Best The Sims 2 Pets Expansion Pack - PC Deals

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List Price: $19.99
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After some disappointing "Fun packs", the Sims 2 lineup finally has an addition that's worth it! As the name implies, this expansion is all about Pets. Your sims can have dogs (small or large), cats, birds and womrats (basically a guinea pig). There are a lot of fun interactions to run the sims through with their pets. Now for the details:

PROS:

* Pets! Just about enough said there.

* As with the people sims, pet sims are very well portrayed. The movements and behaviors are very realistic. Just have a people sim play with a cat with a teaser toy and you'll see what I mean.

* Creating a Pet is as easy as creating a people sim. You can modify their features, give them various colored collers, etc. With little effort, I was able to create a cat that looks and behaves very much like our real life cat.

* Create-a-pet also has ability to create a breed. Don't find the breed you want? Make one! There is one exception, noted in the CONS section below, though.

* Werewolves! Don't get too friendly with that wolf that visits your lot...unless your people Sim is a Knowledge Sim. They all seem to WANT to become a werewolf for some reason! The matchmaker from Nightlife sells cures for lycanthropy if you're unfortunate, though. (Hmm...Sims 2 had Aliens, University added Zombies, Nightlife added Vampires, Open for business added robots, and now we have werewolves. Makes me wonder what the upcoming Season expansion will add...).

* Pets can have jobs that add a little income to the family as well. Service Pets, Security Pets and Show Pets are in high demand. Just be ready to teach them tricks so that they can get those promotions.

* Some nice new objects, floor tiles and wallpapers! Most of it is Pet themed as should be expected, but these are actually more useful than much of what is in the "Fun packs".

* New Tools. The "Hammer" tool makes remodeling so much nicer! If you want to make a room bigger, add some new walls outside of a current room, then use the Hammer tool to get rid of the one wall that's blocking the new addition from the old. Much nicer than having to live with all of the previous walls! Also, the walls you remove are assigned a value and then that much is added back to your funds, much like selling old objects to replace with new. Remodeling isn't near as expensive as it used to be either.

* Leveling Tool. Another new tool allows you, with one click, to level an entire lot to the level of the sidewalk. You used to have to drag the cursor over the whole lot (and you had to exclude the boundary squares) to level it and even then, there was no guarantee that it would be even with the sidewalk. This new tool makes it much more simple and quick. You can still use the old leveling tools if you want variable terrain, though.

* Unlockable Goodies. I can understand someone wanting everything available at the beginning, but unlockable content adds a little reward for accomplishing certain milestones. This encourages more play (like we really need more incentive to play this game!).

* Skunk! (Some might consider this a con). Watch out for Stinky Skunk. He (she?) will visit your lot sooner or later. What happens if Stinky Skunk doesn't like your pet? Well...let's just say you'd better have a people sim prepared to give your pet a bath and fast!

CONS:

* The Create a Pet/Breed utility, though great, for some reason doesn't allow you to modify a dog's leg length. Because of this, creating a believable Dachshund (wiener dog) or Corgi is, as yet, impossible. I'm not a huge Dachshund fan (don't dislike them either), but I do like Corgis, so that was disappointing.

* Bugs! For some reason, some people sims have their wants disappear. Having another controllable sim ask them what they want is one way around this, but it's a pain when you just need one more want satisfied to put the sim in gold status, but you don't know what they want! That's a new bug that I've noticed with Sims 2 Pets. Many of the bugs from previous Sims 2 expansions are still there as well. Does EA know what a patch is?

* Would have liked to have seen a new "Pet Lover" Aspiration in addition to the ones we already have. There is one Lifetime Aspiration (one that creates permanent Platinum Status) for having 6 pets reach the top of their career chains (I believe this one is a potential life time aspiration for Fortune Sims), so the prospect wasn't completely ignored.

* Taking care of and training Pets can be work. If you're a glutton for punishment, get a sim couple who are still early in their careers with a toddler to take care of, then give them a male and female dog, have the dogs spawn puppies, and then start a home business (assuming you have Open for Business expansion). If you accomplish this and keep everyone happy, my hat is off to you! :-)

* Birds and Womrats work similar to the Aquarium that already existed in the game (though you can interact with them, unlike the fish). If you get busy with other things, they're easy to forget and they die (even if you keep the food dish full). Birds can be taught to talk and they will fly around if you let them out of their cage (not sure why I put this paragraph in the CONS section). I don't find the Saltwater aquarium any more exciting than the original one.

In summary, this is indeed the best Expansion Pack yet for Sims 2. On a scale of 1 to 5, I would give this a 7 for fun alone. The bugs, though not show stoppers, still led me to give it an overall score of 4 stars. I still strongly recommend the game, though. The fun does overcome the occasional frustration of the bugs. This one will easily keep me occupied until the upcoming Seasonal/Weather Expansion (I'm assuming every house will need a roof for more than cosmetic reasons when that one comes out).

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Awesome expansion. I got mine yesterday in the mail (pre-ordered here at Amazon) and played it all afternoon.

This expansion not only gives you pets, but also includes a huge variety of new items for your household..new furniture pieces, new decor, etc. It also gives you a few new interaction options that weren't available before. With this, when your Sim calls a friend, now you can not only invite the friend over to your house, but also your friend's entire household over with ONE telephone call! How cool is that?!!

The pet accessories are pretty cool, too. There are different styles of pet beds, toys, etc to provide everything your pet needs while at the same time not clashing with your decor.

You can also open up neighborhood pet shops!! I don't know if it requires Open For Business (which I have) or not in order to do that, but I'm already working on my first pet store.

This expansion is going to provide loads of fun while waiting for the next one (All Four Seasons) that's coming out early next year in 2007.

Pets is definitely worth the money to get!!

Best Deals for The Sims 2 Pets Expansion Pack - PC

When Maxis came out with the original expansion pack of a similar nature to this one with The Sims 1 "Unleashed" I was less than thrilled, which is funny because I do genuinely love animals. I actually only *bought* the game then because Maxis, likely sensing some potential uneasiness in their cult-like consumer base, included five new career paths.

When Pets came out I had a similar reaction. Although I'm sure the integration of adding an entire new species to the game is tough, it lacks in adding actual gameplay for the user. Unlike Unleashed, there is no expansion of the neighborhood (mostly because it's unnecessary), there is no vegetable gardens to plant, there are no career paths for Sims, and the theme included is not nearly as nice as the French Quarter theme included in Unleashed.

What you DO get however, is access to a wide variety of pets about 24 styles of cats, and at least double or triple that of small and large dogs. It kind of felt like the game was meant for dog lovers since many of the pet houses/decor etc. felt geared towards dogs, but then again, there are more breeds. When it comes to getting a pet, you can create them in the Create-A-Family mode, which gives you several customization options such as ear height, fur style, eye colour, leg thickness and so on, but it's not nearly as detailed as I had hoped. The other ways of adopting pets involve visiting a pet shop (several are included in the game) or adopting one.

There are new jobs in the game, but for pets. Yes now you can pimp out your beloved kitty or puppy to bring home a few hundred bucks per day, in fact a new lifetime aspiration for your sim could be based on this very task. I believe there are five new jobs with about three to five levels of difficulty and pay increases. With each promotion you have to train your pet to learn a trick which can be done by your sim or by hiring a trainer (who isn't nearly as cool as the safari-esque guy from UL). With each promotion you also unlock a new type of fur such as star-pattern or green to decorate your pup or cat.

For those of you that want kittens or puppies (who are extremely small) you can adopt them (and change their appearance slightly by using a mirror) or breed your pets which is more difficult than it sounds since you have to make your *uncontrollable* pets build relationships with one another, as well as build your relationship with each pet.

In terms of sim-pet content, there are a number of interactions you can take part in. Whether scolding or praising your pet for their behaviour (including scratching up the furniture or sleeping on your bed), playing with them, or taking them for walks, the animations are really good and the pets are adorable, in particular some of the larger dogs. Be warned though, you can't control your pets. You also will likely get sick of the short range of interactions that actually exist there are only 2-3 ways to play, and show love to your pet. Also be warned, you CANNOT take your pet to University, unless you buy a bird or wormrat (ie: gerbil).

Finally the issue I've had with most of the Maxis expansions to date is the lack of actual content beyond the new interactions or neighborhoods. If you were hoping for oodles of pet stuff, don't. There are only a couple of toys, several GIGANTIC houses that only let one pet sleep in them at a time, a few pet bowls, and the bird cage or wormrat cage. I did fill a fairly big pet store (using the OFB expansion) but it was mostly due to the sheer size of the pet beds. For decor there is one new silghtly bizarro (as in unrelated to animals) theme "Space" which includes everything from new bed sheets to lamps to doors and windows, plus a big schwack of pet-themed art.

Ultimately I think most people will buy Pets, and probably enjoy it, but I don't think it added enough to constitute a full expansion. UL actually ended up being one of the best expansions with the original Sims, but Pets' content is limited and repetitive. If you are a diehard for either animals or The Sims, then get it, otherwise, wait till it hits the bargain bins in a year or two.

Honest reviews on The Sims 2 Pets Expansion Pack - PC

The Sims 2 has been out for a while now, and I've been looking forward to the pet expansion the whole time. It was one of the most fun parts of the original expansions for The Sims.

With Pets, now you get to create your pets, using either their collection of breeds of dogs and cats, or create your own. The layers you'll need to create to make your own unique breed can be a little confusing at first but if you start out with one of their pre-made animals and experiment a little, you'll have it in no time.

One of the best new things about this expansion versus the Unleashed expansion for the first Sims is that you can train your animals. If you've played The Sims 2 already, than you'll be familiar with the mechanics enough to understand what's happening. You can also encourage or discourage your animals to do different things (like playing nicely with others) much like you can children or teenagers in the game.

The most useful feature of this expansion is the ability to send your animals out into the world to make money for you. They can get a wide variety of jobs, just like your humans and it'll help supplement your income, or make you not need to work at all, depending on how well you continue to train your pets.

Graphics: I love the look of the pets. They're more interactive, and more detailed than in the Unleashed expansion for The Sims. And there's always the ability to improve upon the games choices by creating your own layers and colors and patterns.

Controls: As with all The Sims and Sims 2 expansions you'll always run into bugs. My first one was while trying to give my dog a bath. The game didn't tell me that the bathtub had to have a certain space of room in order for the dog to be able to get into it. So it took a while to get things positioned correctly.

Sound: They've added a lot of new sounds for both your Sims and their pets, especially while training. Teach your dog (or cat) to Play Dead. It's by far the most fun to train.

As will all Sims games, how your Sims and pets interact and progress depends on you. There will always be strays in your neighborhood, or friendly animals that stop by to knock over you trashcan. The Sims go on forever now in generations. There's always something new to do or discover.

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Just want to say I love the game. This expansion pack has really slowed my playing down, and that's a good thing. I've loved creating dearly loved pets that have passed away. The learning curve wasn't too bad in the "create a pet" and I now have very realistic renditions of real former pets running around my neighborhood. It took me a little longer to figure out how to turn one of my sims into a werewolf. The secret is TREEs, lots and lots of trees. Fill up your lot with the cheapest tree and for every 4 trees it increases the chance of the wolf Leader to show up at your house by 1 percent. Having children and todlers also increases the chance of the main wolf showing up. (It's black and only shows up at night) Once you make friends with it, it will give you a "friendly" nibble. You have a werewolf! After that, it's easy to spread werewolves around the neighborhood. Its also easy to cure them; just call the matchmaker on the phone. Fun, lots of fun!