Pros: fun, addicting, easy to play
Cons: loading time
The bottom line: A fun update of the old Sims games, more to see and do, still haven't experienced every little thing, very addicting
I have been a Sim addict since the very first Sims games. I loved how you could take these people and teach them new things and then have them fall in love, take them out on dates, have a house party, go on vacation...

Now EA Games and Maxis has developed a new and improved version of our favorite little computer people: Sims 2! The Sims 2 is a simulation game, which would be my guess of where the name of the game came from!

Starting Out
Like the older Sims games you are given a few neighborhoods to pick from to start out with so you can get on your feet. Or if you feel more experienced you can create your own neighborhood. Now you can add little cozy things to your neighborhood like clouds, birds flying over head, boats, hot air balloons, and a water tower. You can also add trees, flowers and rocks. Or if you want a different feel to your suburban town, how about a crashed spaceship in the middle of a field in your town?

Once you've picked a neighborhood, pick a place to live. In the pre-existing neighborhoods you can pick an empty house and create a family to move in or you can pick a house that already has living Sims in it. You just pick up where they left off or change up their world completely. That's what is so great; you can do whatever you want! If you make your own neighborhood, you can place different sized lots anywhere you want along the streets and you can also place pre-existing houses in your neighborhood. When you place an empty lot you can make it either commercial or residential. Commercial lots are places you can create for your Sim to go shopping for clothes, or buy video games, or even go grocery shopping! It's also a great place to meet new people.

In current neighborhood I have five families living there. I like to try and create myself as a Sim. So I have my husband and I as Sims in one house, and our friends living in the other four houses. When you create a new Sim or Family of Sims, you are given so many more choices on how you want them to look. You can make them skinny or chunky, any hair or eye color, they have different skin tones, and little changes to their facial features that can really make your Sim unique to others like: puffy cheeks, big eyes, small nose, glasses, facial hair, make-up, sucked in chin, etc.

You can now also give your Sim a specific Aspiration. There are several to pick from: Romance your Sim likes to meet new people, be in love with more than one Sim, kiss alot of Sims, WooHoo alot, WooHoo in public, and wants to have a slacker job; Family your Sim wants to fall in love, get engaged, get married, have kids, raise good kids by teaching them to walk, talk, and be potty trained, and have grandchildren; Knowledge your Sim wants to gain alot of skill points, get a job in the medical or science field, they are interested in aliens and ghosts, and be saved from death; Popularity your Sim wants to have parties, meet a lot of other Sims, be friends with everyone, go into politics or be an athlete; and Fortune your Sim wants to get a job and make lots of money, they want to buy expensive things for their house, be an overachiever, have a business career, and marry a rich Sim.

Once you create your family you're ready to move them in. Each family starts out with $20,000 simoleons (Sim money). So you can buy a pre-existing house or buy a lot and build your own. But remember $20,000 goes fast! And you must remember the essentials! You can build a multi story house, paint the walls, do different style floors, put in countertops, refrigerator, stove, toilet, shower, beds, couch, TV, etc. You need to keep in mind the kind Aspiration your Sim has so you can fill your house with things that can help them gain Aspiration points and make them a happier Sim.

You also have an influence meter to keep up with! Your Sim can gain influence by gaining friends and making your Sim happy by doing what they want. You can click on another Sim and click on the option "Influence to.." and then depending on how many influence points you have you can influence them to kiss someone else, play with someone, clean, serve food, and much more!

Game Play
I think the best way to describe this is to give examples of my Sim family I'm playing now. Like I said I have created myself and my husband as my Sim family. I gave myself the Family Aspiration and I gave my husband the Fortune Aspiration. You can make your Sims, when you create them, to already be related, so that’s what I did. You control each Sim separately and you have wants for each Sim that you want to achieve. But you also have fears that you don't want to come true. You can lock one want in place if you would like that want to come true for your Sim. The wants and fears change from day to day or when you have achieved one or more.

I generally try to have my Sims do whatever is on their want list so I can keep them happy at all times. But you also have to watch their health meter, it tells you if your Sim is hungry, needs a bath, has to use the bathroom, is tired, or needs some fun or social activity. They keep you busy! When wants are achieved you gain points, these points go to aspiration rewards that you can pick from on your Sim menu. You can have a money tree, a hat that takes other Sims skill points, a love hot tub, a life elixir which adds days to your Sims life, and many more. Now there are consequences to using your aspiration reward or getting an Aspiration reward when your Sim is not that happy, you must be in at least Gold level or else the rewards can have negative side effects!

My Sims expressed they wanted to have a child. So after a lot of flirting, kissing, making out, and WooHooing, they had a baby. This was one of my favorite things to first experience on the new game. My female Sim had morning sickness and was hungry more often than she used to be. She also goes threw two cycles of growing bigger. The male Sim can come and talk to the baby and rub her belly. Finally, she has the baby, it goes into movie mode, and of course you don't get to see her actually pushing the baby out, but then it just appears! You have to go back into buy mode and buy a crib, and a changing table to help your Sims take care of the baby. You will be told if it is a boy or girl, or even twins! Twins are a hand full, so luckily my couple had one, a girl. You get to name the baby as well. When your Sim is a baby, you don't get to control them at all. Only the adult Sim can make sure the baby is happy. You must feed it bottles, love it, play with it (it can puke on your sometimes too), change its diaper, and give it baths. After three Sim days, you can buy a birthday cake and everyone crowds around to watch your baby transform into a toddler!

Toddlers are a little more fun than babies, but much more work! You can control the toddler now too, like tell it to play with certain toys and crawl around. As parents you have to tell your Sims to feed the toddler, give it a bath, teach it to walk, teach it to talk, and potty train it. Which means you have to accommodate the toddlers needs by buying toddler toys, a baby potty, and you ill need a bath tub instead of a sink now to bathe them. After a few Sims days of that, your toddler becomes a child!

As a child, they are more on their own, you as the parent still have to teach them things, but they generally go own their own. You can have them go to bed, play, go to school, do their homework, call friends over, give themselves a bath, and watch TV. At least one adult Sim does have to be home at all times when the child is home. You can have your adult Sim encourage their child to be neat, shy, playful, etc. You can also help you child with their homework and help them get good grades in school. Finally your Sim grows to be a teenager!

As a teenager you can finally pick your own aspiration, Fortune, Family, Romance, Popularity, or Knowledge. Your teen still has to go to school, but they can get a job too. You can have your Sim go out with friends, or maybe even have a boyfriend or girlfriend. You need to keep up with your teen’s appearance too. They can get zits! When your teen finishes school they become an adult and have to get a real job! They can stay home or find their own place.

By this time the parents of that teen are probably not as young as they used to be! They can turn into elders! My Sims haven't gotten that far, but I'm really looking forward to see what happens to them. I know after being an elder and living their Sim life they finally die. Of course your Sim can die long before that too. I had one Sim die because she lost her job and she was so depressed. The Grim Reaper came to take her away. That Sim had the Knowledge Aspiration, which meant she wanted to be saved from death. The only way that can happen is if someone very close to her, a best friend or relative, can plead for her life to the Grim Reaper and he'll decide not to take her after all.

The Sims 2 is unbelievable in all the new things that happen to each of your Sim characters. You can have a male be pregnant by an alien!, girl Sims in love with girl Sims, guy Sims in love with guy Sims, they can have affairs, and be caught, they can go to the community lot and WooHoo in public (inside a changing booth), and so much more! I still can't believe all the new things that keep happening to my Sims!

Sound and Graphics
The sounds on the Sims 2 game are very entertaining, at first. It can get somewhat annoying after a while. There is background instrumental music that plays when you are creating a house/shop and when you are buying goodies for your Sims in the Build Mode. I usually stay in this mode for a long while designing houses and I usually just turn the sound off becuase it us just a constant sound that plays repeatedly. The rest of the sounds in the game are less annoying. The Sims themselves, don't actually talk in English but do talk in Sim language and it's interesting to hear what they may be trying to say. There are other noises that occur when they are playing video games, listening to the radio, watching TV, and doing other tasks around their house.
The graphics are much better in this game than the older Sims games. Everything is 3-D to the extreme! Things were before but it shows that the artists spent more time to create the perfect object and person. Details and textures are better depicted and are amazing!

Overall, the only complaint I have is the loading time when you take your Sims from their home to a community lot, especially if the lot has a lot of things going on. I upgraded RAM on my computer and it has helped some, but not entirely. It's just something you have to live through.
Great, addicting game!