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PC Games (Games) Entertainment Games

The Sims 2 Announced 55

Posted by simoniker from the really-big-computer-people dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Electronic Arts today announced that The Sims 2, the next generation of the #1 PC game of all time, is in development." Seems like the new 'unique selling point' for the sequel is "the.. addition of genetics, with the DNA of Sims passed down through generations", but there's a whole heap of other new bells and whistles. The game will be previewed properly at E3, and the franchise has now sold over 24 million units as a whole.
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The Sims 2 Announced More

The Sims 2 Announced

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  • Not playing it (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 05, 2003 @01:20PM (#5883180)
    Until it has a first person shooter mode, and that is the main way it is played, count me out.
    • That is the best idea I've ever heard.. Put that together with a massivly multiplayer online mode, in which you could walk around the neighborhoods.. you could play it like The Sims.. Or like Grand Theft Auto.. :)

  • Do we really WANT our sims to get old and die? (Score:4, Funny)

    by 2Flower ( 216318 ) on Monday May 05, 2003 @01:24PM (#5883237) Homepage

    I mean, wasn't half the fandom surrounding The Sims based on recreating celebs or X-Men and stuff? Do we really want to take the time and energy to make Sailor Moon in The Sims and then have her get old and fat and sit around complaining about taxes until she croaks, then we get her mutant pink haired offspring running around?

    More seriously, it's a bit like the problem with the sim-kids in the first game. You have no control over them beyond their name, so if you're trying to assemble a house of people from your own imagination rather than from a host of random 'DNA' variables, you're out of luck.

    But hey, what do I know? Clearly Maxis understands why The Sims are fun better than me. Look at how great TSO is! ...right.

  • could be something to look forward to.. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by snillfisk ( 111062 ) <matsNO@SPAMlindh.no> on Monday May 05, 2003 @01:26PM (#5883261) Homepage
    I played the first one for a couple of days straight when it was just hot and fresh and were really impressed. It was fun in a strange way and I enjoyed creatinge and setting up this little family .. but after a while things just got boring and you kinda could anticipate what was going to happen .. I hope they make each experience more unique and probably a bit more evolving than the first edition, but sure, the "simplicity" (i'm not calling it a simple game, that would be plain wrong) may have been the reason why it has sold so well and attracted so many non-regular gamers.

    There's a good chance that this DNA-feature will make the sims a better, lasting game which kinda never stops and still evolves.. we'll see.

    Looking forward to the E3, at least. :-)

  • I'd think it would suck to realize that the virtual people on your computer lead more interesting lives than you do. I'm all for escapism and stuff, but the seemingly addictive nature of this game for a lot of people is kind of creepy.

  • Creatures (Score:2, Interesting)

    by ScurvySeaDog ( 255442 )
    Remember the game "Creatures" from a few years ago? They had kinda their own DNA and would take on traits from their parents.

    • Indeed I do... and I'm considering cloning it as
      a Free Software project now that the company behind it is dead...
      • That'd be sweet, I stopped buying them after creatures 2, but every now and then I pay attention to the discount bin on the offchance a box of creatures 3 might be there.

        The main reason I stopped, though, was killing them never got any better:)
  • I heard that Sims 2 was going to have full-immersion real-time rendering of a fairly complex physics model including lighting (ie, the ability to knock lights around and such, which would change the way the scene was drawn). I also heard that it would include not only some new never-before-seen haptic control devices and some new tactile feedback add-ons.

    The best part is that this has already been released.

    IT'S CALLED YOUR ACTUAL FUCKING LIFE. Go outside. Play with your kid or your dog for fucks sake.
    • I understand games where you get to be something else. But a game where you get to be a mundane human doing mundane things? Have you all gone positively fucking mad?

      You could use this tired Shatner-esque "Get a life!" argument to tell someone to stop doing anything you don't think is a worthwhile form of entertainment.

      Don't you have anything less mundane to do than attacking others? This isn't news.

    • Re:New Add-Ons (Score:5, Funny)

      by RaboKrabekian ( 461040 ) on Monday May 05, 2003 @02:06PM (#5883630) Journal
      Go outside. Play with your kid or your dog for fucks sake. Ride a bike. Read a book. Wow!

      ...quoth the regular Slashdot poster.

      Ahem.

      • Re:New Add-Ons (Score:1, Flamebait)

        by limekiller4 ( 451497 )
        RaboKrabekian writes:
        "...quoth the regular Slashdot poster."

        What makes you suspect that being active in an online community and being active in extra-computer activities are mutually exclusive?
    • But a game where you get to be a mundane human doing mundane things?

      hey trapping people in 1 square rooms and seeing them turn into an urn is NOT mundane.. at least not in real life.

      wait a minute...

  • My brain hurts just thinking about it... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by redtail1 ( 603986 ) on Monday May 05, 2003 @01:46PM (#5883443)
    Wil Wright's games would come full circle if a Sim could spend a few hours playing a tiny version of Pinball Construction Set...
  • And I'd guess that's why they've been so popular. At least with my Mother I think that's true. :-)

    Personally, I hope the Maxis folks optimize the loading of objects/the startup procedure. Since my mom has downloaded so many objects for the game she'll start it up and then go do something else while it loads. They've had plenty of expansion packs to try and do something about that, but I haven't seen much of a change.

  • Silence of the Lambs Construction Kit (Score:5, Funny)

    by Nathan Ramella ( 629875 ) on Monday May 05, 2003 @01:53PM (#5883503) Homepage
    Really the worst thing I've ever heard of involved the Sims. Someone bragged about building a bathroom with a phone and a toilet, replacing the door with a wall when their Sim went to relieve himself, and the Sim would just try to phone for pizzas because he was so hungry.. But the pizza guy couldn't deliver.

    Quite sad really.

    • My girlfriend used to make families entirely named after people she didn't like, with the express purpose of walling them in and starving them to death in effigy.

      ...maybe THAT'S why the Sims is so popular. Virtual hatred. =P
    • I used to make a small room similar to that... I would put a toilet, a fridge, a bed, and a phone in there, and lock one person in by removing the door. this sim served the purpose of a "phone slave," since occasionally when the phone ring, you can get a pretty nice amount of money from the call: his whole purpose was to sit in his box, with just enough to keep alive, and answer the phone, so that everyone else in the house could have afford to live comfortably. yes, I realize how awful that is.
    • Great... now the introduction of DNA can be used by prosecutors to convict a Sim of building walls around friends and watching them die.

  • Four words. (Score:3, Funny)

    by iamsure ( 66666 ) on Monday May 05, 2003 @01:53PM (#5883507) Homepage
    Inbred Country Hick sims.
  • does a black hole open up and swallow your house if you look at games.slashdot.org under a blacklight? There ought'a be a warning somewhere....
  • I Hope they don't use the same developers that they used for The Sims Online. The Sims online is so boring and has no new content, not to mention the Lack of content. And to top it all off, the founding players (beta testers) are quiting and refusing to buy any more maxis stuff. Its sad to see this happening.

  • TheSims 3... (Score:4, Funny)

    by suss ( 158993 ) on Monday May 05, 2003 @03:15PM (#5884378)
    I can't wait for TheSims 3, the version where people have to actually get off their fat asses and go outside to interact with living human beings...

  • DNA? Not impressed! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by fm6 ( 162816 ) on Monday May 05, 2003 @03:25PM (#5884485) Homepage Journal
    I found The Sims fascinating for a while. But it soon became obvious to me that the "free will" behavior was very limited, not to mention poorly thought out. There are all these intriguing behavior parameters -- but in the end it mostly doesn't matter whether your Sim is "outgoing" or "playful" or whatever, because they never get anywhere if you don't micromanage their behavior. Not even romance is spontaneous. (!!!) And they can't even figure out who's turn it is to use the bathroom without your help!

    (Related issue: Sims have no ability to negotiate for shared resources. You can have major deadlock just from two Sims trying to cross each others paths. Never mind the major problems you have when a bunch of hungry Sims all try to grab a plate and find a seat at once. ("There's an empty chair! Wait, now it's occupied. There's an empty chair! Wait, now it's occupied. There's an empty chair...") Which is kind of disturbing in a real-time game! It's probably not a coincidence that the software itself seems to have a lot of race conditions. Has anybody at Maxis heard of the Dining Philosophers?)

    So why is the game so popular? I think people just enjoy creating imaginary people and building houses for them. If you're artistically inclined (I'm not) that must be a lot of fun. But as a simulation, the game is a total failure. Which leaves me with low expectations for "DNA".

    • If you increase autonomy to 200 they might just do something.
      • Is that one of those undocumented cheats? What's the point of playing a game that doesn't work unless you cheat?
        • Its actually like a varible, like a quake 3 command code.
          • That's silly. I've never played quake, but I assume there's no command code that make you immune to bullets. Or if there is, who would play with somebody who used it? Unless everybody used it? Kind of a boring game...

            In The Sims, there's a "command code" that lets you have extra cash. If you use that, all the job ladder strategy becomes pointless. Another "command code" allows you to change the sweep interval of the memory manager. (Kids, don't try this at home!) Still another shows the path that's been p

  • Which entertainment/mass market online site/tv/newspaper put this at the top of their greatest games of all time list?
  • I'll only be impressed if they let me genetically breed Rhon Psions and build a Ruby Dynasty.

    Maybe I'll even make Aristos and start my own little Radiance War.

    read Catherine Asaro.

  • I think they should give The Sims 2 (for free, of course) to people that have gone out and spent their hard-earned money on the original game, all 5 (soon to be 6) expansion sets, and played for a couple months with The Sims Online. If you figure the original game cost $50 when it came out, plus the $30 per add-on, that's $200. Then you add in the cost of The Sims Online (another $50), and $10 for one month (we'll be conservative), we're up to $260 for one franchise that's really only had ONE game. Is it RE
  • This game is STILL the electronic equivelant of watching grass grow. Dolemite ________________
  • DNA? Genetic traits? So this next game is going to be X-rated?

    Okay, probably not. But it's a thought.
    • Yeah! If they want to include genetics in the "offsprings", they better do "it", instead of some stupid magically appearing baby.
  • Morpheus: The Sims is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, you look around. What do you see. Business men, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a Sim, and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to quit the program. And many of them are so inert, so hopelessly dependent on the Sims that they will fight to protect it. Were you listening to me Neo, or

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