Nightlife is The Sims 2 version of Hot Date. Community lots are now fun to go to.
It didn't take long for me to install and start playing. I grabbed my SimGrrl, built her a brand new house with a garage to accommodate her spiffy new sports car, and off she went for a stroll, checking out the new hot spots in town.
There are several different lots to visit belonging to the Downtown area, which is great, since we are no longer bound to the Community lots in the regular neighborhoods. These lots are composed of parks, stores, boutiques, bowling alleys, restaurants, and of course, clubs and bars.
You can also have your Sims move in to a new home right where the action is: downtown neighborhoods have residential lots waiting to receive new families.
If the ready-made Downtown doesn't appeal to you, you can always remodel the existing lots or create a brand new downtown neighborhood from scratch. You can even add some scenery items such as tall buildings, dumpsters and spotlights to make it all the more realistic.
The building options offer more exciting and creative possibilities than ever: half walls with glass or balustrades which you can use to separate areas of a restaurant; diagonal pool tiles to create artistic swimming pools; latticed windows; tons of different styles of walls and floors; many low fences to define garden areas; and of course, driveways and garage doors.
Furnishing also has a lot more to it, especially if you care for the retro look, since it seems to be the predominant theme in things like jukeboxes, bar stools, chairs, tables and neon lights. The new decorative items are making my delights, especially the new plants, flower arrangements, rugs and paintings.
As for the skins, I'm sure you will be as pleased with the new ones as I am. Short casual dresses, mini-kimonos, sexy clubbing outfits, gorgeous long formals and medieval-gothic gowns for the vampire ladies will keep your closet full. Toddlers have cute winter coats with gloves, funny little animal hats and even tuxedos. Teen girls can wear 50's-inspired poodle skirts or cute dresses with tie-tops, and even grandma can enjoy her own oriental dresses now. Men can wear the cool tuxedo with cape suited for vampires, some Hugh Hefner-style suits, colorful rave clothes, and many ensembles ranging from casual to stylish, and some bare-chested tattooed looks. There are also bowling outfits and new sloppy sleepwear complete with stains.
Nightlife adds several new features that help make your Sims' lives more exciting and rewarding. With the new dating system, you can send your Sims on a date and get them to know each other. Dates are the best and fastest way to build up a relationship, but the tricky part is finding someone they are interested in.
A Sim may enjoy another Sim's company without being attracted to him/her. You will notice new interactions in the pie menu, some of them having little lightning bolt icons. These are "Chemistry" actions, which help build up a romantic relationship a lot quicker. The bad side of these Chemistry interactions is that they can do as good as bad to a relationship, depending if you get a positive or negative response from the other Sim.
Looking in your relationships tab, you will notice that certain Sim portraits will have little lightning bolts on them. This means that your Sim is very attracted to that other Sim and that they have good compatibility.
If you're really desperate though, you can always buy a Love Potion from the Gypsy or pay her to find you a date.
Keep an eye on that date meter, you don't have much time to make it worthwhile! If things are going smoothly, you can go up a level and gain some precious extra time. My suggestion is to start with a nice lobster dinner with a toast during the meal and any other activities you can do while sitting, followed by some chatting and a little dancing. Don't try moving your hands down during a slow dance unless you already get along really well with your date. A little head on shoulder and some smooching should do just fine.
My most exciting and hilarious moments in Nightlife come from interacting with the vampires. Aside from them stalking around, saying "Bluh!" for no apparent reason in the middle of a conversation or randomly hissing at people passing by, vampires are pretty social creatures. I managed to get along so well with them that I got SimGrrl to influence the Count to bite someone's neck. It's quite the sight, you really should try it!
If you decide to get your Sim bitten, make sure you get a coffin to sleep in, and re-arrange your entire schedule for after the sun goes down.
A poker night with some friends, a karaoke duet or a session of music-mixing at the DJ table are certain entertainment for any Sim looking for a bit of fun. Take someone on a date, and they will dance the night away... or until their motives go red!
Oh, and if you happen to go out and find that your Sim is a bit low on funds, here's a useful cheat. While in the neighborhood view, open the cheat prompt (Ctrl+Alt+C). Type in familyfunds and the specified amount of Simoleons is added to the family's total.
I am very happy to report that Nightlife didn't let me down one bit. It is everything that I expected and much more. I no longer get bored getting the teenagers to do homework or changing diapers, The Sims 2 is now a game for the pleasure-aspiring Sims.
It definitely put the fun back in playing the game, taking me away from my usual building and decorating sprees to take my Sims out to meet new people or on a date, and just sit back have a blast watching them making the night memorable.
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