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The Sims 2 gets another add-on, and this time it has nothing to do with campus life.
I guess we can compare Nightlife to the Hot Date expansion, since it relates to going out, dating and socializing. It’s about getting your Sims out of their houses and into the community lots for purposes other than shopping and interacting with the entire neighborhood.
“We want this to be a Sims 2 experience, so we’ve added a new Aspiration to the game that’s going to be part of Nightlife, which is the Pleasure Seeker. And it ties into a lot of the gameplay that we’re adding and a part of Nightlife. It’s about the Sims going out, it’s about the Sims seeking fun, having fun. And the wants and fears that that [Pleasure Seeker] Sim is going to have are really going to relate to that idea of seeking pleasure in life.” said Tim LeTourneau, Senior Producer of TS2, who also worked on the Hot Date expansion for the original The Sims.
Pleasure seeking Sims fear anything that is painful, embarrassing or an effort, but enjoy everything from great dates to crazy parties, fine dinners and hanging out in the hot tub. Aside from nightclubs and heavy partying, a whole dating mini-game is being introduced. Sims can sip wine while dining together, either hitting it off or embarrassing themselves based on how compatible they are. Yes, compatibility will now be judged based on personality, life aspiration and zodiac sign.
But even if the signs aren’t compatible, a Sim can still make up for it by his/her turn-ons and turn-offs. These are basically like interests – find someone who has the same as you and you have a better chance of getting along with them. They are picked a bit like aspirations.
A new interface item is added while on a date, a small meter that will go up or down according to your actions during that date. When your Sims go out on a date, they will get scored on how well the date went. If they had a fabulous date, they may receive reward like a bouquet of flowers. But, if it goes horribly wrong, they may get an unpleasant reminder of the experience.
Some of the social interactions for the dining booth include whispering sweet nothings in your date’s ear, kiss or cuddle. While eating you can steal bits of food from your date’s plate or throw water in their face if things aren’t going so well.
New places to go include bowling alleys, restaurants, coffee shops, a gym and obviously, nightclubs. And the cool thing is, while you’re in a Downtown lot, you can actually see the neighborhood around you and it’s no longer the lot by itself. However you can turn this feature off, since it will probably slow down the game quite a bit.
The expansion will also feature over 130 new objects including rugs, poker table, bowling lanes, DJ booth, electro dance sphere, photo booth, karaoke machine and everything you need to design the ultimate nightclub and VIP lounge, or to turn your home into one. Not enough for you? Ok, here are some more new objects:
- New building tools and items such as garage doors, new pool shape that lets you build diagonally and half walls;
- The ReNuYu Senso Orb, a new aspiration reward that allows your Sims to change aspirations;
- Several new lighting options, lots of neon and a disco light floor (like in House Party);
- Sectional sofas that you can place together to form different shapes;
- Many new meals and desserts (one of them is Crepes Suzette) and fine restaurant food such as Lime Seared Prawns;
- French bistro, 50’s diner and nightclub decorating themes;
- Perfume, a new buyable item which your Sims can put on, causing other Sims to either love it or hate it.
The game will also bring new skins and meshes, lots of new hairstyles, some tattoos as well and even leather jackets. And you will have new toddler skins with cute little animal caps. There will be new NPCs and exotic Sims to mingle with or date:
- The matchmaker, who will find you a date if you pay her. Pay her well, and your chances of a better date will rise;
- Professional Chefs, to cook all that fine cuisine at the restaurants;
- Many sexy waiters and waitresses;
- Dozens of possible singles to date.
The expansion will also feature vampires, totally playable characters like the aliens and zombies. You can bite other Sims and turn them into vampires. Vampire Sims will have no motive decay at night but their motives will plunge if they’re out in the sun. Leave them outside in the daylight too long, and they can even die. Nothing like a restful sleep on a plush coffin bed during the day! They apparently will also be able to fly around in bat form.
The Sims will finally be able to have cars and they will even be able to use them to go to work or to take the kids to school. Now you don’t have to depend on the car pool anymore and can use that extra hour to do something useful with your time. There are 5 different models available and you also pick their colors: hatchback, sedan, minivan, pickup, sports car. Cars have another use other than transportation: Woo Hoo, complete with fogged-up windows.
A familiar NPC is back. You should remember her from the Hot Date expansion, she didn’t like to see anyone get “intimate” so to speak. You got it, Mrs. Crumplebottom, a.k.a. the old prude, is there to make sure your Sims don’t show too much affection in public and to smack them with her purse too!
The Sims 2 Nightlife takes you behind the velvet rope to all the hot spots around town, where it’s all about seeing and being seen – especially being seen! Nightlife is expected to be released in the fall of 2005.