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The Sims 2 – Open for Business

The third expansion released for The Sims 2, that added the ability to create and run business from their own home, or from a community lot. This expansion also included the concept of badges, business perks. OFB gives sims more options on how to make money, instead of having to have a career.

Business can vary from selling goods purchased from buy mode to their own produce like cakes/robots/flowers/etc that the sim has produced. Items from other expansion packs can be sold or monetized into a service. By default, the shipped Shopping district (Bluewater Village) comes with a few premade business like a florist, a cake shop and a Toy shop, A few ideas are:

Fish: With the Seasons expansion, You can have your sim catch fish from a nearby lake and then sell it other sims, since the types of fish is dependent on their talent badge and access to a lake, this could be a useful way for sims to buy and cook fish if they have no access to a lake on their own lot. Also remember that sims cannot increase their skills and badges on a community lot, so it’s impossible to catch more expensive fish without cheats unless they have a lake on their own lot

Cakes/Food: Sims with a high cooking skill can produce food that can be sold for other sims. Things like pizza and Chinese food still cannot be produced which I think was a missed opportunity with this expansion, you could have had sims create their own fast food place.

Beauty Salon: Freetime introduced a hair salon chair which allows sims to give makeovers to other sims, also serves as a nice opportunity to change the appearance of NPC’s and townies

Boxing Gym: The punching bag normally cannot be purchased as its an career reward for the military, however a sim that has unlocked this can use it to set up their own gym. It’s a bit tricky to set up as sims wont autonomously use it, instead you have to have your sim offer lessons to them.

Art Studio: Sims can produce their own paintings and sell them to other sims. Having them to do portraits for other sims can be tricky as they will reject this if the relationship is low. Also the painting’s the sims produce are done at random.

Farm: Sims that can grow crops can also sell their produce, useful for sims that do not have enough land to grow their own. This best way to do this is to grow their own produce at home, then sell it off at a community lot they own.

Robot/Electronics: With the Robot station, sims can product electronic items like drones and full on Servo’s than can be brought and activated. Dones can be for security or food (The munchies bot brings either Pizza or Chinese Food). These tend to malfunction often and are more trouble than they are worth.

Textiles: With the Freetime expansion, sims can craft and sell their own fabrics. With a high enough talent badge, you can create your own clothing.

Pottery Shop: Also included with the Freetime expansion, Sims can sell a range of pottery.

Car Showroom: You can purchase the craftable car, have your sim fix and complete it and sell it. This one is best suited for a home lot, as I ran into a few issues trying to attempt this on a community lot. First is vehicles cannot be purchased in Buy mode whilst on a community lot, and storing them in the inventory caused issues when placing them on the driveway.

Fighting in a pottery shop, You break it you pay it

There is a bit of micromanagement needed when running a business, as you are expected to manually assign your employees roles to ensure the business remains functional. Over time, they will need to be assigned on break, otherwise they will quit.

Craftables are a new concept introduced in the game, and are made by purchasing the correct workbench. This is where the skill badges comes in, as the type of items the sim can make Is dependent on how good their badge is for that talent.

Robots are one of the new objects that can be crafted. You start of by making simple toy’s, then onto sentry drones (which are quite useful, like the Munchie bot that will deliver food every so often) to eventually a Servo. Some of the robots have a tendency to break down often, like the hoover bot. When this happens it will just spew trash all over the lot, and it will happen quite frequently regardless of the sims talent or mechanical skill. Personally I would avoid these and just stick with the gardener or maid, or install a mod to reduce the chance of breakage.

The Servos, when powered up become their own sims. They can be controlled, get a job and do most tasks a sim would normally do. They have and have a different set of motives comparted to a human sim, relying on sunlight for power. Servos will always have a desire to clean up, and will often do chores automatically. This is in contrast to the Servo that was introduced in Livin Large, where they had to be manually activated by the sim,

Shopping districts are introduced in the game, these are subhood’s that had can be added to an existing neighborhood. They can also be used if you run out of space on your current neighborhood. There is no hard limit on the amount of sub hoods that can be added, and sims can travel between different subhoods.

Bluewater village ships with the game and adds a few families to the game, these serve as examples of the different buisness that can be used with Open For buisness.

Tinker: Stephen, Wanda and their daughter Melody, they are currently in the toy making business and are operating it from home.
Delarosa: Florence operates a flower shop from her lot
Jacquet: Denise, with her son Gilbert who are owners of a local bakery.
Landgrabb: Malcom Landgrabb lives here, who is no stranger to The Sims having previously appeard in the console games (Bustin Out). Dudley and Mimi do not appear and there is no mention of them in the family tree.
Ramirez: Checo, Lisa and their daughter Tessa, live on a fairly typical household lot. There is a lemonade stand outside which Tessa can use to sell lemonade. Both parents are unemployed, so Tessa must be shitfing some Lemonade to pay the bills
Gieke: Family bin sim, can be moved onto any lot he can afford.
Larson: Twins Jason and Jodie, who currently do not have a business (or a lot) of their own.

Conclusion

Open For Business adds a lot of new features to the game, but the implementation is not without flaws. NPC/Townie sims will constantly try to interact with your employees which can cause then to be unassigned from their tasks, leaning into the micromanagement element of the game. NPC sims also tend to hang around on lots even after they have finished shopping, often getting into fights with other sims which can affect the business ranking (which is unfair). Often you will have to manually dismiss these sims off the lot to prevent your rating from tanking, or so the game will actually spawn sims that will buy items. A quirk of The Sims 2 is that the game will only spawn so many sims on a lot according to your systems capabilities and after a while, will stop spawning sims because the existing sims are wandering around the lot or are playing outside.

The employee system could have been implemented better as its not always easy to tell when they need to go on a break, and they often quit for no reason even whilst on break. Thankfully there are mods that can fix this.

SimCity 4

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The SimCity series was one of the first simulation games to gain widespread popularity, despite a lack of concrete goals or action-packed gameplay. SimCity 4 maintains this kind of sandbox play, letting players build and develop cities as they see fit. Aside from staying within the constraints of a budget and carefully avoiding a rioting populace, players are free to build whatever environment strikes their fancy. The cardinal rule in SC4 is, keep the citizens happy. As the mayor, it’s up to you to set the taxes and zone the land in such a way that your residents happily build the city you want. There’s even a terrain-building mode with all the tools to create your own topology before founding a city.

Veterans of the series will have no trouble assuming the role of mayor and will immediately begin laying down the roads, railways, economic zones, and other infrastructure. One notable feature is the addition of interlinked regions of cities even lets players create and manage economies of scale. By building transportation links in a region, cities can share resources, exchange labor pools, trade goods, and benefit from each other in dozens of other ways that weren’t possible in SimCity 3000. This also lets you be more flexible with designing your city, since you have have an industrial focused city, while another can be commercial or agricultural focused. As long as you have strong transport like between the two, you can have a very efficient network of cities. Resources like electricity and water can also be shared, at a monthly cost.

SC4 comes with seven precreated regions, some of which contain existing cities that can be played if you don’t feel like starting from scratch. Some of the remade serve as tutorials which help the player gradually learn the advanced mechanics of SC4.

Growth in SC4 is obtained by carefully placing commercial, residential, and industrial districts to encourage new development. There’s a comprehensive system for managing transportation, including roads, highways, rail, sea, and air routes. Traffic management can be challenging but rewarding when optimized, giving a sense of accomplishment when your city runs smoothly. As your city grows, important municipal services such as water, public schooling, and hospitals must be placed strategically to keep your city happy and healthy, as each building can only serve a limited area. Transport will be the first issue you may encounter, such traffic jams can make sims unhappy if your roads aren’t high enough to accommodate, solving this cane done by implementing bus stations, tram, train or monorail lines.

Although you can anticipate their needs, you can save a little money by improving services as complaints arise. Just don’t wait too long to add that water treatment plant or fire station, or your mayor rating will drop drastically and can lead to a population decrease, which means less taxes. All new mayors start with what seems like plenty of cash, but aggressive spending can lead to monthly deficits. Really, your city budget and expensive are the mainbattle here, and it’s difficult to keep themin balance witht he overall income. Slow growth is best, though the game can be too slow at times. It’s difficult to have more than a few hundred dollars cash-positive every month, and with that amount of money little expansion is possible even on the easy difficulty.

Among the tools at your disposal are graphs , colour-coded maps, and advisors who may or may not provide useful suggestions, these help provide data like which areas have the most serious crime, or which area is well educated or polluted. Residents of the city will also share their desires and frustrations in a number of ways. SC4 lets you place characters from The Sims into your city for more individualised feedback about life in your town. You can place these around the different residential locations of your city, and keep an observation of how rich or poor the different areas are and the success of your sims. They can also get ill and die, providing a reflection of the state of health in that area (pollution and access to hospitals). You might want to place several sims in different areas of economic value, to gauge the overall performance of that area.

Natural and unnatural disasters, including extraterrestrial incursion, present the most dramatic threat to any city. Although rare, meteor showers, lightning storms, and the like can level entire blocks and start fires throughout the city. Despite the damage they cause, these events are an enjoyable showcase of the improvements to the graphics in SC4, The detail available at the closest zoom level is quite striking. Individual Sims can be seen driving to the train station or enjoying a community garden.

SimCity 4 includes a day to night cycle that’s reflected on-screen, complete with vehicle headlights, streetlights, and midnight basketball games on outdoor courts. If the nighttime view is too dim for your liking, you can elect to forgo the visuals, although your city will still operate according to the cycle. For your listening pleasure, Maxis included a diverse selection of music to accompany your play. Custom MP3 files can be added if you wish to add your own music.

Versions

Windows: The original port of the game, designed for DirectX 7. This version runs fuine on modern Windows 10, but the retail disc releases will require SecuROM which Windows no longer supports. The Steam release of the game removes this requirement in favour of Steam’s own DRM. Also, this game is notorious for crashing, especially on systems that have dual core or multi-core processors (pretty much any CPU from 2006 onwards). Setting the CPU affinity to 1 in Windows Task manager has been known to help, but I still do experience crashes. Always save your cities often, preferable every 5 minutes.

This version does not natively support widescreen resolutions, or higher resolutions but can be customised to run in a specific resolution.

Mac OS X: Simcity was ported to OS X shortly after the release of the Windows version, and was only for PowerPC initially. The port is similar to the Windows version.

This version later received a Universal Binary patch that allowed the game to run natively on the Intel platform without the use of Rosetta, however this required the Rush Hour expansion to be installed.

Aspyr would later rerelease the game on the Mac App Store, and would update it to allow it to run on future versions of MacOS, enabling support for the Metal graphics API that enabled native support for higher resolutions, and 64bit support (though the game does not benefit much from this, even with a lot of mods installed). Music from iTunes can be played by using playlists, although this has issues on alter OS released (tested on Monterey) likely since Apple replaced iTunes with the Apple Music app. Still, This new version is the preferred way to play the game if you have access to a Mac.

And yes, like the Windows version the game can crashes frequently.

Conclusion

SimCity 4 isn’t a perfect game. It has a difficult learning curve, so the poor documentation and limited tutorials might frustrate players. And the gameplay suffers from some pacing and balance flaws. The time commitment to build a megalopolis from scratch is extensive, which might encourage players to just cheat instead. Still this version of SimCity is very highly regarded, and is preferred over SimCity Societies and the 2013 release of SimCity. It might be years before we will see another good SimCity game like SC4.

Knockout Kings 2003

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Knockout Kings 2003 is another instalment in EA Sports boxing series exclusively for GameCube, and is an improved version of Knockout Kings 2002 released for the PS2 and Xbox.

Knockout Kings 2003 features an all-star lineup of 45 professional boxers, past and present, with which to bring the hurt. Spanning three weight classes, the roster includes many of the sport’s all-time legends, such as Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, and Evander Holyfield, to name just a few. The game also lets you create boxers of your own in a similar fashion to the WWF/WWE games of the time.

The realism of the characters’ faces, bodies, and physical movements is good for a sixth generation console game, due largely to improved motion capture technology. The realism even extends to the cuts, bruises, and facial swelling that fighters take over the course a match, making the fights more true-to-life than ever before. But, the crowds? they’re about as lively as a cardboard cutout at a funeral, you can tell a lot of focus was done for the fighters rather than the crowd. Only downside to the graphics being it runts in interlaced mode instead of offering a progressive mode, which would have been ideal for a past faction game like this. There is a fair bit of interlacing as a result.

For one or two players looking to jump right into the action, Exhibition mode is the quickest way to get going. Just choose your boxers, pick from one of ten possible arenas, and you’re ready to fight. For a slightly bigger game, try Tournament mode, featuring four or eight boxers fighting for the title in single-elimination matches — though only the first two controllers are supported. And for a single player, there’s Career mode, in which you’ll take a boxer from total obscurity to the rank of heavyweight champion, fighting every boxer in the game along the way. You can create your own boxer from scratch, is where Knockout Kings 2003 tries to keep you coming back for more. It’s cool at first, customizing your dude and climbing the ranks, but after a while, it feels like you’re just fighting the same guys with different names.

New are the Slugfest and Slugfest Battle modes, improved versions of the no-holds barred Slugfests that appeared in earlier editions of the game. In the two virtually identical modes, there are no rounds, no bells, and no rules to interfere with the action. Instead, knockouts, knockdowns, or throw-for-throw points determine winners. You’ll also find yourself able to pull special moves, respond to audience call-outs, and use the new Pain-O-Meter to ensure maximum injury to your opponent. All those options make Slugfest a welcome addition to the game.

There’s a good technical game to be had here, and given some time you’ll discover its subtleties. There’s still no guarantee that your game will be entirely tactical, but Knockout Kings 2003 comes as close to a real boxing sim as anything else out there. Only so much depth can be found in any game based mainly on jabs, hooks, and uppercuts, and calling a game the best boxing title on the market doesn’t guarantee that it’s enjoyable. Fortunately, there’s just as much fun to be had from raw button-mashing as there is from playing with skill, although the fun will probably be shorter lived.

But the game offers little else in the way of improvements over last year’s version. The menus have been redesigned, as has the career ladder. The roster has been updated, and there are a few new arenas to choose from. There is also a new long-term health feature in Career mode, designed to add realism to your boxer’s career. But as this turns out to be little more than mandatory recovery time between fights, it doesn’t add much to the game.

For a game based on two players making repeated contact with each other, you’d think that creating realistic surface collisions would have been a priority for the developers. But you don’t need to look too closely to see that successful punches don’t always hit the other boxer. At the moment of contact, fist and face can be as much as half a foot apart. This becomes all the more obvious during the slow-motion replays that occur with each knockdown, where certain camera angles reveal an agonizing lack of true contact between the two fighters’ bodies.

Another irritating feature is the ten-count that occurs once a fighter is down. Unlike replays, these can’t be skipped. Like it or not, you’re left waiting for the action to resume every time someone hits the floor. Add to this the questionable background warp that indicates the wooziness of your fallen fighter, and you really will want to get up and start punching someone. But these are minor downsides to a game that is otherwise strong overall. The boxers are faithfully designed and accurate to their real life counterparts. The in-game commentary is also notably well done, adding tremendous realism to the game by reacting to your moves. The controls are tight and easy to use, resulting in a game that mimics the psychology of real boxing.

For GameCube owners, this was the only boxing game for a while, so you were limited with choice, in spite of its problems this remains a decent boxing game. It’s good for some competitive fun even if you’re not particularly into the sport. The differences between it and its predecessor are minor, and for someone familiar with previous games in the series, that might come as a letdown. But if you think of this game strictly as an attempt to bring world-class boxing to the GameCube, then Knockout Kings 2003 undeniably does its job.

The Sims 2 – University Life Collection

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A compilation of an expansion pack and two stuff packs.

University

One of the first expansion packs released for The Sims 2, Here sims can move up in the world by entering into the world of higher education. They can move into a dorm, enroll in a class and graduate (or flunk). Sims who have graduated have access to additional careers when they return to their home hood.

It’s worth mentioning the game tries to portray American college life, which will differ if you are not from the US. If your familiar with college-era TV shows like Undergradz, Blue Mountain State, etc, then you should be aware with what the expansion pack is trying to portray.

A new life stage is introduced, Young Adult. This is only available to sims that have enrolled in University, normal sims aging from teens to age to an adult if they choose not to go to university.

Dorms are shared housing that sims can live on. These are cheaper to live in as they do not require rent (though bills must be paid). Each dorm can have a caterer who will serve food in the canteen area. When moving in, sims will need to allocate a dorm room which is where they will sleep in. Other sims will move into any of the vacant form bedrooms.

Regular houses can also be bought, though this is harder since sims are only given 500 to start with for university. This can be increased by applying to scholarships whilst they are a teenager, which depends on the levels of skills, school grade and circumstances (like having a dead parent or an alien sim)

NPC teenagers can be aged to a young adult and made playable in University, the ‘Send sims to Uni’ button in the neighborhood screen can be used for sending sims in bulk.

Sims’ academic performance is tracked through a GPA (Grade Point Average) system. Attending classes, completing assignments, and studying all contribute to a Sim’s academic success. Not having a good enough grade can cause the sim to enter academic prohibition where they will have to repeat the semester.

University comes with its own NPCs. There are a lot of professors who serve as lecturers, which the game allocates two to each subject. Sims will automatically meet these when they attend class, and will sometimes come over to visit as a regular NPC. They can be interacted with and romances, which can be used to get a higher grade. Be careful with the drama professors, they are very romantic and are sure to cause trouble.

Other NPCs include school mascots which will visit the lot and will constantly perform the school dance. Gym teachers who will instruct sims to work out, and Streakers who are students who run around in the buff.

Lastly there is also a Cow mascot which will appear to wreak havoc with other sims, since it’s implied to be from a rival school. I’m guessing campus security isn’t that great.

The Universities

There are three pre-made university sub-hoods, any of which can be attached to each neighbourhood, They are not shared across the different hoods, so each one will have their own copy of lots, dorms and sims.

La Fiesta Tech – Set on a desert, similar to Strangetown. IDK why they named it after the Ford Fiesta car?

Fraternity: Guy, Mickey and Matthew live in a household named after a Skyrim spell
Sorority: DJ, Monica, Sarah and Jessie are one of the geek house lots
Shifting Paradymes – Gunnar, Jasmine and Zoe live in a house and are supposed to be part of a band, hence the household name. They can perm on community lots that have music instruments on them (drum kit, guitar and bass)
Worthington: Francis lives here on his own
Davis – Aldric and Almeric are twin brothers who live on the same lot
Student Housing – William, Blossom and Klara are vacant students who can be moved into any lot or dorm
Terrano – Stella is the lone sim here, and the only alien sim students

Academe le Tour – Supposed to be a typical European university, hence no greek houses are included by default.

O’Feefe – Delilah live on her own here, and has an obsession with the colour yellow
Friends – Mitch and Max live here in very tiny houses. Appears there are two different house on the lot, predating the apartment concept
Sharpe: Roxie and Jonah live here, along with Roxie’s brother Edwin. Jonah looks like Carrot Top
Biggs – Marla also lives on her own here
First Year – Phineaus, Ellen and Chaz all live here in their own household and appear to be a diverse group of different personalities
Students – Emily and Tom live here and are ready to be moved into any dorm.

Sim State University

Bright: Three outcast students. Martin, Jane and Allegra, who remind me of Janice of Mean Girls
Frat Brothers: Your typical college fraternity, with Ashley (who reminds me of Dennis from Always Sunny), Castor, Joshua (the jock) and Kevin (the stoner/slacker)
Tri-Var Sorority: Tiffany, Brittany and Heather
Freshman: Similar to the first-year students from Academe Le Tour, Sam, Jared and Ty are all new to campus
Phoenix: Jimmy is implied to be a foreign exchange student, or an immigrant looking for better opportunities
Swain: Erik is on his own and is also a freshman

Students will return to the main hood once they graduate, and can be moved into any lot or move into an existing household.

Each hood has its own set of community lots, like a library where sims can upskill. Student unions where sims can interact with other sims and dedicated shops.

Greek houses are lots that have sims who are part of the fraternity. They have access to additional interactions, more of which are unlocked when you level up the house, This can be done by making more friends on campus. To become part of a Greek house, your sim will need to befriend 3-5 sims who are part of the Greek house (done by pledging through the phone.

IKEA Home Stuff

Included a bunch of furniture from IKEA. Typically included chairs, tables, beds and decorative objects. The furniture added here is quite cheap making it ideal for low-income or starter families, and for students who have just moved into college. This is also a good addition if you have the Apartment Life expansion pack.

Teen Style Stuff

Adds a lot of clothes and hairstyles for teenage sims. Mainly consists of bedroom sets like the ones seen in Family Fun stuff. these include beds, wardrobes, wallpaper, carpet and end tables that conform to a specific style. These are used to give some style of a teenage bedroom, but can also be used for regular adult sims.

The Sims 2

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The sequel to one of the best-selling games of all time.

Sims themselves were a lot more complex compared to the previous installment, with sims now being rendered entirely in 3D graphics. In the original game only the head and body could be customized with only three body types and skin colour. Sims 2 made this more diverse with four skin colours being introduced, face sliders to customize the sims appearance and more customizable cloths, (Although you couldn’t change the colour of them, which was something the console versions could do).

Body sizes remained the same with the normal, thin and fat body types, which wasn’t very diverse since the fat sims only look slightly chubby, they are nowhere near the My-600lbs-life level. Then again Maxis would have had clipping issues when the sims had close contact with another sim or object, and would have had to have various different animations for the body types.
The concept of genetics was also introduced where sims can pass on their appearance and personality through their offspring, unlike the later game this got pretty complicated with the concept of recessive and dominant genes, later games just kept it simple and combined elements of both sims.

Memories and aspirations are new concepts introduced into the game, with memories serving as achievements that are saved. Aspirations serve as an indicator to a sims mental health, by achieveing ‘Wants’ their aspiraion bar will begin to fill. Fulfilling ‘Fears’ will cause this to go down and when it enters a failure state, sims will break down and will get a visit from a therapist. Points earned from Wants are used to redeem aspiration rewards, which can be used to make skilling or social itneractions easier or to increase the sims lifespan. These cannot be bought for case, only for points.

The concept of genetics and family trees are introduced in this game, where sims can pass on their personality and appearance onto their offspring. The comcept of family relations is also present here, which special socialinteractions being made avaliable to family members.

The Hoods

The original sims game only supported one hood, with multiple hoods being a feature of several of the expansion packs, however these hoods are all set in the same location with very little diversity in the environment. Sims 2 expands on the neighborhoods by allowing the ability to have custom hoods from the base game, and even come with three neighborhoods.

Pleasentview: This is supposed to be the original neighborhood from the first Sims game, but set 25 years later with the Sims themselves having aged older. There are many familiar families like the Goths, Burb and Pleasent. Non of the original lots return, will all the houses being remodeled to take advantage of the new building tools.
Strangetown – One of my favorite hoods because of how eccentric some of the characters are, set in a remote desert.
Veronaville – Inspired by various Shakespeare plays including Romeo and Juliet and The Midsummer Knights Dream. There are three main families who have a very rich backstory. The lots follow either a tudor or an Italian design.

Hoods are based on Simcity 4 small citys, and you can even see the .sc4 file extension allowing for custom hoods to be created using Simcity 4, and then exported to The Sims 2. The terrain level and type could also be customised, although once set you cannot change this within the game. This differs from the original game which was fixedin the neighbourhood type and layout,a dn yiou were limited by the amount of lots (10 int he stock game, 48 in Unleashed) WithSims 2, you are givern the choice of quanitity or size, with larger lots occupying more space.

Pre-made sims

A lot of the premade sims have a storyline allocated to them, although this isn’t part of the gameplay itself, storytelling is a focused component of the game with the ability to take screenshots and capture video through the game. Of which can be collected into a family photo album. Some sims have premade scrips that function when you play them for the first time, some of which will introduce some of the games mechanics and features. The Calientes for example with have a scripted burglar appear on the lot at the first night

Pleasentview

Goth: Mortimer and Cassandra return 25 years older, complete in a new crib with the trademark gothic architecture and a gravestone. Alexander is the son of Mortimer and Bella, who is mysteriously missing (but can be added back into the game with either SimPE or the Sim Manipulator object) .
Pleasant: Daniel has grown up and has a wife Mary-Sue and kids of his own, twins Angels and Lilith. Daniel appears to be having an affair with the maid, whilst the twins have the worst sibling rivalry ever seen
Broke: Brandi with her son Dustin and Beau, live in what appears to be a trailer
Dreamer: Widow Darren and his son Dirk, who are struggeling to pay the bills
Oldie: An elderly couple with no kids, Coral and Herb. I normally have these adopt a kid just to keep their legacy alive, if you prefer to keep their generics there is also a mod that lets you create a baby from the crib directly.
Burb: Daniel Pleasant’s sister – Jennifer who married John Burb, who was also from the original sims game. They have a daughter. No sign of Johnny’s pet dog Tucker
Caliente – Nina and Dina – two sisters who have recently moved in and have already wrecked havoc in the neighborhood. Dina has already had an affair with Mortimer Goth, had previously married Michael Bachelor (Bella’s brother and a sim who was also in the original game). Interestingly their family tree shows they have alien ancestry
Lothario – Don who is the male counterpart to the Caliente sisters, this one also has an affair with both of them, and is engaged to be married with Cassandra Goth
There are also a few NPC’s that are well known, Kaylin Langerak (Who appears in The Sims 3), Gordon King and Goopy Gliscarbo – the NPC with the best fashion sense.

StrangeTown

Grunt: A military-esque family with General Buzz with his three sons Tank, Ripp and Buck Grunt. Tank seems to be the type of sim who is desperate for his fathers attention and tries to emulate him, Ripp seems like a slacker/stoner type who is struggling to find his feet, while Buck is the youngest. Their mother, Lydia divorced before passing away, and her grave can be found in Olive Specters garden, speaking off…
Specter: Olive Specter, one of my favourite premade sims since there is such as mystery around her, why does she have so many gravestones in her yard of different sims, why does she have positive memories of the Grim Reaper, why has she been married multiple times and why did she lose her only child to social services? Living with Olive is her niece, Ophelia who has a punk-rock style, like a black Avril Lavigne during her ‘Let Go’ era or Fefe Dobson.
Smith: The first alien hybrid family consists of Pollination technician 9, his human wife Jenny and their kids Johhny and Jill who live in a house that looks like something off Wisteria Lane (Desperate Housewives)
Singles: Four roommates with Erin (Who is related to Loki Beaker below), Kirsten and sisters Lola and Chloe.
Beaker: Loka and his wife Circe, along with their adopted slave Nervous Subject
Curious: Three brothers who live on some sort of observatory, with one of them being up the duff from an alien.
Loner: Just Ajay on his own, ready to move into a vacant lot. I typically pair him upo with a random townie

Veronaville

Capp – Consort is the oldest surviving member, with Kent and daughter’s Regan, Goneril and Cordelia, who is deceased. Goneril is married to Albany, who is ready to move into a vacant lot. Cordelia issurvived by Juliet, Hermia and Tybalt who live with Consort.
Monty – Based on the Montague family from Romeo & Juliet, Isabella is the matriach of the family, with Antonio and Biana present in the family bin, ready to move into an empty lot.
Summerdream – Oberon and Titania, and their kids Puck and Bottom.

Theres a shocking lack of Macbeth here, maybe that was too spicy for the game?

The new NPC’s

Most of the existing NPC’s serve a similar purpose to the previous game, but you can now interact them by talking or tipping them. If your sim builds up a relationship with them they can also move in with them.

Typical nanny experiance — Your typical nanny experiance

Nanny: These will take care of your child and toddler sims and can be set to track your sims work schedule so they will arrive before your sims are due for work. Unfortunately the Nanny’s are either incompetent or senile as they will often neglect the children and will go off and do something else whilst the babies are crying. Also the default-generated nanny’s seen to have very low nice personality points and will constantly fight with your sim. And they will constantly cook meals when there is no need to, and will also keep fetching baby bottles from the fridge despite there being plenty avaliable. Still, they are useful for keeping the social worker at bay.
Bartender: Useful for parties, they will tend the bur and will refill and serve drinks.
Exterminator: Will remove roaches, but not flies from the lot. You still need to clean up after them but they are useful against large swarms of them.

Dina left the front door unlocked again…

The Maid, Repairman, and Gardener continue to appear and can be contacted through the phone.

Deluxe Edition

This edition comes with the base game and the Nightlife expansion, another edition exists that adds the items from the Celebration expansion.

The Sims Nightlife

Developed similar to the Hot Date expansion pack for the original Sims, Nightlife was intended to bring added depth and variety to the social and nighttime activities of Sims in the game. The expansion aimed to provide players with more opportunities for their Sims to engage in exciting nightlife experiences and explore new aspects of their virtual lives. Here are some of the key intentions behind the expansion:

Downtown is where a lot of these new lots are located, and it can be added to any neighborhood in the game. Once added, Sims can call a taxi or drive to Downtown. Sims can also live in downtown lots, as there are residential lots available.
For shops, books, magazines and video games can be purchased from downtown stores, so sims are no longer stuck with SSX3. Video games that can be brought are references to other Sims games like SimCity 4 and The Sims Bustin Out

Like the regular neighborhood lots, Downtown is entirely customizable and new lots can be added and edited as normal lots.

A few new objects have been added, with mobile phones being featured for the first time that enable sims to make phone calls on the go which does not require a landline (no text messaging though). A handheld gaming console can also be purchased along with an MP3 player which plays the same music as the radio stations.

Dates are also a new concept to the game, where sims can ask others on a downtown date. Although this was in the first game, a new scoring meter which determines how well the date has gone based on social interactions and the amount of wants fulfilled during the date. You will be able to see the other sims wants to help fulfill them. Sims are rewarded for getting a high score, they may receive a gift or a card in the mail.

Cars are a welcome addition to the game where sims can drive to different community lots (but not residential lots) This was a similar concept to Bustin out. Sims must purchase and make room for a driveway on the lot, which a lot of the default Maxis lots had little to no support for and require adjustment. Adults can use their car to drive to work, replacing the carpool. They can also drive to work if they miss the carpool, though they are warned if they repeatedly come to work late. Teenagers can also drive which is useful if they miss the school bus.

No premande sims are included unless you count the mysterious Tricou family. There are exclusive Downtown NPCs that will only appear on Downtown lots and are generally intended for dating.

DLC

Shortly after release, EA offered official downloads for the game, which could be downloaded under the ‘Get Cool Stuff’ section of the website. One of which was a Running With Scissor’s, where your sim will pick up and run around with a pair of scissors. Some sort of PSA from Maxis on why you shoudn’t run around with sicssors. There is also an Alienware PC which gives a lot of Fun, but was never upgraded for alter expansions which means it cannot take advantage of features introduced in University (Like completing assignments or scholraships) but modded versions are available which support these features.

The Nightlife expansion also featured exclusive DLC in the from of downloadable Ford cars.

FUSE

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FUSE is a third-person shooter video game developed by Insomniac Games and released in 2013 for the Xbox 360. The game follows a team of four agents known as Overstrike 9 who are tasked with recovering an alien substance called Fuse that has been stolen by a rogue paramilitary organization.

The gameplay in FUSE is primarily focused on co-op multiplayer, where players control the different members of Overstrike 9 with unique abilities and weapons. The game also features a single-player mode where the player can switch between characters on the fly, and an online multiplayer mode that includes cooperative and competitive gameplay. Co-op is where “Fuse” was supposed to shine, but it felt like a missed opportunity. The AI wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, making the single-player experience kinda meh. Plus, the lack of real innovation in the co-op mechanics didn’t help it stand out.

The gameplay in FUSE is solid, with responsive controls and satisfying gunplay. The game also features a cover system that is easy to use and adds a tactical element to the combat. The game’s weapons are diverse and interesting, with each character having access to a unique weapon that can be upgraded over time.

However, one of the main criticisms of FUSE is that it doesn’t do anything particularly new or innovative. While the game’s co-op gameplay is well-executed, it doesn’t introduce any new mechanics or ideas to the genre. The game’s storyline is also fairly predictable and doesn’t offer any surprises.

Additionally, the game’s graphics and presentation are somewhat underwhelming, especially compared to other games released around the same time. The game’s environments are often repetitive and lack detail, and the character models and animations are somewhat stiff.

Characters

One of the strengths of FUSE is its varied cast of characters, each with their own unique playstyle and abilities.

Dalton Brooks – the team leader who specializes in heavy weapons and defense. In combat, Dalton is a heavy weapons specialist, favoring powerful and explosive weapons such as rocket launchers and grenade launchers. He is also the team’s tank, with the ability to deploy his Magshield, a powerful energy barrier that protects him and his teammates from incoming fire. Outside of combat, Dalton is portrayed as a somewhat gruff and reserved character, but with a dry sense of humor. He has a complex relationship with Naya Deveraux, his former lover who betrayed him and the team in the past.

Throughout the course of the game, Dalton confronts his troubled past and the fallout from his relationship with Naya. As the team faces increasingly dangerous foes, Dalton must overcome his own inner demons and learn to trust his teammates in order to succeed. Overall, Dalton is a strong and compelling character. He’s also pretty huge, looking like a Gears Of War character.

Naya Deveraux – the stealthy assassin who can turn invisible and use her enhanced agility to take out enemies silently.

Naya’s gameplay revolves around her expertise in stealth and precision. She can use her warp rifle to create wormholes, allowing her to manipulate enemies’ positions and open up strategic opportunities for her team. With her assassin skills, Naya is lethal at close range, and players can utilize her abilities to flank enemies and take them down swiftly and silently.

As with the other characters in “Fuse,” Naya’s powers and abilities are meant to complement the rest of the team, encouraging players to work together and use each character’s unique traits to overcome challenges throughout the game.

Izzy Sinclair – the tech expert who uses her Fuse-powered energy barriers to protect the team and heal them in battle. Izzy’s playstyle focuses on using her unique weapon to control the battlefield. By creating black holes, she can disorient and suck enemies into the void, leaving them vulnerable to attacks from her and her teammates. Additionally, her technological skills are essential for hacking systems, gaining access to secure areas, and providing support during missions.

Jacob Kimble – the team sniper who can create miniature black holes to suck enemies into or fire devastating shots with his Fuse-powered weapon. Jacob’s playstyle focuses on precision and tactics. As a sniper, he can take out enemies from a distance and eliminate high-priority targets with ease. His Arcshot crossbow, in particular, allows for some creative and devastating attacks, as the electric bolts can chain between multiple enemies, causing collateral damage.

Versions

FUSE was only released on consoles, it was never officially released on the PC. There isn’t really any major difference between the two consoles, as the game was released late into the console’s lifetime, it’s a pretty well-optimized game.

Xbox 360: Works fine and can be installed to the HDD through the dashboard, but is not compatible with the Xbox One

PlayStation 3: Performs just as well as the 360 version, clearly Insomniac have used their expertise from their previous PS3 titles to take advantage of the Cell processor.

The Sims Superstar

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Sims get their 15 minutes…

The sixth expansion pack where sims can get famous by following specific careers such as Acting, becoming a Model or a musician (Even though careers for these existed in the base game, and sims in those existing careers already do not gain any fame) It also introduced a new studio town community lot and a set of new objects.

Studio Town and Fame

Studio Town has a very 1950s Hollywood theme to it, since this was considered the golden era of Hollywood on which Studio Town is based on. Many lots consist of shopping sections, but will also cater to various different types of fame, with some being geared towards music, acting or fashion/modelling. Even if your sim is not part of the fame career, regular sims can still visit lots as guests and can interact with most of the objects.

To get to Studio Town, your sim will need to call for transportation, which will take them to Studio Town, from the lot select screen, you can highlight lots that cater to either fashion, acting, music, shopping or spa locations. Like other commercial lots, studio town can he customized by the player by entering a lot directly from the neighborhood view. Objects are grouped by the type and function of studio town lots (Food, Shops, Studio and Spa)

Also if you’ve played The Sims Bustin Out, some of the buy mode music will sound familiar 😉

Fame is measured through a level represented by stars, with sims staring out at level 0. Higher levels let your sim have access to further opportunities and will change the vehicle used to transport you to Studio Town, eventually being transported in a custom limousine.

At 0 stars you will only have access to karaoke or open mics which makes sense for the musician or acting paths, but not for modeling. As you level up you will have access to photo shoots and print adverts.
Getting 1 star lets you record Jingles at a recording studio, and 1.5 stars let’s you record a TV commercial. As you progress, more fame objects will become available for your sim to use. You will also notice your sims name in the Who’s Hot section of the Superstar leaflet.

The maximum is 5 stars, which will give you access to all fame objects and opportunities on the Studio Town lots.

Objects

DSTS Satellite Dish – Adds a few extra channels to all televisions on the lot, increasing the fun rating depending on your Sims personality and interests. Its appearance is similar to the old BUD C-band dishes that were huge (around 3m in diameter) that was common in the 80s, compared to the smaller satellite dishes that can fit on your house.

Ponce de Leon Tub – Increases your sims hygiene and comfort but is very time-consuming to use. It takes nearly a sim hour for them to get out, with is bad to use it before they go to work.

Whisper Steam Personal Steamer – A steamer for your sim, increases hygiene and comfort.

Flatscreen TV – a television that can be wall mounted to save space, and gives the same motive increase as the plasma screen does.

Uncle Roger’s Culinary Offerings – A buffet table similar to what was included in House Party or On Holiday, your sim just needs to set it for a fee and sims can grab a variety of meals from it.

The Face of Shakespeare – A high end bookcase that has an additional option to practice soliloquy which increases the charisma skill

Scuba Tank – Sims can enter this tank, although it takes some time for them to enter it. Increases their fun score.

Galileo’s Free-For-All – A mini skydiving simulator

Energize! Oxygen Bar – A bar that sims can sit down on, increases comfort and fun, and social if multiple sims use it

Movie Posters – These can be purchased in Studio Town and then can be decorated into your sims home when they return. Your sim will place them on the nearest surface, which you can then placed in build mode.

NPCs

Butler – Alternative to the maid, although he does much more (gardening, greeting and preparing meals) and stays for a lot longer.

Obsessed Fan – Appears after your sim gains two or more stars, these will follow your sim around studio town and will appear randomly on your lot. They may also rummage through your sims trash and leave black roses on their lot. Having a butler helps shoo them away.

Lana -A helper NPC that your sim can use to find out different aspects of Superstar like the fame system, fans awards and name dropping to boost social.

Celebrities – A few real life celebrities appear int he game like Marylin Monroe, Avril Lavigne and . Additional celebrity NPCs could also be downloaded from The Sims website and have been archived. Andy Warhol also appears as one of the fashion set managers.

Conclusion

Studio town was a nice addition to The Sims but was lacking in several places, especially with the residential lots. Where are the mansions, studio apartments and condo’s for the sims to live in? The fame careers could have been integrated better as the base game already features a musician and actor career paths, neither of these have any effect in studio town.

The Sims 3 Late night is considered the spiritual successor for The Sims 3, the closest for Sims 2 would be Nightlife, but that’s more geared with Hot Date.

The Sims Unleashed

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The fifth expansion pack to be released, Unleashed brings a significant change to The Sims, with the addition of pets, larger neighborhoods that can hold more sims and new game elements such as farming and commercial lots.

Whilst Unleashed brought new improvements, it noticeable made the game more unstable and brought some frustrating changes to the gameplay. One noticeable change is sims have issues moving and turning and will sometimes rotate multiple times when interacting with an object.

Some pets will occasionally come onto your lot and piss everywhere, leaving a bunch of puddles randomly outside your sims house, and will trash the outdoor room motive when your sim goes out for work. Also, any malicious animal that spawns will sound the burglar sound, which can startle or surprise some players, but given how frequently these will spawn the effect will eventually wear off and will become more annoying to the player as they play the game.

Neighborhood

One of the first noticeable changes is the neighborhood screen which sees an increase of playable lots from 10 to around 48. With it is a new lot zone type, commercial. The main difference is a commercial lot is intended to be visited by multiple sims where they can shop or explore. Commercial lots cannot be visited directly from the neighborhood screen, but they can be edited which gives access to buy and build mode. To access a commercial lot, your sim will need to phone up for the Old Town bus which will arrive, and all sims on the lot will be transported to the commercial lot that you choose. These lots cannot be edited whilst sims are visiting, the Build and Buy modes are disabled.

Typically commercial lots will consist of shops, such as a pet store where pets can be adopted, along with any pet accessories. Traditional lots are renamed as residential lots and is where sims reside as they did in the previous expansion packs. Additional neighborhoods still exist as they did in previous expansion packs.

Pets

Two types of pets are featured in the game, mainly cats or dogs which can be adopted by sims themselves. Other pets exist such as budgies which are treated by the game engine as objects, similar to the fish tank that was included in the base game where sims have to feed them every so often.

Skills can be taught to your pets to make them more obedient, this is harder than expected since pets will most of the time go off and do their own thing. The best thing to do is to use the Sit n’ stay command to build the obedience skill, which will make the other skills easier to build up. This interaction only works when your sim is near your pet.

Objects

The Aviary – A bird cage to keep birds that have been purchased at the petstore, You need to frequently feed the bird in a similar manor to the fish tank to keep the pet alive.

Sims can play with their pet birds which boosts their fun and social. Two types of birds can be stored here, Love Birds and Budgies. Cats will also try to play with the cage.

Speaky Scarlet – A pet parrot that can be purchased from buy mode. Sims can talk to it to boost their charisma skill

Ceti the Happy Whale – A playground item that child sims can play on, boosts fun and can be played in groups

Squeak-EE-Clean Pet Tub – Used to wash your pets, can be used with both dogs and cats, requires regular feeding

Forgotten Jungle Terrarium – Used to house a pet iguana

Other expansion packs featured pet objects like the gerbil featured in Livin It Up (Livin Large), or the fish tank from the base game. These remain unchanged although pets may interact with them.

Commercial Lots Only

SpueakNip Pet Toys

Only for commercial lots, sims can purchase toys for their pets. Requires a nearby cash register

Notable NPCs

Giuseppi Renni and Mr McCutch

A musical duo that appears on Old Town lots and will entertain your sims, can be tipped 5 Simoleans

Gardener Bob

Appears on Old Town lots that sell seeds and vegetables, sims can buy plant tonic for their crops and get advice on how to grow their own crops

Pet Judge

Appears on lots that have pet judging podiums, he can tell you further details on pet judging.

Pet Trainer

This sim will appear on the pet store or anywhere you can adopt a pet. Can be used to train your pet for an increasing fee, dependent on your pets skill level.

W.C. Friendly

A jazz player that appears on cafe lots (any lot that has a barista/coffee or pastry stand)

Farming

Sims can grow crops by purchasing seeds from an Old Town merchant and planting them, which can be used for food, or produce can be sold in Old Town for money. Growing crops requires a certain amount of effort as sims will need to water, weed and protect the farm from animals or gophers. A buyable scarecrow or a pet cat can help with this, depending on the hunting skill of the pet. Once the crops have been harvested, they can be stored in a pantry or sold at the farmers market.

Garden plots can be found in the gardening section of build mode.

Sims can also purchase produce on certain Old Town shopping lots, if the sim has no room to farm. To store crops for cooking, you will need to purchase a pantry to store the produce in.

Residents

Unleashed also introduces a few new pre-made families to play.

Burb: Brad and his wife Tiffany, with their son Johnny and their dog, Tucker. This family would later appear in The Sims 2.
Charming: Consists of Claire Charming, with her pet dog Luna
Hick: Mama Hick and her son Elden live in what appears to be a trailer, with their three dogs.
Goth Sr: Parents of Mortimer Goth.
Kat: A single female with four cats, Yup a spinster.

Other Additions

The phonebook has been expanded to a dialog box now appears when calling neighbors. Previously sims were called from the pie menu which would also include any known townies or vacation sims if those expansion packs were installed. Services remain the same as their own section in the pie menu.

Five new careers are included – Fashion, Education, Animal care, Culinary and Circus.

MacOS Version

The game was also ported to the MacOS platform, and makes full use of the Carbon library which gives it OS X and OS 9 compatibility. As this was released in the PowerPC era, you cannot play it on modern OS X versions (10.7 Lion upwards, as these versions of OS X lack PowerPC support) On modern Mac’s it’s easier to use Boot Camp and use the Windows version of the game, but for M1 Macs you may prefer to use an emulator like QEMU or Sheepsaver to emulate an OS 9 PowerPC environment, which the game will run.

Conclusion

Unleashed was a dramatic upgrade to the sims engine, adding new specific to the game, expanding the neighborhood and the type of lots that can be used. I would say this was one of the more important expansions of The Sims as whilst previous expansions added features to the existing game, and expansions like Hot Date added their own expanded areas (Downtown), Unleashed dramatically replaced many game mechanics and in some ways feels like a sequel rather than an expansion. This was also one of the first expansions to ship on two CD’s, highlighting the amount of changes and value being added to the game.

Tragically this expansion never made it to the console versions, which deviated int heir own direction with the release of The Sims Bustin Out and URBZ Sims in the City.

Theme Hospital

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A hospital simulation game from The makers of Theme Park. Whilst its not an accurate simulator like Sim Healthcare, its still a lot of fun and has a lot of Bullfrog-type humor.

You start off with a blank empty hospital building, First thing to pop down is the reception desk, which is where patents will flock to when they first enter your hospital, of which they are then referred to the GP’s Office. Here you will want to build further diagnosis and treatment rooms as the patents demand for them.

GP’s Office: Used to find out what’s wrong with the patent. Usually a doctor in the GP’s office will be able to diagnose the patents depending on their skill set, but some will require the patient to refer to another diagnosis room to find out what type of illness the patient has. This room gets very busy as patients will return to this room until they are diagnosed, but not when they are cured. A good tactic is to build one near the diagnosis rooms like the X-ray or Scanner to help deduce the load. If you have a consultant doctor, you will want to place them in the GP’s Office as they are better at diagnosing illness than a regular or junior doctor.

Ward: Used for both diagnosis and treatment, this is managed by a Nurse. Wards can be sized quite large, and more than one bed can be placed. Patents will also rest here before entering the Operating Theatre. Beds can only be placed at a specific angle, so don’t make the room too big otherwise its wasted space.

Pharmacy: Used to administer a wide range of drugs used to cure patients. Operated by a nurse, you will need to build multiple Pharmacy’s later on in the game since this will cure a majority of illness.

Psychiatric: Like the ward this is also used for diagnosis and treatment. Requires a doctor with the Psychiatrist qualification. Bookcases and a skeleton can be added, not sure if this has any affect on the diagnosis?

Further diagnosis rooms consist of the Cardiogram, Scanner, X-Ray and Ultrascan, these are unlocked after research and require regular maintenance by an handyman. These machines get better through further research and can withstand multiple usage cycles and earthquakes. Since these rooms are only used to cure a single illness, you probably only need one per hospital, but in the case of emergency’s where up to 14 patients can arrive at the same time with the same illness, you may need to build another to satisfy demand.

Clinics are also treatment rooms that use machines to cure patients, again these are also unlocked as you progress through the game, the the inflation clinic being unlocked from the start. Slack Tongue Clinic and Fracture Clinic are two examples that are used to treat specific illness.

The Facilities are rooms that help your hospital to function and are required to progress to the next level: Toilets are used to stop patents from making a mess in your hospital, of which multiple toilets will need to be placed in larger hospitals. Usually one toilet per building is needed. A staff room allows staff to relax and replenish their energy with further objects being able to be researched like an arcade video game that reduced the time needed for staff to stay in the staff room. The Research Dept, unlocked from level 3 onwards allows your hospital to unlock new illnesses, rooms and machines, along with improving the effectiveness of your drugs which helps prevent accidental death by your staff. There is also an autopsy function that requires a sacrifice of a patient that will boost research for that illness, but carry’s a risk of a reputation drop if this is discovered.

Lastly there is a training room that allows doctors to learn new qualifications by a consultant level doctor. A problem here is doctors in training can also become consultants, which prevent them from learning new skills. This can be annoying when you are in the middle of training a new surgeon, only for him to become a consultant which stops skill progression.

Micromanagement

As you run your hospital, there are several elements that you need to manage

Staff Happiness: How happy are your staff, placing them in larger rooms with plants and heating will make them happier, otherwise they may demand a salary increase

Heating: Radiators need to be installed and set to an acceptable level, cold hospitals can affect the reputation and happiness of staff

Upkeep: Patients will litter the hospital as they remain in your hospital, ensure you have Handymen to clean up after them. Plants also require watering by handymen. Lastly, rats can infest the hospital and can be shot by quickly placing your mouse cursor over a moving rat.

Emergency’s: These start to appear from level 3 onwards, you must cure the specified amount of patients within the time limited to earn the bonus.

Research: as you build the first Research Department, you can monitor and focus on different aspects of research, if you prefer to have a focus on drug effectiveness or for diagnosis machines

Epidemics: These start to occur past level 6 and require you to treat all patients with the specified illness before the health minister arrives at your hospital.

Earthquakes: These can actually happen which results in the screen shaking rapidly, patients may fall to the ground but I don’t believe they die. The main issue is the damage to the machines, make sure they have been repaired by the handyman and they have adequate strength or the machines will be destroyed, rendering the room to be useless. I recommend replacing machines that have less than 5 units of strength.

Network Play

This requires a patch to be installed which adds network play support to the game which can then be accessed by choosing the middle part of the skull in the menu. The game is reliant on IPX or serial protocols to communicate with another player. For Windows 95/98 you need to ensure the IPX protocol stack is installed and enabled, which isn’t done by default. You can install it by clicking on the ‘Add’ button and selecting the Protocol, then IPX Comparable Protocol from the Microsoft group. You will have to reboot your system and might need the Windows 9x install CD to finish install.

I was able to get this working over 86Box using a PCap configured network using two 86BOX VMs, setting the VMWare network adaptors seemed to work the best. Both players have access to the same map and must complete with each other for land, when purchasing land a bidding war is started between all players on the map. Objectives are given every six months which determines who wins the game, the game continues until one player loses.

Original PC MS-DOS/Win32

A hybrid DOS/Windows 32bit game which can run under either environment. Whilst designed for Windows 95 it will happily work under Windows 98 and ME.

A patch was released for the game which fixes a few bugs, adds a difficultly level adjusted and support for IPX network play.

The game is also capable of running under DOS, which might be useful for low end PCs since its not reliant on Windows 95 running in the background.

No Macintosh version was release for this game, which is odd for a simulation game released in this era.

CorsixTH

This is a remake of the original game using a custom engine designed for more modern Windows operating systems, and has been ported to Linux based operating systems. Highly recommend as this allows the game to un in higher resolutions (tested up to 2560×1440) and fixes a lot of bugs that plagued the original game.

Sony PlayStation

The game was ported to the Sony PlayStation shortly after the PC release. Running in a lower resolution and missing the background music which removes a lot of charm to the game. Its also a bitch to play since the game has poorly adapted the user interface from the PC version. You have to use the controller to navigate the cursor onscreen to select the dialog boxes, instead of just mapping them to the PlayStation face buttons which makes it time consuming to perform simple actions.

Rooms are also fixed in size, which does make it easier to play via the controller.

This was also related as a PSone classic for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable.

X-Squad

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One of the PS2 launch titles, try doing this on a Dreamcast

A third person sort of FPS where you shoot stuff. The main plot of the game is set in the year 2037, terrorists have taken over a military base and it’s up to the X-Squad to restore it, following the failure of the previous W-Squad mentioned in the game.

The game is similar in concept to SOCOM and Ghost Recon where you can issue squad commands to your teammates, typically 3 members. These are fairly basic as you can only command them to be oppressive or stealth/defensive.

The game UI, screams early 2000 era design and is where you can manage your inventory. At the end of each level you will earn points depending on the difficulty the level was completed at. You can use these to purchase new weapons, ammunition, shields and gadgets to help complete the next level. You can also find pickups, like leftover ammunition when you kill an enemy to keep your character going.

You can also manage your teammates inventories, and can juggle weapons, health kits between them.

The Squad

John Ash Connors: The main character and the only character you can control. Only 26 years old and has grey/silver hair.

Maya Esteves: One of your teammates who is with you the most, has a tendency to get shot and run out of health, which requires you to constantly transfer health packs to keep her in the game

Judd: A large son of a bitch, standing 6ft 8 and weighing 250 pounds. For his height he appears out of scale since compared to his squad mates, appearing only slightly taller.

Melinda Swanson: Not one for conversation from going by the cutscenes, both her and Judd will occasionally go and do their own thing mid-mission, leaving you stuck with Maya

Colonel Clifford: You encounter this geezer midway through level 4 and he becomes a teammate for the rest of levels 4 and 5. Although his health indicator is set on yellow, he cannot die thankfully, but he ain’t a good shooter.

Dr. Biana: Not a direct squadmate but you encounter her often. Walks around with a briefcase and talks about some Medusa project

As mentioned, Your squadmates can be ordered around to some extent, by giving them commands. You can choose for them to be offensive where they will attack when they come into contact with enemies, or defence/stealth where they will only shoot when attacked.
Each member has a limited amount of weight they can handle, which affects the number of weapons they can carry, with Judd being able to carry the most. It’s best to leave the heavy weapons with him.

The game gives off a very Unreal Tournament / Perfect Dark-like vibe when you look at the level design and the electronic/techno-inspired background music. The main characters also look like UT player models. Considering UT came out one year before this game did (1999), you can see they were influenced by it.

Levels

There are 9 levels in total

Most levels consist of you going from one area to another, in order to get to the end. Many have areas blocked off and require you to find a switch in order to unlock the door/lasers in order to progress through, some of which are located on the exact opposite of the level.

The design of the levels isn’t very diverse, with you running around an underground tunnel/area. There seem to be no areas set outside

Level 1: Set in a waste disposal facility, a pleasant start to the game and an introduction to the game mechanics.
Level 2: Has nice chilled music to listen to as you explore the level which is nice since it starts off in a sewer and ends in a waste disposal unit.
Level 3: This one gets frustrating, since you are stuck in an ugly maze-like environment, it’s easy to get confused due to how similar the corridors look, with the only major difference being the floor colour. It took me half an hour to find all the switches needed to progress. There’s no end boss but you do have to free the prisoners at the end.
Level 4: Set in an abandoned tramway, here you meet the cornel and his side chick for the first time. The objective here is to escort the two of them to the lab using the tram tunnels. The end boss of this level is a horde of guards, so make sure you have plenty of ammo and health kits.
Level 5: We battle our way in a laboratory, this time we are missing Judd, who has been replaced with Clifford
Level 6: More of the same, it’s set in some sort of a recreation area, although it looks just the same as the other areas. Boss level is set again a large tank, of which your teammates will be incapacitated almost immediately.
Level 7: There are a few areas where you will be ambushed and will have enemies firing from all sides, thankfully there are spaces where you can take cover, although try telling your AI teammates that.
Level 8: This one was a bit awkward as some corridors are a bit tight, and some are set near ledges where you can fall to your death. You simply walk around the map flipping switches until you unlock the least door. There is one switch that is placed in an awkward spot, where your character can easily fall through and die. There’s no jump button so you have to run over the gap and hope for the best. The end boss is brutal, you get ambushed by four enemies that will continuously respawn even if you kill them, and Simpson who is equipped with an overpowered weapon.
Level 9: This is where the game shits itself. At the start, you have to contend with enemies that are triple shields, and a good amount of ammo is wasted just having to deal with these. Then you have a boss battle with a large chopper, which will fire heat-seeking missiles repeatedly. At this point the game becomes a glitch fest, in one instance I got landed with a Game Over screen even though my character was still moving and my health bar still have some life it in, Other times my character was alive but the camera had glitched out to an overhead view and was unable to shoot.

I’d say the game was rushed towards the later levels since there are quite a few glitches. Even in the ending cutscene on Youtube they had issues animating the mouth of the characters

Misc Notes

The game only supports 4:3 output, no widescreen here.

From browsing the games disc, Internally the game seems to compress most files into multiple BZP archives, this includes the levels and the opening movies themselves. I have not found a way to decompress these files, and its likely an internal format that EA/Square use.

Links

EA X-Squad Homepage

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