Top Ten Gaming Software

Now Sims are born with the traits of their parents, families grow, and Sims grow old.

The People in Your Neighborhood
The game starts at the neighborhood level. Here you can create a housing development from scratch or start with one of three premade neighborhoods, each with its own theme. From there, you'll settle on a house and a family of Sims to control.

Create your own Sim (above) or your own house (below) from scratch with advanced tools.

Aside from the basic needs carried over from the previous game, Sims now have aspirations, wants, and fears. The wants and fears are the day-to-day things that occupy their minds, like wanting to see friends or get married and fearing death or being rejected for a kiss. Satisfy their wants, and they become more efficient at completing tasks you assign them. Realize their fears, and Sims become lethargic, cranky, and unresponsive to your commands. Aspirations are the big-picture things, like raising a family, becoming wealthy, and gaining knowledge. Succeed here and you'll be able to buy odd gifts for your Sim to improve his or her life, like a money tree that pays dividends or a "fountain of youth" water cooler.

What Else Is New?

Of course, you wouldn't be able to juggle all that if it weren't for the improved "Free Will" option, which makes it easier for Sims to fulfill their basic needs. The artificial intelligence of the game is noticeably improved; they won't turn on radios just as a family member is going to bed but, strangely, they do occasionally put their dishes on the floor.

Another big change in the series is the concept of the lifespan. Now Sims are born with the traits of their parents, families grow, and Sims grow old. Not only does this go hand in hand with aspirations (growing up is the first aspiration that a baby Sim will have), it provides a limited time with which your Sims can achieve their goals.

The Universal Control Panel helps you manage your Sim family.

A Family Affair
The Sims 2 not only lets you create just about any type of Sim in any type of family, build elaborate houses, and even create a neighborhood from scratch, but it also allows you to start the game in medias res, with premade households. These families all have backstories that are smart spoofs of soap-opera plots--lots of scheming, romance, ghosts, and family fighting. Parents of teens shouldn't worry, though, because nudity is tastefully blurred out and "woo-hoo" between Sims takes place completely under the covers. The ESRB has given this a Teen rating. If The Sims 2 were a film, it would likely land between PG and PG-13.

The makers have included some nice tools to help share the universe you've created. For example, you can capture in-game stills and video to show friends the private moments, family interactions, and house parties of your Sims. You can even package a household to share as a blog or an album on a special Web site.

The Sims 2 is for patient gamers. Like life itself, the game is filled with mundane details, like getting ready for work and doing dishes. The game also demands a level of creativity from its players that the run-and-gun game genres wouldn't know what to do with. But those who stick with it will be rewarded with an absorbing, amusing diversion and a virtual family history that they've created themselves. --Porter B. Hall

In this episodic sequel (formerly known as "Aftermath"), players continue the groundbreaking story that came to an explosive halt at the conclusion of Half-Life 2. Players once again assume the role of Gordon Freeman and team up with sidekick Alyx Vance to flee the remnants of a nearly-destroyed City 17 and it's eerily-empty streets.

The action begins quickly as the damage to the citadel has been done and Gordon and Alyx must lead the evacuation effort. Enemies previously un-attackable such as crab and mortar synths now stand in your path as you try to help Gordon and others escape the imminent citadel blast.

Once again utilizing the Source technology and HDR lighting popularized by Half Life 2, Episode One aims to begin the tradition of episodic content for Half Life fans. Gamers can expect over six hours of game play while taking out enemies with the help of Alyx's pet robot dog.

Cantha's elegant castles house both beauty and intrigue. View larger.

Exotic new armor sets, faces and hair styles offer even more unique character options to players. View larger.

Hundreds of new monsters await in 50 new quest areas.View larger.

Cantha's Warring Factions
The expansion pack adds whole new ways to experience the game: alliances and factions. In Tyria, players banded together in small guilds and warred against each other, but Cantha is a land of much more complicated politics. Guilds can join together in alliances, align themselves with one of Cantha's two warring factions, and battle other alliances to gain and hold territory. The epic Faction Battles can change the face of Cantha in real time, shifting borders and changing the control of entire cities and towns as battles are won and lost. The Battle Isles play host to most of the new Player vs. Player content, providing alliances a huge battlefield to supplement the Tyrian arenas.

Player versus Player combat reaches a new dimension with massive Alliance Battles.View larger.

Alliances will also have access to two new kinds of missions, Alliance Missions and Elite Missions. Alliance Missions feature multiple teams battling for control over resources and strategic locations, earning faction points for their alliance. The best and most powerful alliances can venture on Elite Missions, which are designed to be the ultimate challenge for even the most experienced teams.

New Player Options
Solo players have not been neglected either, and those who choose to remain separate from alliance and faction politics still have a lot to enjoy in the expansion. Two new professions are available to the denizens of Cantha: the deadly Assassin and dark Ritualist. Assassins wield daggers with fatal precision and can teleport to strike down enemies up close, while Ritualists summon the spirits of the dead to control the battlefield. New faces, hair styles and armor sets give the two new professions their own distinct look, evoking the exotic feel of Cantha. To allow players to experience the new professions without deleting their old characters, four extra character slots will be added to players who have previously existing Guild Wars accounts.

The Assassin emerges from the shadows as a playable profession in Factions. View larger.

While the level limit has not yet been raised from 20, players who still love the six professions from the core game have not been forgotten. Dozens of new skills are available for the older professions as well. Players have more options than ever before, and the new story missions and quest areas will test their ability to adapt to new styles and situations. Hundreds of all-new weapons, items and pets offer characters a huge amount of customization, and a new mission type will put each player's skill to the test. Challenge missions are cooperative missions with scoring objectives, and NCsoft will post the highest scores and display the rankings in-game, adding a new competitive element to the game that doesn't require direct combat.

Fight off waves of invading German troops and Panzer tanks in Moscow. View larger.

Race around in your own tank with others at your side in North Africa. View larger.

Scale the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc with the Army Rangers. View larger.

Just as in the original, Call of Duty 2 has you working your way through WWII across three interwoven campaigns. As a private in the Russian army, you will fight off waves of invading German troops and Panzer tanks in Moscow and Stalingrad. Once you finish the Russian campaign, you'll go up against Field Marshal Rommel's troops in the deserts of North Africa. As part of this campaign, you'll race around in your own tank with others at your side, and later you'll be tasked with calling in air strikes against enemy tanks. The final campaign has you in the role of an American corporal in Europe, but unlike most WWII games, you won't perform a D-Day landing on Omaha or Utah Beach. In Call of Duty 2, you have to scale the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc with the Army Rangers amidst a hail of artillery and machine gun fire, giving you a true appreciation of the time-honored saying, "War is Hell!"

Call of Duty 2 is a thinking-gamer's first-person shooter of medium difficulty. While there are many reflexive elements, the game quite often requires you to consider the tactics of the situation in order to survive. While you can probably blow through the game in 10 hours on the regular setting, the more difficult settings require you to be much more thoughtful about your approach to the different scenarios. Your teammates in battle neither finish your fight, nor simply provide enemy fodder, while the enemy AI (artificial intelligence) is quite clever. If you are too meek, you will find yourself pinned down by aggressive fire while the enemy lobs grenades at you until you're decimated.

Unlike the its predecessor, Call of Duty 2 doesn't give you a health bar. Instead, as you are hit by more and more fire, your screen grows increasingly red around the border, and your character begins to grunt and pant. This is your signal that it's time to find some cover in order to recuperate before you continue. Another major improvement is the enhanced smoke grenades, which not only look great but can be used effectively in battle to obscure your path from tanks or machine-gun nests as you make your way to an objective.

While Call of Duty 2 has received an ESRB T (teen) rating -- meaning there are no gratuitous blood and guts splashing all over the screen -- this is still war, and there are enemies that will try to drag themselves to safety after being hit, only to be bludgeoned to a screaming death by your fellow men-at-arms. And like its older brother, Call of Duty 2 offers the standard deathmatch, team deathmatch, capture-the-flag, and search-and-destroy multiplayer modes. However, this version offers a new option called "headquarters," which most closely resembles the "crazy king" version of king-of-the-hill in Halo 2. Shifting headquarter points appear and must be captured in order to start building points, only to be overrun by the other side in order to halt that point gain. This version of the multiplayer mode is not only extremely fun, but it requires teams to adapt on the fly.

Now Sims are born with the traits of their parents, families grow, and Sims grow old.

The People in Your Neighborhood
The game starts at the neighborhood level. Here you can create a housing development from scratch or start with one of three premade neighborhoods, each with its own theme. From there, you'll settle on a house and a family of Sims to control.

Create your own Sim (above) or your own house (below) from scratch with advanced tools.

Aside from the basic needs carried over from the previous game, Sims now have aspirations, wants, and fears. The wants and fears are the day-to-day things that occupy their minds, like wanting to see friends or get married and fearing death or being rejected for a kiss. Satisfy their wants, and they become more efficient at completing tasks you assign them. Realize their fears, and Sims become lethargic, cranky, and unresponsive to your commands. Aspirations are the big-picture things, like raising a family, becoming wealthy, and gaining knowledge. Succeed here and you'll be able to buy odd gifts for your Sim to improve his or her life, like a money tree that pays dividends or a "fountain of youth" water cooler.

What Else Is New?

Of course, you wouldn't be able to juggle all that if it weren't for the improved "Free Will" option, which makes it easier for Sims to fulfill their basic needs. The artificial intelligence of the game is noticeably improved; they won't turn on radios just as a family member is going to bed but, strangely, they do occasionally put their dishes on the floor.

Another big change in the series is the concept of the lifespan. Now Sims are born with the traits of their parents, families grow, and Sims grow old. Not only does this go hand in hand with aspirations (growing up is the first aspiration that a baby Sim will have), it provides a limited time with which your Sims can achieve their goals.

The Universal Control Panel helps you manage your Sim family.

A Family Affair
The Sims 2 not only lets you create just about any type of Sim in any type of family, build elaborate houses, and even create a neighborhood from scratch, but it also allows you to start the game in medias res, with premade households. These families all have backstories that are smart spoofs of soap-opera plots--lots of scheming, romance, ghosts, and family fighting. Parents of teens shouldn't worry, though, because nudity is tastefully blurred out and "woo-hoo" between Sims takes place completely under the covers. The ESRB has given this a Teen rating. If The Sims 2 were a film, it would likely land between PG and PG-13.

The makers have included some nice tools to help share the universe you've created. For example, you can capture in-game stills and video to show friends the private moments, family interactions, and house parties of your Sims. You can even package a household to share as a blog or an album on a special Web site.

The Sims 2 is for patient gamers. Like life itself, the game is filled with mundane details, like getting ready for work and doing dishes. The game also demands a level of creativity from its players that the run-and-gun game genres wouldn't know what to do with. But those who stick with it will be rewarded with an absorbing, amusing diversion and a virtual family history that they've created themselves. --Porter B. Hall

Turn your sims into dragons, princesses, pirate captains, and more with the new costumes. View larger.

Add a whole new selection of furniture, clothing, and home decor to your Sims 2 characters' world. View larger.

The most significant additions in The Sims 2 are the behavioral and character enhancements made to the sims themselves. While sims still have specific personality types determined by their horoscopes and adjustable individual characteristics, such as neatness, niceness, and playfulness, they now have some notable new features, such as memories, genetics, aging, and the new aspiration/fear system. When creating a family, you can now have the game randomly generate children based on their parents' appearance and personality, though you can still edit these children. You can choose to re-create a real-life couple or family to see what kind of genes get handed down from generation to generation. Or you can experiment by interjecting the DNA from an alien into the family tree, as The Sims 2 includes the ability to create aliens from outer space and even marry them off to your more outlandish sims family members.

Enjoy the hedonistic side of life while you cruise the nightclub scene.

Play your cards right, and you could meet the Sim of your dreams.

Get busy with the DJ station, one of over 125 new objects and items.

Right out of the box, your characters will be ready to hit the town and all the swanky spots. Whether they're cutting a rug until the morning light, flirting with the opposite sex, or getting nowhere throwing gutterballs at the bowling alley, the Nightlife expansion pack will deliver an unforgettable night on the town. With Nightlife, you'll have a better opportunity to discover the chemistry between Sims. Will two people click or clash? Is there a future beyond the night or is it just a steamy affair? If you're ready to add a fun, romantic, splash to your Sims simulation, then look no further than Nightlife to lift your spirits and start the party.

Your Sims' romantic attraction is now based upon personality, life aspiration, and zodiac signs. After you size up a mate and determine likely compatibility, try to throw your Sims' love life into the red zone with new, romantic social interactions such as the longing gaze, the slow dance, or the dramatic dip kiss. If you've done well, success might bring your Sims a romantic gift. Strike out and your Sims might just get a pile of hate mail.

Ahh, hedonism. Choose the all-new Pleasure Seeker life aspiration for your Sims and live vicariously through your characters. Deliver these Sims all the blissful amusements the world has to offer--hot dates, fancy parties, fine dinners, hot tubbin', and more--these Sims know how to live it up. Be careful, though! These pleasure-seeking Sims are terrified of pain, embarrassment, and effort, so anything outside of the realm of "PARTY!" is probably going to deliver quite a blow to their fragile egos.

Partying doesn't just happen. Looking good and hooking up with the right person takes work. Whether it's a girl's night out or an important, romantic date, your Sims will need to get dolled up and dressed to kill for their epic evening in the all-new downtown area. What's the mood? With all the new choices, they can mellow out in lounges, kick up their heels at hipster nightclubs, enjoy candlelight dinners at fine restaurants, or hit the bowling alley with the guys. No matter how they feel, Nightlife has something to offer.