Apartment Life is Crappy: My View on the Expansion...
Date Posted: 17th Jun 2008 at 12:38 AM Views: 295
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.

Recent Comments for: Apartment Life is Crappy: My View on the Expansion...
Apartment Life is Crappy: My View on the Expansion...
By Alexia111 (Today at 4:22 PM)
Hi, ich spare seit Monaten auf eine neue hochwertige Soundbar, aber es wollte einfach nicht voran. Ein Kumpel meinte dann, ich soll mal bei https://spinogambino.at/ vorbeischauen. Hab mich angemeldet und direkt "Book of Dead" ausprobiert. Nach vielen kleinen Verlusten hab ich dann mehr riskiert und plötzlich die Bonusrunde geknackt. Der Gewinn war genau das, was mir zur Soundbar fehlte. Finde es übrigens stark, dass es spezielle Angebote für Spieler aus Österreich gibt. Hat sich definitiv gelohnt.
Apartment Life is Crappy: My View on the Expansion...
By Ŧoxication (8th Apr 2009 at 3:30 AM)
i hate to tell you this, but from what i've read, the sims 1 is what maxis and will wright made. an then they sold the franchise to EA games for a sequel and they picked up where maxis left off, basically. so you have all these guys like rod humble, ben bell, etc that work on the sims 2/ the sims 3.
i think that is why what the expansions we've been seeing with the sims 2 were not like the sims 1 at all. they can be close, but mostly new ideas were integrated in.
basically the old ideas were a replication of the sims 1, but for the second sequel so already used ideas were not quite the same. and with a different company, any how.
it would be like if after the last expansion for the sims 2 the franchise got sold to a different company. then it would be the same for the sims 3, as it was for the sims 1 and 2.
i remember makin magic, and i liked those ideas better. my brother and i used to play that one.
but with the sims 2 they're following a new kind of pattern, instead of the old "this is what the expansion is about: magic. and that's all you're going to get":

original sims 2: aliens, because who knows, all the stuff with bella goth and storylines, etc. what is a game without aliens? plus they needed that 'extra' something for the telescopes. extraterrestrial is a great start.

university: zombies. because college students can become like zombies staying up working on their assignments and partying all night.

nightlife: vampires. creatures of the night, it makes sense, because now we're given downtown and who knows what creepy people lurk around at night. i like vampires, creative idea along with zombies.

open for business: robots! that makes sense too, with the new robo station and what not. it speaks for itself.

pets: the werewolf. sims get bitten by werewolves, they turn into one at dawn until sunrise. creative.

seasons: essentially this just adds the aspect of seasons to the game, which makes sense, as far as i can remember.
this one was long-awaited.

bon voyage: bigfoot! because why not?

freetime: a genie in a lamp. another ts1 favorite returns. what's bad about that?

and finally, with apartment life we have witches.
they add creatures to practically every expansion pack, and this is why i love the sims franchise so much. they are always expanding it, so no, it is no grand theft auto type game where you install it once, you play it, when you're finished with it you shelf it.
the sims is so much different in a so much more unique way.
sorry to go on for so long, but i don't think they're depriving us of anything.
not at this point.

but only to start all over again with a third sequel.....
fun!
Apartment Life is Crappy: My View on the Expansion...
By Wojtek2008 (30th Aug 2008 at 5:31 PM)
Apartment Life is way much better than Free Time
Apartment Life is Crappy: My View on the Expansion... and other EPs and SPs...
By Wojtek2008 (29th Jul 2008 at 2:21 PM)
Well in every EP or SP you'll find only some objects worth playing. But I'll buy it anyway, just because it's the last expansion pack.
Apartment Life is Crappy: My View on the Expansion...
By miss_bioniclegirl123 (20th Jun 2008 at 5:44 PM)
thanks for telling me all this, i was going to buy it.you can make kinda appartments in uni, with the dorms and all, or make a really tall house (like a block of flats) and put a few couples in it.i do like the idea of witches, but they could of been in nightlife, with the vampires, and a few more creative spells.
they are really scraping the barrel now.
but lets not point out the games' flaws, but enjoy its qualities, like tha chance to start a whole new life every time we play.
Apartment Life is Crappy: My View on the Expansion...
By jasonduskey (17th Jun 2008 at 4:10 PM)
As for as EPs, it seems like you got more bang for your buck with the $20 Sims 1 EPs. The Sims 2 EPs make a few minor changes in the core game and add a few crappy corporate-sponsored, usually not-very-moddable, meshes.

But then they've been pulling our pork since the beginning. The base game was supposed to incorporate seasons and cars. But noooooo, that would have been too economical so they made not 1 but 2 expansions to enable those elements in-game. UNI offers the option of college (sure, for another $30) but fails to link graduating college to getting a better job. NL adds a few new build items, cars, and vampires, all of which could have been incorporated into the base game. OFB adds elevators (in Sims 1 wasn't that base-game?) and makes a few changes to the core rules. Seasons adds weather (which should have already been there) and gardening. BV does absolutely nothing that Vacation (Sims 1) didn't do, but for $10 more. And don't get me started on FT. I still feel like a chump for buying it.

As far as AL is concerned, the witch thing sounds cool, but not $30 worth of cool. And a few pointless add-ons to the core game, along with a few crappy new buy and build items, doesn't justify the remainder of the price. EAxis will have to try harder to impress us.
Apartment Life is Crappy: My View on the Expansion...
By jasonduskey (17th Jun 2008 at 3:46 PM)
EAxis/the Exchange have seriously been suckling the hind teet in the creativity department for a long time now. It seems like whenever someone here or at one of the other independent sites comes up with a new, innovative idea, it magically shows up on the next EP. It makes you wonder if EAxis has an espionage division.
Let's see. The fishing pole in Seasons? Courtesy of Katy76 at PC_Sims. The garden plot and the scarecrow in Seasons seem to have a lot in common with Echo's creations. The fixer-upper car in FT, while it incorporates a few other things, is essentially a re-mesh of Dr. Pixel's skilling motor. And the pottery wheel in FT? I know, I know! Nadira (here at MTS2) made something very similar a while ago.

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