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September 18, 2004
Oh no... The Sims 2
It's taken a gazillion expansions and innumerable years, but The Sims have reared their heads again in The Sims 2. Yet again they become a threat to productivity and bring life to a grinding halt.
There is a bit of MMORPG/skinners influence to the game as creating a Sim is now mired in screen after screen of clothing choices and facial attributes (structure, makeup, accessories, hair styles, etc). It doesn't come close to the same level of enjoyment when customizing your hero in City of Heroes, but it's certainly entertaining to play with endless possibilities. And I'm sure it was a decision they consciously made, but this game has broken the mold for character customization and not provided a breast size modification option.
The engine has also been upgraded to a fully 3D environment. The controls are a little clumsy. You press and hold the mouse wheel for rotation and angle, but many mice don't have wheels that are really meant for click and hold.
The new animation is fantastic. The 3D models allow for subtle things like one character looks up from what they are doing and watches another character, whom they are interested in (good or bad), walks by. Simple actions such as cooking and serving food and sitting down for a bit are also much more fun to watch now.
Sadly, it's still The Sims in many respects. 2 also suffers from the time discontinuity that 1 suffered from. A Sim can change clothes in Tazmanian devil whirl, yet it takes them 20 (game) minutes to walk from a back room to the car waiting to take them to work.
All said, it's a very interesting and time consuming game and promises to be one in which you don't experience the entirety of the game until after many many many hours of play. Now I just dread the possibility of 17 expansions for The Sims 2. :P
Posted at September 18, 2004 10:19 AM | Life and Work
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