Friday 17 September 2004

Pic of the day: Sims too! More expressive than ever. Not always a good thing, I guess ...

Sims2 revealed!

I will assume that you have a passing knowledge of the original "the Sims" game. After all, it is said to be the best selling computer game ever. And besides, if you are a regular reader of this journal, you will have seen plenty of screenshots, some reviews of expansion packs, and numerous references to the Sims' behavior. And anyway, I would actually recommend that you try the original game first, at least for a few days. It is less overwhelming, and it will let you appreciate the new game more. Besides, you should be able to get a used game really cheap by now: I don't think many users will go back after buying Sims2!

A new generation

The one impression I get from the Sims2 is that this is a new generation. There is a double, no triple meaning to this. The most obvious is the new graphics.

The graphics of the original Sims were not exactly cutting edge even when it was released in 2000. The Sims looked more like characters from Ultima VII, a role-playing game from the early 1990s. At this time graphics cards were not included in all computers, and the Windows was not exactly the performance leader in computer games. This has changed. Even computers that don't have a separate graphics card, such as most laptops, still have a graphics co-processor on the motherboard. Or in plain English: All the new computers running Windows are also meant to run games. Sims2 takes advantage of this, big-time. Everything is just more detailed, and you can move the camera around just as you please. In the way it looks, Sims2 is comparable to some of the newer role- playing games. But the Sims are still Sims, right? Yes... and no.

It is new generation of Sims. Mortimer Goth has grown old, Cassandra is a grown woman, and there are a lot of new kids on the block. It seems the Flynn effect has also reached SimCity: The Sims are now more intelligent, more aware of themselves and their surroundings. It shows in many small ways. For instance, the Sims are now aware that someone else is using the bathroom, and will wait their turn, although not always patiently. They are also less likely to congregate in the bathroom making it a talk club. But that is just the most obvious. There are many small details that you will notice as you play the game. The Sims generally act less stupid when they exercise their own free will. It is generally much safer to leave them to their own devices for a little while.

Also their behavior is more human in other subtle ways. For instance, as I played a female Sim, I noticed that one of the single males was starting to behave oddly: He would follow my Sim with his eyes as she moved around, and just happened to place himself close to her when there was an opportunity. Pretty transparent, if you ask me. He also wanted to "play cards", a game for two players where their hands touch frequently...

There are a lot of such new options in the game, some of them directly under player control and others not. At least I have not found a way to let my Sim keep looking at people as they move around. But there are a lot of social options anyway. You can start with something pretty innocent and gradually work your way until the game earns its "teen" rating in full measure.

Expanded

The original Sims game had fairly limited social interactions, although they were crucial to the happiness of the Sims. In the expansion pack Hot Date, the social life of the Sims became a lot more complex. They got a host of new social interactions, and choosing the right one was not always obvious, as the Sims now had different reactions based on their personality. You could no longer just talk to a Sim long enough and then propose marriage. Friendship and romance became two different attributes, much like in the real world. (Well, most people's real world, I have never really understood that part.)

There is, as of yet, no expansion pack for Sims2. But the interactions and concepts of Hot Date are integrated in this game from the start, and indeed expanded on. Admittedly there is no Downtown, but you can have shops in the neighborhood, a feature that was first introduced in the fairly late expansion pack Unleashed. This expansion also featured a much larger neighborhood, and that's what you get here too. Plus, you now get variable size plots that the user can select. So you see, a game feature from an expansion pack is integrated from the start here. Not all features, for sure: There are no pets, for instance, no magic spells, no Vacation Island or Downtown or Magic Town or Studio Town. But the features that changed the core concepts of the game and expanded on them, these have been used and improved on.

Take the humble telephone, for instance. It used to let you call some basic services like pizza or repairman, and let you call to invite other Sims to come over. With various expansion packs it got new options: You got a better telephone directory sorted on family name. You could call taxi. You could call to arrange a random party. And a major breakthrough: You could call just to chat, not needing to invite people over. But the friendship points you got from these phone calls were rather small; it was more like an emergency maintenance of your social need when you could not find the strength to make a dinner and stuff. And the neighbors never called back, except to warn you that they were about to fall below friend status.

In Sims2, the phone has all these improvements and a few more. But the new generation of neighbors with their expanded awareness will not sit idly while you choose whether or not to call. Some of them – it is mostly the same all the time – are very active on the phone. One passing acquaintance kept phoning pretty much every day until she had achieved Best Friend status. (Yes, there is now a higher level of friendship, and once again you may or may not have a romantic relationship to the person. Usually not. No comment from me on that.) You have to have met to get the phone number, and you cannot start romance over the phone, but once there it can be kept alive.

More detail

There are not just more animations and more choices of interaction. There is more detail in their everyday life, and not just in the graphics. Food, for instance. You no longer make generic Breakfast or Lunch or Dinner, which look the same anyway. Each of the meals now has several possible variants, some simple but less filling and less attractive. At first you may only be able to make cereals for breakfast and bread with meat for lunch. But as you keep making food, your skill will grow a little each time, and eventually you dare try something new. Of course you can still study books for the same effect, but it is kinda nice that practice makes perfect.

The same holds true for the other skills, mechanical and the new cleaning skill. You can choose to read the books, or just let it gradually improve as you live your life. This may not always be the best option, because life is short. It didn't use to be, but it is now. More about that later.

Objects like TV and stereo now have the option to improve your body, as you can exercise to music. You can also learn cooking from watching the appropriate channel. In general, there are new creative uses for several everyday things. You can drink water from the faucet, although it will only reduce hunger with the slightest amount. It just might keep you alive in a pinch, I guess, but ... the thing is that you can do it, not that you necessarily want to. (Toddlers want to play with the toilet, though. They want it very much unless you distract them with toys or social interactions. More about toddlers later.)

Ambitions, wishes and fears

The new Sims have ambitions, or "aspirations" as they are called. When you create a Sim, or when he grows up, there are a few aspirations to choose from: Romance, Family, Knowledge, Popularity or Wealth. These do not depend on the personality traits and their star signs, but I suspect some of them go better together than others.

The aspirations also influence the hopes and fears of the Sims. It is popular knowledge that the human brain can only handle 7 hopes and fears at the same time. The Sims will at any given time have 4 hopes and 3 fears. Fulfilling a wish causes a new and more ambitious one to pop up. But it also improves the aspiration level, which influences productivity and lifespan. (More about lifespan later.) Plus there are tangible rewards (well, tangible to the Sims at least) that the family can buy from their wish fulfillment points. These are weird things like the money tree, which gives §40 a couple times a day if you water it ... but only if your aspiration is high enough.

I personally am not too enamored of this feature. I don't consider ambition a good thing, and I believe lifespan should be determined by health and religion, barring illness and accidents. (The Sims can get sick, but healthy Sims usually survive anything until they grow old. Unless you stress them too much, I guess.)

Anyway it adds an extra dimension to gameplay. The ambitions play a big role in shaping your wishes, but not the only one. Any Sim in love will want to give back rubs and worry about not being accepted, but Romance Sims will have these things all the time and it will majorly influence their lives. If they get too many disappointments, they may have a nervous breakdown. The same for other ambitions, of course.

New generations

The Sims have reason to worry about their romance. Not just because Simplish lacks a word for "monogamy". But also because their life is short. Too short, in my opinion. Their days are numbered (literally) and they live approximately one day for each year a human lives. So they are babies for 3 days ... and not 3 of our days, either: Their hour corresponds to one of our minutes at default speed, so a day is 24 minutes of our time. 3x24 minutes, and the little stinker needs to learn to use the potty, walk around and talk passably. Then onward to childhood, teen years, and 30 days of paid work. (At least they get two days off each week.) Then retirement, and then ... the Grim Reaper. And life insurance ... if Grandpa liked you. If he couldn't stand your mug, you're on your own!

It is one thing to live in the house Grandpa bought for his hard earned simoleons. But for the trailblazer who starts with two empty hands and no skills, 30 days is definitely not enough. Not to mention for the player who wants to learn the ropes. This is where the magic words come in handy: Aging off! It's a cheat code, and it's in the documentation, but you may as well learn it at once. You bring up the cheat box in the usual way, pressing Ctrl-Shift-C, then type Aging off and press enter. Until you reverse it, nobody will age. Not just "nobody will grow old" but nobody will grow up either, so choose carefully when to apply this cheat. You really don't want to be stuck with a toddler too long, as they demand a lot of attention.

Oh, and this almost goes without saying, but don't start with a single mother as your first family. For your own mental health, don't. Although for kids it can probably be a very educational experience...

Anyway, due to the way this cheat works, you can't just heap up generation upon generation. If one is to grow up, the other will grow older. (At least provided you play them both, such as living in the same house.) Aging or not is decided for the whole game, not for each character. So you can have grandchildren of your Sim, but it is unlikely that you will see any great grandchildren. The adult conspiracy is strictly enforced: Teens may have lots of romance, but no signaling the stork! That's OK, I guess. Perhaps not realistic, but don't we wish the real world was a bit less realistic sometimes?

Now a few words about DNA. Since the Sims now have a limited lifespan by default, they face the same option as the rest of us, just more acutely: Pass on their genes and their skills, or pass pointlessly into the mists of history as a fading image of something that might have been.

Luckily both physical and mental traits are inherited. If the parents are very different, physically or mentally, the child will be a random mix of them, not necessarily an exact average. Two brothers or sisters may look or act quite differently. But black parents won't have white kids, or even light brown ... or if they have, something is not quite what it seems!

Less obviously, perhaps, two grumpy parents are likely to have grumpy children. Of course, childhood experiences also influence the actual behavior ... but the grumpy genes persist, even if you as a guardian angel keeps watch over the child, the grandchildren will also inherit this trait.

I have not yet found out whether acquired skills can be inherited, except by teaching. An early preview claimed this was the case, but it is not how things work in our world, and it really doesn't make sense. If I see it happen, I will be sure to pass the knowledge on to you. Right now, I have only been able to explore a fraction of this big game. But it is my fraction, and I am sure you can get professional reviews from the many games magazines and websites. These days, they are all bound to to rave about Sims2. Now that I have written mine, perhaps I should be off to read some of them.