Manufacturer's Description

Electronic Arts The Sims 2

In the The Sims 2, you direct your Sims over a lifetime and mix their genes from one generation to the next. You set your Sims' goals in life; fame, fortune, family, romance or knowledge. Give them a long, successful existence or leave their lives in shambles. Take them to extremes, from getting busted to seeing a ghost, from marrying an alien to writing a great novel. Unleash your creativity with the Create-A-Sim, new building options, and the in-game movie camera. Get ready to mix their genes, fulfill their dreams, and push them to extremes. What do you want to do with your Sims' lives?

Product Specifications for

Electronic Arts The Sims 2

Most recent User Reviews for

Electronic Arts The Sims 2

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  Reviewed by: Daphne

  07-30-08

  Duration of ownership: 2 Years

  Strengths: Lots of fun manipulating your Sims. Join the Sims 2 site online to download loads of free stuff, and chat with other Simmie nerds.

  Weaknesses:Can be a little slow if you're not in the mood.

  Overall Evaluation: Love it! Upgraded my computer just to get more enjoyment out of it.

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  Reviewed by: it

  10-13-05

  Duration of ownership: 11 Months

  Strengths: Almost unlimited options

  Weaknesses:Graphics need high-end computer

  Overall Evaluation: This game deserves every star possible. The endless possibilities you can customize your sims with it mind boggeling. The graphics, however good they are, freeze up and slow down unless you have a high-end computer. That fact is the only bad seed in this otherwise great game.

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  Reviewed by: btb

  06-04-05

  Duration of ownership:

  Strengths: really nice graphics, nice game play, much more in depth then the first sims

  Weaknesses:requires a high end pc to play and even on a high end pc is still really buggy

  Overall Evaluation: My computer isn't the newest or latest and greatest but it is far better than the average computer. Basic specs are AMD Athlon 3000+, 1GB RAM, geforce FX 5900 video card. The sims 2 runs "ok" on this setup but is still very buggy with low frame rates during some activity and on occasion will freeze the computer. My computer is in very good shape with minimal applications running, no spyware, adware, or viruses, has all the latest driver updates, and easily meats all hardware recommendations and the sims 2 still bugs out. My computer also has no problem playing intense games such as halo, and Unreal.Summary: Glitches and steep hardware requirements cause The Sims 2, a truly great game, to have below average marks.

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  Reviewed by: Zircon

  09-29-04

  Duration of ownership: 2 Weeks

  Strengths: Graphics: The new 3D engine exponentially increases the visual presentation of The Sims 2Playability: It is easier now to satisfy a sims basic needs, allowing for more diverse gameplay.

  Weaknesses:Graphics: The new 3D engine requires a high-end machine to play The Sims 2.Custom Content: The lack of being able to add user created content is a HUGE weakness!

  Overall Evaluation: The Sims 2 looks great and plays great, if you have a high-end machine. The biggest drawback for the game is the lack of the promised tools for custom content creation. Custom Content Creation was one of the biggest selling points of the original Sims game. EA Games/Maxis, in their advertisements for The Sims 2, stressed the ability of the new Sims game to be able to have new custom content imported into the game. The tools for this were supposed to be released BEFORE the game. The only thing that was released before the game was The Sims Body Shop, which duplicates the character creation setup from the game. It does allow a player to change the "skins" of clothing, hair, body and makeup for the 3D meshes already in the game, but that is a far cry from the touted ability to create NEW content. What is worse is that there are FEWER selections of objects for the game than what was present in the original Sims, and most of those, unfortunately, look like they were designed by 8 year old children with bad taste! EA Games/Maxis is now saying that it will be around DECEMBER before the tools needed for custom content creation are released. If they wait that long, then they will in effect kill the game. The number 1 complaint in Sims-related newsgroups, Yahoo! eGroups and BBSes is the lack of these tools, and many, many people will NOT buy the game as long as these tools are not available.

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  Reviewed by: dentj

  09-20-04

  Duration of ownership: 1 Weeks

  Strengths: Inventive and very open ended gameplay. Wants and fear system is solid. Highly expressive character models. Unlimited facial modeling. Tons of personality. Aging and reproduction with DNA, etc...

  Weaknesses:Unusual behavioral and occasional graphical bugs. Needs a powerful computer to look it's best.

  Overall Evaluation: The long awaited sequel to the 200 original is finally here, and it's heads above in almost every way. The graphics have been renovated from the old 2D isometric into a fully 3D world where you can move the camera anywhere to view anything you want. This lets you get up and close with your sims like never before, and wonderfully shows off the highly detailed characters and all their suprisingly lifelike animations and mannerisms. You can see expressive faces reacting with a smile to conversations or shriveling in disgust when they smell something funky (like that sim that hasn't showered in a week). The gameplay is expanded from the original, now adding in aging and changing the focus slightly. Instead of spending all of your time managing their immediate bodily needs, you actively work to fufill their wants and desires. This adds a bit of planning to your gameplay. Do you want to fufill that cheap want of hugging your kid, or that more difficult one of bumping uglies with 10 diferent sims? They still have those bodily wants, but leave them to their own devices, and they'll usually handle them automatically. Two sims of like mind may reproduce (in a cute and non offensive way), and the resulting baby will have facial features that resemble the parents, giving a true sense of geneology to the series. So if your sim is pregnant from cheating on her husband, the resulting newborn will show it) Complimenting this deep gameplay is the usual Maxis dark humor. Watch as your aspirationally challenged knowledge sim talks to a volleyball with a mortar board, or a desperate family sim cuddle a flower sack with a smiley face, or any of the thousands of other quirky animations. The game does have some setbacks, though. The game is very demanding on your system , and will reduce or eliminate options based on it. Have a slow computer? Don't expect to see more than three or four sims onscreen at the same time. Have a weak graphics card? Expect the bigger houses to slow down your framerate to nearly unplayable levels. There are also some noticeable bugs, such as objects becoming locked out and unusable, or some awkward transitions between animations (watch the baby zip across the floor and fly into their parents arms!).Overall, though, this is a very impressive game. The 3D engine gives more personality to the world that your little peons inhabit, and the expanded gameplay options give you even more ways to mess with them. If your computer can hack it, buy it and have a blast

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