The Sims 2

aka: De Sims 2, Die Sims 2, Les Sims 2, Los Sims 2, Os Sims 2, TS 2
Moby ID: 14877
Windows Specs

Description official descriptions

In this sequel to the The Sims, Maxis has created an entirely new, 3D engine, similar to the console Sim games. The player can rotate the camera in a 360° view, or shuffle the camera to the left and to the right.

The Sims are also fully animated, articulated characters. They have a wide range of movements, most of which are humorous. Eating, drinking, going to the bathroom, getting kissed, proposing marriage, etc. with each having a specific animation for it.

The Sims 2 has an expanded Build mode. The player can now create large houses, going up to four floors, with new types of wallpapers, carpets, stairs, fireplaces, and more. The player can connect parts of their house via a deck or patio, or a balcony-type catwalk.

When first playing the game, the player can choose to move their family into a pre-made neighborhood with different themes, or they can create one from scratch. If the player has SimCity 4 and/or Rush Hour installed, they can import cities into The Sims 2 to use custom neighborhoods.

The biggest change to the game is aging and fears/aspirations. The Sims will now age, from a newborn, onto a toddler, then to a child, then to an adult, and then finally to a senior. The Sims will also eventually die of old age (although they can die earlier by other means), but there is a way to prolong a Sims youth.

Fears and aspirations are just that. Each Sim has different fears and aspirations that must be avoided and met, respectively. If a Sim has a fear of a loved one dying, the Sim will experience difficulty for a time after that person dies. If a Sim has aspirations to get to the top of the corporate ladder, the Sim will earn aspiration points, which eventually turn into a Platinum meter. When enough points have been reached, the player can buy special items, like a Money Tree which releases bags of money every so often. Meeting a Sims fear results in their aspiration points being lowered.

Sims also have memories, which they will use to remember things throughout the course of their lives. This can deeply impact gameplay depending on how the game is played.

The last major addition is the ability to create movies using Sims. The player can capture the Sims actions, and then edit the video to make a movie of sorts. The player has the option of adding special effects, like slow motion or blur.

Spellings

  • 模拟人生2 - Chinese spelling (simplified)

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Credits (Windows version)

707 People (568 developers, 139 thanks) · View all

Executive Producer
Director of Product Development
Senior Producer
Technical Direction and Design
Lead Producers
Technical Development Director
Development Directors
Creative Director
Art Director
Animation Director
Technical Art Director
Audio Lead
Voice Director
Web Lead
Production
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 87% (based on 55 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 97 ratings with 1 reviews)

Escape to a better life

The Good
The open ended gameplay offers anything that the player will wish to do for making sims happy or sad. Wants and fears goals gives replay value and makes more challenge for your sims. The video capture feature makes more sense of giving more of the sims a story or a movie. The improved graphics makes the game more depth and feel to your sims then the previous game. The variety of objects and building materials you have to build your entire house. The neighborhood system makes everything creative about your sims. Plus, let's not to forget the mods you can add all you want.

The Bad
Minor glitches can occur about error files, but you click "Reset" to ignore it. Loading times always became an issue when trying switch to houses or neighborhoods. Adding a custom skin to your sims can be confusing. There are some minor framerate drops when starting up to the lot to play. The game still has the problem of becoming addicted for hours. Finally, these problem won't ruin any experience.

The Bottom Line
The Sims 2 is a well-done game that will cram hours of gameplay, customizations, expansion packs, and mods that will always never make you stop playing. I highly recommend the game for anyone who wants to live a second life to escape real life.

Windows · by Mario Duenaz (19) · 2011

Trivia

1001 Video Games

The Sims 2 appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Copy protection

Electronic Arts released The Sims 2 with a hard-coded protection that can actually detect if you are using a no-CD crack, CD drive emulator, or other similar tools for bypassing a CD copy protection check, and disables the game to something like a "shareware" version, in which you can play the game, create families etc, but Build Mode (for constructing your houses) and saving your game are disabled.

ESRB

The description of a memory of "doing WooHoo" with a a service person such as a maid includes the sentence "Hey, what am I really paying for here???" This was originally removed due to ESRB issues, but apparently made it into the game.

Machinima

The Sims 2 is used to make The Strangerhood, a machinima sitcom from the creators of the Halo-based sci-fi comedy Red vs. Blue.

Mods

Modifications to tweak a game to your needs are common practice, but some of the hacks in The Sims 2 have been spreading like viruses. Popular hacks allow you to keep multiple lovers without the issue of jealousy or let you be pregnant as a teenager. These need to be downloaded and installed, but others are spread unwillingly.

EA provides a feature to export your house to an online "Lot Exchange" to let other gamers admire your work. Unfortunately, hacked items and routines are included as well and some of them replace the default settings for the entire game. People reported their sims to be abducted by aliens every time they looked through a telescope, a single shot of espresso would fill every need and all sims were graced with eternal youth.

Therefore, similar to the virus scene, hack scanners and anti-hack cleaners have been developed, but often a complete uninstall is the only solution.

Online servers

The game's online servers, including TheSims2.com website, were shut down on 14 January 2013.

References

  • Characters from other Sim games make cameos in The Sims 2 through job "chance cards". For example, Malcolm Landgraab, a wealthy developer from SimCity 3000, is mentioned in one of these.
  • In the University expansion go to the create a student mode. See that guy in the portrait? That's the games creator Will Wright!.
  • If you are wondering about the pigs that are often floating in the sky when you are browsing through a neighbourhood (eg Pleasantview). The pigs are a reference to a very famous Pink Floyd cover for their album Animals which depicts a flying pig.
  • The town Veronaville is a parody of Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet and contains two equivalent families.

References to the game

  • The game is featured in the first episode of the fourth season of the US HBO drama series Six Feet Under. Arthur, an intern, is shown playing the game for about twenty seconds.
  • The Sims 2 was parodied in an episode of "Die Redaktion" (The Editorial Team), a monthly comedy video produced by the German gaming magazine GameStar. It was published on the DVD of issue 05/2008.

Sales

Having sold one million copies in a week, The Sims 2 was Electronic Arts' strongest launch up to date.

Weather

Weather was originally planned on being included, but was scrapped due to a bug that had it rain inside houses. It was re-introduced in the expansion The Sims 2: Seasons.

Awards

  • 4Players
    • 2004 – Best PC Simulation of the Year
  • Apple Design Award
    • 2006 - Best OS X Game
  • Computer Games Magazine
    • March 2005 - #6 Game of the Year
  • Computer Gaming World
    • March 2005 (Issue #249) – Strategy Game of the Year (General)
    • March 2005 (Issue #249) – Best Weapon of the Year Runner-Up (for the vacuum)
  • GameSpy
    • 2004 – #4 PC Game of the Year
  • Golden Joystick Awards
    • 2005 - Girl's Choice for 2005

Information also contributed by Agent5, Nelson340, Paul Graves, PCGamer77, piltdown_man, Rambutaan, Sciere and Vaelor

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Related Games

The Sims 2: Castaway
Released 2007 on PlayStation 2, PSP, Wii
The Sims 2: Pets
Released 2006 on Windows, Macintosh
The Sims 2: University
Released 2005 on Windows, Macintosh
The Sims 2: Pets
Released 2006 on PlayStation 2, GameCube, 2007 on Wii
The Sims 2: Pets
Released 2006 on Nintendo DS
The Sims 2: Castaway
Released 2007 on Nintendo DS
The Sims 2: Seasons
Released 2007 on Windows, Macintosh
The Sims 2: Nightlife
Released 2005 on Windows, 2006 on Macintosh
The Sims 2: FreeTime
Released 2008 on Windows

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by JPaterson.

Macintosh added by Corn Popper.

Additional contributors: Unicorn Lynx, Zack Green, Cabeza2000, Sciere, Lucefin, ~~, Xoleras, Tiago Jacques, Zeppin, Patrick Bregger, Plok, joicrawu.

Game added September 19, 2004. Last modified March 12, 2024.