The best Sims game turns 20 today, calling forth a wave of warm nostalgia in the face of the franchise's uncertain future
The best Sims game turns 20 today, calling forth a wave of warm nostalgia in the face of the franchise's uncertain future
The Sims 2 was released on this day in 2004, so if you're interested in reading this, chances are you're old like me.
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Wasn’t it the last Sims games made by Maxis as a separate studio? Isn’t that why everything after it felt so lifeless?
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It was the last major Sims title released while Will Wright was still with the company. That would explain it.
Maxis continues to exist as a studio under EA, but most of the original people are gone, including the founders.
Will Wright was still there for Spore, so everything he touched was not gold. It's supposed to be a whole universe and it's barely a simulation of anything, somehow he forgot to design a game around it.
And now he's hopped on the Blockchain/NFT train...
Spore was alright for the time. It looks like they cut a lot to get it over the line but it was a good concept and ok-ish.
I don't think "for the time" is that relevant here. My major problem with it is how shallow it is. All 5 phases are so repetitive, with so little variations and so little to do.
The only good things about it were the editors, those were impressive, especially the creature editor. But it's just cosmetic, mechanics are so poor almost nothing emerges from it. It's quite disappointing for designers that have been major actors of the simulation genre forever.