The Sims 2: Nightlife is the second expansion pack for The Sims 2, which was released on September 13, 2005 (USA and Canada) and September 16, 2005 (European Union, Australia and New Zealand). It was released for Mac OS X on March 27, 2006. The expansion pack centers on the new downtown area, which has various activities, such as bowling, karaoke, dining and dancing, as well as a photo booth, and includes a dating mini-game which allows player to engage in their Sims' relationships in greater depth.

Gameplay[link]

The game is reminiscent of an expansion pack from the original The Sims game entitled The Sims: Hot Date, which focused on new social interactions and locations for Sims to visit, such as a dance club or romantic restaurant. Nightlife follows in a similar theme. Some of the items are also similar to the ones found in The Sims: House Party and The Sims: Superstar.

New additions include inventories, new interactions, and over 125 new objects, including cars.^[5] NPCs that a player's Sim dates can now leave gifts or hate letters at the Sim's home, depending on the success of particular dates. Some of the new NPCs include party DJs, a Gypsy Matchmaker and Vampires.

Nightlife also adds a new aspiration called the Pleasure Aspiration. This new aspiration is assigned in exactly the same way as any of the other five aspirations. Sims with this aspiration crave enjoyment in many different ways, whilst they fear embarrassment. Sims may receive wants such as 'juggle' and 'jump on lounge'. Nightlife has also introduced a new reward object called the ReNuYu SensoOrb, which enables any Sim to change their aspiration. However, like all other aspiration reward objects, it can fail if the Sim's Aspiration Meter is low, which results in the Sim using it receiving the Grilled Cheese Aspiration, and all other wants or fears will be superseded with ones revolving around grilled cheese sandwiches, such as "Make Grilled Cheese Sandwich" or "Be rejected for Talk about Grilled Cheese Sandwich." If The Sims 2: University is installed, the Sim's Lifetime Want will also change.

In Nightlife, players can own their own cars instead of relying on the carpool to get to work or the bus to get to school.^[6] There are several models and colors available. In addition, driveways and garages can be built into the Sim's lot. Also new, more customized swimming pools can be designed. Included is a new diagonal shaped swimming pool tool, which can be used to create extensive shapes. However, the pool ladder and diving board may only be attached to pool tiles square on the lot.

The lot mode has been expanded in Nightlife, so that it is possible to view the neighborhood from a lot. Players may leave one lot to play another without having to go back to the neighborhood mode. Two new radio stations come with the expansion, Oldies and Classical stations.

Downtown sub-neighborhood[link]

Nightlife adds the option to add a downtown sub-neighborhood to each proper neighborhood. The pre-made downtown is simply called Downtown, and contains several shops, restaurants, nightclubs and other community lots, as well as home lots. These places are perfect for dates, or group gatherings. It does not include pre-made Sims, though.

Fury[link]

The Sims 2: Nightlife introduces the concept of fury. Of limited duration, this generally affects which social interactions are accepted. It is most likely to occur when a spouse is caught cheating with another Sim. If another Sim becomes furious at the player's Sim, their Sim will be subjected to vandalism, such as having their newspaper stolen, or their trash can kicked over. Fury can also be caused by the player, if he/she decides to be very mean to the other Sim.

Vampires[link]

The Sims 2: Nightlife introduces NPC Vampires. If a Sim builds a strong relationship with a vampire, they can ask to be bitten and thus, become stricken with Vampirisim. Vampires have sharp teeth, red eyes, and pale skin, have no reflection in mirrors, and can turn into a bat and fly. Vampires' needs do not decay at all during the night, allowing them to enjoy the nightlife that little bit more and making socializing and money making at night that little bit easier. Vampire Sims are also immortal and will not age, although Teen vampires will age if sent to college and again upon graduation. The main weakness of a vampire is that during the day, their needs decay faster than those of normal Sims. If a Vampire tries to go out of the house during the day, their needs will drop down to zero fast, and eventually, they will combust and die. A vampire can avoid these dangers by sleeping in a coffin during the day, a new object introduced in the expansion pack. Vampirism can be cured with a potion.

Cars[link]

The Sims 2 Nightlife is the first expansion pack that includes private cars. The expansion pack includes 5 car models with different paintjobs such as: a hatchback, a pick-up truck, a minivan, a sedan car, and a sports car. The player can install an alarm in the car, take the kids to school, drive to work, and go to community lots. The official website has included a garage set that allows players with any combination of games to have cars plus the Ford car company has made some of their cars available to Sims 2 Nightlife owners through the Sims 2 Website.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Information Page
• The Sims 2: Nightlife at MobyGames
• The Sims 2: Nightlife guide at StrategyWiki

The Sims 2 is a strategic life simulation computer game developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts. It is the sequel to the best-selling computer game, The Sims, which debuted on February 4, 2000.^[2] It was first released on September 14, 2004 for Microsoft Windows. A port to Apple Mac OS X was released on June 13, 2005. Eight expansion packs and nine stuff packs were subsequently released. In addition several console versions have been released. Though not commonly known, The Sims 2 is offered on mobile platforms. Mobile manufacturers such as Nokia offer The Sims 2 from the Ovi Store. A sequel, The Sims 3, was released in June 2009.^[3][4]

The Sims 2 has the same concept as its predecessor and sequel, The Sims 3, players control their Sims in various activities and form relationships in a manner similar to real life. The Sims 2, like its predecessor, The Sims, does not have a defined final goal; gameplay is open-ended. Sims have life goals, wants and fears, the fulfillment of which can produce both positive or negative outcomes. All Sims age, and can live to 90 sim days depending on the degree to which their aspirations are fulfilled. The Sims 2 builds on its predecessor by allowing Sims to age through six stages of life and incorporating a 3D graphics engine. Although gameplay is not linear, storylines exist in the game's pre-built neighborhoods. Pleasantview is based 25 years after the town in the original The Sims. Strangetown's storyline is based on the supernatural, and is loosely connected with Pleasantview. Veronaville's characters are based on Shakespearean characters.

The Sims 2 was an instant success, selling a then-record one million copies in its first ten days.^[5] As of June 2009, The Sims 2 has sold more than 14 million units worldwide and was the best-selling PC game of 2004.^[6] During April 2008, The Sims 2 website announced that 100 million copies of The Sims series had been sold.^[7] In addition to its commercial success, The Sims 2 was well received by critics gaining a 90% score from aggregators Metacritic and GameRankings.^[8][9]

Gameplay[link]

Buy and Build mode[link]

From the neighborhood view, the player selects one lot to play, as in The Sims. There are both residential and community lots, but Sims can only live in residential lots. Community lots are where Sims travel to in order to purchase things like clothing and magazines, and to interact with NPCs.

The player can choose between playing a pre-made inhabited lot, moving a household into a built-up lot, or constructing a building on an empty lot. One novelty from The Sims is foundations.

The player switches among the "live" mode (default) to control Sims, the "buy" mode to add, move or delete furniture, or the "build" mode to rebuild the house. Buy and build mode for community lots is locked when player Sims visit the lot but are available from the neighborhood view. It is also possible to import neighborhood terrains from SimCity 4.

The game contains some time-bound social challenges that provide a reward if successful. Sims can throw parties to gain aspiration points or invite the headmaster over for dinner in order to enroll their children in private school. Some expansion packs have new mini-games, like running a Greek house in University or dating in Nightlife. In Nightlife, each day is a challenge to keep both Sims as happy as possible while accumulating aspiration points. Various other expansion packs introduce supernatural characters which Sims can be turned into. This includes Vampires, Werewolves, Plantsims, Zombies, and Witches.

[edit] Comparison to The Sims

Graphically, The Sims 2 is more detailed than The Sims and lets players to view its world in full 3D. This is a change from earlier Sim games, such as SimCity 2000, which used dimetric projection and fixed resolutions, as the camera was in The Sims. In The Sims, Sims are 3D meshes, but The Sims 2 introduces far more detail in mesh quality, texture quality, and animation capability. A Sim's facial features are customizable and unique, and Sims can smile, frown, and blink. The player can adjust a Sim's features in the in-game Create-a-Sim tool; for example, noses can be made to be very large or very small. Texturing is achieved through use of raster images, though it appears more lifelike.

The Sims 2 characters pass through six life stages - babies, toddlers, children, teenagers, young adults (only with University), adults, and elders - with eventual death of old age, while babies in The Sims only become children before ceasing to continue aging. The aspiration system (described above) is also new to The Sims 2. Sims can become pregnant and produce babies that take on genetic characteristics of their parents, such as eye color, hair color, facial structure, and personality traits. Genetics play a major role in the game, and as such, dominant and recessive genes play a larger role than they did in the original game. A player can also aspire to have a Sim abducted by aliens. Males then have the chance to become impregnated and produce after three Sim days a half-alien child.

Some of the other additions to gameplay are career rewards, a week cycle, the cleaning skill (which was a hidden skill in The Sims), a variety of meals (depending on time of day), exercise clothing, body shape affected by diet and exercise, and houses built on foundations.

Development[link]

EA Games announced on May 5, 2003 that the Maxis studio had begun development on The Sims 2.^[10] The game was first shown at E3 in Los Angeles, California on May 13, 2004.^[10] Will Wright admits that while most of the content of The Sims 2 are original ideas, inspiration for its own expansions and constituents spawned from the successes of the first game. The community interest in the antecedent The Sims: Unleashed and The Sims: Hot Date expansions ensured the creation of The Sims 2: Pets and The Sims 2: Nightlife expansions, respectively.^[11]

After development concluded, designers from Maxis regarded The Sims 2 as very capricious during creation. Bugs would appear, and Sims would be "tweaked", or have anomalies not present in a previous run.^[12] A teaser trailer was provided on the Makin' Magic CD but was later uploaded to websites all over the Internet.

Reception[link]

The Sims 2 had a successful E3.^[23][24] The game also received the Editor's Choice Award from IGN and GameSpy upon final review of the finished product.^[25][26] From 71 online reviews, the average score was 90 out of 100. Seven of those sources awarded the game a 100 out of 100 score.^[27] X-Play gave the game a 4/5. However, critics noted some serious bugs in the game.

The Sims creator, Will Wright was recognized by being nominated at the Billboard Digital Entertainment Awards for Visionary and Game Developer.^[28] The game was also nominated for two international awards in 2005.^[29][30]

Controversy[link]

The Sims 2 malleable content and open-ended customization have led to controversy on the subject of pay sites and sexual modifications. Custom content is distributed through independent websites, some of which charge for downloading materials. Charging money for custom content is a violation of the game's EULA,^[31] which prohibits the commercial use of Electronic Art's intellectual property.

On July 22, 2005, former Florida attorney Jack Thompson alleged that Electronic Arts and The Sims 2 promoted nudity through the use of a mod or a cheat code. The claim was made that pubic hair, labia and other genital details were visible once the "blur" (the pixelation that occurs when a Sim is using the toilet or is naked in the game) was removed.^[32] Electronic Arts executive Jeff Brown said in an interview with GameSpot:^[33]

This is nonsense. We've reviewed 100 percent of the content. There is no content inappropriate for a teen audience. Players never see a nude Sim. If someone with an extreme amount of expertise and time were to remove the pixels, they would see that the sims have no genitals. They appear like Ken and Barbie.

Prior to Thompson's statement, there was an enterable code which allowed to modify the size (including to zero) of pixelation accessible from the console menu. Shortly after the statement, subsequent patches and expansion packs removed the "intProp censorGridSize" code; this code was leftover from the beta testing stage of the original game and was not intended for a public audience.

Film and TV series[link]

The Sims live action^[34] film is currently in preproduction under an eponymous working title.

On May 25, 2007, it was announced that The Sims film rights had been purchased by 20th Century Fox.^[35] Not much is known yet about the upcoming film, although a rumored story involving the characters finding a way to control others through a "Sims"-like game has been reported on several movie sites. It will be written by Brian Lynch, co-writer of the Angel: After The Fall comics and writer/director of the 1999 film Big Helium Dog. The film will be produced by John Davis, responsible for films such as I, Robot and Predator.^[36]

EA has officially announced^[37] it and a MySims animated television series in development at Film Roman.

Editions, compilations, and add-ons[link]

Many Sims games have been ported to Mac OS X by Aspyr. The Sims 2 has also been released for a number of video game consoles including the PlayStation 2, the Xbox, Nintendo DS and the Gamecube.

Core game editions[link]

Expansion-only compilations[link]

Compilations of expansion packs and stuff packs without the core game have also been released.

Expansion packs[link]

The Sims 2 expansion packs provide additional game features and items. Eight expansion packs have been released with no current plans for more expansion packs beyond The Sims 2: Apartment Life.

Stuff packs[link]

Stuff packs are add-ons that intend to add only new items (usually in the amount of 60) to the base game. However, some releases include certain gameplay elements introduced in previous expansion packs. There are nine stuff packs so far. The Sims 2: Holiday Party Pack served as the pilot release for this line of products, which were called "booster packs". After the success of the pilot release, EA named the releases "stuff packs" and launched the line with The Sims 2: Family Fun Stuff. The Sims 2: Mansion & Garden Stuff is the final stuff pack for The Sims 2.

Downloadable Content[link]

Pre-order Content[link]

Most of expansion packs and stuff packs were released with pre-order items. This game content was redeemable at the official site using a code supplied by the retailer from which the player purchased, each retailer was often associated with an exclusive download. A total of 60 pre-order items were released.

The Sims 2 Store[link]

The Sims 2 Store was an online store where players of The Sims 2 for PC could purchase and download content for their game online for additional fees. It offered objects, clothing, skins, and hairstyles that are both exclusive to the store and also come from earlier expansion and stuff packs.

It also had featured seven exclusive item collections that could only be found in the store. The store used a point system that players can purchase. It was opened from July 2008 to March 31, 2011 as a beta version limited to the United States and Canada. To download, players must install The Sims 2 Store Edition and the EA Download Manager. The exclusive collections were "Cubic", "Art Deco", "Spooky", "Castle", "Asian Fusion", "Art Nouveaulicious" and "Oh Baby", including a total of 471 items.

Third-Party Tools[link]

SimPE is an open-source utility for The Sims 2 that allows editing of Sims' characteristics, relationships and careers. It also allows the creation of objects. The SimPE interface is not considered intuitive^[46] and users risk corrupting the game files.^[47] TS2 Enhancer, developed by Rick Halle, is a commercial utility for editing characters and neighborhoods, but has since fallen into disuse.^[48]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Website

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (March 2011)

Junkie XL
Background information
Birth name	Tom Holkenborg
Also known as	Junkie XL, JXL
Born	(1967-12-08) December 8, 1967 (age 44)
Origin	Lichtenvoorde, Netherlands
Genres	Electronica
Instruments	Keyboard instruments, guitar, drums[1]
Years active	1988–present
Labels	Artwerk
Associated acts	A Forest Called Mulu Mambo Jambo Nerve Weekend at Waikiki[1]
Website	www.junkiexl.com

Junkie XL

Tom Holkenborg (born December 8, 1967 in Lichtenvoorde, Gelderland, Netherlands), better known as Junkie XL or JXL, is a Dutch musician. He uses the name JXL in cases where the term "Junkie" might cause offense. XL is for "Xpanding Limits".^[2]

Biography[link]

He discovered music by learning and playing many instruments, including guitar, bass, piano, and drums. Although he was classically trained by his mother (herself an accredited violin teacher), it was not long until he discovered synthesizers and joined the Dutch New Wave group Weekend at Waikiki as a multi-instrumentalist and producer. In 1993, Holkenborg then produced the second metal album Almost a Dance by Dutch band The Gathering. He then expanded his horizon further to form the industrial rock band Nerve with vocalist Phil Mills and released 2 full-length albums in 1994 and 1995. During this period, Holkenborg built his music repertoire by freelance producing and quickly landed projects for bands such as Sepultura, Fear Factory, and Dog Eat Dog, as well as for video games, movies, and TV spots.

Holkenborg’s solo efforts include 1998’s Saturday Teenage Kick, 2000’s Big Sounds of the Drags and 2003’s Radio JXL: A Broadcast from the Computer Hell Cabin. The latter counted collaborations with Depeche Mode’s Dave Gahan, Gary Numan, Robert Smith from The Cure, and Public Enemy’s Chuck D.. The U.S. release included his breakthrough remix of Elvis Presley's moderately successful 1968 single "A Little Less Conversation" for a 2002 Nike World Cup Commercial. The updated version unexpectedly^{[citation needed]} catapulted Holkenborg into the spotlight. The song became a No. 1 hit in more than twenty countries. Today and Booming Back at You (BB@Y) are his latest solo efforts.^[when?]