Where to begin? First the negative, it comes on 4CD's, (or 1DVD) takes so long to install they give you a flash game to play, and the online registration stuff is best left to a real browser. It also suggests you do dumb things like turn off all background processes, including the virus checker and 3rd party firewall's both when running, and when installing. Which, for a game with online registration and downloadable content & patches, in game, is damn near sucidal. Not to mention telling people things that can really screw their PC up if they don't know what they're doing. It can also take a while to load and save, and if your PC is not up to snuff, can lag more than a little. It also has more than a few bugs, stupid things like the cleaner getting stuck cleaning the fishtank, oddly positioned limbs, and the inability of maxed out sims to make food. The positive is that the game looks wonderful, once you get used to the 3D camera it looks so much better than the original. From dumb things like the family portraits, and the "create a sim" room, to the incidental graphics used everywhere. The whole game positively reeks of polish! The sounds are all amazing too, from the radio stations doing all manner of music, all in the now familair "Simlish" To the TV stations and incidental effects. But what really gets your attention, is the way the sims behave, right of the bat, if left alone, your sims will just interact sponaneously, invite a few people over and it can really get lively in there. The only dissapointment, (more because of the first games success than anything else) is the lack of "stuff" that comes with the sims2. I'm used to having so much stuff it can take me a while just to chose what to use, this is not a problem I have with the sequel. Though it is a problem likely to endure, as there are no tools able to create objects, other than the bodyshop for clothes, hair and makup, etc. Though this of course will change with the inevetable add-on packs that will role out in future. That said, it's as open-ended a game as you could hope to have, to say nothing of the storytelling/movie making possibilities, and the advanced construction set that is build mode. Basically it's a superset of the first game, a fairly unique sandbox of a game, with as many ways to play as you have time and imagination to conceive of, added to this are the "new" sims themselves, who like thier parents before them, will likely confound and astound in equal measure. If you liked the first incarnation, you'll love the second comming, if you've yet to play, you've no idea what it is you've been missing. Come on in, the water's lovely :)
There are over 600 player reviews of EA's "The Sims 2" online on GameSpot. The average score is 9 out of 10, which is exceedingly good. The rating is well deserved for this worthy successor to the original Maxis master... Read Full Review
Ever wish that if your house caught fire, all you had to do was quickly exit to the neighborhood without having to save and the second your back in your house, the fire is gone and everything was back the way it used to ... Read Full Review
