The Sims 2 Preview

The Sims 2 also gives new meaning to the term "unrestrained gameplay." Previous games allowed players to control their Sims through a relatively confined space consisting of about 10 lots or so. The new wide 3D landscape gives players the freedom to accommodate their Sims anywhere they wish (provided that the chosen lot is connected to a road). But, should your Sims feel discomforted and unhappy in their brand new location, an additional option was thrown in so you may relocate the house at any time. Changing neighborhoods is always a good way to steer towards the need of your Sims, particularly if they are far away from their relatives, friends, or... errr... casual acquaintances. Also, to make things a bit easier, the developers added a "connections" button to let players now where they can find the nearest friend or relative. Basically, we've come to understand that things are more in-depth and a lot more intuitive than in any other Sims game.

Things get really hot in The Sims 2...

I hate when this happens!

The Sims 2 has an amazing potential to generate one of the largest communities in the biz. A significantly upgraded build-mode tool set allows gamers to improvise and create neighborhoods and households of their dreams and then share them with other players online. The game is going to feature a huge variety of downloadable content that will be available at the Maxis Exchange site -players are even going to be offered a chance to download this content during gameplay. Any houses you fetched on the Net can be stored into the new lot directory. Giving gamers the ability to design their own residences and lots was obviously an important aspect to Maxis. Sims 2 stretches this concept even further by letting players use SimCity 4 to customize landscapes and neighborhoods and then swap them on the Maxis Exchange site.

Judging from the recently released media, The Sims 2 also tends to expand on the variety of adult content adding a more mature feel to the whole experience. The perfect example for that is one of the exclusive screenshots provided with this preview, showcasing a really raunchy bathtub scene. Now, just imagine the possibilities here. Let's hope you're all handy with that in-game camera thingy, cause it's all about focus, depth, and close-ups... wink, wink, nudge, nudge. As mentioned before, this game will take first steps towards merging Sims community with SimCity community, which is bound to open new doors for Maxis (well, if you ask me, the perfect sim game would be a amalgamation of The Sims and SimCity... and, well, perhaps with a little bit of GTA: Vice City as well). That said, you can be sure Maxis is on the right track as far as making a worthy sequel to one of the industry's top products. We expect the game to arrive in Spring 2004. (By the way, there's more info about the game posted in our previous coverage).