting on like the 3rd or 4thg page or farther down on this forum so it shouldve been a dead giveaway that it was old.

*CLOSED*