The Sims 2


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.

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.

Technical Details

Macintosh

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.

Transform and Lighting

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:

Cheats

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.

Links

Tools, Utilities and Patches

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:

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 Usual Downloads

Of course, there is again an enormous amount of user-created clothes and furniture.

Reviews

Miscellaneous

Last modified 2007-08-06