The Sims 2: Apartment Life Review

The newest expansion pack for The Sims 2 has recently been released (August 27, 2008 in North American and August 29 in Europe), and fans of the life simulator video game couldn't be more thrilled. Finally your Sims can live in run-down apartment buildings or even luxurious condominiums, depending on your style of play and of course, the neighborhood it's in.

Like the seven expansion packs before it (yes, I said seven), Apartment Life includes numerous new objects and clothes for your Sims to buy with their hard-earned Simoleons, and some new types of paint, wallpaper and flooring to decorate your apartments and other buildings. The Sims 2: Apartment Life also adds several new NPCs (non-player characters) into the game, such as the butler, landlord, roomie, and creatures such as witches and warlocks.

There is also a new neighborhood included with The Sims 2: Apartment Life. Belladona Cove is a prebuilt and pre-populated area for your Sims to mix and mingle. A secret neighborhood, The Magical World, can also be found.

The Sims name has had a great deal of success over the years. Released through the Electronic Arts Brand on February 4, 2000, The Sims 2 is the sequel to the best-selling game, The Sims, which also saw its share of expansion packs with a total of seven for itself. The concept of The Sims, a game of life simulation was originally created by Will Wright for Maxis. He is also the man behind the Sim series, with titles such as SimAnt, SimEarth, SimLife and more. The most popular is probably SimCity.

Though the Sims 2 is available on consoles such as the Playstation 2 and the original Xbox, the majority of their expansion packs exist only for use on a home PC or Mac. With such levels of personalization and customization, it really is hard to confine a series such as The Sims to a console, and this is what makes The Sims line of games popular amongst fans. Because it constantly provides players with fun, fresh, and new content the game almost never gets boring or repetitive.

If you do find something missing in your Sims' life, you can always search the internet for even more downloadable content to add to your Sims game. Most of it is free, and although the quality of these user-created objects varies, many rival or even surpass the objects that are included in the retail game.