When Sims 2 came out, I was more than ready for it. I ditched Sims 1 without barely a look back, and was immediately in love with Sims 2. Someday, I want to get it re-installed on my computer, and mess around with my favorite town, Strangetown, some more. I wasn't really into building back then, nor did I make my own characters very often, but man did the storylines behind Strangetown and Pleasantville pulled me in and I spent so much time playing the sims that came with those towns. I still have all of the original discs from all of the expansions for Sims 2 (and somehow I missed getting the Ultimate Edition).. so I'd need to literally get those discs to work on my PC to re-install it. Last time I tried, I ran into some disc errors, and lost my patience, so I never finished it... hence why this game is NOT on the list of games I will be playing this year. It did still need to be mentioned, though.

The Game's History:

Sims 2 was published in 2004, and was, obviously the sequel to the first Sims. Sims 2, however, allowed your sims to age through six life stages, and experience death by old age (provided you weren't a "serial killer" and murdering your sims before their time). Being that they now had real lives, the Sims 2 was the first game that brought genetics into the game, such as they were. The game also spawned eight Expansion Packs and nine "Stuff Packs" before Maxis moved on to Sims 3.

Reviews-wise, Sims 2 was critically acclaimed, garnering a 90% score from MetaCritic and GameRankings. It is considered to be one of the greatest games of all times. It was also a commercial success, selling one million copies during the first ten days on the market, which at the time, was a record. By March 2012, Sims 2 had sold 13 million copies across all platforms (six million PC), making it one of the best-selling PC games of all time.

My Editorial:

From my "history" post on this blog (posted just before Sims 4 came out):

"I was all-in on this game right away. I bought it right after it came out, and I really never looked back (except for the occasional re-visit to magic town).

Things I miss:

• Open For Business expansion - there were so many things you could do with this, and it was ALWAYS a big challenge. I thought it really stepped up the difficulty factor, as well as just being plain fun to actually own the city's stores and lots and stuff.
• Strangetown - enough said. I think I actually ended up playing here more than Pleasantville. For some reason, I was never able to get into Veronaville or the other towns.
• Apartments - again, 'nuff said. It made building ye olde trailer park so much easier, and moving out sims SO much cheaper.
• Sims 2 aging - other sims not aging when I'm playing one family. Sims 3 is so much harder to keep tabs on what is happening in the rest of the town..
• More alien babies!
• The University system was so much better in Sims 2. Having to go multiple times in 3 is annoying (although getting multiple degrees is nice)
• Freetime Hobby system and clubs - those were fun, and being able to skill up in them was so much better than the way sims 3 does toy making and such.
• Sims being able to have different types of sickness and die from them. (Kill the sims and collect different ghosts was SO much fun in 2! - not so much fun in sims 3, playable ghosts make weird noises and move SO slowly!)

Things I DON'T miss:

• The weird good/bad/nuetral witch thing. It was so hard to switch between, and the constant glowy-ness always bugged me to no end.
• Trying to find the count or countess to turn into a vampire. It always took forever!!
• Sims 2 aging - just to be wishy washy.. in some ways I don't miss having to play all the families in a rotation, it's nice to have the rest of the town just keep rolling on.
• The "chemistry" system... it just never made sense in the coding as to which sim would like which. At it's heart, it was nice to have attractions to other sims.. but, jeez.. be consistent!
• Not being able to control the pets."