Neighborhood Mode

If you're unwilling or unable to create your own family, The Sims 2 has plenty of pre-made families and homes from which to choose. If you just want to get down to the business of playing the game, feel free to select one of these families and get right to it! This chapter will give you an idea of what you can expect from each scenario, along with a few tips on how to rearrange the houses so that they're a bit more manageable. Of course, with a game like The Sims, everything can change in any given scenario quite quickly. All we can offer are some early-game tips on how to make daily household life proceed a bit more smoothly; feel free to ignore them if you don't mind the houses the way they are!

Pleasantview

The Lotharios

The Lothario abode is home to only a single Sim--Don. This libidinous bachelor is a Romantic sort, and thus loves to woo the ladies; most of his Wants revolve around gaining love relationships, making out, and convincing women to Woohoo with him. Since Woohoos are fairly easy to obtain, due to Don's high starting relationships with the Caliente sisters, Cassandra Goth, and even the maid, it's not too difficult to keep Don's Aspiration meter in the gold. Thus, this is a good starting house if you're new to the Sims, or just don't want to deal with a large household. The main drawback of managing Don is that he doesn't start with much money, or indeed make much at his low-rung job on the Medical track, so you'll want to upgrade his skills as soon as possible and get him some promotions.

Tips
You may not want to hire a maid for Don. Since he's romantically involved with her, having her walk around the house every day is a good way to have your illicit Woohoos discovered. He'll need the Cleaning skill to advance in the Medical track, anyway, so it may be worth having him take the time to clean up his own messes.

The primary hotspots for socialization here are the hot tub and the bed. (Well, Don's kind of socialization, anyway; the TV is also state of the art, so upgrade the sofa when you have some spare cash.) Unfortunately, the path to the hot tub leads through the bedroom, which isn't ideal--many of your affairs will be walked in on by revelers heading to the baths. You'll want to move the hot tub downstairs, perhaps outside, near the front door, where you'll be able to greet visitors and hop right into the jacuzzi immediately afterwards. If you have enough money, you'll probably want to build a separate enclosure for the jacuzzi near the front door, to avoid being observed. If you're truly desperate for cash, or want to consolidate the house as much as possible, you can demolish the entire second floor and construct a smaller bedroom, and perhaps a second bathroom, on the ground floor.

Don will also require Logic for his career, but the telescope is way up on the roof of his house. Move it down to the sidewalk so that he can use it before the carpool arrives. The deck chairs on the balcony are also rarely used, so you can sell them or move them as you wish. The wooden countertop can be placed near the mailbox to make it easier to retrieve your bills.