Product Description

The Sims 2 gives you a completely new world to explore with yoru Sim -- one you can take with you on your PSP! Explore Strangetown and uncover the secrets of this classic Sims destination as you work to build out your mansion. Keep your Sanity Meter high by fulfilling your wants and fears so that you don't have a nervous breakdown. Take advantage of the capabilities of the PSP to participate in the evolution of Reality Gaming.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5102 in Video Games
• Brand: Electronic Arts
• Model: 14633151312
• Released on: 2005-12-08
• ESRB Rating: Teen
• Platform: Sony PSP
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: .75" h x 4.25" w x 7.00" l, .20 pounds

Features

• Your net worth is determined by the value of everything you own -- use any assets you collect to unlock the secrets of Strangetown
• Keep it together or you'll go insane -- watching after your aspirations and fears with the Sanity meter will keep you from having a nervous breakdown
• Uncovering secrets will help you keep your sanity. Are you a social climber? A people pleaser? Keep your Sanity meter maxed out by asking the right questions
• Socialize with the other Sims to unlock key secrets of Strangetown - then connect with other PSP players to socialize with them and trade secrets that they have unlocked

Customer Reviews

Great game, but PSP hangs during play!
I would love nothing more than to play this game, and I have really tried - about 6 hours total so far, but it's gotten to that point that it's almost too frustrating. The constant pauses to load data from the disk make this all but unplayable. The social games, which were a great idea, hang so badly that if you push a button while it's loading, it doesn't register and you LOSE the game! You literally can't make a move without 3-10 second hangs while the data loads, and sorry EA, you should have fixed that one. A game is only fun if it's not fighting with its platform.

What makes this sadder is how much FUN this game would have been. 5 stars all the way! The graphics are incredible, the story is fresh, and the game play inventive and addictive. Seriously, EA, what happened? Didn't you test this one out on the hardware?

Fun game, but loading times are annoying.
The Sims reminds me a lot of Bustin' Out for the GameBoy Advance, in that you have to figure out puzzles, play mini games, and make friends (and enemies). This time you're stuck in the Sims 2 suburb of Strangetown, and there's a lot of strangeness going on.

The graphics are very nice, and the game play itself is enjoyable, but I really feel like it's hampered by the frequent pauses to load data from the UMD. The loading screens between locations are not bad; but when you talk to someone, or play the mini-game chatting game, and each time the system has to access the UMD to load the voices and animations, it really makes the game feel choppy.

I really wanted to love the game, even knowing that it wasn't going to be free-form Sims as in the PC game. I do enjoy the gameplay, but overall I'd have to give it just three stars, due to the frustration of loading all the time.

Great Plot -- [Loading...] -- Into the game again -- Spontaneous Shutdown.
The Pros:
- Great Graphis. This game drew me in.

- Story lines are hilarious... but addicting, just the same.

- No more peeing/showering/sleeping 100 times per day.

- Talking with people had a purpose, other than maintaining relationships.

- No Point, Click, go action. Your sim will follow you... making game play easier (on PSP anyway).

- Lots of cool unlockables as you play more.. (Mind reading, meditation.. psytokenesis - sp?- )

- Lots of entertaining new actions.

- Eating is a little wierd at first. No more cleaning up after your guests, fixing lights, and eating food just because it will go bad when you're hungry. When you make food, it goes in your pocket.. and when you're ready for it, you just push select and pick what you want. You'll most likely have to go to the bathroom afterwards.

- No growing old. No babies. (You know you entered cheats anyway to prevent this :-) haha.) In prior sims games, I always found it a hastle to get anything done when you were always dying or something. And in the Sims Bustin out, I always seemed to generate some strange little kids... I think it was just too much. Even on the pc version-- after kids came into the picture-- studying and such-- making a mess-- accomplishing goals was difficult. Although, I did enjoy the goals more in the past sims games.

- Money is not as big of an issue in this game. I always had enough.. no need for cheats. And the ways I'd go about getting money entertained me. It wasn't just sitting around waiting for my sim to get back from work... just to see the money gone after feeding a family or anything. Call me selfish-- but I feel that was a good move.


The Cons:
- Loading... Forever. I got past this, but when I was trying to show someone how the game worked, I got aggrivated.. and the person lost interest. You are required to go to different rooms, houses, cities all the time in this game (not so much in other platforms.. until you advance to the next "level"). Each time you open a door, talk to someone.. have some sort of animated scene play-- you lag. You lag bad*.

- The load screens do say something other than "loading" .. and there is elevator music. None the less, this still annoys me...

- Spontaneous Shut down. I have completed 2 games prior to this game and have played other games on and off on my PSP. This is the ONLY game that made me think my $300 bit of technology was broken. This game will spontaneously SHUT OFF your PSP. Nothing will get saved. All you can do is start over. I was pissed after building up all my skills and then having the thing shut off in the middle of a LOADING screen while attempting to go into the next room.

- To avoid loosing everything, I had to visit the save screen after accomplishing anything (other than walking around). This screan lags a good 30 seconds or more each time. It's a pain. There's elevator music in the background during this time.

- My PC version froze a lot. Freezing has never happened to me on any modern gaming system... but-- I frooze a few times on PSP. This did not irritate me as much as the shut downs and loading times.

- No more "Dancing with" other sims to make friends or chatting in the hot tubs. You can only build a relationship by playing their CHAT GAME (?) .. which lags. In the hot tub, you can only WHOOHOO.. and from what I've seen you can only do this if you have whoohoo-ed outside of the hot tup prior (thus, a waste of time). I didn't gain any additional "secrets" or relationship points.

- No feeding your guests or dinner conversations.

- Talking to people 4 times to get a secret when the lag times are so bad is insane. You can get 3 secrets this way-- the fourth comes from talking-- which lags as well, but not as bad as the Chat games.

- The goals, although amusing... are not the most important. It's more like.. a big Mystery that you're uncovering as opposed to personal gain.

- Thus, your jobs are also .. amusing. Smashing zombies, line dancing, some cow dance, cleaning toilets.... Not like the sims 2 on PC where you became a doctor.. and other well paid positions.. No going through promotions to get to the top of your career..


I have played The Sims Bustin Out on PS2, The Urbz (PS2), and The Sims 2 on PC. I loved Bustin Out. The Urbz was a bit complicated, but I went with the flow. My PC frooze and crashed all the time while playing the Sims. Thus, I did not finish the game on my computer... actually-- I don't even remember the plot. I do remember the plots on PS2.

So, the plot themes were carried over. (Whole new plot). Crazy plot... but entertaining. I was always wondering what crazy thing was next. Sometimes I had no idea what I was supposed to do-- so I had to go around and talk to people (ehem.. lag) a bit....

I wish the instructions would have explained how to use some of the props in the beginning because they took me awhile to understand. And given the lag times, I hate how different stores have different items-- travling around ... it takes FOREVER. I combated this set back by making lots of money and obtaining all of my skills in the beginning--- and buying 2 of almost everything in the store.



Overall--
I'm addicted to this game. The PC was cool because I could add my own music-- I added a few of my own clothes and furniture.. but not so much. Given that this game is on the PSP and you could purchase memory sticks that will allow you to use the same feature (on a smaller scale) -- I don't see why it's not being used...

The game is fun and the plots are amusing.. unexpected.

I don't see myself picking this up again once I have finished it. I've been playing this game for quite some time now. I'm at the 4th location-- I believe it's the last-- if not, there should be one more. (I think* again... don't quote me here). I'm not jumping to pick up the game again... I might go back to it eventually-- and when I do finish the game.. I highly doubt I'll be returning to this one...