Making a Greek House

Whenever I start a new game in The Sims 2, I like to start with young adults at University.  I feel that this gives my Sims a good start in life by learning skills and meeting their lifetime partners.

When doing this, I enjoy making a Greek House for the boys and another for the girls.  I do this separately to allow more Sims to go to Uni in my hometown, such as sons and daughters of my Legacy family and their grandchildren and cousins.  I then create a partner for Sims that have been born to families and they all join the Greek House that my original Sims have made.

These Greek Houses become bigger and better as time goes on, with families contributing items such as televisions, pool tables and anything else that the Greek Houses may need, including career reward items that families have two or more of.

I tend to cheat a bit when I first make the Greek Houses, such as taking items from the dorm to place inside the house, just to start them off.  However, I only do this once and then either delete the old dorm or replace everything in build/buy mode.

So, for posterity, I decided to create a video on how I do this, using my Sim that has just gained access to the Secret Society.

If you would like to see how I create a Greek House in The Sims 2, or if you ever wanted to create a Greek House but wasn't sure how to do it, then hopefully this video will help you or at least give you an idea.  Of course, you can cheat some Simoleons to build the house but I just prefer to take the stuff from the dorm, as my Sim has already paid for it in rent 😃

- Minicart (Jules)

1571 Melody Drive

Even though The Sims 2 is an old game, I think the graphics are pretty good and the gameplay is amazing.  Sims in The Sims 2 seem more "real" and have great personalities.  To me, they are smarter than the so-called "smart Sims" that EA made out The Sims 4 to be.

Obviously, things change over the years as far as the look and feel of video games and The Sims are no exception.

Building houses and lots in The Sims 2 is harder than it is in The Sims 4.  Regardless of what anyone says about this latest iteration of The Sims, TS4 build mode is very advanced, allowing the player to push and pull walls, laying foundations after the house has been built - I could go on.  I do not consider myself a builder but I enjoy building and I do find The Sims 2 a lot harder to build in than The Sims 4.

I tend to have a lot of trouble with roofing in The Sims 2 but admit that I am getting better and I do accomplish it in the end.

When you look at Sims 4 builds, they are quite modern and "up to date" and doing this in The Sims 2 is a little harder but not entirely impossible.

Thanks to all of those wonderful custom content creators that are still out there, creating new stuff for The Sims 2, you can make your Sims 2 build look more modern for your Sims and allow you, the player, to play this great game with a new, modern look.

Apart from mods to make the water look more sparkly, the grass greener and the world more open, new and colourful UI and a host of other stuff, creators are converting Sims 4 objects to Sims 2, allowing the player to have the expansion pack objects from The Sims 4 into The Sims 2.  It's like having extra expansion packs, game packs and stuff packs for a game that, unfortunately, EA no longer supports.

There is now a conversion database for Sims 2 content that has been converted from The Sims 4 and a hashtag of "4t2" on Tumblr to find this content a lot easier.

I think my Sims in The Sims 2 deserve better so I tend to use a lot of custom content in my game and in the more modern builds that I place for download.

When I was scouring the internet for ideas on my next build, I came across a really modern home that I wanted to re-create in The Sims 2 and came up with 1571 Melody Drive.

This home has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a study and a kitchen/diner/lounge with a garage that houses a brand-new sparkling Mercedes which I downloaded from Mod the Sims a while back.

I also created a speed-build video for YouTube and as you will see at the end of the video, my Sims tested out the home and seemed very happy with it!

Here's the video if you want to check it out and if you would like to download this lot for your game, the link is pinned to the comments section.

Dag Dag!

- Minicart (Jules)

The Barrington-Smythes

It seems that "shorts" are quite popular these days.  YouTube has a "shorts shelf" for videos of one minute or less and which are now monetised for those who qualify.  Tik-Tok is also very popular with short videos although they have upped the watch time to 10 minutes at the time of writing this.

I have also noticed that quite a few people enjoy "no commentary" videos.  In a way, this also closes the language gap where actions can speak louder than words.  And of course in The Sims, well, everyone knows Simlish :-)

Which brings me to today's video.

For a little while now, I have been recording my personal gameplay.  I play rotationally in The Sims 2 and, with each rotation, I record it and make a little video out of it by cutting it up into lots of little shorts and piecing it all together without any commentary.  This seems to go down quite well with my subscribers although it does take quite a while to complete.  Gameplay can be around 6 to 7 hours and a video can end up being just 20 or 30 minutes.  However, it is fun to do!

My latest episode is The Barrington-Smythes.  This is Part 4 where my couple are left alone with their cat Abbey after their children have gone to Uni.  

If you like shorts then you will love this episode of The Barrington-Smythes and if you like "no commentary" videos, you will surely enjoy this offering :-)

- Minicart (Jules)

The Sims 2 Secret Society

As with the Open for Business expansion pack for The Sims 2, I have also been asked how Sims can join the Secret Society at University.

I don't always get my Sims to join the Secret Society when playing, only my Legacy or Goth-type family, so as to keep the Society a bit of an enigma for others.

Although Sims are able to go to the Secret Society house where there are some cool things, such as career reward objects and lifetime aspiration reward objects, I usually have these things after a few generations, in my Greek Houses which I set up from scratch.  They are also able to hack their grades and seem to automatically know about the "secret handshake" which only members can perform.

So, I decided to make a tutorial showing you how your Sim can join the Secret Society in The Sims 2 University.  It took just over three Sim days which I thought was pretty good, considering that my Sim had to get skill points, do his term paper and make friends with three of the Secret Society members during that time.

You can check out my video here:

9 Mill Lane

I have been building quite a few Sims 2 lots lately, recording as I go and turning them into speed builds for posting on YouTube.  My latest is "9 Mill Lane" and I'm pleased with how it turned out.

I did use custom content in this lot, mainly for the flowers in the garden which are converted from TS4 Cottage Living to TS2.  These plants are seen as "objects" and don't need watering or trimming, so that saves your Sims a lot of time in the garden!  As with all lots, if you download this, all custom content is included in the file.

As you will see from the end of the video, my Sims seemed to settle in very well in their new home 😃

So, without further ado, here is the video - enjoy!

Open for Business Tutorial in The Sims 2

I have been asked a few times how to start up and run a business in the Open for Business expansion pack for The Sims 2 so I decided to make a video!

Here you will see my Sim opening the "Just Flowers and More" business lot in Bluewater and she seems to be making a pretty good go of it.

If you ever wanted to run your own business in The Sims 2 but didn't quite know how, this video is for you!