All this and Sims 2

Sims 2 arrived yesterday.

Jan held off installing it until the evening but found that it ran somewhat jerkily on her laptop even in 800x600 with the detail turned down. The next step was to try it on some of the other pcs in the house. The cube shuttle ran a little bit better than the laptop and the server was fine with its Geforce 2 MX card, but both of those machines are too noisy for use down here.

So, we bought another pc.

Yes, ok, so that makes nine pcs in the house (two laptops, two sub-notebooks, four desktops and my work laptop) but some of those are being retired in the near future (the old Packard Bell is going to Jan's Dad and one of the laptops is destined for my Mum and Dad).

The new pc (named newpoot) is a mid range Compaq Presario with a Geforce FX 5200 and a 15" TFT monitor, and very nice it is too. Setup was simple, and within 20 minutes of unpacking it Sims 2 was installed and running.

Oh. My. Giddy. Aunt.

This game is simply amazing. The level of detail is quite incredible - the 3d engine make a world of difference when you can zoom in and view the world from a sims eye perspective. Televisions now broadcast shows that you can watch, clocks show the time, chess pieces can be moved, lights cast shadows, bed clothes are thrown back in the morning and a sim's emotional state can easily be seen from the expression on their face.

The gameplay is much as before, although the sims now have a great deal more autonomy. Left to their own devices they will eat, sleep, clean the house and look after themselves much more efficiently than the original sims ever did. Your input into the game comes by looking at their aspirations and fears and guiding them appropriately. As aspirations and fears are realized points are earnt or lost which affects the sim's outlook on life.

For example, one of the characters I was playing today was a teenage sim called Puck Summerdream. His aspiration was to have his first kiss with Hermia, and a little bit of judicious meddling brought this about. He then wondered around in a love struck daze dreaming of Hermia, and one of his aspirations changed to wanting to throw a successful party. Things were going swimmingly until he flirted with the wrong girl and Hermia saw him. Anything he said to her made things worse until she completely fell out with him, ruining the party in the process. Unfortunately this was his very worst fear, and he is now an emotional wreck.

Further news as it happens ...