As I've said before, I don't usually play with pets in The Sims 2 but after building 21 Trailer Creek and playing with the new family of Sam and Bob, I decided to make their own little series entitled "One Man and His Dog".
I took quite a liking to this little family and I enjoyed playing them. I recorded my gameplay just in case something interesting came up that I could use for a short on YouTube and, as is usual in The Sims 2, nearly always, something happens which is of interest.
So, I chopped up my video gameplay which was over a period of 3 Sim days and created a "no commentary" video showing the antics of Bob whilst Sam was at work and things that they both got up to together.
Although I don't have time to play Sam and Bob on a regular basis, I will be playing them again and uploading videos to add to the series.
I was watching Lilsimsie build a trailer in The Sims 4 and decided to create my own in The Sims 2.
So I built 21 Trailer Creek and although the trailer is quite small, it is big enough for a couple of Sims. There is also a front yard with a barbecue and seating area and although I didn't place any gardening plots, there is space for them if you want your Sim to do some gardening and perhaps be a little more self-sufficient.
To test the lot out, I created Sam and his dog Bob and, as you will see from the gameplay video at the end, Bob seemed very happy in his new home, digging holes and playing with his bone. Sam on the other hand, although happy in his new home, had trouble with one of the neighbours who stole his gnome and then proceeded to try and sell his dog! He asked her to leave and later went back to retrieve his gnome from her.
This lot is available for download should you want it in your game and you can download from one of the two links below:
In my own Sims 2 gameplay in Pleasantview, I have quite a few families that I play rotationally, which I may have mentioned before. One such family is Harry and Heather Barrington-Smythe.
Harry is one of the younger sons of my original couple, Charles and Victoria, who are now no longer with us. Even though Harry is a romantic Sim, he is happily married to Heather and they have two children who are now at University. This means that when either Harry or Heather are not working, they have quite a lot of free time to do as they want. Their work schedules are such that Heather works in the morning and Harry works in the afternoons.
Harry enjoys gardening and fixing old cars whereas Heather has taken up flower arranging and also enjoys chasing after butterflies.
Heather knows that Harry chose her over all the other ladies that he dated in the past and she also knows that he has remained faithful to her over the years. However, there is that little nagging ache inside of her that causes her to think that it would only take one little thing, one little instance in life, that would make him do something naughty.
Harry on the other hand, is quite convinced that he is a changed man. Until Andrea Hogan turns up on his doorstep one morning when Heather is at work.
It could be the genie's lamp that caused this "little problem" or it could just be Harry's enchanting personality and charm that caused Andrea to suddenly have a crush on Harry. Or maybe it was the rose that Harry innocently offered her on his doorstep. Either way, hopefully, Harry won't ruin everything for a townie.
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.
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 :-)
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.
Simmed Up Magazine kindly asked me to write an article about objects that we had in earlier The Sims games and which we do not have in The Sims 4 for their March 2022 issue.
Whilst I was writing this article, I came across loads of stuff that I had forgotten about in The Sims 1 which we never had again and some which we did in later games, such as the nectar maker which was shipped with World Adventures in The Sims 3.
So, having written the article, I thought it would be great to make a video of all the objects that we had in The Sims 1 and which we didn't get again and release it just in time for The Sims 22nd birthday on the 4th February.
Bearing in mind that the original The Sims is now over 20 years old, I still found myself chuckling at the antics and funny, quirky little moments that these objects gave. Even though my article covered The Sims 1 and 2, this video only covers TS1 for the simple reason that surprisingly there were such a lot of objects that we had in game back then which we don't have now.
Many thanks to The Goth Family, especially Bella, who modelled the objects for this video!
