Product Details
 | The Sims 2 Pets Expansion Pack |
| Price: | $34.95 |
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Ships from and sold by Best Game Deals
130 new or used available from $6.75
Average customer review:
Product Description
Create the perfect pet for your Sims to train, play with, and love. Choose from dozens of the most popular dog and cat breeds like Dalmatians and Persians. Or create a unique cat or dog by customizing their features and body type. Then pick a personality—you decide if your Sims’ Siamese is cowardly, gifted, or lazy. Your Sims can teach their pets tricks, take them for a romp in the park to meet other furry friends, and much more as they share a lifetime together. But remember, your Sims’ pets have minds of their own—cats claw sofas, dogs roll in flowerbeds, and worse. Expect the unexpected!Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #2327 in Video Games
- Brand: Electronic Arts
- Released on: 2006-10-17
- ESRB Rating: Teen
- Platforms: Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows Me, Windows XP
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: .53" h x 5.75" w x 7.75" l, .38 pounds
Features
- Adopt dogs, cats, birds, and guinea pigs for your Sims to play with.
- Your Sims' pets have their own genetics. Cross different breeds to create designer pets or make new ones and register them to appear in Create-A-Pet as a unique pedigree.
- Pick your Sims' pet's personality! Is your pet gifted or goofy, hyper or lazy? You decide!
- Choose career tracks for your Sims' pets. Skilled pets can work their way up to be Pet Show Biz Stars, part of an elite security Pet Corps, or a heroic Rescue pet.
- Show off your pets! Share your favorite Sim pets with other players through an online exchange.
Customer Reviews
The Best Expansion Yet!
After some disappointing "Fun
packs", the Sims 2 lineup finally has an addition that's worth it! As
the name implies, this expansion is all about Pets. Your sims can have
dogs (small or large), cats, birds and womrats (basically a guinea pig).
There are a lot of fun interactions to run the sims through with their
pets. Now for the details:
PROS:
* Pets! Just about enough
said there.
* As with the people sims, pet sims are very well
portrayed. The movements and behaviors are very realistic. Just have a
people sim play with a cat with a teaser toy and you'll see what I mean.
*
Creating a Pet is as easy as creating a people sim. You can modify
their features, give them various colored collers, etc. With little
effort, I was able to create a cat that looks and behaves very much like
our real life cat.
* Create-a-pet also has ability to create a
breed. Don't find the breed you want? Make one! There is one exception,
noted in the CONS section below, though.
* Werewolves! Don't get too
friendly with that wolf that visits your lot...unless your people Sim is
a Knowledge Sim. They all seem to WANT to become a werewolf for some
reason! The matchmaker from Nightlife sells cures for lycanthropy if
you're unfortunate, though. (Hmm...Sims 2 had Aliens, University added
Zombies, Nightlife added Vampires, Open for business added robots, and
now we have werewolves. Makes me wonder what the upcoming Season
expansion will add...).
* Pets can have jobs that add a little income
to the family as well. Service Pets, Security Pets and Show Pets are in
high demand. Just be ready to teach them tricks so that they can get
those promotions.
* Some nice new objects, floor tiles and
wallpapers! Most of it is Pet themed as should be expected, but these
are actually more useful than much of what is in the "Fun packs".
*
New Tools. The "Hammer" tool makes remodeling so much nicer! If you want
to make a room bigger, add some new walls outside of a current room,
then use the Hammer tool to get rid of the one wall that's blocking the
new addition from the old. Much nicer than having to live with all of
the previous walls! Also, the walls you remove are assigned a value and
then that much is added back to your funds, much like selling old
objects to replace with new. Remodeling isn't near as expensive as it
used to be either.
* Leveling Tool. Another new tool allows you, with
one click, to level an entire lot to the level of the sidewalk. You
used to have to drag the cursor over the whole lot (and you had to
exclude the boundary squares) to level it and even then, there was no
guarantee that it would be even with the sidewalk. This new tool makes
it much more simple and quick. You can still use the old leveling tools
if you want variable terrain, though.
* Unlockable Goodies. I can
understand someone wanting everything available at the beginning, but
unlockable content adds a little reward for accomplishing certain
milestones. This encourages more play (like we really need more
incentive to play this game!).
* Skunk! (Some might consider this a
con). Watch out for Stinky Skunk. He (she?) will visit your lot sooner
or later. What happens if Stinky Skunk doesn't like your pet?
Well...let's just say you'd better have a people sim prepared to give
your pet a bath and fast!
CONS:
* The Create a Pet/Breed
utility, though great, for some reason doesn't allow you to modify a
dog's leg length. Because of this, creating a believable Dachshund
(wiener dog) or Corgi is, as yet, impossible. I'm not a huge Dachshund
fan (don't dislike them either), but I do like Corgis, so that was
disappointing.
* Bugs! For some reason, some people sims have their
wants disappear. Having another controllable sim ask them what they want
is one way around this, but it's a pain when you just need one more
want satisfied to put the sim in gold status, but you don't know what
they want! That's a new bug that I've noticed with Sims 2 Pets. Many of
the bugs from previous Sims 2 expansions are still there as well. Does
EA know what a patch is?
* Would have liked to have seen a new "Pet
Lover" Aspiration in addition to the ones we already have. There is one
Lifetime Aspiration (one that creates permanent Platinum Status) for
having 6 pets reach the top of their career chains (I believe this one
is a potential life time aspiration for Fortune Sims), so the prospect
wasn't completely ignored.
* Taking care of and training Pets can be
work. If you're a glutton for punishment, get a sim couple who are still
early in their careers with a toddler to take care of, then give them a
male and female dog, have the dogs spawn puppies, and then start a home
business (assuming you have Open for Business expansion). If you
accomplish this and keep everyone happy, my hat is off to you! :-)
*
Birds and Womrats work similar to the Aquarium that already existed in
the game (though you can interact with them, unlike the fish). If you
get busy with other things, they're easy to forget and they die (even if
you keep the food dish full). Birds can be taught to talk and they will
fly around if you let them out of their cage (not sure why I put this
paragraph in the CONS section). I don't find the Saltwater aquarium any
more exciting than the original one.
In summary, this is indeed
the best Expansion Pack yet for Sims 2. On a scale of 1 to 5, I would
give this a 7 for fun alone. The bugs, though not show stoppers, still
led me to give it an overall score of 4 stars. I still strongly
recommend the game, though. The fun does overcome the occasional
frustration of the bugs. This one will easily keep me occupied until the
upcoming Seasonal/Weather Expansion (I'm assuming every house will need
a roof for more than cosmetic reasons when that one comes out).
Terrific!!
Awesome expansion. I got mine
yesterday in the mail (pre-ordered here at Amazon) and played it all
afternoon.
This expansion not only gives you pets, but also
includes a huge variety of new items for your household..new furniture
pieces, new decor, etc. It also gives you a few new interaction options
that weren't available before. With this, when your Sim calls a friend,
now you can not only invite the friend over to your house, but also your
friend's entire household over with ONE telephone call! How cool is
that?!!
The pet accessories are pretty cool, too. There are
different styles of pet beds, toys, etc to provide everything your pet
needs while at the same time not clashing with your decor.
You
can also open up neighborhood pet shops!! I don't know if it requires
Open For Business (which I have) or not in order to do that, but I'm
already working on my first pet store.
This expansion is going to
provide loads of fun while waiting for the next one (All Four Seasons)
that's coming out early next year in 2007.
Pets is definitely
worth the money to get!!
Pets Is
Great...Minus the Word "Expansion"
When Maxis came out with the
original expansion pack of a similar nature to this one with The Sims 1
"Unleashed" I was less than thrilled, which is funny because I do
genuinely love animals. I actually only *bought* the game then because
Maxis, likely sensing some potential uneasiness in their cult-like
consumer base, included five new career paths.
When Pets came out
I had a similar reaction. Although I'm sure the integration of adding
an entire new species to the game is tough, it lacks in adding actual
gameplay for the user. Unlike Unleashed, there is no expansion of the
neighborhood (mostly because it's unnecessary), there is no vegetable
gardens to plant, there are no career paths for Sims, and the theme
included is not nearly as nice as the French Quarter theme included in
Unleashed.
What you DO get however, is access to a wide variety
of pets - about 24 styles of cats, and at least double or triple that of
small and large dogs. It kind of felt like the game was meant for dog
lovers since many of the pet houses/decor etc. felt geared towards dogs,
but then again, there are more breeds. When it comes to getting a pet,
you can create them in the Create-A-Family mode, which gives you several
customization options such as ear height, fur style, eye colour, leg
thickness and so on, but it's not nearly as detailed as I had hoped. The
other ways of adopting pets involve visiting a pet shop (several are
included in the game) or adopting one.
There are new jobs in the
game, but for pets. Yes now you can pimp out your beloved kitty or puppy
to bring home a few hundred bucks per day, in fact a new lifetime
aspiration for your sim could be based on this very task. I believe
there are five new jobs with about three to five levels of difficulty
and pay increases. With each promotion you have to train your pet to
learn a trick - which can be done by your sim or by hiring a trainer
(who isn't nearly as cool as the safari-esque guy from UL). With each
promotion you also unlock a new type of fur such as star-pattern or
green to decorate your pup or cat.
For those of you that want
kittens or puppies (who are extremely small) you can adopt them (and
change their appearance slightly by using a mirror) or breed your pets -
which is more difficult than it sounds since you have to make your
*uncontrollable* pets build relationships with one another, as well as
build your relationship with each pet.
In terms of sim-pet
content, there are a number of interactions you can take part in.
Whether scolding or praising your pet for their behaviour (including
scratching up the furniture or sleeping on your bed), playing with them,
or taking them for walks, the animations are really good and the pets
are adorable, in particular some of the larger dogs. Be warned though,
you can't control your pets. You also will likely get sick of the short
range of interactions that actually exist - there are only 2-3 ways to
play, and show love to your pet. Also be warned, you CANNOT take your
pet to University, unless you buy a bird or wormrat (ie: gerbil).
Finally
the issue I've had with most of the Maxis expansions to date is the
lack of actual content beyond the new interactions or neighborhoods. If
you were hoping for oodles of pet stuff, don't. There are only a couple
of toys, several GIGANTIC houses that only let one pet sleep in them at a
time, a few pet bowls, and the bird cage or wormrat cage. I did fill a
fairly big pet store (using the OFB expansion) but it was mostly due to
the sheer size of the pet beds. For decor there is one new silghtly
bizarro (as in unrelated to animals) theme - "Space" which includes
everything from new bed sheets to lamps to doors and windows, plus a big
schwack of pet-themed art.
Ultimately I think most people will
buy Pets, and probably enjoy it, but I don't think it added enough to
constitute a full expansion. UL actually ended up being one of the best
expansions with the original Sims, but Pets' content is limited and
repetitive. If you are a diehard for either animals or The Sims, then
get it, otherwise, wait till it hits the bargain bins in a year or two.
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