Saturday, March 1, 2008

Not Enough FreeTime (Part 1)


Years ago, when The Sims was still new, I made a sweet house in the game and filled it with sims. Then I put it on fast forward and let it run overnight. Just to see how they would survive. If you guessed "not well," you were right. I'm still not even sure what happened to some of them as their bodies were never found.

Since then, I've learned to be a lot kinder to my sims. I've come to realize that The Sims (in all its many forms) is a game you play, not an antfarm. If you keep that in mind, you can get a lot of enjoyment from The Sims. If you don't, you are destined to be disappointed. FreeTime packs a lot of enjoyment into $29.95 with just a little disappointment. It gives your sims more variety in their wants and interests, which makes it seem like they are thinking more for themselves. You still have to guide them along to satisfy their wants, but they want more and different things.

(Incidentally, since that FreeTime link above talks about EA's direct download of the game, I'd like to say that there are two things about the direct download not mentioned up front: The first is that you have to have XP or better to download it, and the second is that once the xpac you downloaded is installed, you have to be connected to the internet every time you start up The Sims 2 in order to play.)

Now, because I'm sure I'll probably miss something, I'd like to point out that there's a really good Prima Guide for FreeTime available. And you can read 13 pages of it for free online! Not too shabby. They list the new careers, objects, cheats, all that good stuff in detail. (By the way, I don't make any money from any of the links in this post. Any links are to things I sincerely find helpful.) If you're into free stuff, you can sign up on The Sims 2 message board and ask questions there, at a vibrant and helpful community.

Some of the new things in this pack that I really enjoy are the "Lifetime Aspiration scoring system" and the Secondary Aspirations. Basically you get different points now (in addition to the points you got before for aspiration rewards, like the money tree and such) but these are called "aspiration benefit points." They can give your sims new abilities like sleeping less or eating more or not having to empty their bladders as much. Fun! They can also negotiate for more pay or plead with the social worker if they have the points for it. What I did was take my family with the man-eating plant and give the husband the ability to attract more people to their house. I think if you guessed what would happen to my sims at the beginning this post, you can guess where I am going with this one. If you can't, just imagine that the guests grabbed for the cake and got it! Mmm, cake!
Don't do it! The cake is a lie!

The hobby system is a great way to liven up the old skill ups that sims had to do to grow in their jobs. Now when they read a book, watch tv, or play, they're growing enthusiasm for their hobbies, which is fun. As they grow in enthusiasm in a hobby, they can go to secret lots, unlock new abilities, and even make new things for themselves or others. My only complaint is that right now, every time a sim gains some enthusiasm, they get a phone call from the leader of the hobby club, telling them something useless, like, "I see you gained some enthusiasm!" This==Phone ringing, ringing, ringing! Phone BAD! Hopefully this will change in a patch. Though, right now, you can just throw out your phones. Easy fix.

Some other nice things that are included are songs like "Pocket Full Of Sunshine" by Natasha Bedingfield, which sounds in Simlish (which sounds like mumbling) like, "Ooo, get a pocket get a pocket full of sunshee." I once had a pocket full of sunshee. But it got really soggy and the smell never came out. From now on, I carry my sunshee in the box it comes in. Charlotte Martin's "Keep Me in Your Pocket" is on the playlist, too, which makes for a whole lot of pockets and not much sunshee to go around. Truthfully, I seem to prefer the simlish versions to most of the real versions--the singers seem to put more oomf into them or something because there's no real meaning to get in the way--you place whatever meaning you want on each made-up word. What if real words were like that? We'd all be talking like the poem Jabberwocky. It would be so cool. But probably not much would get done.

(To Be Continued...)

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