The Sims 2 Fanatics Club!

[Sporks]

As Sims 4 draws near and the Sims 2 players seem to dwindle... here is our safety zone.

Sims 2 fanatics, come close and rejoice!

[Meghan]

Glad to see there are other sims 2 rookies here. I legitimately am addicted and can't give the game up. Sorry, but I am not sorry.

What do you guys like about sims 2 over the other games?

[Berret]

What do you guys like about sims 2 over the other games?

It felt more....Sims. I'm not sure how to explain it, but in a nutshell(It's 4am i'm sleepy!) I enjoyed the freedom and creativity that it allows me over Sims 3.
That and I don't like the "Living" World in Sims 3. Even with mods...the mods themselves are a pain to activate.

I probably will get Sims 4 when it comes out, I liked the character creation of it. Plus I enjoy the art style of the game!

[Chase]

Big Sims 2 player here

Thinking about it it's not totally things that are better in the Sims 2 that make me prefer (although there are a good amount of things that are better), it's just that I think The Sims 3 isn't a very good game. In general there are a lot of parts of TS3 that are good ideas, but were executed very poorly... also I think the Sims are generally uglier. Even pretty Sims made with tons of CC still don't look as good as Sims from TS2, at least to me. I do love the CAST, though!! If I could convert anything from TS3 to TS2 it would certainly be that!
That said there are tons of TS3 stories I love and beautiful TS3 games, I just prefer TS2 myself It'll be interesting to see what comes with TS4 (I don't believe any of the promo, I'll believe everything when I see it )

[jenny42895]

Serious out-dated-game-in-general player!

Between my budget and my wish to understand how the whole thing works, older games are great for me...plus, in my knowledge, they run super fast on new computers! Sims 2 is my pet and my giant dollhouse that took everything from the original The Sims (which I also love and still play) into 3-D and trackable time and memories. 3 is still out of my price range, and I don't care much for the look of the Sims or the non-lot system I have seen from my nearest Simming neighbor (who I am trying to convince to join up here)...but the furniture and architecture are quite lovely.

Ah well. I just can't win. Maybe I'll buy 3 when it's going out of stock and selling for $10 a disc instead of 50. That sounds like a good plan. But for now...Sim on with the oldest possible version!

[Ani-Mei]

I had Sims 3 and the only thing I did in it was the gemstone and metal hunting. Some things were good like the time machine they could make or the variety of Supernaturals in the EP of that name, I did like the vacation destinations too but not without my NRAAS controller. I hated the one family per hood rule and that I lost control of Sims who moved out. Also the mandatory enslavement updates they make you get if you want to continue to play Sims 3. One such update ruined my game and it never worked right after that. So Sims 2 all the way, I understand it, know how to use it, and for what I write I NEED the multiple families in a single hood.

[Pony]

I never like the one family per neighborhood either. I don't like the kids I kick out to get loast in the big wide world. I rather micro managed them and make them have lots of babies.
The sims 2 is my heart and muse, it's where I write all my stories. I love the look of the game and the playstyle.

[Heather]

Now that I have the ful lcolelction I really don't see any reason for me to upgrade to the 4th game. As long as my laptop runs it, I have plenty of new content to play with. Plus, now I don't have to worry about my really scratched up AL cd suddenly deciding not to work anymore...

[shannonagins]

I like to play sims 3 but nothing like how I play sims 2. Sims 2 is where I have the most fun, I can theme the game just the way I love it.

[Sporks]

My thing with TS3 is, while I do like some features, first of all it's uber slow on my rents computer, but secondly, the open world idea is nice but... dammit, I want control over my sims! It would bother me just having to focus on one family to keep them going. I see the benefits for like, a legacy household and not having to worry much about the spares but ugh, just, no, no and nope.

[shannonagins]

Honestly Sporks, that's why it's just a play game. I did love to plod around in it and houseboats were fun, but the ultimate lack of control and other features wore off quick. Which is why I uninstalled it. If I get the urge to play again I have plenty of room to reinstall lol.

[Olive Specter]

Glad to see there are other sims 2 rookies here. I legitimately am addicted and can't give the game up. Sorry, but I am not sorry.

What do you guys like about sims 2 over the other games?

I like how quick it is to set up a game. To add a new family or pick an existing one, you just have to click on Pleasantview or wherever you'd like to play, then click on the family you want. In TS3, you have to switch active families or create a new neighbourhood. To add a building from the bin, all you have to do is place is wherever you have some free space, you don't have to find an empty lot with an appropriate size, place it, then place the building on it. When you're decorating or building, and you don't want to bother making the house very detailed, it's very quick to make it look nice. In TS3, you almost have to go into the custom design mode because the default patterns you can get (when you click on an option and a description and some versions of it pop up) are much fewer or are very specific. In TS2, you rarely have this problem because the default versions of an object exist in so many colours or at least in a neutral one. (I love how much you can make things custom in TS3, and how easily, but if you're just quickly decorating a house and don't want to spend time on it, you can make it look good in a much shorter time in TS2.)

If you'd asked me this question when TS3 came out, my list of things would be much longer. As it is, lots of things about TS3 are things I've gotten used to or which mods and patches have improved. Most features, like open neighbourhoods and story progressions, are things I both like and dislike depending on what I'm trying to do, though mods make it a lot more manageable (such as disabling aging for Sims outside of the active household only).

[Heather]

The story progression in TS3 might be helpful for playing a main legacy family and not worrying about the spares, as Sporks stated above, but I also like control too much to play multiple families in a neighbourhood with it on. I prefer to play prosperity style and have rotations for each family. Keeps them aging together, and prevents me from just playing one family all of the time.

[Chase]

Another thing I just thought of is the lack of townies. In TS3, everyone in the neighborhood becomes related to everyone else in multiple ways, in one huge pool of incest . Having to create new Sims for genetic diversity and house them all is something I wish was done automatically. There's probably ways to make this easier to do via mods and nraas Story Progression, but I hate having to add so many mods to make the game functionable... I want it to be functioning properly at its release, completely vanilla.

I guess that kind of sums up what I dislike most about TS3 (besides the entire aesthetic of the game); to make things work not-so-stupidly (in my opinion), there has to be tons of mods put in, and set up by me, in every neighborhood. I want the ability to play the game completely free of custom content and still have fun (not that I will ever part with custom hair/clothes/etc. but you get the point).

And I want to be able to play more than one family

[Olive Specter]

Another thing I just thought of is the lack of townies. In TS3, everyone in the neighborhood becomes related to everyone else in multiple ways, in one huge pool of incest . Having to create new Sims for genetic diversity and house them all is something I wish was done automatically. There's probably ways to make this easier to do via mods and nraas Story Progression, but I hate having to add so many mods to make the game functionable... I want it to be functioning properly at its release, completely vanilla.

I guess that kind of sums up what I dislike most about TS3 (besides the entire aesthetic of the game); to make things work not-so-stupidly (in my opinion), there has to be tons of mods put in, and set up by me, in every neighborhood. I want the ability to play the game completely free of custom content and still have fun (not that I will ever part with custom hair/clothes/etc. but you get the point).

And I want to be able to play more than one family

I agree with the townies thing... I think that TS3 generates townies too (one of the mods I have installed calls them "homeless sims", I believe) but it's annoying how there aren't many of them. I suspect that maybe they thought it would make the game too slow or that it wouldn't be necessary since the local families go through enough generations to have different sims around.

I don't mind having mods, but like you, it's annoying how they're practically required to make the game playable. Mods should be used to improve the game and make it more custom, not to just play the game.

[Keika]

Not to change the subject or anything, but they'll probably have to claw my TS2 game from my cold, dead fingers, even if I do play TS3 or 4. It's such a great game, and there's just too many great challenges out there still to do to quit playing it now.

[Ani-Mei]

Yep, I prefer my dinosauristic Sims 2 playing. I have been tempted to install Sims 3 again simply because I like to to gem and metal hunting. Also getting all those cool gemstone cuts and making huge ingots out of the metals I liked that. But never to play a lengthy challenge in, hells to the no.

[Scribal_Goddess]

Well, I prefer TS2 because I like to micromanage huge extended families and dramatic interconnected neighborhoods - that's not something I can do in Sims 3. I also like the gameplay flexibility - there are no time limits on anything, you can have an entire family that never leaves their house, you can have twenty houses doing twenty different challenges...

Though, there are two things I wish it had: horses (and just sims 3 pets in general) and the hair and clothing CAS options from TS3! I can do without almost anything else TS3 or TS4 has to offer, but I wish I had horses and didn't have to check every time I downloaded a hair to see that it had the right colors. I'd love to run an old west neighborhood, or just a fancy-shmancy rich neighborhood where everyone has a pony...

[Jendra]

When I played Sims 3 (and could get it to work without ridiculous amounts of lag), I found that I rarely played a household past second generation. In fact, I'm not sure that I ever did. I liked starting my sims off on a giant lot with nothing, but once I got them self sufficient I lost interest. I never found a challenge like BaCC or Apocalypse that I enjoyed for Sims 3.

I do miss the customization possibilities. I miss the moodlets. I liked their version of gardening and tinkering that actually did something. Other than that, I'm quite happy with my Sims 2.

[Pony]

I sometimes wish there was a way to smush both games together. I love TS2, but I would like the customization without having a buzillion recolors. (Has iCad's complete wall collection....)