The Sims 2: Pets Expansion Pack (PC)

.../> Trust me, this is the perfect present for a girl or boy aged 7-16 (I am almost 18, but perhaps I'm just one of the special few older ones). Girls do seem to like this game more as it slightly resembles being able to play 'house' or 'dolls' as you make your own families and houses and live out the lives of the sims. On the game it says that it is for over 12 year olds. My little brother who has just turned 8 plays this occasionally. There is nothing ...
...like young ones seeing is the implied sexual content. You don't see anything in detail but you can easily guess what they are doing hidden under the sheets when commanded to do so to get a baby or puppy (sims and pets).

~~~Info on Installing~~~
The Sims 2 Pets is an expansion pack to be added onto the original Sims 2 on the computer. You do need the original Sims 2 game to be able to install this expansion. This game does work ... more

Where to start.. this is such an addictive game!! You could spend hours on it without realising!

~~~Who Would like this?!~~~
Trust me, this is the perfect present for a girl or boy aged 7-16 (I am almost 18, but perhaps I'm just one of the special few older ones). Girls do seem to like this game more as it slightly resembles being able to play 'house' or 'dolls' as you make your own families and houses and live out the lives of the sims. On the game it says that it is for over 12 year olds. My little brother who has just turned 8 plays this occasionally. There is nothing wrong with the game, the only thing you might not like young ones seeing is the implied sexual content. You don't see anything in detail but you can easily guess what they are doing hidden under the sheets when commanded to do so to get a baby or puppy (sims and pets).

~~~Info on Installing~~~
The Sims 2 Pets is an expansion pack to be added onto the original Sims 2 on the computer. You do need the original Sims 2 game to be able to install this expansion. This game does work best on rather fast computers, if you have a slow computer then the game will be very frustrating to play as it would take forever to load etc. You do need 47mb of space free on your computer to be able to install this expansion.
My advice- keep the game's case safe as it has the important leaflet and therefore the code for installation on it. If you ever need to reinstall then this will come in handy.

~~~Pricing and where from?~~~
You can get this game from most game or entertainment shops for roughly £15.. and probably cheaper found on internet sites, for example:
HMV website = £12.99 Free Delivery
Game website = £14.99
My dad bought this product from Tesco last year for about £20 in time for christmas. It does not seem to be stored in Tesco anymore.

~~~About the Game!~~~

In this expansion pack you are able to adopt and create your very own pets! Cats, dogs, puppies, kittens, guinea pigs, birds and fish.

As The Sims 2 is a very life like game, the animals do grow up from eg. a kitten, to a cat and then to an old cat and will eventually die (just like the people in the game). Not to worry though, if that happens there is always the telephone used by your sim to adopt a brand new pet, or you could perhaps take a trip to one of the local pet shops to take your pick?

CREATING THE PETS

In the create a family section, you can create your own cat or dog and as many as you like. You are able to choose the fur type, the curl type of the hair, the colour of the coats, stature of the animal, fatness, eyes (colour and shape), it's personality etc. It can be:
A Genious, in the middle or basically Stupid; finicky (likes clean accommodation and being bathed etc), in the middle or 'pig-pen'; Freindly, in the middle or independant; Cowardly, in the middle or Fierce; Hyper, in the middle or lazy.
You could easily create a loveable family pet or an evil fierce guarddog, its your game!

INTERACTING WITH THE PETS

Your sims can interact with the pets. They can take dogs for walks, give them baths, play fetch, play 'razzle', give love to (feeding treats, rubbing their bellies or stroking them) and they can praise or scold them for their doing in order to train them! The pets do tear up the furniture, eat sim food instead of their own, sleep on the sim bed, are aggressive to others and bark a lot ...oh and not to mention pee inside the house if you don't train them! This is done by praising to reinforce good behaviour that they show and scolding to show them what they are not to do!

WANTING TO HAVE KITTENS/PUPPIES?!

You need to have a great relationship formed between the sim and the pets you want to mate. If the pets also have a great relationship with each other (only dogs with dogs and cats with cats) then you can click on one of the pets and select 'try for puppy with...' and then they go off into their wee doggy house/cat house you have bought for them. A while later, the female cat/dog will have not just one but usually a whole litter of kittens/puppies!! They are absolutely tiny when they are just born so keep tabs on them so you don't loose them!

LOOKING AFTER PETS

Always remember to feed your pets! If you let them starve then they will ovbiously die! They also need to be bathed every now and again or else their hygeine will be very low which will bring down their moods. Make sure they have a good relationship with your sim(s) ior else they may run away (which happens if you don't treat them particularly well!). And when they run away you cannot get them back!

JOBS FOR PETS

If your sims are struggling with the financial side of life, no need to fret! You can get your pets a job when they are adults!! This can be as a security guard, in the showbiz, or as an exterminator pet. In order for them to get promotions you can train them to do specific tricks which will be specified by the job in order from a promotion to occur.

TRAINING TRICKS

To train the pets to do a trick:
As your sim, click on the pet you want to train, click on learn commands and then you can select the trick you want to teach them which could be 'play dead', 'dance', 'talk' and so on.

DOG BREEDS AVAILABLE TO START WITH:

Akita
Golden Retriever
Basenji
Labrador
Chihuahua
English Bulldog
Dalmation
French Bulldog
German Shepard
Great Dane
Jack Russell Terrier
Schipperke Schipperke
Shiba Inh
Weimaraner

TYPE OF CATS AVAILABLE AT THE START:

Chartreux
Norwegian Forest
Ocicat
Russian Blue
Scottish Fold
and many more!

WHY AT THE START?

I say these are some of the types you can choose from at the START because you can easily make your own breeds!! You could mix a golden retriever and a spotty dalmation and get a spotty retriever. Its up to you what you make! You do this as told above through getting them to have puppies. You can also do the same with cats to make your own breeds.

~~~GRAPHICS AND PICTURE~~~

The graphics are brilliantly done. The sims look life like and you can happily see their expressions. With the volume switched on you can endlessly hear the constant sound effects of the sim world (flies on dirty food, barking of dogs, sims talking, babies crying, splashing of water, the door bell ringing when people visit or deliveries arrive and so on). The picture is incredibly detailed, from the grass to the faces of sims and different types of furniture. Theres loads of detail to add to the game such as bees in the flowers, cockroaches when you have a dirty house, skunks and bears that may come to visit, not to mention wolves! The screen is brightly coloured and you can decorate the house or make a house from scratch completely to your taste. You can also ensure you have a nice garden to go along with it by designing it and making sure your sims to the gardening every now and again. The objects and sharply defined and easy to identify. The picture runs smoothly aslong as you don't have a very slow computer.

~~~WHY SO ADDICTIVE?~~~

I find it is such an addictive game as there is so much to do in it! You bring up your sims in their home, you need to make money by sending your sims to work and sending your sims to school (and university if you have that expansion pack). You can make friends with other sims, make your sims fall in love, get ingaged, married and have baby sims of their own. You can then bring up the child well so that it too can have a good life. Its like a never ending cycle of sims!

It is a very realistic game as the life cycle of a sim is as follows:
Baby, Toddler, Child, Teenager, Young Adult, Adult, Old person and then death of old age occurs. All sorts happen in this game like in real life, such as accidents, fights, romances, afftairs. Its lots of fun to play.

WHY 5 OUT OF 5 STARS??

Because it is a fabulous game that will keep you entertained for hours, the time flies by while you play this game! It has a choice for everyone and gives you the chance to have that pet you always dreamed of having!! This game seems to go on forever as there is something new to always be found. Deffinetly super for a birthday or christmas present, will also keep you busy on those lazy/boring days! 

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