Sims 2
Ages: Teen

Remember when you had to attend to the toilet and food needs of your Sims? In Sims 2 they can take care of these basic needs themselves. You get involved with their more loftier goals and aspirations -- romance, knowledge, popularity, fortune. Sims also have both fears and wants with many ways to control and tune them to you Sims aspirations.

Relationships are the fun part for me. You can specify a relationship and let the Sims go at it -- and it is here that the game provides the most surprise and regard for the game. You create your Sim - two and you can make a baby. The Sims age. They go through six stages, Baby, Toddler, Child, Teen, Adult and Elder. You have a unique chance to watch what you made develop, grow up and die. I stopped making Sims too like me and my family members.

All the other tools for enhancing the lives of the Sims are there in abundance. Making Sims could have been a game in itself. Genealogy could have been a gamea. Building houses could (and was) a game in itself. The 3D allows you to zoom anywhere and as a big plus, get a close-up of your dear Sim's face. Did I mention that the expressions are amazing. There is so much to this game, that it is more like getting involved with a life project. After years of Sims I thought they couldn't add any more improvements to the game -- they did.

Reviewed by: Editor - 11/04