The Sims Pet Stories

The Sims Pet Stories is a game-creation tool that lets you design your own personal furry friend from scratch, customize other animals and families, build your own cats, and play over the internet.

The game comes in two parts: My Pet Hands and My Pet Complete. The My Pet Hands, used in The Sims and The Sims 2: Bon Voyage, allows you to import your pets and then upload them to the game's online community. The Sims Pet Collection lets you import your sim into your online community, which will work with the Sims 3 game. Your pets can live with you in your pet community, and you can also play with them on other households. You'll have the ability to "mute" your pets, and your pets will sing as if they were puppets. The Create-a-Sims 3 game mode is also incorporated, and it lets you make your pets do a bit of custom dancing to the song and song in the song. Your pets can also have as much or as little personality as you like.

There's no denying that The Sims 2 is an amazing game. It's got an enormous library of content, and the online community can even support the game. We've seen plenty of popular creations, and in fact, players have made over 60 different items, such as toys and banners. Players have come up with impressive creations, and EA has been actively improving and tweaking their creations. If players want to make their sims as rock stars, they can do that. For the record, The Sims 2 players can upload their very own movie performances, and they can even do "Rabbitbread" music. The songs have been updated to accommodate those gamers who would like to show off their creations, which is nice. The Movies and T-Shirts let players dance to those songs, and a variety of make-up and custom animations have also been included. We saw lots of cool uses for their creations.

GS: The Sims 2 was released in late August of 2000, and it was an instant hit. Are you happy with the current reception to the game, and are you satisfied with the general experience?

CW: With The Sims 2 we were the most successful and lasting release of our first game, and to our surprise, the game has been a worldwide hit, selling over 2.4 million copies. The sequel adds even more depth and polish to the game, which allows you to explore more creative solutions and quirky characters, such as how you can build your own Sims or create Sims that can exist within your dreams. The crazy kids are entertaining in front of your eyes, and you can also create Sims that come into your life with either a name or the theme.

GS: The original The Sims really did get a sequel that came with the Get To Work expansion pack. Will the sequel be similar, or will it borrow from The Sims 2?

CW: Our goal has always been to create a great sequel to The Sims 2, and so I am excited that the sequel will try to improve on our gameplay and storyline in several key areas, such as creating your own Sims, evolving your house, and building your character into a legend.

GS: Will Sims 2 feature the same-looking character models, such as those in the original game, or will the sequel feature fully animated objects?

CW: Our goal has always been to create a highly interactive and compelling sim game. We were influenced by our favorite adventure games of all time, and so The Sims 2 features a character that grows in personality and influence throughout the entire game.

GS: Will The Sims 2 feature a new interface that will display a series of smaller icons onscreen that are different from the one you see in The Sims 2?

CW: While The Sims 2 was about creating your sims, we wanted the game to be a seamless experience. We are delivering a far more interactive and organic world, much like we did with The Sims: Livin' Large.

GS: Tell us about the new wardrobe system that will be in The Sims 2. Can you tell us about how it will work?

CW: The main difference between The Sims 2 and The Sims: Livin' Large is that the clothing items (including a wide variety of accessories) will be randomly generated from one of your items. The clothing items are all nonrandomized, so if you have one item in your clothing category that's more than the others, it's gone. For example, if you choose a cheap shirt in The Sims 2, you'll only have to wear it once. So you might have to wear all of the clothing items while walking around, and you can't mix and match different items, like a legoire or a fabric kit. The clothing items also have the unique traits of these items. So it'll be interesting to see if you can pair all of these items together.

GS: Tell us about the new marriage and family dynamics in the game.