Sims 2: Apartment Life

[Trekker4747]

Another The Sims 2 Expansion Pack!

This one is apartment life.

From the website:

Your Sims are moving into a brand-new apartment, and their lives will never be the same! Adventure, fun, and drama await them as they meet new people and explore their new neighborhood. Will they take their kids to the local playground, mingle in coffee shops, or hit the park to learn from the breakdancers? Close quarters mean new opportunities-move in with compatible roomies for a thriving social life, advance your career with the right social network, or find true love just down the hall. Whether they live in artsy converted lofts, the ultimate studio bachelor pads, or luxury apartments with their own butler, your Sims will experience all of the excitement of apartment life!

LINK

Look at these screenshots.

Something looks.... familiar.

 

[HighteeHeller]

It's actually not a bad idea but it should have been just been incorporated into one of the other expansion packages ages ago.

 

[Kemaiku]

There was a flier for it in "Free Time" back in February so technically this announcement is coming kinda late, unless its been released in America already? the leaflet just said Fall 2008.

And yeah the Wiki article lists all the new additions in this pack, a new neighbourhood, a lot more "areas" for the existing neighbourhood (parks and the like to place in them), building and decorating (spiral staircase), a lot of new "average joe" personal interactions and an entire Witchcraft aspect that allows Sims to be Good, Neutral or Bad Witches (like the Sims 1 "Makin' Magic Pack) that everyones been waiting for.

Edit: Am I seeing things or are three of them wearing Starfleet uniforms? I see the TNG (staircase), VGR/GEN (Guy playing game on couch) and proposed ST:O uniforms (woman at PC).

 

[Mooch]

I just bought the Sims 2 "IKEA Home Stuff". I am a sucker. I'll probably get this too.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Oh noes! I'm in an apartment building full of Trekkies and I just signed a 1-year lease!

 

[Trekker4747]

There was a flier for it in "Free Time" back in February so technically this announcement is coming kinda late, unless its been released in America already? the leaflet just said Fall 2008.

I don't recall the Free Time box having an annoucement of a specific expansion pack, just a suggestion one was coming.

I've no idea why so many were clamoring for Magic.

That's one aspect I'll elect not to partake in.

 

[Kemaiku]

The first batch didn't, like mine because I snapped up one of the first copies, but the second batch two-four weeks later had a leaflet with the name of the expansion pack and the blurb you posted.

The Sims 1 had an expansion pack called "Makin' Magic" which basically meant the Sims could learn spells and mess about magically with each other, it turned out to be one of the most popular of the packs for the original Sims.

So fans since the Sims 2 came out have been asking for the developers to put the same thing into the sequel but its taken until now to do so. Each expansion pack for the Sims 2 adds a new supernatural creature (Aliens, Zombies, Vampires, Androids, Werewolves, Plant Sims, Yeti's, Genies) so this pack they combined the magic and supernatural theme into one addon, Witches.

Personally I love the idea and can't wait to get this and start teaching Lilith a few tricks. Then again I like most supernatural themed things.

 

[Gryffindorian]

I dunno ... I'm kinda lukewarm about this news. I thought EA Games would've come up with a more clever expansion pack. I don't expect anything fancy or sophisticated, of course, but how is living in an apartment any more exciting than living in a house??? I'm just thinking what game dynamics this new expansion has to offer. Pets has household animals, University offers college life, and Bon Voyage boasts R&R.

Does the landlord yell at your sim for not getting the rent paid on time?

 

[Trekker4747]

I dunno ... I'm kinda lukewarm about this news. I thought EA Games would've come up with a more clever expansion pack. I don't expect anything fancy or sophisticated, of course, but how is living in an apartment any more exciting than living in a house??? I'm just thinking what game dynamics this new expansion has to offer. Pets has household animals, University offers college life, and Bon Voyage boasts R&R.

Does the landlord yell at your sim for not getting the rent paid on time?

One of the aspects of the game is to have several seperate "families" living on the same "lot" (you only control one family at a time) which certainly can have some advantages to it. The review/article also said a lot with row houses on it are possible, trailer parks, and other forms of condensed living.

It may also be, theoretically, "cheaper" for a Sim to live in an apartment than it is to buy his own home.

I really wish they had left the magic out. I know you can say if I don't like it I can just not use it but some elements you can't avoid. Like the penguin from the seasons pack, I suspect the witch and other "magical" elements won't be avoidable in this pack. Not to mention magic-related wants a Sim may spin up.

Magic really should've been its own pack and I suspect it was shoe-horned into this pack because this will be the last pack they'll do for TS2.

Magic.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I don't play the Sims but the idea of having a sim trailer park family sounds pretty amusing.

 

[Kemaiku]

Magic really should've been its own pack and I suspect it was shoe-horned into this pack because this will be the last pack they'll do for TS2.

Magic.

You know, as someone whose been fucked over by people who claimed to be Witches I still don't have that attitude so I can't really see where you're coming from on this...

And come on, there has been a strong supernatural element to the Sims 2 from the frikkin' base game itself, The Grim Reaper is a character and comes for every Sim who dies, Alien hybrids walk the streets and UFO's abduct unsuspecting Sims, each expansion pack has a supernatural creature and stuff to go with them.

"Nightlife" was released for 2 reasons, Cars and Vampires. The fans bought it pretty much just for those two and have raised Vampire nests in Downtown for years, but thats not bothering you?

Seriously, I don't see what your problem is.

 

[Trekker4747]

I guess it's just my "personal limits" on what I'm willing to "accept" in the realm of magic and the fantastic. Cryptozoological creatures (the plant people, werewolves) I can deal with. Ghosts I can deal with, as with the Grimn Reaper, and the Vampires can be avoided altogether.

But, I dunno, the magic/spells thing is just past my level of "acceptance." Not only does it not exactly "fit" with the Apartments theme I just don't see the "need" for addition of spells and such and I'm assuming (I could be wrong, though) that it'll be a "big" part of the game causing Wants for a sim to spin up related to magic. Whichever way I'll avoid the element of the game but I wish I could just not have it at all. Magic should've been its own expansion pack.

 

[Kemaiku]

Ok then

Well anyway for the vast majority of people who do want it, the expansion pack will be released at the end of August everywhere, around the 21st-27th depending where you are.

 

[PKTrekGirl]

They are just doing the magic part because it's really the last element from Sims 1 that they have not incorporated yet into Sims 2. Even most of the stuff from Superstar has been incorporated in other ways. For example, we got a massage table in Bon Voyage, and the Superstar careers have existed for a long time.

I don't know. I'll buy this one because it will likely be the last expansion for Sims 2. I actually liked Makin' Magic from Sims 1...but at this point Sims 2 is so big that I can barely keep track of things anymore. If you could turn off those annoying hobby NPCs, for example, that would be great. There are just too many areas to keep track of now, and I'm starting to lose interest in playing.

Still like to build though!

 

[Trekker4747]

f you could turn off those annoying hobby NPCs, for example, that would be great. There are just too many areas to keep track of now, and I'm starting to lose interest in playing.

Still like to build though!

Ugh the hobby NPCs.

Could you imagine if, in real life, you sat down and just started reading a book on gardening if some dude just walked in you front door and told you how glad he was you were reading on the subject and told you how great it is to take up a hobby?

And it's funny now because any new/moving-in Sim I create doesn't have to buy a computer since one is just delivered to him for fee.

 

[PKTrekGirl]

^ Yeah...I don't get the free computer thing.

But seriously...I like some of the objects and new interactions related to hobbies...but I really hate the hobby NPCs...and I hate how you get pop-ups telling you about how you are not doing your 'hobby' (which you never intended to have as a hobby anyway - you want to learn how to cook so that a) you can eat and b) you don't burn the place down, you know? Not because you want it as a hobby. ).

I like the Free Time stuff alot more without the whole scoring part of it. That is sorta the point of hobbies in real life - no one is keeping score! You do it for FUN.

I mean, I would be way annoyed of some guy from EA walked into my living room and told me that I sucked because I didn't play Sims enough to suit his personal life scoring system!

 

[Trekker4747]

I mean, I would be way annoyed of some guy from EA walked into my living room and told me that I sucked because I didn't play Sims enough to suit his personal life scoring system!

Yeah. I haven't played TS2 for a couple of weeks, I may turn it on tonight and tinker with it.

It does look like Apartment Life is going to have some great additions for builders.

I can't wait to build a series of row-homes or fancy apartments. I DO hope they've done some serious overhauling of the coding, though. My compter strugles enough as it is on Hotel/Dorm lots with everyone running around.

Magic aside, this looks like a cool EP.

 

[PKTrekGirl]

^ Actually, I'm okay with the magic. I was itching to use Makin' Magic to make sort of a Harry Potter-esque environment, but TS1 was so limited in terms of building.

TS2 is much more flexible already in terms of building. So maybe it will be possible with the addition of magic AND 'apartments' to actually recreate Hogwarts.

 

[Kemaiku]

Actually the Sims was originally going to be a building simulator, with the people added as a secondary idea as "inspectors". When they finally went to make the Sims 1 they changed the focus to the people instead of the building, but left the construction element in.

And I'm glad they did, half the time I'm building some new home or community center for them. I just finished my Vampires chateau in Downtown a few weeks ago. I have an entire housing estate in Pleasantview made up of the smae building placed several times in a row, only 12,350 simoleons but bigger than the condo's don't know how I managed that since they're well enough decorated.

And as for the little "annoyances" theres a site called 'More Awesome Than You (MATY)' that has hundreds of little hacks that fix things like that, create a new folder, dump them in and the game suddenly becomes much less annoying to play. such as for less than a couple of megabytes quite a few things from Free Time are changed/fixed.

I'm going to keep on playing 2, don't think I'll bother with 3 for a good long while, I stick to large homes I've created with large legacy families and focus on building up or using Townies based on the main families needs.

And yeah, the fans adored Makin' Magic and have been going on at Maxis/EA to incorporate it for ages, and now they have

 

[Gryffindorian]

I had nearly all the expansion packs for Sims 1, including Magic, but didn't really get around to playing it much. It would've been interesting to practice some cheat codes and download hacked objects for the game, like the fire-breathing dragon, et al, whichever is which.

As soon as I bought Sims 2, there was just no reason for me to play Sims 1. The graphics, game dynamics and other options are just light-years better. It was just like switching from dial-up modem to high-speed Internet connection.