And it finally works again!
Oct. 23rd, 2025 08:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
springsodasSo, fun story: Back towards the beginning of this year, I managed to get The Sims 2 installed on my laptop. (Not the Legacy version, but a different version.) For a few months the game was working just fine, but then around April or May, it just... basically, what would happen was that everything would work fine up until the point when I tried to load any household, at which point I would get an error message and the game would crash as. I couldn't figure out just what the hell was going on, even when I did a Google search, but I suspect a recent PC update was to blame. Either way, I was basically unable to play the game and had to uninstall it, which was really sad for me because it was the first time I had the chance to play the game in... probably at LEAST 15 years minimum and I was very excited to explore it (since I didn't have all the expansion packs growing up and this one had all of them plus the store content.)
But!!! A couple of days ago, I decided to try reinstalling the game and the good news is that, at least for now, it works! I can finally continue a portion of my recent 2000s nostalgia binge! And lawd, is The Sims 2 a time capsule. While I can't even remember the politics and what world events went down during that decade because I was just a kid trying to survive elementary school, I very clearly remember the fashion and aesthetics and it is PERFECTLY reflected in the various outfits/furniture you can pick out for your Sims in this game. The game also just clearly has a lot of love poured into it? This was an era where developers were more likely to include small details that technically didn't add to the gameplay, but gave it much more personality and made it feel lively. I remember playing a household once and one of the sims I was playing was cooking mac n' cheese. The other one came over and sniffed it and like... that's just not a detail you get in any of the games afterwards. It was so small, but also so nice. And, well, the game just has this charming, borderline cartoon-y wackiness that people still love to this day. (Although I will say; despite being rated T, some of the more intimate romantic actions get very... saucy. So much so that I actually have to turn away when I'm having two sims make out for them relationship points because it's that embarrassing.)
High praise aside, if you had to ask me whether I prefer the gameplay of The Sims 2 or The Sims 3, I would say The Sims 3 in a heartbeat. Is it so poorly optimized that you basically need a whole bunch of mods so that the game can run at maximum performance with minimal lag, bugs/glitches and crashes? Yes, I won't deny it. But needs decay at a slower rate and fill up much faster in 3 than in 2, the moodlet system helps in alerting when your Sim genuinely needs to eat or use the bathroom, the traits system is MUCH better than the personality points system by a longshot, plenty of stuff to do even in just the base game, it's easier to obtain/transform your sims into alternate life states/occult sims, disabling aging is a toggle in the options menu rather than a cheat, high customization for literally everything, open world, few loading screens, etc.
Also, like...in the Sims 3, besides your base household funds increasing for every sim included in a custom household, all pre-built houses in TS3 have furniture that you can choose whether or not to have included when your sims move in. In the Sims 2, custom households are locked at something like 20,000 simoleons regardless of how many sims you've made and when you move into a house, the only pre-installed furniture is some counters, a kitchen sink, a stove, toilet, bathroom sink, and a shower. You don't even have a fridge. And with the small budget your Sims have, buying extra furniture just to cover all the basics in terms of living is... well...
Please help her. This looks like a skeleton house.
But!!! A couple of days ago, I decided to try reinstalling the game and the good news is that, at least for now, it works! I can finally continue a portion of my recent 2000s nostalgia binge! And lawd, is The Sims 2 a time capsule. While I can't even remember the politics and what world events went down during that decade because I was just a kid trying to survive elementary school, I very clearly remember the fashion and aesthetics and it is PERFECTLY reflected in the various outfits/furniture you can pick out for your Sims in this game. The game also just clearly has a lot of love poured into it? This was an era where developers were more likely to include small details that technically didn't add to the gameplay, but gave it much more personality and made it feel lively. I remember playing a household once and one of the sims I was playing was cooking mac n' cheese. The other one came over and sniffed it and like... that's just not a detail you get in any of the games afterwards. It was so small, but also so nice. And, well, the game just has this charming, borderline cartoon-y wackiness that people still love to this day. (Although I will say; despite being rated T, some of the more intimate romantic actions get very... saucy. So much so that I actually have to turn away when I'm having two sims make out for them relationship points because it's that embarrassing.)
High praise aside, if you had to ask me whether I prefer the gameplay of The Sims 2 or The Sims 3, I would say The Sims 3 in a heartbeat. Is it so poorly optimized that you basically need a whole bunch of mods so that the game can run at maximum performance with minimal lag, bugs/glitches and crashes? Yes, I won't deny it. But needs decay at a slower rate and fill up much faster in 3 than in 2, the moodlet system helps in alerting when your Sim genuinely needs to eat or use the bathroom, the traits system is MUCH better than the personality points system by a longshot, plenty of stuff to do even in just the base game, it's easier to obtain/transform your sims into alternate life states/occult sims, disabling aging is a toggle in the options menu rather than a cheat, high customization for literally everything, open world, few loading screens, etc.
Also, like...in the Sims 3, besides your base household funds increasing for every sim included in a custom household, all pre-built houses in TS3 have furniture that you can choose whether or not to have included when your sims move in. In the Sims 2, custom households are locked at something like 20,000 simoleons regardless of how many sims you've made and when you move into a house, the only pre-installed furniture is some counters, a kitchen sink, a stove, toilet, bathroom sink, and a shower. You don't even have a fridge. And with the small budget your Sims have, buying extra furniture just to cover all the basics in terms of living is... well...
Please help her. This looks like a skeleton house.
