The Sims 2

Background

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; popularity, 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?

Gameplay

In 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?

Features

• Next Generation Simulation: Guiding your Sims through "Life's Big Moments" takes on new importance, as players now get a "Life Score" to measure how well they are playing each individual Sim. The decisions that players make throughout the lifetime of their Sims now have an impact on their long-term success or failure. A choice made as a toddler has a direct effect on the teen and adult Sim they become.
  
• Next Generation Sims: The Sims in The Sims 2 are more aware and responsive to both other Sims and their surroundings. Sims truly come to life expressing moods and feelings through more realistic body animations and for the first time facial animations. They form complex relationships and are able to distinguish between family and friends, platonic friendships and romantic love. Sims in The Sims 2 now have DNA. Passing along physical characteristics and traits to their offspring, Sims both resemble and behave like their ancestors. As in real life, the appearance of the Sims now changes over time. In addition to getting older, a Sim that spends too much time on the couch will develop a paunch and a Sim that works out will enjoy rock solid abs.
  
• Next Generation Features: An entirely new 3-D engine makes the world of The Sims 2 more life-like and dynamic. The Sims 2 will also introduce an all-new "Create-A-Sim" feature. This allows you to customize the facial features of your Sim with a few simple clicks, to a level of detail never realized before. In The Sims 2, players are now able to build dwellings over two stories and have the ability to coordinate and customize the homes of their Sims to a new degree of design with all-new furniture, lighting and objects.
  
• The Sims 2 Body Shop: The Sims 2 Body Shop will let customize almost any part that can be used to build a Sim. Anything's possible, from highlighted hair, to tattoos, to crazy shirts and jeans. And each part is completely independent, meaning your cool dragon tattoo can be combined with another player's one-of-a-kind leopard-print shirt. The Sims 2 Body Shop will allow you to create Sims just the way you want them to look. In addition to all the designing of skins, clothing, and cosmetic options, you can also customize your Sims' facial features using 50 different modifiers. The result of all this is truly unique Sims that you can bring into the game or share with others

Hardware Requirements

If you have a T&L capable video card with at least 32 MB of video RAM (such as nvidia GeForce 2 or better or ATI Radeon 7000 or better) then you need at least:
600 MHz P3 processor
256 MB RAM if Windows XP, Windows ME, Windows 98 or Windows 2000
At least 3.5 GB of hard drive space

If you have a non-T&L capable video card (such as TNT2 or Intel Integrated for example) then you need at least:
1.5 GHz processor
256 MB RAM if Windows XP, Windows ME, Windows 98, or Windows 2000
At least 3.5 GB of hard drive space

Recommended video cards (and the more video memory the better):
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
Nvidia Geforce 4 or FX series card

International release dates:
Europe: Sep 17, 04
Japan: Sep 16, 04

Official URL

Official Site