'Sims 2' incorporates a new layer of humanity
The sequel also added a new movie-making feature.
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
Dina is a young woman who is attracted to Mortimer, a rich older man.
Living down the street from her is Don, a dashing bachelor who is engaged to Mortimer's socially awkward daughter, but who has trouble keeping his focus on just one woman.
Then there is Brandi at the other end of town. She's a single mom struggling to raise two boys.
It may sound like a daytime TV soap opera, but it's actually "Sims 2," the sequel to the most popular PC video game ever.
After months of delays, Electronic Arts in Redwood City is finally getting set to deliver the title, a game that allows the player to create characters and control their lives -- everything from choosing a spouse and a career to what to eat for dinner and when to go to the bathroom.
The new title has a host of improvements, including detailed 3-D graphics, better artificial intelligence and a new movie-making feature that allows the gamer to record character interactions in this life-simulating game.
"It's a shot in the dark," said Will Wright, the video game icon who created the original Sims and who helped with the sequel. "I'd like to see what people do with it."
First Sims
The first Sims has been a phenomenon. Not only have millions of people played the game, but scores of fans have put up Web sites offering for free their own custom-designed wallpaper, clothes, chairs, tables and other virtual objects to be added into the game.
Wright said he wasn't sure how well the first Sims would do in stores when it hit the shelves four years ago.
Neil Young, general manager of EA's Maxis Studio, which oversees the Sims franchise, said that when his firm was getting ready to release the first Sims in 2000, it expected to sell 158,000 copies, a respectable number for a PC game.
Instead, "We've done nearly 40 million Sims, including [six] expansion packs," he said.
He wouldn't say what EA's estimates are for Sims 2, but there has been plenty of hype and anticipation for the sequel, which is scheduled to hit store shelves Friday.
Competition
It will have plenty of competition. PC game "Doom 3" is already out, and "Half-Life 2" will be available this month. Also coming this fall are console games "Halo 2," "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas," and "Gran Turismo 4."
The new PC titles should help the PC game market, which -- unlike the console game segment -- shrank from $1.4 billion in 2001 to $1.22 billion last year, said Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities.
While "Sims 2"is still based on making sure that the basic needs of the characters are met, such as getting enough food, sleep and fun, EA has added another layer of humanity: desire to fulfill lifelong dreams.
The new game has an additional panel on the bottom of the screen that shows a character's four wants and three fears. These can be anything from wanting to meet new friends to getting a job promotion. Fears can range from illness to the death of a spouse.
Achieving dreams
Depending on the situation at the moment, different wants and fears, usually dictated by characters' aspirations, will pop up, and a gamer, if he or she chooses, can make sure the characters achieve those desires.
For example, a character whose aspiration is to raise a family will want to get married, have kids and spend as much time as possible with his spouse and children. Then there are characters bent on gaining knowledge, friends, romance or money.
Lucy Bradshaw, executive producer of "Sims 2," said aspirations, wants and fears are meant to attract traditional mission-oriented gamers.
"Possibilities in this game are tremendously large," said Wright. "Also there's a much higher percentage of weirdness."
While "Sims 2" has managed to keep its teen rating, the company has added more risqu & eacute; situations, such as "Woohoo" -- a sexual encounter between two characters under the blanket in bed or underwater in a hot tub. As in the first version, there is no nudity, only pixilated body parts when a character jumps into the shower.