What is it?
- The sequel to
The Sims,
2004, Windows and
Mac OS X.
- What computer or emulator will it run on?
- A Pentium IV, depending on the video card; a Mac Mini.
- Tags
- Surround Gaming, 3D.
What is it?
Compared to the original Sims, the second game in the series was a huge step towards more realism, both in graphics and gameplay:
From 2005 to 2008 EA released a total of eight expansion packs: University, Nightlife, Open for Business, Pets, Seasons, Bon Voyage, FreeTime, and Apartment Life.
The Macintosh version of The Sims 2 was released 2005-06-13, but we had already known the system requirements for a while (they have changed a bit, but not much, since the beta). They exactly match the specs of a basic Mac Mini. Makes you wonder if Apple designed the Mac Mini with The Sims in mind.
The new Mac Minis with Intel chips will do as well.
For The Sims 2, it is important that your video card supports T&L (Transform and Lighting). Without it, you will nearly three times the processor power (2GHz instead of 800MHz). T&L is supported by nVidia GeForce 2 and above including the Quadro series, and ATI Radeon 7000 and above, but not by 3dfx Voodoo cards.
Here is a list of video card that support T&L:
And here is a list of video cards that do NOT support T&L:
In case you wonder what other games support Transform & Lighting, here are a few:
The cheat console is reached by pressing Ctrl+Shift+C. The desired cheat code is then entered. These cheats should work both in the Windows and the Macintosh version.
- help
- List most cheat codes. If a cheat command is added as an argument, it will display information about the indicated cheat.
- exit
- Close console window.
- expand
- Expand or contract console window.
- gameVersion
- Displays the game version in the cheat box. You have to enter expand first.
- kaching
- 1,000 more Simoleons
- motherlode
- 50,000 more Simoleons
- twinzr2cute, twinsr2cute
- Have twins when baby is born
- deleteAllCharacters
- Remove all Sims. Use this in the neighborhood view.
- aging [on/off]
- When off, it prevents Sims from aging.
- TerrainType [desert/temperate]
- Toggle terrain types. Use in neighborhood view .
- intprop censorgridsize 0
- Removes the censor blur. Set to 8 to return to normal. Like all the cheats, this only works for the current game session. To permanently remove the censor blur, get the Nude Patch.
- intProp maxNumOfVisitingSims [number]
- Use in neighborhood screen to invite more guests to a party.
- moveObjects [on/off]
- Objects can be placed anywhere in buy and build modes and the hand tool can move any object.
- StretchSkeleton [number]
- Make Sims larger or smaller. 1.0 is normal.
- faceBlendLimits [on/off]
- Turn off facial DNA blending in Create-A-Sim.
- autoPatch [on/off]
- Toggle automatic game updates.
- slowMotion [0–8]
- Slow motion; 0 is normal, 8 is slowest.
- Vsync [on/off]
- Increase game performance with some graphics glitches.
- floatProp tvVolume [0.0–1.0]
- Change television volume, default is 0.5.
So much for those commands that can truly be called cheats, since they somehow influence gameplay. Apart from that, there are a lot of undocumented editor features enabled with boolprop commands. In general, they will be of less interest to the average player, but I list them here anyway.
- boolProp snapObjectsToGrid [true/false]
- Set to false to place objects out of grid.
- boolProp enablePostProcessing [true/false]
- Enable postprocessing cheats. This requires a video card that supports pixel shaders.
- boolprop displayNeighborhoodProps [true/false]
- Set to false to remove props like rocks and towers from neighborhood
- boolprop displayNeighborhoodRoads [true/false]
- Set to false to remove roads from neighborhood.
- boolprop displayNeighborhoodFlora [true/false]
- Set to false to removes trees/plants from neighborhood.
- boolprop displayNeighborhoodWater [true/false]
- Set to false to remove water from neighborhood.
- boolprop displayLotImposters [true/false]
- Set to false to removes house graphics from neighborhood.
- boolprop displayNeighborhoodRoadsWithModel [true/false]
- Set to false to remove bridges from neighborhood.
- boolprop lotTerrainLighting [true/false]
- Set to false and lots will not light up when highlighted in neighborhood.
- boolprop lotWater [true/false]
- Set to false to remove removes water (ponds) from lots.
- boolprop lotTerrainPaints [true/false]
- Set to false to remove floorpainting on lot.
- boolprop lotTerrainCanvas [true/false]
- Function unknown.
- boolprop carsCompact [true/false]
- Set to true and cars will have more detail in neighborhood.
- boolprop showFloorGrid [true/false]
- Toggle grid in build or buy mode.
- boolprop lotInfoAdvancedMode [true/false]
- Set to trueto show lot information.
- boolprop objectShadows [true/false]
- Set to false to remove removes shadows on objects outside house.
- boolProp guob [true/false]
- Set to false to remove shadows on objects inside house.
- boolprop renderSelectedSimLevel [true/false]
- Set to true and walls will no longer cut away from selected Sim.
- boolProp displayPaths [true/false]
- Set to true to see the path where the selected Sim walks to.
- boolprop displayLookAtBoxes [true/false]
- Set to true and blocks appear on Sims faces and on parts where Sims look at
- boolProp simShadows [true/false]
- Toggle shadows for Sims
- boolprop ShowLotPackageFilename [true/false]
- In neighborhood, shows filename of house when lot is highlighted
- boolprop locktiles [true/false]
- Set to false to place floor tiles outside lot
- boolprop constrainFloorElevation [true/false]
- Set to false to raise and lower floor even when covered with objects
- boolprop allObjectLightsOn [true/false]
- Set to true to light up objects continuously instead of only when used.
Additionally, there is a cheat boolprop testingcheatsEnabled true that enables a long list of commands. It is essentially a developers tool and should be used with caution. This cheat might not work in the Macintosh version.
Shift-Click Mailbox:
- make all motives static
- static means still so this stops any of the motives moving
- make all motives dynamic
- if you have turned motives to static (see 3) this turns them back to normal
- teleport here
- teleport your sim here
- show facial animations
- make sure your looking at your sims face as you can see all animations a sim face can make
- invite all neighbours
- invites all neighbours around
- make friends for me
- you need to have a sim round your lot for this to work.
- make all happy
- fills all motives
- make me know everyone
- you know EVERYONE including NPCS
- force paper delivery
- paper comes
- force burglar
- burlar comes
- force bill delivery
- bill comes
- force walkby
- sim walks past your house
- display lot value
- displays lot value
- DBG force create all NPCS
- creates new NPCS i think
- DBG force create townies
- creates new townies i think
- test balloons
- test balloons above your sims heads
- disallow visitors
- no visitors to your lot
- show routing eye attracters
- ?
- trigger birthday
- 1 day before your desired sims birthday
- interations
- objects error
- resets sim (not quite sure)
- stop all animations on sims
- stops all animations
- force error
- error on mailbox
- create inducer
- ?
- force visitor
- visitor on lot
Shift-Click Bin:
- Check Job status
- ?
- force error
- error on bin
- test salavaged objects
- wherever sim is he/she wil stand and start pulling objects out of mid air
- reset age duration
- i think this resets the sims age
- make objects visible
- ?
Shift-Click Newspaper:
- adult jobs
- list all jobs available
- set level to...
- pick what level to start career at.
- force error
- error on newspaper
- career awards
- collect them all.
From the beginning, The Sims 2 has been hacked more seriously than the original Sims. What it took players there years to figure out, here it was available in short time. For example:
significant others.
Unfortunately, it turned out that these hacks could be spread through houses uploaded to Maxis' Sims Exchange, thus installing on the computers of players who maybe didn't want them at all. The magical espresso machine, for example, takes most of the challenge out of the game.
The Sims 2by Courtney Marchelletta.
Mod the Sims 2 exists to provide modders and game content creators a place to share knowledge regarding the creation of supplementary game enhancements for The Sims 2 video game. Players from all over the world use these resources to learn how to create their own game content and to improve their game playing experience.
- Create new Package files
- Add arbitrary Files to a existing package
- Delete Packed Files from a Package
- Extract Packed Files to the Filesystem
- Replace Packed Files with Files from the Filesstem
- Extract an entire Package to the Fileystem (create Subfolders for each type and is optimized for speed)
- Recreate packages from previously extracted ones (You can make changes to all Files on the Filesystem an incorporate them back into a new Package)
- Needles to say, that all Extracted Files will be uncompressed if it is needed
- The HexViewer can now display the numeric value on the selected Position
- You can Edit some of the supported Fileformats directly with SimPE now
- Change your Families Money, and Members directly with SimPE
- SimPE offers support to change the Age of a Sim
- When opening Sim Related files you wil see the Name of the Sim (Called Meta Informations). On some Files also a thumbnail of the Sim will be displayed. It makes finding Files a lot easier. Anyway, you can diable the feature as it slows down the opening of the first Sim related File in a package.
- You can Browse your Neighborhoods and the Sims living in a Neighborhood
- Edit the Relationship values ans states for any Sim.
- You can change/add/deletes the Family Ties of all your Sims
- Integrated Byte Editor
- Change BCON and BHAV Files (for SimAntics)
- Create/Edit Object for the Game
- Create Color Options
- Edit the Memories of your Sims
- Clone your Sims (or aspects of your Sims)
- Edit Wants & Fears of your Sims
- Scenegrapher Tool to check the integrity of your remeshed Objects
- 3D Preview of Sims 2 Objects/Recolors in SimPE without loading the Game
Of course, there is again an enormous amount of user-created clothes and furniture.
So one day Alice's friend Melissa was over, and I noticed a new interaction possible - Kiss. Well, long story short, Melissa and Alice got married and they're looking to kick President out at the next opportunity, and adopt a child. President should pick up the paper and look for a new place to live, unless he enjoys his role as Jack Tripper. Too bad they built a second floor bedroom and moved the hot tub up there too. (Did I mention that you can zoom in extremely close?)
The single most obvious change is the drastic improvement in visual quality. Everything from the Sims themselves to the myriad doodads they can collect are bright and intricately rendered. Even more remarkable (though less noticeable in screenshots) are the hundreds of startlingly expressive animations each Sim is capable of, lending them much more personality than in the original game.
I was actually fearful that this title was more fancy cut-scenes and intro movies than actual gameplay. I could not have been more wrong, and more relieved. This game completely rocks. I'm willing to bet there isn't a lot of gameplay explanation needed. If you've been out from under a rock for the past two years, you'll know all about how this game is played.
