The Sims 2 on PC

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 all-new Create-A-Sim, new building options, and the new 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?

This blog is going to analyse the visual style and game-play of Sims 2 on PC.

Visual Style. . .

This part of my blog is going to analyse and describe the visual style of the game. I'm going to start off with the style of graphics used within the game.The style of graphics that are used in Sims 2 are colourful cartoony graphics. They are 3D so the game looks realistic but not up to very high standards. The game designers has done this to enhance the game play so when playing the game it feels as real as it can. As for the characters they are made to look like a real person. The only downfall is that even though thing look realist its still cartoony. Maybe they will improve this in the next Sims 3.

The Sims 2 has different games modes, you can play free-play, this is where you can create your own town, your own house and charters or there are 3 re-made towns to play that include a story line. These consist of Pleasantview which is based on 25 years after the town in the original The Sims game, Strangetown which is based on the supernatural and is loosely connected with Strangetown and lastly Veronaville which is based on Shakespearean characters. As for the environment in these towns they are all pretty similar house wise, there are normal houses with gardens. I think the games designers has created different environments in each game mode to keep the player interested as if there was just free -play the gamers could get bored. Below shows a picture of a town on The Sims.

As for characters in The Sims it's endless, as you can create multiple characters and switch to play other character at any time. I think the game designer has done this so the gamer is limited to what they can do, as its their town, if you want loads of people living in your town then do so. However they are some set characters in the pre-built neighbourhoods like Romeo and Juliet in Veronaville. There are no enemies in the games unless you create one, however characters can fall out with each other if they don't socialise regularly.

Through out the game cut-scenes appear when performing specific tasks. When a Sim proposes to another Sim a cut-scene of the two characters are shows celebrating or maybe not depending on what the response is. Other cut-scenes appear when performing 'woohoo', when a Sim gives birth and when the baby grows up. The pre-made towns each have their own cut-scene when you first entire the town that shows what the town is like for example when entering Strangetown a cut-scene of an alien abduction is shown.

Game-play. . .
This part of the blog is going to analyse and describe the game play of The Sims 2. I'm going to discus certain topics and how they are used within the game to enhance the playing experience. Firstly going to describe the interaction model, this is how we use the character to play they game. We can move the Sim by clicking on an object to interact it so we can't fully control the Sims, I don't this enhances the game-play as to get full use of the game you should be able to move the Sim better yourself, like you should be possible to be able to move limbs separately. 

The Sims 2 does not have a defined final goal; the game play is open-ended. However Sims can have life goals. wants and fears, the fulfilment of which can produce both positive or negative outcomes. These wants and fears don't have to be for filled, but if player want to for fill them then it gives them more stuff to do on the game. Due to there not being any goals there isn't anyway of scoring or winning the game as the game is endless. 

The games designer of The Sims 2 game had tried enhancing the game-play by using realistic sound effects, like when your Sims flushes the toilet, you can here a real toilet flushing. The use of these realistic sound effect makes the game feel more real and almost feels like you are inside the game doing what ever your Sims is supposed to be doing. 

The addiction level to Sims is very high, the more you play it the more you want to do more things on their. Due to the Sims having expansion pack makes it even more addictive. The expansion packs add more items, houses, towns/cities and more characters. The expansion packs include university, night-life, open for business, pets, seasons, bon voyage, free time and apartment life.

The Sims don't have any on-line play or multi-player function. however users can download special items like furniture, ready built houses or towns. This enhances the game-play due to the players being able to have more items to use and new houses to decorate and in the long run more stuff for you to do. 


Overall, all the above has effected the visual style and game-play of The Sims 2 on PC.