A Gamers Guide to the Sims 2 :Nightlife and Open for Business
However, since Pets isn’t out yet, this article is about Nightlife and Open for Business, I never bothered buying University but I’m thinking of getting it when I have my own computer and move my games to it, when and if that happens, I’ll right a guide specifically for University.
Nightlife
In The Sims 2 Nightlife, your Sims have a whole new world to explore. Each town gets its own downtown. You can choose to assign the generic downtown to your neighborhood or create your own. If you create your own, you must build it from scratch so only choose this option if you’re willing to invest the time it takes to build a whole new town. In downtown there are new houses for your Sims you like a livelier life, they can still visit the original town and the Sims who live there but, as with the main town, they cannot visit the Sims of the other towns or their downtown’s. There is also a new life aspiration, the pleasure aspiration, Sims with this aspiration simply want to have fun.
The Sims can also buy cars to get them around town, there are five different types of cars from a rundown jalopy to a stylish sports car. There are many new NPC’s including vampires, there’s a new Gypsy Matchmaker who will, for a price, set you up on a blind date and sells a variety of potions. There are new restaurants you can visit if you don’t feel like cooking, and your Sims now have inventories where items can be stored when not in use or if you plan on moving your Sims to a new house. A hint though, with some earlier versions of the game, there is a glitch which means when you place a multi tiled object (beds, couches, etc.) in your inventory and move to a new house, you can’t put the object against a wall.
There is a temporary fix for this, a cheat code called moveobjects on. You open the cheat code box by holding down the ctrl-shift-c keys, type in the code like this: moveobjects on and hit the enter key. This code allows you to put objects where they wouldn’t normally go and counteracts the glitch. The best, and permanent, way of fixing this glitch is to download and install the patch for Nightlife which is available at http://www.thesims2.com . It takes quite a while to download the patch, it is worth it because it makes the game so much better. If you have a newer version however, the glitch is, as far as I know, fixed on these versions.
Open For Business
In this EP, the Sims can run their own business’s. They can buy an already built business or buy an empty commercial lot and start from scratch. They can buy these lots by using the new options on the phone or the computer. They can also open a home business. Once you open your business, you can hire employees, also using the phone and computer, and assign them their duties. You can visit your business just like any other community lot.
The game also gives your individual towns a shopping district in addition to the downtown’s for Nightlife (note: You don’t need the previous EP’s to play Open for Business, each expansion only needs the original game installed on your computer to function). The game comes with one pre-designed shopping district, Blue Water Village, which you can assign to one or all of your neighborhoods and you can design your own as well. This is my favorite of the current expansion packs, though I think Pets, once it’s released, might just take it’s place as I absolutely love the idea of the Sims having pets.
So that’s a brief overview of the two expansion packs I’ve played. I hope to soon be able to write a review of University and Pets. If and when I get them I will certainly voice my opinion of them, as I am prone to do on almost every subject imaginable. Until then I will have to settle for wondering what they will be like.
