Kotaku: The Sims 2

Video Games Help Us Make Faster Decisions

Mike Fahey — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 18:00:00 EDT

Scientists from the University of Rochester have found that playing fast-paced action video games helps players make decisions 25 percent faster than normal, yet no less accurate. More »

PC Sales Charts, From The Land Of The Boxed Copies

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 07:30:00 EDT

While the NPD Group has ceased providing weekly sales charts for the boxed-copy PC market in the US, it still hands out its monthly - and often hilarious - lists. Let's look at February's. More »

The Once and Future Sim

Brian Crecente — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 10:30:00 EST

One hundred million copies sold, 36 magazine covers and 100 game critic awards: The Sims franchise continues to thrive ten years after its launch, basking in the uncommon flattery of having no real competition. More »

Happy 10th Anniversary Sims

Brian Crecente — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 12:00:00 EST

On Jan. 31 2000 Electronic Arts open the floodgates to another one of Will Wright's off-kilter, but strangely addictive games. More »

The Sims 3 Preview: Smooth Criminal

AJ Glasser — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 21:20:00 EST

Of all the career paths the Sims franchise ever offered, the criminal career track was the most morally unambiguous with the least amount of consequences… until now. More »

The Sims 3’s Occult Connection, Plus New Screens

AJ Glasser — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 20:20:00 EST

Ghosts push aside alien abductions, werewolf infections and nightclubbing vampires to become the sole element of the occult in The Sims 3. More »

Knocked Up: A Look At Pregnancy In Video Games

AJ Glasser — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 14:00:00 EST

What's the last time you got knocked up in-game? Was it The Sims 2? Fable II? Or all the way back in 1992 with Dragon Quest V, featuring the first known playable pregnancy? More »

Massive Sims 3 Q&A Tells All

Mike Fahey — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 11:40:00 EST

Do you have questions about The Sims 3? Well EA has just unleashed a massive amount of answers in the form a a 30-question Q&A document that covers everything from the new character personality system to what kind of parties your sims can participate in. Of course the big question on all major fans of the series is whether or not The Sims 2 expansion they spent hundreds of dollars on would be hitting the trash bin. You might be needing a bigger bin.

There are so many innovations in The Sims 3 so it's really not possible to transfer items or Sims from previous games. The level of detail in The Sims 3 is so high that any conversion from older games would not be satisfying for players.

Oh well. On the plus side, the average The Sims 2 player probably won't have the system on hand to run The Sims 3, so you can at least futz about with the old game while awaiting your PC upgrade. Hit the jump for the full Q&A, translated from Simlish for your convenience. More »

Take Your Sims On A Wondrous Journey

Mike Fahey — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 10:20:45 EDT

And the relentless march of Sims 2 expansion packs continues, as was foretold by prophecy. In early September you'll be able to take a break from torturing your Sims to death and burying them in the backyard of their tasteful suburban home to travel to exotic locations around the world where you can torture them to death in some foreign guy's backyard! EA announces The Sims 2: Bon Voyage, the expansion pack that not only adds a variety of vacation-themed objects, activities and locales to the game, but also brings the fabled Ninja VS. Pirate debate to your simulated world. In the Far East your Sims will encounter a local resident known as the Ninja, and in the version of the expansion in my head it will be the last encounter they ever have. Meanwhile, on a tropical island somewhere, your Sims can explore a giant pirate ship - the largest object yet to grace The Sims 2 franchise - which I am assuming will be filled with the bodies of dead pirates, because this fictional reality has Ninja in it. More »

The Sims Pwns The World

ataylor — Wed, 03 May 2006 10:00:00 EDT

Think about it for a tick: The Sims franchise is the best-selling game series ever. The Sims family has outsold any other game by something like a factor of ten. Ish. Over 55m copies sold, and that's last year's data - I can only guess at what the figures are now. More »

Bijou Philips: Sims Addict

Brian Ashcraft — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 15:22:59 EDT

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Party girl Bijou Philips *hearts* Will Wright's games. The friend of Paris Hilton and hippy rock spawn, Philips told Stuff Magazine that she sims for kicks. "I play The Sims. I've gotten every single expansion pack for The Sims 2, and I'm obsessed," says the former model, who started snorting coke in her early teens. "I sit online for hours downloading wallpapers and crystal spray paint - I just go nuts. I can sit and design houses and make families forever. I'd rather do that than anything else." Sure beats rehab. More »

Sims Red Carpet

Brian Crecente — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 08:00:34 EST

Passionate Sims fans took to the net Sunday night, creating digi knock-offs of some of the hot fashions from the Academy Awards Red Carpet. By Monday morning some of the Red Carpet clothes were the top downloads on the Sims 2 community site. More »

The Sims Dating Model: Applied Theory

lsmith — Mon, 14 Nov 2005 15:40:17 EST

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Bless her! Bonnie at Heroine-Sheik just wrote an entry called "Friends and Lovers (in The Sims 2)." From Ms. Ruberg's piece: "Every person you 'socialize' with first becomes your friend, then levels up to be your lover. Is this just a version of human relationships that s been oversimplified for the sake of simple gameplay?" The idea of friends leveling up into lovers made me crack a grin, if not for the wording, but also for the reality. More »