The Sims 2: Re… Priced

So I was at the mall today for a follow-up with my optometrist (yep. My eye doctor is in the mall), and I finally broke down and bought The Sims 3. I’ve been excited about it for a while, and I decided today was the day.

So I got home and installed it on Kerry’s Vaio while watching George Lazenby muddle through the most boring Bond movie ever (seriously. That dude gets a bad rap. That movie was terrible and he did a damn fine job with very little to work with). My first order of business after installing the game: create Team Venture.

So I did. I started with Rusty (who looks amazing, if I say so myself), and cloned him (pun intended) as a starting point for the twins (who look less awesome, but are easily identifiable as themselves). That was a horribly rewarding experience (photos will follow). It was easy, and it was fun. Then I started playing the game.

After playing the game for a full ten minutes (at least twice the amount of time I need to established a fully-formed opinion of any game), I have little good to say about it.

It's only barely an upgrade from Sims 2. Sim creation = better. Sims look more polished, and finally custom colors are available right from the start. In Sims 2, you had to use a separate application to create custom hair/clothing colors and save them as textures to open in the game. You really needed to have some know-how. In Sims 3, there is a full color palette available every step of the way. Props to EA for implementing that.

But I still can't import and export easily. Specifically, I can't create a family and export a single sim from it without a work-around.

Stuff available for your sims to buy out-of-the-box (clothing, furniture, etc.) = WAY less. Sims 2 had “tons” of options for both clothing and decorating. The number of options in this new game can best be described in one word: “some.”

Graphics = mildly improved.

If all the other stuff I'm reading in the forums is true, this game is really more of a downgrade than an upgrade.

But my biggest beef? I was really looking forward to having more and better clothing options than in previous games. Better? Perhaps. More? Hell no. I paid fifty bucks for this game, and now EA wants me to pay another hundred to unlock all the content that came standard with Sims 2. Shameless gouging is what that is. I won't be doing that.Thank God for pirates.

Bottom line, this is The Sims 2: Re-Polished and Bug-Free. With all the content taken out. Based on the improvement between Sims and Sims 2, this game is an enormous disappointment. Sims 2 added so much depth to the game, and this adds almost no functionality and subtracts so much content.

Just like they did with Command & Conquer, EA has destroyed a beautiful franchise by watering it down for the masses and then over-charging for it.