Nightlife Rocks (Gasp!)

[Rooby]

I've been playing Sims since the first game, including all expansions, as has my adult daughter.

In our opinion, this is the best X-pack ever.  We both quit playing the first game after the HotDate X-pack - it hosed gameplay so badly that it just was too frustrating to play.  Also, that god-damned re-appearing fly swarm just got to be OLD.

I had to go through and remove my mods to get my game to work correctly after installing NightLife (using CleanInstaller).  As was mentioned by a Maxis person somewhere, some of these mods were redundant for NL since the game engine has changed.  Since my daughter didn't have the hacks that I did, she didn't run into any of the initial problems I had.

My downloaded items, including food items, are working fine.  I left in two custom careers and haven't had any problems with those.  I have nearly 9000 items in my download folder.

I haven't had any hosed Sims.  My sorority house (the one that came with the game) is still broken, but no big deal - I have my own frat house that I use for my Sims going to college and it works fine.

I think the gameplay is greatly enhanced by the X-pack.  Playing the University area is more interesting now.  The needs don't decay as quickly as they used to, so you can actually DO something downtown. 

There are some new animations that are pretty funny.

I miss Autoyak a LOT, and hope that is one of the mods that is updated for NL.

My husband is a games software engineer in test, but not for EA.  I know how hard those folks work on a game.  Do you honestly think these people invest years of their lives (for what is rumored to be crappy compensation) to intentionally release a shit game?  When I see some of the childish 'EA GAMES IS THE ANTICHRIST' posts on these boards I just want to take away their computers for a week and send the authors out to mow the grass and take out the garbage.  It's a GAME, and a pretty amazing game at that.  Threatening class action lawsuits and so forth is incredibly juvenile.  If you don't like the game, don't play it.  If you have positive suggestions, make them.  If you have the skills to mod, goddess bless you.  If you have the ability to skin & mesh WELL more power to you, and if I think it is good enough I will GLADLY pay for your work.

I even like the packaging.  The box is big enough to hold all of the disks for the game thus far.  I removed the product key sheet from the first two jewel cases and the paperwork fits nicely in the left side.  Having been through the frustration of trying to find the original game disks for a reinstall after a couple of years, I appreciate a neat & tidy solution to keeping the whole game together.  The background on the new box is my favorite shade of purple, AND the X-pack came out the day before my birthday.

There you have it - as uncool as it is, I am pretty darned happy with this X-pack and I think EA did a fantastic job.

Rooby

[nothingbutsims]

I think it's pretty awesome too.  Some pretty cool new animations and such.  It's fun to sit back and watch the background action too.  I think one of the funnier animations is how the waiter/waitress serves the meal - "La Bouche!" (spelling on that?)

[DuzzyGirl]

I've enjoyed it thus far as well.  I thought I'd pee myself when I saw my sim fall asleep in her food for the first time . . . then again and again and again . . . 

[Brynne]

Me too. Had to make it my new avatar!

[Howabominable]

I also agree that it owns, definetly the best EP I've ever had (though Unleashed is close). It so much fun! It made boring, monotonous sim life be interesting and eventful.

[sara_dippity]

I agree, this is probably the best Sims expansion ever. I never went to community lots unless I had to shop, in TS1 either, and never went out on dates really in TS1. Now I'm doing all kinds of group outing and dates. I think the ability to go out in a group is what made the expansion for me. Great for keeping family in touch, and getting friends to meet each other. I know that you could invite them over for a party, but it just doesn't seem the same. There's too many things to do around the house, seems like home is for skill building and whatnot. Really, like life. Usually I meet people somewhere rather than invite them over, more fun to get out of the house.

[gali]

Exuse me to be the "party pooper" of the above auphoria....

If the game is so good - why I read so much whinning, and pleading for the hacks and the mods that don't work anymore in NL? What about the non-stop ringing phone? And the lost of the memories visiting downtown? And many many other bugs I read about in several forums?

I have NL, and the CDs lie down on my shelf indeed as a ROCK. Indeed the game ROCKS!....

[Zoltan]

Just curious, could you please provide a link to one of these posts where someone actually (other than FDA) wrote "EA GAMES IS THE ANTICHRIST".

Thank you.

[Hook]

If the game is so good - why I read so much whinning?

Because a lot of people like to whine.  They're not happy unless they're miserable.

The game has bugs and glitches, but it's far from unplayable.  Wanna bet a lot of severe bugs people experience now are because they used the Clean Installer to remove hacks... instead of emptying out their downloads folder like they should have done?  The Clean Installer seems to miss a lot of hacks which end up getting left in your game.

One good thing I've noticed with Nightlife is that the downtown lots aren't as offensively bad as most of the lots in the base game and Uni.  I've only seen minor problems with the buildings so far, none that require major surgery, as do some of the dorms.

Basically, I'm happy with the game.  I'll be even happier when the modders have upgraded all their mods to fix the annoyances.  And at least Maxis says they're working on patches, which is more than we ever had before.  It made much more sense to ignore the Maxis bug reporting and *hope* that *eventually*, if Maxis thought you'd actually found a bug they *might* *try* to fix it, and simply report the bugs to the modders who would have a fix published within 24 hours.  At least the modders would respond.  With any luck, Maxis will start responding as well.

Hook

[Ancient Sim]

I agree, it's an excellent expansion and the new interractions are great.  As far as the actual gameplay is concerned, I have no problems with it.  I am, however, extremely angry about the wiping of memories for all the townies & NPC's as soon as they come into play.  It simply isn't acceptable, they should have put out a warning and preferably offered a choice.  At the very least, they could have left memories pertaining to living Sims alone and just removed invisible ones.  The flimsy excuse about the lack of sound from the karaoke machines isn't very impressive, either.  They disappear with loads of error files and come back several days later blaming it on our systems, yet someone is able to produce a working patch within hours!  Issues like this are important and we do have the right to complain about them, separately and aside from our views on the game overall.

However ... the game itself is great, I agree.  Definitely my favourite TS2 expansion so far, although there isn't exactly much choice as yet!  I may decide that I prefer this to Makin' Magic, not sure yet as I really did love that one and I miss it a lot.  Now, about this falling asleep over a meal.  How does that come about?  I did see mention of it somewhere but I've forgotten what was said.  I've certainly not seen it so far. 

[Gus Smedstad]

I'm kind of disappointed in it so far, compared to University.  I don't like the Dates very much because they're much too easy, though it took me a few tries to learn the ground rules.  One thing that bugs me about them is that you can sometimes ignore your Date's wants entirely.  Fulfilling Wants for either your Sim or his/her Date fills up the meter.  I had one Date for a Romance Sim go like this: Flirt, Flirt, Kiss, Make Out, Woohoo in Car, Flirt, Kiss, Make Out, Woohoo in Car, wham, Dream Date.  They never even left the lot, she never had any Wants fulfilled, she just got Woohooed senseless, and she yakked afterward about how she was going to tell all her friends what an amazing date he was.

The Dates also speed up the process of getting into a relationship more than I like.  Granted, doing it still takes up your time as a player, but a Dream Date can easily add half a day to a Sim's playable life, and accomplish relationship advancement that would normally take a week.  I suppose this is a good thing for Romance sims who want to hit that 20 Loves goal.

Outings are tougher, maybe because I don't understand how to advance them, and you don't get to see your group member's Wants unless you're controlling them.  They also seem kind of pointless.

On the positive side, Community Lots do seem more interesting and worthwhile now, particularly for college students, now that the semester timer doesn't count down Downtown.  I can also see that the time compression of Dates make it possible to seriously pursue romance at college without throwing your academic career in the toilet.  I haven't sent any college students on a Date yet, just teens and adults, so I'll have to explore this a bit more.

The groups are a big part of why Community lots are more worthwhile.  I hated using University lots because rarely did everyone need to go to the Library, and I found taking them there one at a time boring.  It got to the point that I made a special Dorm with most of the college amenities on-site because I found playing college lots so boring.

Cars are kind of nice, since they cut down on waiting time for the taxi, and they give you a boost to energy, which makes using multiple lots more practical.  They don't really change gameplay that much, though, since you can do anything you can do with a car with a taxi.  OK, except go to work late, but I try and avoid that because it feels like cheating.

The chemistry / turn-ons / turn-offs haven't affected my game much at all yet.  Maybe I'll see more with time, but for the moment I can't tell the practical difference between romancing a Sim who is turned off by my Sim and one who is turned on.  The new Ask interactions all seem like a waste of time, not to mention the problem with them being Romantic.

University added a new, challenging gameplay mode, and it added additional wants and double-locking.  The double-locking is a big deal, since a Uni grad can think about stuff like making a particular Best Friend without losing a long-term goal like 10 Best Friends.  Night Life adds a relatively easy, boring minigame (dates), and doesn't seem to add much to ordinary play.

I'm interested in hearing more details as to how you've found it improved the game, though.

 - Gus

[RainbowTigress]

I miss Autoyak a LOT, and hope that is one of the mods that is updated for NL.

I tried the autoyak, and it seems to work well.  Pescado said somewhere on here that it was considered an object and wouldn't conflict.

[Oddysey]

My husband is a games software engineer in test, but not for EA.  I know how hard those folks work on a game.  Do you honestly think these people invest years of their lives (for what is rumored to be crappy compensation) to intentionally release a shit game?  When I see some of the childish 'EA GAMES IS THE ANTICHRIST' posts on these boards I just want to take away their computers for a week and send the authors out to mow the grass and take out the garbage.  It's a GAME, and a pretty amazing game at that.  Threatening class action lawsuits and so forth is incredibly juvenile.  If you don't like the game, don't play it.  If you have positive suggestions, make them.  If you have the skills to mod, goddess bless you.  If you have the ability to skin & mesh WELL more power to you, and if I think it is good enough I will GLADLY pay for your work.

I even like the packaging.  The box is big enough to hold all of the disks for the game thus far.  I removed the product key sheet from the first two jewel cases and the paperwork fits nicely in the left side.  Having been through the frustration of trying to find the original game disks for a reinstall after a couple of years, I appreciate a neat & tidy solution to keeping the whole game together.  The background on the new box is my favorite shade of purple, AND the X-pack came out the day before my birthday.

There you have it - as uncool as it is, I am pretty darned happy with this X-pack and I think EA did a fantastic job.

Rooby

I agree with you on most of your points. This is a damn good EP, concept wise, and the execution isn't half bad either. A week of "Das Nightlife Test" has broken the game in enough that I've been able to deal with most of the major problems, which is an improvement over my first week of Uni. And the box is pretty awesome. Now accidentally stepping on it won't do as much damage to the CD.

But . . . "EA GAMES IS THE ANTI CHRIST"? Haven't seen that post. And the only people I know of threatening class action lawsuits against EA are the employees. (And alumni of my high school, no less. Heh heh heh.) The complaints I've seen haven't been nearly as extreme as you suggest, and some people do have valid complaints. But things have been getting better; I've gotten some very good information from MaxoidTom, and I'm very pleased that Maxis is working on a patch.

[Hook]

I'm interested in hearing more details as to how you've found it improved the game, though.

While Nightlife doesn't add as much to the game as Uni did, it's still quite worthwhile.

I've been playing the new aspiration with an adult and young adult newly created in CAS and they're fun to play.  I'll be playing a teen next to see how it affects teen play.  I'm hoping there might be a reason to play teen Sims now rather than sending them to college as soon as possible.

Cars are good.  If only because you can woohoo in them, which can give an almost instant Dream Date.  Some of my Sims with cars still use the taxi rather than their cars, as the taxi is actually more efficient.  Woohooing in a car on a community lot doesn't count as a public woohoo, and doesn't trigger jealousy in other Sims on the lot from what I can see.  One Sim had her father in law on the lot, woohoo'd in the car, and he never noticed.

Dating is good.  If you have a Sim with a bunch of unfulfillable wants and you need to get them into platinum so they'll get a promotion, you can send them on a date and be fairly certain they'll return with platinum aspiration at the same time they left.  Or you can have the date at home if you have enough time.  You can still woohoo in a car on a date at home.

Two new lifetime wants help a bit.  Fifty first dates is problematic, but at least it doesn't have to be a good date to count.  Fifty dream dates shouldn't be too hard as you can have them all with the same Sim as far as I know.  And a really good dream date will deliver gifts the next day.  I've gotten a couple of big screen tv's and a dj booth. Dating for fun and profit.

Vampires are much more fun to play than zombies.

Dining out isn't as interesting as it was in Hot Date, but it's still good.  There are several new interatactions added with dining.

The major downside I've noticed is that eating in a group takes forever.  I wouldn't mind if relatonships built faster during group meals than before, but I haven't seen any evidence of it.

Overall, Nightlife is good and I don't regret buying it.

Hook

[Motoki]

You know, I'm going to be another party pooper. Not because of bugs or because of what other people are saying, but because quite frankly, I'm bored with it already. In fact, I was bored with it a few days ago. I really don't feel like it adds very much at all, same treadmill. And it's basically Hot Date redux, except Hot Date added a lot of innovations to TS1 that already shipped with TS2 (liftetime relationship, buying clothes, community lots etc). I guess I'd just like something that adds a new element of gameplay, and neither this nor University really do much. I suppose moreso University does than Nightlife, but even that is essentially just a far more limited version of the regular neighborhood with a bunch of obnoxious npcs running around.

I have to say the idea of a small business simulation like the next addon seems to be appeals to me much more. Having said all that, if Nightlife does appeal to you then I'm not going to knock anyone else down for what they like, more power to you. And to be fair, the first 2 addons for TS2 really didn't add all that much and weren't anything special IMO.

[Hook]

The complaints I've seen haven't been nearly as extreme as you suggest, and some people do have valid complaints.

I've seen at least one ANTICHRIST post, and the complaints I've seen on the official Sims2 BBS are at least as severe as Rooby suggests.  It's one reason I don't read the official BBS any more.  I've seen suggestions of class action lawsuits by consumers as well.

The complaint by EA Spouse was actually by a girlfriend and if you read between the lines on that one you'll find out it was his fiance who complained and what she was really complaining about was that he'd rather spend his time making the game rather than spending it with her.  

If she thinks it's bad now, wait until they're married;  he'll *still* be spending all his time at work or on the computer.  Trust me, I know, and so does my wife.  He needs to find a new fiance who understands that sometimes he's more married to his computer than he is to her. Anyone who is married to a programmer knows what I'm talking about.

Hook

[Oddysey]

Mmm . . . guess I was assuming she was talking about here. Sims2 BBS I can understand. A class action lawsuit by consumers is more than slightly ridiculous in this case.

And I don't know much about the EA Spouse bit. That came out after the lawsuit, if I remember correctly.

If she thinks it's bad now, wait until they're married;  he'll *still* be spending all his time at work or on the computer.  Trust me, I know, and so does my wife.   He needs to find a new fiance who understands that sometimes he's more married to his computer than he is to her. Anyone who is married to a programmer knows what I'm talking about.

Heh. That describes basically everyone I know who's involved with computers. Heck, I drive my parents crazy because I spend most of the weekend at my computer. The problem that I see is that companies like EA (not Maxis; the actually game develeping companies are much less annoying than the companies that own them) have a habit of exploiting this tendency. There's an obsession with getting games out in time for the holidays. But EA's definitely not "evil," just a corporation, which means that profit is their primary motivation, and this can be aggravating.

I don't seem to actually have a point here . . . 

[nothingbutsims]

quote author=gali
If the game is so good - why I read so much whinning, and pleading for the hacks and the mods that don't work anymore in NL?

You get spoiled by having hacks.  The purpose of a hack is to make the game easier, right?  And, right now we have to do without some of those hacks and put up with a few annoyances that we haven't had to deal with for a while (the phones for example).  My opinion - this EP is awesome, but it's not perfect, and neither was Uni.  Sure, we all want our hacks back - that's cause we're spoiled, not because the game is bad.

[Hook]

The problem that I see is that companies like EA (not Maxis; the actually game develeping companies are much less annoying than the companies that own them)

Developers are the good guys. Publishers are the bad guys.

An example:  I once heard someone from the publisher tell the programmer who was working on the code, "We're shipping it on Wednesday.  Have it ready."  There was no preliminary discussion on what worked and what didn't, or what state the code was actually in.  This guarantees that there were functions that couldn't be finished in time and had to be taken out, and there was no time whatsoever for independent testing of what was already done.

If anyone's been around long enough to remember him, I knew *exactly* where Derek Smart was coming from.  And I agreed with him completely.  I didn't always agree with his methods of telling people, but I did agree with what he was saying.  And this was before I ever worked for a game company.

Hook

[J. M. Pescado]

If anyone's been around long enough to remember him, I knew *exactly* where Derek Smart was coming from.  And I agreed with him completely.  I didn't always agree with his methods of telling people, but I did agree with what he was saying.  And this was before I ever worked for a game company.

Oh, dear. You mentioned Derek Smart. I wonder if this means he'll actually show up here.

[Gus Smedstad]

You know, I'm going to be another party pooper. Not because of bugs or because of what other people are saying, but because quite frankly, I'm bored with it already.

I was thinking of saying the same thing, but it felt too curmudgeonly a thing to say.  Dates got boring quickly.  I have a Pleasure sim, and every time his only viable want is "ask sim on date" I think, oh no, not again.  Even with the new Groups, skilling in University community lots is still boring.  It's more fun to set a Sim skilling at home and then forget him a while and pay attention to someone else.

I don't really like the new Pleasure aspiration very much.  So far the only long term Wants I've encountered were "go on X dates," and dates just aren't that interesting.

I think I was hoping Chemistry would do more than just make interactions available and succeed at lower relationship levels.  I was hoping it would make romantic relationships harder, so that you really had to seek out a Sim with whom you had mutual attraction.

 - Gus

[Regina]

After playing TS1 for a good long time with all x-packs except for SuperStar, then playing TS2 for a full year without any expansion pack I think I had fairly reasonable expectations about what Nightlife could be and honestly, those expectations were extremely surpassed.

Although I've ran into an occasional bug, I'm having a blast with this expansion.  I love the fact that any sim can afford to go out to dinner--they can eat for under $20 compared to Hot Date where it would cost them at a bare minimum 300+ and they wouldn't even get nearly full.  I also really enjoy the fact that I can have sim couples totally into each other--as in 'this is my complete and utter soul mate and I'll never again want to be near another person!' in addition to the sims who will never quite find Mr. or Ms. Right and just may have to settle on less than perfect if they want to settle down (kind of reminds me of real life that way, LOL).

I'm really appreciating my sims having cars and not having to wait on the Taxi all the time.

There's been a lot in this x-pack for me to get used to and learn (especially since I didn't have University) so that's fun, too.

Oh, and about those hacks?  Well, there are some I use simply because they stop annoyances or add features to the game that if I had been on the development team would've at least been suggested if not implemented.  To my mind, The Sims 2 is a great game only made better with the imagination of its players.

[nothingbutsims]

You know, I'm going to be another party pooper. Not because of bugs or because of what other people are saying, but because quite frankly, I'm bored with it already.

I was thinking of saying the same thing, but it felt too curmudgeonly a thing to say.  Dates got boring quickly.  I have a Pleasure sim, and every time his only viable want is "ask sim on date" I think, oh no, not again.  Even with the new Groups, skilling in University community lots is still boring.  It's more fun to set a Sim skilling at home and then forget him a while and pay attention to someone else.

I don't really like the new Pleasure aspiration very much.  So far the only long term Wants I've encountered were "go on X dates," and dates just aren't that interesting.

I think I was hoping Chemistry would do more than just make interactions available and succeed at lower relationship levels.  I was hoping it would make romantic relationships harder, so that you really had to seek out a Sim with whom you had mutual attraction.

   Do you have TS1?  Maybe you should play that for a while.  I can't believe you think this is boring!

[Gus Smedstad]

Yeah, I have TS1, but I stopped having fun after about two weeks, and I never bought any of the expansion packs.  There just aren't any goals in TS1 beyond hitting the top of your career.  The big thing for me in TS2 is the Wants.  I pretty much play to fulfill Wants as much as possible, and see what happens while I'm doing it.

Yes, I do think it's boring.  I played The Sims 2 really heavily after it came out, but eventually I exhausted pretty much everything the game had to show me.  When University came out, I delayed a bit picking it up, but when I did it gave me a lot of new stuff to do.  I had the basic college thing, and getting into a Greek House, and playing a Greek House actively and trying to max out the level, and designing my own dorms, and starting a Greek House from absolutely nothing, and trying to get into the Secret Society, and trying for lots of scholarships for college, and futzing with the new aspiration rewards.

It was quite a while before I burned out on University.  Nightlife certainly has a lot of content, but I find it hasn't really offered me much in new ways to play, as yet.  I bought a car, I ran through how to date, and how to run an outing, and then I was done with the new things to do introduced by Nightlife.

I'm not saying it sucks, I'm saying it hasn't changed my game enough.  Half the reason I'm currently reading this board is to find new ideas for what to do in Nightlife.

 - Gus

[Oddysey]

The problem that I see is that companies like EA (not Maxis; the actually game develeping companies are much less annoying than the companies that own them)

Developers are the good guys. Publishers are the bad guys.

An example:  I once heard someone from the publisher tell the programmer who was working on the code, "We're shipping it on Wednesday.  Have it ready."  There was no preliminary discussion on what worked and what didn't, or what state the code was actually in.  This guarantees that there were functions that couldn't be finished in time and had to be taken out, and there was no time whatsoever for independent testing of what was already done.

If anyone's been around long enough to remember him, I knew *exactly* where Derek Smart was coming from.  And I agreed with him completely.  I didn't always agree with his methods of telling people, but I did agree with what he was saying.  And this was before I ever worked for a game company.

Hook

Oh yeah. What annoys me the most is when people go "EA/Maxis" or "EA/DICE," because the developer and the publisher aren't the same entity.

An excellent example of this is KOTOR 2. The original game was very, very good. KOTOR 2 starts out very, very good. But the ending . . . sucks. There is no other word for it. Characters show up, disappear with no explanation, come back from the dead, etc. However, if you do a little digging, you can find a set of audio files that, if animated, would have made a coherent and very good ending, but would have taken much longer to implement than what's actually in the game. KOTOR 2 got rushed for the holidays, and in the process, basically got destroyed. There are so many other games where this happened, it's really kind of depressing.