The Sims2 for PSP Review for those Interested...

[Darkstormyeve]

Courtesy of Gamespot:

The Sims 2 for the PSP has some genuinely good concepts, but they're buried under the game's issues, both minor and major.
The Good: Setting and dialogue show good continuity with the series; surprisingly enjoyable, challenging minigames; smart adaptation of the original pc game's gameplay features.
The Bad: Constant, jarring load times; skill increases only through uninteresting button mashing; much-needed time manipulation missing.

Those little computer people known as The Sims have invaded nearly every video game platform there is since their debut in 1999 on the PC. Since then, the series has arguably been at its best on the PC, both in The Sims and The Sims 2, though the new PSP version does try new things and succeeds at several of them. Unfortunately, this new version of The Sims 2 has too many problems to be strongly recommended.

The Sims 2 for the PSP has some really good ideas, but it also has some serious technical issues.

The PSP version of The Sims 2 doesn't attempt to reproduce all the complexity of the original PC game (and that's probably for the best). So, there's no DNA, sims don't have "memories" of what happens to them, and there's no aging, either. Instead, the new game reinterprets several of the series' features--for instance, it still lets you create a customized "sim" character with a specific personality and personal needs (or "motives," like hunger, boredom, and exhaustion) and with "aspirations," which are driving life goals that determine what kind of minor "want" goals will appear for them each day. However, the PSP game doesn't feature the PC game's "fears" (the opposite of wants)--instead, the game has a general "sanity" meter that fills up when you accomplish wants and that empties out when you fail. Also, the game includes an entirely new take on socializing. While the series has always emphasized character interactions (especially humorous ones between characters with different personalities), the PSP game uses a new timing-based minigame that requires you to match the abstract icons that accompany your neighbors' enthusiastic "simlish" gibberish speech.

But even though the PSP game makes the wise decision to not try to cram in everything from the original game, it does feature a surprising amount of continuity from the previous games. For instance, one of the first characters you meet in the game had mysteriously disappeared in the PC version of The Sims 2. Also, the entire PSP game takes place in Strangetown, an arid suburb modeled after Roswell, Arizona, where aliens, zombies, and other supernatural creatures terrorize the populace and make the locals a little "strange." In fact, your entire neighborhood is "strange"--you'll run into an inventor with a robot wife, get your car repaired at a disappearing garage, and encounter other weird happenings. The setting and humorous text dialogue you'll have with your neighbors do a really good job of setting the mood, as do the game's new collectible items: secrets, which you can find lying on the ground or through conversation and sell for in-game money. There are even minigames that make perfect sense, like the surprisingly fast-paced "whack-a-zombie" game that requires you to pummel zombies that try to rise from their graves with a shovel.

Unfortunately, these great new ideas are compromised by a number of issues that really get in the way of enjoying the game. The worst and most obvious problem with the game is the constant loading. Performing just about any action--going indoors or outdoors, playing a minigame, beginning a conversation with someone, ending a conversation with someone--causes the game to load for a good second or two. It's extremely jarring and completely disrupts the flow of the game, and it makes tasks like developing your house by designing it and buying new furniture much more tiresome than it should have been.

The Sims 2 for the PSP also has other minor issues, like how it handles skill increases. Like in previous games, your character has various skills (logic, cooking, mechanical, and so on) that can be improved with practice to make him or her better at certain tasks. In the PSP game, the way you improve them is to find a skill-increasing object, interact with it (which makes the game load), hammer on the circle button repeatedly until you earn a skill point, and then quit (which makes the game load). However, unlike previous games in the series, the PSP game doesn't offer any way to slow or speed up time, so you'll find it more difficult to manage your sim's time among minigames that are available only at certain hours, constant load times, and showers that seem to take forever to get your sims clean.

The constant load times really, really, really hurt the experience.

At least The Sims 2 for the PSP looks and sounds quite good. The colorful look of the original Sims 2 for the PC has mostly been carried over successfully to the PSP game, from the large, expressively animated characters to fabulous houses with tons of furniture. The PSP game has a new soundtrack based on the PC game's music that works quite well. There doesn't seem to be a huge variety of simlish gibberish speech (so you'll start to hear the same voice samples after a while). Also, for some reason, some characters' intonation and mannerisms don't match up with their dialogue (you'll occasionally see characters smile and make extravagant gestures when they're supposed to be angry or wave their arms angrily and shout when they're supposed to be happy), though for the most part, this looks and sounds like a Sims game.

It really is unfortunate that The Sims 2 for the PSP would end up with the technical issues it has, because aside from some other, minor issues, it really does have a lot of good gameplay ideas. Then again, it doesn't have any real multiplayer play (aside from letting you swap in-game secrets with your friends' PSPs), so once you're done with the single-player game, you'll be more or less done with the game, assuming the constant load times didn't cause you to quit first.

[baratron]

The Sims 2 for the PSP has some really good ideas, but it also has some serious technical issues. But even though the PSP game makes the wise decision to not try to cram in everything from the original game, it does feature a surprising amount of continuity from the previous games. For instance, one of the first characters you meet in the game had mysteriously disappeared in the PC version of The Sims 2.

ARGH!

Also, the entire PSP game takes place in Strangetown, an arid suburb modeled after Roswell, Arizona, where aliens, zombies, and other supernatural creatures terrorize the populace and make the locals a little "strange." In fact, your entire neighborhood is "strange"--you'll run into an inventor with a robot wife, get your car repaired at a disappearing garage, and encounter other weird happenings.

Hmm, I like the sound of the robot...

Unfortunately, these great new ideas are compromised by a number of issues that really get in the way of enjoying the game. The worst and most obvious problem with the game is the constant loading. Performing just about any action--going indoors or outdoors, playing a minigame, beginning a conversation with someone, ending a conversation with someone--causes the game to load for a good second or two. It's extremely jarring and completely disrupts the flow of the game, and it makes tasks like developing your house by designing it and buying new furniture much more tiresome than it should have been.

!!

Didn't people learn from the Playstation 1's adventure games? Long load times are annoying enough inbetween different areas of an adventure game. But constant loading? O.M.G.

Didn't anyone play-test this game?

The Sims 2 for the PSP also has other minor issues, like how it handles skill increases. Like in previous games, your character has various skills (logic, cooking, mechanical, and so on) that can be improved with practice to make him or her better at certain tasks. In the PSP game, the way you improve them is to find a skill-increasing object, interact with it (which makes the game load), hammer on the circle button repeatedly until you earn a skill point, and then quit (which makes the game load).

RSI, anyone?

However, unlike previous games in the series, the PSP game doesn't offer any way to slow or speed up time, so you'll find it more difficult to manage your sim's time among minigames that are available only at certain hours, constant load times, and showers that seem to take forever to get your sims clean.

OK, I'm almost crying here.

So, what on earth score did GameSpot give it? 3/10, by the sounds of things.

[Nihale]

The Sims 2 for the PSP has some really good ideas, but it also has some serious technical issues. But even though the PSP game makes the wise decision to not try to cram in everything from the original game, it does feature a surprising amount of continuity from the previous games. For instance, one of the first characters you meet in the game had mysteriously disappeared in the PC version of The Sims 2.

ARGH!

*cough*Bella?*cough*

Didn't anyone play-test this game?

Did anyone test the PC game?

[J. M. Pescado]

It is the official position of More Awesome Than You that console-sims are an abomination and only played by those who are not awesome. More Awesome Than You does not support this sort of activity.

The computer versions are the only true editions and all else is heresy. You are advised to repent, lest you burn in hell for all eternity.

[kewian]

So what would happen if i even touched this abomination of a game?

[J. M. Pescado]

So what would happen if i even touched this abomination of a game?

You'll burn in hell for all eternity, of course.

[kewian]

but I didnt play it...

[BeckerCheez]

I played the demo of Sims 2 for PS2 on the Official US Playstation Magazine demo disc.  My God that demo was awful.  It looked and played horribly.  I dislike that the storymode feature does not allow you to configure your Sim's looks, so I had one fugly woman to try the demo with.  The making meals thing was ok, but tedious at best.  Moving your Sim around is nifty, but I don't know how this will be if you wanted to control more than one person.  Socialization was awful---the fugly woman I controlled was able to woohoo this Sim named Larry within 2 Sim hours.  And of course you couldn't control the speed of time, and showering takes FOREVER.  And the demo was timed, so all I could do was woohoo, shower, and fiddle with the fridge.   

[skandelouslala]

Bleh..sounds horrible.

[Lythdan]

Sounds like they took out everything that made the Sims 2 good. I am usually a sucker for handheld games (I have the Sims Bustin' Out for GBA and The Urbz for DS) but that just sounds...slaughtered.

[RainbowTigress]

I don't have a PSP, but on the PC, I love my pause and fast-forward buttons.  I couldn't play without them.  I get so bored sitting there watching them skill and shower, so I rush though that and then slow it down when I get to the good stuff!  I pause a lot to take pictures and to get stuff queued up for them to do, then I let 'er rip.  I agree with the previous poster.  This sounds just messed up.

[skandelouslala]

I don't have a PSP, but on the PC, I love my pause and fast-forward buttons.  I couldn't play without them.  I get so bored sitting there watching them skill and shower, so I rush though that and then slow it down when I get to the good stuff!  I pause a lot to take pictures and to get stuff queued up for them to do, then I let 'er rip.  I agree with the previous poster.  This sounds just messed up.

Yup I play the same way...couldn't be w/o my fast forward buttons.  If I didn't have them... oh lawdy..don't even want to think about it lol

[veilchen]

Paying your hard earned money for that game and then having to play it the way it is described certainly sounds hellish to me. I don't have any of the console games for sims, I have the PC games because of the custom modifications, custom content, and of course the fast forward buttons :D

[Oddysey]

Anything you can't fix when it breaks, or mess with the insides of, is automatically suspect. Any The Sims game outside of the core Sims/Sims 2 lineup is suspect. This thing basically breaks my "EA suck off money grab fest" -o-meter. Bad. Very bad.