This is going to be a short and sweet review, since I don't have the energy to really make a big one.
First thing I'd like to say is that it runs a HELLUVA lot faster and cleaner than the sims 1 did, and is alot more pretty too. However, gameplay is really not very different, as the concept was never meant to evolve in the first place, just be complemented with expansions.
You are God. And an architect. You create families, build homes, and control everything (practically).
Doing the above is alot more satisfying now though, compaired to the predesesor (sp? blah). You have much more control on both sim features/clothing/personality/growth, and on actual building of residential/community lots. You are not restricted to just two floors!! And infact, with the Nightlife EP, you can use a cheat to increase the amount of permissable floors to 255 -- though it is not recommended, since that is bound to make your game crash. But you can make say, ten empty floors on top of your main two or three in order to have skyscrapers, office buildings, or hospitals... whatever. The height of walls is not static either, providing you turn on a cheat and use a bit of creativity, which greatly increases the blueprint possibilities.
It is very pretty... skinning is now alot more complex, you do not only have a head and body to worry about; everyday clothing has the categories of seperates and ensembles, and there are other areas to make textures for such as genetics (hair, eyes, skintone) and makeup. The actual physical appearance of your sim's features is not static, but has enough options to wave a stick at in the challenge of making a beauty or monster.
Time marches on in the Sims 2. Your sims can start from infants, grow into adults and have their own children, become elders as the kids finish college, and then eventually DIE. But that isn't any fun... so use the cheat and turn aging off.
While the download folder for TS2 can't be as easily organized as for TS1, this is fixed with the ability to freakin delete objects and skins while IN THE GAME. Do you know how nice that is? Omg... But, you have to be careful, because if you delete a MESH file it will make any recolored texture files not display.
So what are the cons... okay, the first is that the community doesn't have the years of object and skin creation that the original had (and still has going on). You want a bowl of fruit for your kitchen? There are so far perhaps only two bowls of fruit out there for the sims 2, whereas there are maybe 20+ for the sims 1. Point being, while I have already downloaded a major amount of objects for TS2, I still at this time would probably feel more satisfied decorating a home in TS1. This will no doubt change though.
Second is I notice the slow downs more easily when there are alot of decorative objects on a lot, than I did in the original. And that is, I suspect, because this game deals with drawing polygons instead of how many objects have constant animations. The rule for TS1 used to be, basically, don't put too many fountains on one lot. The rule for TS2 is don't put too many anything on one lot.
Third con... you can't design neighborhoods unless you have simcity4 or something. Evil or clever, you be the judge.
Anyway, there is my review. So far, I really like it.. seriously, its a great step up from TS1. If you are into the original (which I don't think any of you are right... so why am I posting this anyway? lol), then you'll like this.
Ren
First thing I'd like to say is that it runs a HELLUVA lot faster and cleaner than the sims 1 did, and is alot more pretty too. However, gameplay is really not very different, as the concept was never meant to evolve in the first place, just be complemented with expansions.
You are God. And an architect. You create families, build homes, and control everything (practically).
Doing the above is alot more satisfying now though, compaired to the predesesor (sp? blah). You have much more control on both sim features/clothing/personality/growth, and on actual building of residential/community lots. You are not restricted to just two floors!! And infact, with the Nightlife EP, you can use a cheat to increase the amount of permissable floors to 255 -- though it is not recommended, since that is bound to make your game crash. But you can make say, ten empty floors on top of your main two or three in order to have skyscrapers, office buildings, or hospitals... whatever. The height of walls is not static either, providing you turn on a cheat and use a bit of creativity, which greatly increases the blueprint possibilities.
It is very pretty... skinning is now alot more complex, you do not only have a head and body to worry about; everyday clothing has the categories of seperates and ensembles, and there are other areas to make textures for such as genetics (hair, eyes, skintone) and makeup. The actual physical appearance of your sim's features is not static, but has enough options to wave a stick at in the challenge of making a beauty or monster.
Time marches on in the Sims 2. Your sims can start from infants, grow into adults and have their own children, become elders as the kids finish college, and then eventually DIE. But that isn't any fun... so use the cheat and turn aging off.
While the download folder for TS2 can't be as easily organized as for TS1, this is fixed with the ability to freakin delete objects and skins while IN THE GAME. Do you know how nice that is? Omg... But, you have to be careful, because if you delete a MESH file it will make any recolored texture files not display.
So what are the cons... okay, the first is that the community doesn't have the years of object and skin creation that the original had (and still has going on). You want a bowl of fruit for your kitchen? There are so far perhaps only two bowls of fruit out there for the sims 2, whereas there are maybe 20+ for the sims 1. Point being, while I have already downloaded a major amount of objects for TS2, I still at this time would probably feel more satisfied decorating a home in TS1. This will no doubt change though.
Second is I notice the slow downs more easily when there are alot of decorative objects on a lot, than I did in the original. And that is, I suspect, because this game deals with drawing polygons instead of how many objects have constant animations. The rule for TS1 used to be, basically, don't put too many fountains on one lot. The rule for TS2 is don't put too many anything on one lot.
Third con... you can't design neighborhoods unless you have simcity4 or something. Evil or clever, you be the judge.
Anyway, there is my review. So far, I really like it.. seriously, its a great step up from TS1. If you are into the original (which I don't think any of you are right... so why am I posting this anyway? lol), then you'll like this.
Ren
