I’m a Sims addict. I enjoy playing God to the lives of my mini people, in their perfect mini doll house like world. I love raising Sim families, and choosing careers for my Sims. I love when they are happy, and strive to try to make them happy when they are sad. After all; this is the point of the game.
So when Maxis released it’s first Stuff pack, I knew I had to have in on whatever this new Stuff thing was all about. Maxis declared that this in fact was ‘not’ an expansion pack, but a ‘stuff pack’. This basically means there will be no addition in game play, but an addition in decorations, clothing, and Sim accessories.
For only $19.99 it seemed well enough, and the cover was promising with pictures of a whole bunch of interesting looking items for my Sims and their homes.
As I downloaded the software, and began my game, I searched around for my new family fun items. However they were so scarce I nearly missed them in my furniture menu. WOW! Did I get ripped off! I barely got anything new, and not only that, everything new in the game did not match the graphics to the rest of my Sims home. The lamps looked large and cartoon like, the new clothing looked over sized and made my thin Sims look like fat Sims, and my fat Sims look like snowmen.
There are also items for my children Sims in which I was again disappointed in. Bedroom decorations in either a princess theme, under sea theme, or space theme. Hmm… in my opinion they were all far too ugly to even want to use. The princess bed looks like something that fell out of a LEGO’S game, the space theme looks too scifi and dark to make the room look realistic, and the under sea theme is too odd to want to add into your Sims home. Everything in these new themes comes with a new bed, lamp, chair, wallpaper, dressers, end tables, floors, and toy boxes. These 3 new child themes are seriously the main component of the game. Everything else is just new nick knacks here and there.
There are 4 new outfits but mostly the new outfits are for the children and are far too ridiculous looking for you to want to assign to your children. There is a ridiculous dragon with wings, however the costume is so bulky looking that your children Sims won’t look right in the game. There is a fairy princess costume, and scuba gear. Again these new outfits are too stupid looking to want to wear. There are also pajamas with bear feet that look way to big for the Sims children, and you won’t even want to bother with them because they look so mis-matched compared to the clothing in the rest of the game.
You will also be getting 4 or 5 new wall paintings. However any Sim fan knows wall art is wasteful seeing how you cannot view the paintings once you put the walls down anything placed on walls is no longer viewable. Its nearly impossible to play the game without the walls down, so art on walls is basically a waste.
WHAT YOU WON’T BE GETTING:
I know you’re all hyped like me right, and perhaps even still wanting to go out and buy this stuff pack, but let me tell you, you will not be getting much at all. You won’t be getting new plants, new items in build mode, there is no new food items, or outdoor decorations.
Everything you do get though is mainly focused towards the children Sims, and the items you get suck.
MUSIC:
No new tunes or music played in the background. Everything is in it’s original format.
Horrible! The new items look over sized and do not match the original games graphics. Some items look cartoonish, and the rest are so large that it looks ridiculous in the game.
INSTALLATION:
Installing The Sims 2 Family Fun Stuff pack was easy. Everything was loaded into the game within 5 minutes. I have learned that if it takes only a few minutes to install, you’re not getting very much. Maxis taught me this lesson.
OVERALL:
Download objects off of the Internet, the quality is better, and most items you can find for free. You can download at www.thesims2.com in the exchange section, or www.thesimsresource.com for many objects, however most are pay. Do a google search also for free Sims 2 objects. You will be surprised at what you can find on the net for free.
RECOMMENDATION:
Avoid it, but if you are a die hard Sims fan, I know it’s a must have to the collection. But if you must have it, do wait for it to go on sale. Overall the game is worth only about $5-7. Don’t spend much more.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
Full version of The Sims 2
1.2GHz Intel or PowerPC G4 processor
256MB of RAM (512MB recommended)
32MB video RAM (64MB recommended; ATI Radeon 9000 or NVIDIA GeForce FX5200 or higher)
320MB hard disk space
