Post by Skyline on Mar 1, 2008 13:57:58 GMT -5
The Sims 2 Freetime Review
~Written by: Skyline7284
Well were now at expansion pack number 7. After in my opinion a poorly done Bon Voyage (Read Review Here ), EA has attempted to redeem themselves with The Sims 2 Freetime expansion pack on stores shelves now. The last time there was a new idea for a Sims 2 expansion was seasons, one of the better selling expansions. The whole idea behind Freetime is that now your Sims have more to do than ever. There are 8 hobbies to choose from for your Sims to excel in. What is interesting however is that a lot of the objects in the pack doesn’t necessarily work with a particular hobby, there’s on average about 2 or 3 objects per hobby. For instance the old junky car can be used as a “Tinkering” hobby. Restoring the car will eventually make it drivable while giving you hobby points and skill points (Mechanical Skill & Tinkering Hobby Points). But once you restore the car, there’s really only 1 more major tinkering object, the Model Train Set. The novelty of the whole hobby idea is worn out rather quickly, not really do the hobbies differ much from other hobbies, sure you can unlock secret lots, and can sell your creations for money, but it does get rather old. For those of you really hoping to have more hobby objects such as Instruments for the music & dance hobby, you’re out of luck, just the Violin.
There are 5 new careers in the pack, Intelligence, Architecture, Dance, Entertainment, and Oceanography, while I haven’t really played all of them I think the ones I have played are good quality careers, and mix up your possible Sims to create, endless combinations.
There are also tons of new clothes and objects in Freetime, one in which I really like are the wetsuits, there is one per gender & age (wish there were more but oh well) they really are much different than your normal bathing suit, and they actually look like some nice high quality wet suits. There are also several new hairdos and hats, a sailors cap for instance, or a clown hat and makeup. Kids also get a lot of nice new casual clothes to wear T-Shirts and such.
Onto the objects, a majority of the objects in the pack are hobby related, not necessarily giving you hobby points, but hobby related, for instance a decorative trophy case, it doesn’t give you Sports hobby points, but it is sports related. Of all the objects in the game, a fair percentages are sports related. Different sports rugs, sports chairs, etc. Even though there a lot for sports fan items, that one would use to deck out his sports den, there are only 3 real sports in the game. You can toss a football between two Sims, shoot some hoops (1 or 2 Sims) and you can play soccer. There is already a “Play Catch” action in the game added with seasons if you want another sport. Personally I think they easily could have added a few more options, expand on baseball, volleyball, tennis, running track? Instead we get sort of 1 main sport, with 2 smaller add-ons. (Soccer being the main sport in my opinion) A few of the objects are made for each hobby as I mentioned earlier, the Potter station and the sewing station for instance work with the “Arts & Crafts” hobby, and allow you to make several objects using them, entry items being a potholder form the sewing station, and a plate from the pottery station. While the stations work much like the work stations from the Open for Business Expansion Pack (Floral, Toys, and Robots) they take much longer to get badge in, according to members from the Sims 2 BBS it is a widespread glitch that some hobby badges may take as long as several hours (real time not Sims time) to receive. Those are the only two badges to receive however (Pottery and Sewing) the Culinary Hobby adds a new modern kitchen set to the game, some of the better objects in the pack to me, nice and modern counters/appliances. Music & Dance hobby also adds a few items such as the dance bar, which you attach to the wall for your Sims to dance, the Violin, a new old fashioned stereo system, and things in that general nature.
Now you might be wondering by now exactly how well do the hobbies work? Well it depends on the hobby; each hobby is connected to a series of interaction options and a secret lot, the Tinkering hobby for example links up to a car garage for its secret lot. However yes there is a lot to discover, its all the same thing, you unlock the same interaction option with each hobby, you can “Talk about Tinkering” on the first tinkering hobby level, and you can “Talk about Music & Dance” on the first level of the music & dance hobby, there’s just no variety, I much would have preferred if EA had changed up the order in which the hobby interaction appears for each particular hobby. If you happen to notice in the hobby screen one of your Sims hobby areas is glowing with a white flare around it, it means your sim is particularly interested in that hobby, and with enough hobby skills they can go into the “zone”. The zone is where they become pretty much masters at their particular hobby, they glow all white and such when they enter the zone.
Some other options in Freetime are the ability to create your own radio station, which I personally have been waiting for this for several years now, you can now Raise and Lower land in the neighborhood view using a cheat, however there are no new build mode additions, being a house builder myself, this is saddening. Not a single new option, plant, window or door, just flooring and wallpapers as always.
So if this is the final expansion to The Sims 2, it went out on a decent note, it’s a good concept but not all that well executed, especially if you don’t have other expansions to add to the objects useable by the hobbies (Nightlife in particular pops into my mind) IF someone asked me what expansion to get, and they had no expansions, I would not say Freetime, rather probably Seasons, simply do to the lack of new material to the game. If Freetime isn’t the last Sims 2 Expansion, then there is room for improvement, and I really hope they release a stuff pack of sorts to add to the hobby related objects. As a side note, the game really needs a patch, there are many glitches in the game that clearly show the game was not tested well (it seems to becoming normal for The Sims 2). Freetime attempts something new, which is great, but the less then decent execution for the ideas is a downer. The Sims 3 Really isn’t far off and I can’t wait to get my hands on it.
Scores:
Gameplay: 7/10
Graphics: 7/10
Music: 9/10
Lasting Appeal: 5/10
New Features: 6/10
Overall: 7/10
Thanks for Reading
~Skyline
~Written by: Skyline7284
Well were now at expansion pack number 7. After in my opinion a poorly done Bon Voyage (Read Review Here ), EA has attempted to redeem themselves with The Sims 2 Freetime expansion pack on stores shelves now. The last time there was a new idea for a Sims 2 expansion was seasons, one of the better selling expansions. The whole idea behind Freetime is that now your Sims have more to do than ever. There are 8 hobbies to choose from for your Sims to excel in. What is interesting however is that a lot of the objects in the pack doesn’t necessarily work with a particular hobby, there’s on average about 2 or 3 objects per hobby. For instance the old junky car can be used as a “Tinkering” hobby. Restoring the car will eventually make it drivable while giving you hobby points and skill points (Mechanical Skill & Tinkering Hobby Points). But once you restore the car, there’s really only 1 more major tinkering object, the Model Train Set. The novelty of the whole hobby idea is worn out rather quickly, not really do the hobbies differ much from other hobbies, sure you can unlock secret lots, and can sell your creations for money, but it does get rather old. For those of you really hoping to have more hobby objects such as Instruments for the music & dance hobby, you’re out of luck, just the Violin.
There are 5 new careers in the pack, Intelligence, Architecture, Dance, Entertainment, and Oceanography, while I haven’t really played all of them I think the ones I have played are good quality careers, and mix up your possible Sims to create, endless combinations.
There are also tons of new clothes and objects in Freetime, one in which I really like are the wetsuits, there is one per gender & age (wish there were more but oh well) they really are much different than your normal bathing suit, and they actually look like some nice high quality wet suits. There are also several new hairdos and hats, a sailors cap for instance, or a clown hat and makeup. Kids also get a lot of nice new casual clothes to wear T-Shirts and such.
Onto the objects, a majority of the objects in the pack are hobby related, not necessarily giving you hobby points, but hobby related, for instance a decorative trophy case, it doesn’t give you Sports hobby points, but it is sports related. Of all the objects in the game, a fair percentages are sports related. Different sports rugs, sports chairs, etc. Even though there a lot for sports fan items, that one would use to deck out his sports den, there are only 3 real sports in the game. You can toss a football between two Sims, shoot some hoops (1 or 2 Sims) and you can play soccer. There is already a “Play Catch” action in the game added with seasons if you want another sport. Personally I think they easily could have added a few more options, expand on baseball, volleyball, tennis, running track? Instead we get sort of 1 main sport, with 2 smaller add-ons. (Soccer being the main sport in my opinion) A few of the objects are made for each hobby as I mentioned earlier, the Potter station and the sewing station for instance work with the “Arts & Crafts” hobby, and allow you to make several objects using them, entry items being a potholder form the sewing station, and a plate from the pottery station. While the stations work much like the work stations from the Open for Business Expansion Pack (Floral, Toys, and Robots) they take much longer to get badge in, according to members from the Sims 2 BBS it is a widespread glitch that some hobby badges may take as long as several hours (real time not Sims time) to receive. Those are the only two badges to receive however (Pottery and Sewing) the Culinary Hobby adds a new modern kitchen set to the game, some of the better objects in the pack to me, nice and modern counters/appliances. Music & Dance hobby also adds a few items such as the dance bar, which you attach to the wall for your Sims to dance, the Violin, a new old fashioned stereo system, and things in that general nature.
Now you might be wondering by now exactly how well do the hobbies work? Well it depends on the hobby; each hobby is connected to a series of interaction options and a secret lot, the Tinkering hobby for example links up to a car garage for its secret lot. However yes there is a lot to discover, its all the same thing, you unlock the same interaction option with each hobby, you can “Talk about Tinkering” on the first tinkering hobby level, and you can “Talk about Music & Dance” on the first level of the music & dance hobby, there’s just no variety, I much would have preferred if EA had changed up the order in which the hobby interaction appears for each particular hobby. If you happen to notice in the hobby screen one of your Sims hobby areas is glowing with a white flare around it, it means your sim is particularly interested in that hobby, and with enough hobby skills they can go into the “zone”. The zone is where they become pretty much masters at their particular hobby, they glow all white and such when they enter the zone.
Some other options in Freetime are the ability to create your own radio station, which I personally have been waiting for this for several years now, you can now Raise and Lower land in the neighborhood view using a cheat, however there are no new build mode additions, being a house builder myself, this is saddening. Not a single new option, plant, window or door, just flooring and wallpapers as always.
So if this is the final expansion to The Sims 2, it went out on a decent note, it’s a good concept but not all that well executed, especially if you don’t have other expansions to add to the objects useable by the hobbies (Nightlife in particular pops into my mind) IF someone asked me what expansion to get, and they had no expansions, I would not say Freetime, rather probably Seasons, simply do to the lack of new material to the game. If Freetime isn’t the last Sims 2 Expansion, then there is room for improvement, and I really hope they release a stuff pack of sorts to add to the hobby related objects. As a side note, the game really needs a patch, there are many glitches in the game that clearly show the game was not tested well (it seems to becoming normal for The Sims 2). Freetime attempts something new, which is great, but the less then decent execution for the ideas is a downer. The Sims 3 Really isn’t far off and I can’t wait to get my hands on it.
Scores:
Gameplay: 7/10
Graphics: 7/10
Music: 9/10
Lasting Appeal: 5/10
New Features: 6/10
Overall: 7/10
Thanks for Reading
~Skyline