Any Sims 2 fans here?

[MacTech]

I just got the Nightlife expansion pack for my Mac, and it's a great expansion to an already bloody addictive game, the biggest reason i wanted Nightlife, as opposed to University, Open For Business, or Pets?

Vampires

yep, in NL, you can encounter Vampires, if your Sim builds relationship points high enough with any of the Grand Vampires (there are four of them, two male, two female, they hang out on the downtown public lots), your Sim is at risk of being Vampirized

And since i *LIKE* vampires, well, lets just say that Pleasantview is beginning to get a slight Hemophelia problem....

there are little inside jokes/nods to Vampire cinema in the game, for example;
Vampires cast no reflection in the mirror, but do show up in photographs, as an example, i Vampirized one of the "big player" NPC's, the Diva, she's a glamorous woman in a long, flowing velvet dress, who generally walks around primping in her little hand mirror with a very aloof attitude, now that she's a vampire, when she pulls out her mirror, she puts her arm in front of her face and hisses in anger...

when sitting at the bar, sipping a drink, most Sim's drinks are clear/light blue, a Vampire's drink is deep *red*, yep, they're drinking a glass of blood

once invited into your home, the Grand Vampires can come and go as they please, they just walk right in, putting all Sims at risk of being bitten and Vampirized (but seeing as how i *like* vampires, that's not a bad thing in my case)

once you have relationship points with a Grand Vampire, *any* Sim in the house is at risk to be bitten, especially if that Sim has "Vampirism" as a "turn-on" or "Become Vampire" in their Wants queue... ;)

for example, i was playing the Dreamer family in Pleasantview, and had Darren on a community lot, he had "Become Vampire" as a Want, one of the Counts, with whom he had *three* relationship points, not even enough to be considered an "acquaintance", the Count walked right up to him, and without even talking to him, bit him, turning Darren into a vampire, the count then walked away...

luckilly/unluckilly, depending on your view, the Grand Vampires are rather reclusive and hard to find, and generally hard to build relationship points with

just for fun, i decided to perform an experiment today, i created a family called the "Handsoff" family (Pitr, Grace, Greg, and Miranda), and put them in a house, this group of sims (no family points, just four sims in the same house) i am going to let run on their own, i will not interact with them, they're a "hands off" family

(i did break the rule just once to start off, out of pure scientific curiosity, i brought over all *four* Grand Vampires, but gave them no relationship points with any of the Handsoffs, they were simply *there* the fate of the Handsoffs was in their own.....hands......sorry, no pun intended there ;)

Greg started talking with Count Orlando Gibson, and they seemed to get along okay, when suddenly........Count Orlando *bit* Greg, we have our first Vampire sim, and since Greg has the "Knowledge" Aspiration, he *wanted* to be a Vampire (Knowledge Sims are generally inclined towards Vampirism, they *want* to become Undead, living forever means you can learn forever)

Current Vampiric want? Bite Sim
Current Vampiric fear? Be Rejected for Bite, Be Cured of Vampirism
(Greg *LIKES* being a Vampire)

the next Sim to fall to the Dark Gift of the Embrace (yes i'm a Bram Stoker/Anne Rice/Vampire the Masquerade fan, why do you ask? ;) ) was Miranda, she had *no* relationship scores with Contessa Kimberly Gregory, but she got fanged anyway, She's a Romance Sin, they're generally ambivalent about Vampirism, some like it, some don't

Miranda's Vampiric Wants? Be best freinds with Count Orlando, Be Cured of Vampirism
Vampiric Fear; Bite Sim
(Miranda *HATES* being a Vampire, however, unless she can voluntarily call up the Gypsy Matchmaker and buy the Vamprocillin-D from her voluntarily, she's stuck that way, and seeing as those actions can only be initiated by *ME*, and i'm not interacting with these Sims, looks like she's a Vamp for good.... sorry, Miranda, sucks..... to be you, i guess (heh, pun intended...)

both of those bites happened the previous game-evening, tonight, the two Contessas dropped by, and the following Sims got bitten;

Grace is a Pleasure Sim, she was bitten by Countess Kimberly, even though she had minimal relationship points with her, the Pleasure aspiration is new to this expansion pack, and i don't have enough Pleasure Sims to get a feel for the general view they have about Vampirism, so far it's been generally negative
Vampiric Want; Cure Vampirism
Vampiric Fear; Be rejected for Bite
so, she's not *opposed* to biting another sim, she'd just rather not be a vampire if she didn't have to be

finally, we have Pitr, just freshly bitten by Contessa Shiela Sims, Pitr is a *Family* Sim, Family Sims *HATE* being a Vampire, i guess because they think they can no longer reproduce (they can, the kids are mortal though, and cannot be bitten until they reach the Teen stage, a pair of Vamps produce Mortal kids), Sheila's bite really hit poor Pitr hard, it drove him into Aspiration Failure, he's sitting on the floor, gibbering insanely to himself and "Bleh!'ing"
Vampiric Want; Buy Vamprocillin-D, Cure Vampirism, Bite Sim
Vampiric Fear;Be Rejected for Bite

Poor, poor confused Pitr, the Beast in him wants to bite other Sims, and fears being rejected, yet he really, really wants to be cured of Vampirism, but he still wants to bite other sims, but he wants to be cured, bite, cure, bite, cure, BLEH!!!

sorry Handsoffs, you're on your own, looks like you *all* get to stay Vampires, enjoy it, why don't you, the night's more fun anyway....

think of the upsides, guys....

Pitr, you're a Family Sim, just think how *large* a family you could make as a Vampire, you could father children with different Mortal women for all eternity, or you could fall in love with one of the women in the house, have a vampire spouse and have kids for all eternity!

Grace, you're a Pleasure Sim, find those Sims that *WANT* to be Vampires and bite them, they get the pleasure of becoming a Vampire, you get the pleasure of biting them, living forever also means you can go to or have parties *forever*, be a Hedonist, live for the moment, revel in your Vampirism

Greg, i don't need to tell you the advantages of Vampirism, you know it, use Eternity to build your knowledge and skills, you could become the Smartest Sim in the World....

Miranda, Miranda, Miranda.....think clearly here, you're a Romance Sim, you love getting into intimate relations with *numerous* Sims, as a Vampire, you can Romance other sims for all eternity, be wined-and-dined for all eternity, you'll always be young and attractive, you'll never age or die, men will find you attractive and desirable *forever*, what's not to like here....

geez, these Sims really need to get their priorities straight and look on the bright side (Ahh, the Sun, I Must Flee!!!!) of things, yes, you all now have a fatal allergy to Sunlight, and your levels drop like a rock during the day, but all the fun's at night, and you'll be eternally young, the upsides outweigh the downsides here....

[thombrogan]

Neat stuff! My wifey's Sims 2 addiction is 4% of my :spyder: addiction (whatever 0.04 times infinity is...), so I'll let her know.

Thanks, MacTech!

[snuffaluff]

I never played the sim's games. They sound interesting though.

[Harry White]

i've never played it, but i just bought sims 2 - pets for my nephew for christmas -- he's 8 1/2 years old. looks like an awesome game.

[JaM]

I dont play it, but a friend of mine does... sometimes I tease her about "so... where did you build the dungeon now..?" type of questions (no, STILL no homicidal chainsword-wielding maniac next-door !!), if you know what I mean.

But this sounds... interesting. I love the Anne-Rice type of vampires, and really like V:TES (the cardgame), and the "eternal struggle" setting from White Wolf. I played Bloodlines...I dunno, 15 times ? It still is fun. Love the art, too.

I'll point her to this, because I know she'll like this too. Actually, I like it too ! Not enough to become a Sims-fan though... give me a nice FPS anytime.

Thanks for this review. :)

[MacTech]

JaM, i like a good FPS as well as the next gamer, the Unreal Tournament series for example, and also enjoy RTS games like the Command and Conquer series, as well as hyperviolent gore gams like the "Postal" series, as well as Driving simulations, as well as "Survival Horror" games, i guess you could say i like 'em all...

the deceptive thing about TS2 series is thethe way it slowly sucks you into it's world and addicts you, on the surface, TS2 looks mundane, boring, even, i mean, c'mon, a *people* simulation, get real, go out and interact with *real* people why don't you....

thing is, once you start playing TS2, you discover that this is a deceptively *deep* game, Sims have hopes and fears that guide their lives, personal goals and carreer goals, and each Sim has a unique, randomly generated personality (which you can alter if you wish), neat freaks, slobs, freindly and grgarious, antisocial, and just plain *mean*, almost all personality archetypes are supported

the coolest thing though is the Genetics, unlike the original Sims, the Sims age, from Baby to Elder, the Sims in TS1 were functionally immortal, and the kids never aged beyond the "child" stage, it got boring quickly, and rapidly devolved into a "how can i torture them" game, the children generated ingame to a sim couple were randomly generated, you could have two Skintone 4 sims (Dark) end up with a Skintone 1 (Pale) baby, because kids were randomly created, and appeared randomly and spontaneously after a "woohoo"

in TS2, you have a much wider range of facial structures, eye colors (brown, lt. blue, blue, green, gray, black for Aliens), hair colors (black, brown, red, blond) English, Teutonic, African, Aboriginal, Persian, Medeterranian, English, Asian, Celtic, Indian, etc.... and skintones (Skintone 1-pale, Skintone 2-light, Skintone 3-tan, Skintone 4-Dark, skintone 5- Alien (green)) and they also pass down to the kids

for example a Skintone 4 African with red hair and blue eyes and a Skintone 1 Asian with blond hair and green eyes reproduce, the kids could have any mix of the African and Asian facial features, green or blue eyes, either red or blond hair and *any* skintone from 1-4

for someone with a scientific mindset like me, TS2 becomes more of a petri dish than anything, i.e., what kids will result from cross-breeding these two sims....

so, the Sims in TS2 have personalities, wants, hopes, fears, and dreams, they're genetics play out from generation to generation, with both dominant and recessive traits (for example, black and brown hair genomes are dominant, red and blond are recessive, all skitones share equal dominance, as do eye colors), and genetic features can even skip a generation....

using the above example, lets say the Skintone 1 Asian Sim's grandfather was abducted by aliens, and came back pregnant**, it's entirely possible that when the Asian sim reproduces with their African spouse, the kid(s) (yes, twins are a possibility) could have some, or even all Alien*** features.....



(**when a male Sim is abducted by aliens, he *always* comes back pregnant)

(***Alien genetics consist of green skin, *huge* solid black eyes (no whites, the eye is totally black) and no nose, and either no hair, or black hair)

[MacTech]

Oh, and another thing, since the Sims have psychological profiles now, it's even *more* fun to mess with their virtual heads, so to speak

i created a "torture me" family, the Gate$'s, Bill and Melinda Gates, yes *those* Gates's

bill's an ugly, unkempt Sim, low cleanliness scores, bad combover, bad suit, stupid glasses, overweight, an ugly, ugly man, his Aspiration *was* "Fortune" (get as much money as possible), turn-ons are Stinkiness and Fatness, turn-off is Vampirism

Melinda's an absolutely gorgeous, fit woman with a high cleanliness score, turn-ons are Vampirism, and Fit, turn off is Fatness....

once they moved into their horrid little shoebox of a house (lowest quality furnishings and tiny rooms), i used a cheat-object to change bill's Aspiration to the Aspiration-failure aspiration of "Grilled Cheese" (Sim is *obsessed with eating, thinking about, talking about, preparing, and getting other Sims to prepare Grilled Cheese sandwiches)

now... to get Melinda Vampirized.....

I just remembered an amusing little bit of Simlish (the Sims spoken language, basically a gobledygook of phoenomes from other languages), occasionally a Sim may say something that sounds like something in English, but it's purely a coincidence

in this case, it was a Sim that just got Vampirized that evening, she was hungry, so she went over to the fridge to prepare a meal (Sim Vampires eat regular food like normal Sims), as she started preparing the food, she spoke.....

"Füd....Eww!"

and as an example of how the Sim's Turn Ons and Turn Offs work, i had one of my male Sims (Vampirism turn-on) on a community lot with both Vampires and Humans, my Sim would only approach and try to chat up the female Vampires, totally ignored the Humans

[JaM]

:) Interesting, but still not for me. Space4K takes away the little time I have for gaming at the moment.