Date Posted: 17th Jun 2008 at 12:38 AM

I can't hold it in anymore. I have to let my anger out about this EP! It's driving me nuts what EA has done to the game! So I'm coming here to let my emotions out, and hopefully I'll save some people $30. Please note this entry is full of spoilers on Apartment Life. And please note this is just my opinion.

Apartment Life, the next, and probably last, EP of The Sims 2! When I first heard of it, I knew it was going to be stupid. Then information on the EP started to leak out. Now we know almost everything. I'll admit, when I first read all of this information, I started to get excited for the EP. Come on, it adds apartments, ceilings, spiral stairs, closets, witches, so many needed items, and much more! But I was skipping over the obvious flaws of the pack. Let me point them out for all of you!

First, there are the apartments. I'll admit, they are needed. But do they honestly deserve their own EP? No. The apartments in this game are VERY simple, and could've been easily squeezed into another EP. Why not University or Nightlife? Wouldn't apartments be more suitable on campus or downtown instead of a suburb?

The reputation bar is pointless. This is why we have influence. If they desperately wanted to add it in the game that bad, they should have tied it in with the influence meter. It would make the game less complicated.

What about all the new items added? Apartment Life does add needed items: spiral stair cases, closets, playground toys, unique beds, a 3-tiled TV, and needed decorations. Now get ready to hear this: that's all it adds. Wait, aren't I forgetting the pool tables, open mic, and the dog pen? The pool table was added in University, a karaoke machine was added in Nightlife, and we already have an entire EP on dogs. EA can't think of any creative objects to add and has to extract some from other EPs. THEY'RE LAZY!!! OK, there may be more NEW and ORIGINAL objects I'm forgetting, but not much.

New study skills like fire prevention and lifelong happiness. Pointless. It's a waste of time and energy for our sims. We honestly don't need these things! Plus, the five they add can be easily controlled without these new study skills!

OK, last but not least, witches. Witches were desperately needed, and they did somewhat a good job creating them. They've kept the "combining ingredients to make spells" from Makin' Magic, which makes me happy. I also like the magic skill level, and I sort of like the Good, Neutral, or Evil witch idea. But that's about it. The spells that are added are 100% useless. I know, we don't know all of the spells, but we know most of them, and the ones I've read are useless. "Summon butterflies and fireflies!" How many times are we gonna use that? "Resurrect a zombie!" I hate zombies! "Make sim dance like a chicken!" How creative... Honestly, those who have played Makin' Magic know what I'm talking about. MM had so many creative spells. You could turn your neighbor into a toad and let your dragon eat him, or enchant your garden gnomes to water your plants, or summon Wally 'O Wisp to clean your house. It was fun AND creative! In AL, there are only two magic lots. Oh please! MM had an entire neighborhood with its own currency where you earned MagiCoins performing shows and spent it on ingredients to make spells with. You could do thousands of things with magic. It was fun! It was creative! You cannot add magic unless you dedicate an entire EP to it!

That's all I really have to say. This expansion is a waste and should have been combined with another expansion, except the witches because an entire EP is needed for magic. Thanks for reading this, and I hope you know this is just my opinion. Get the game if you want, don't let me stop you.

Date Posted: 1st Jun 2008 at 2:43 AM

I have ridded my computer of The Sims 2 completely. I can't take EA anymore! I'm so sick of new expansions that don't add anything! OK, maybe they add SOMEWHAT more gameplay, but nothing else! They add three completely new items, a couple of couches, tables, chairs, lamps, beds, etc, etc, AND THATS IT! In The Sims 1, you practically got 125 to 175 completely new items with a bunch of other items! It was fun! I will admit that the base game for The Sims 2 was amazing, but that's because it was made by Maxis! Afterwards, each EP got less and less creative as EA slowly took over. Then EA completely took over after Open For Business and decided to sell overpriced stuff packs! Their EPs got worse and worse, starting with Pets. It's rediculous! Now they're making The Sims 3, which is only improving the graphics a little, and making a small step to letting your Sims explore the neighborhood within their houses. But look at the jump from The Sims 1 to The Sims 2: WAY better graphics, the ability to create a completely unique sim that can pass their genes onto the next generation, the ability to create your own neighborhood. That's only the begining! Does The Sims 3 have potential? Yes! Will EA look into this potential? OF COURSE NOT!

What I'm saying is, I'm sick of EA ruining one of the best games ever. I'm looking forward to Spore because it's being made by Maxis. EA's keeping their greedy paws off of the project, for now... I'm just so sick of this monsterous company that only cares about money!

AS FOR REQUESTS AND MODDING! Chances are I'll never make a hack again. But there is a chance I may come out of retirement... but I doubt that will ever happen.

Date Posted: 14th Mar 2008 at 12:48 AM

I doubt any of you care, but in case you read my signature and had more questions about it (because it was limited to 300 characters INCLUDING spaces...) I decided to write a journal entry!

After getting Bon Voyage and playing it for a couple of months, I got sick of the game. The only fun thing was going on vacations, which gets boring when you go on one once a week! Free Time didn't interest me, even though I am tempted to get it just for secondary aspirations, so I decided to stop playing. It was lacking creativity and I was so sick of trying to make a family perfect, run out of time, marry off a child and do the same thing again. It's too repetative. I know I could try different things, which I did, but they got old too.

I needed a break from this game for a while, so I stopped playing. I reinstalled The Sims 1 because you can honestly live TONS more lifestyles and you play until you perfect your family, start over, and do something COMPLETELY different. And the creativity and more useful objects and things to do are keeping me entertained. Lets face it, EA can't make a sims game, only Maxis should. I don't dare touch The Sims 3 because it might be fun for a couple of months, but EA only focuses on one new thing and doesn't care about anything else. Disagree? Compare Pets with Unleashed. And EA doesn't care about what objects they add anymore, so we get a total of 5 new objects in each EP with a bunch of beds, chairs, paintings, etc. along with it. GAR!!! I'm sorry, I'm just so annoyed!

OK, now about modding... I have stopped requests mainly because of my "vacation" from the game and because I've been getting a lot of requests and I just haven't been enjoying the game as much. I love helping people, but I've been spending my little amount of free time on hacks and requests. My brother started to yell at me because of my "charity" and demanded me to stop, so I took his advice. It turned out he was right. I found out people that I spent sincere hours with their requests weren't satisfied with the mods I made for other people. I've had enough and do not plan to make new mods for several months!

I may come back, I may not. I'm sorry if that offends anyone (since I'm pretty sure I'm the only person alive who can hack the weather on the game). Thank you for letting me help you, and I'm sorry for my short temper. I want to do things that entertain me during my free time, and not waste it all on a boring game. I'll still check the site every now and then, so feel free to PM me with requests or anything and maybe I'll get to them in October...