The Sims 2: FreeTime | 
| From: Electronic Arts
List Price: $29.99
Buy New: $19.95
You Save: $10.04 (33%)
New (21) Used (3) from $19.95
Rating:  30 reviews
Sales Rank: 258
Format: Cd
Platforms: Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows Xp
Genre: artificial_life_simulation_games
ESRB: Teen
Media: Video Game
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Age: 12 - 20 years
Operating System: Windows 2000
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.4 x 1.1
MPN: 15371
UPC: 014633153712
EAN: 0014633153712
ASIN: B000VSEF52
Release Date: February 26, 2008
Promotion: Get free shipping on this item when you spend $199.00 or more on Qualifying Items offered by Trinity Omega. Enter code JF6VR5BS at checkout. Terms and Conditions
Availability: Usually ships in 4-5 business days
| |
| Features:
| • | Discover new activity types | | • | New group activities | | • | Hobbies offer lifetime rewards | | • | Requires select Sims 2 titles to play | | • | (See Product Description for more details) |
|
| Accessories:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Now your Sims can rediscover the joys of leisure time! Awaken your Sims' true passions in life as they discover and excel at all-new activities. Whether they're tossing a football with the family, practicing ballet, restoring cars with friends, or building train sets, your Sims now have more ways to build skills, enhance friendships, and make their lives more successful. Craft new, unique items for your Sims to use in their daily lives including clothing, pottery, and more. Your Sims will even unlock secret rewards by mastering their hobbies and advancing all-new careers. Explore a wide variety of new hobbies that will change your Sims' lives!
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 25 more reviews...
Freetime Expansion Adds New Dimension to Gameplay February 28, 2008
Ashley L. Sheppard (Philadelphia, PA USA)
49 out of 53 found this review helpful
The Sims 2 Freetime offers just what the title implies; activities and goals for your sims when they are not busy with their usual day-to-day activities.
I was fairly impressed by this new expansion because of all the elements it added. When I first played expansions such as Pets and Bon Voyage, I got just what I expected. With this expansion, I not only got hobbies, but I got a new aspiration meter with rewards, and lifetime friends as well as "BFFs".
Not only does this expansion add all these elements, but the main theme of the expansion, hobbies, was incorporated seamlessly into the gameplay. This was done not only with a variety of new objects, but by giving new functionality and value to old objects. For example, I was impressed when I found out that my sims can now read a variety of books, or watch different genres of movies. They can also write a somewhat customized novel, and it is delivered to their door! And sims that enjoy "tinkering" will find that they can "tinker" with many items they already have in their house.
There are, of course, a few downsides to the new expansion. It seems like sim motives decrease at a faster rate than before, although there are now unlockable rewards that allow you to slow this. It also seems to take a very long time to earn badges. Hobbies are not always the easiest thing to max out enthusiasm for either; it takes a lot of time. The variety of ways to increase this enthusiasm helps, as does the fact that a sim has a particular hobby that they will excel in faster than any other.
Overall, it is a very enjoyable expansion. I enjoy it much more than the most recent expansions, and I feel that it does add a new dimension to gameplay, as well as gives your sims a new kind of personality.
 APPARENTLY THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS TOO MUCH FREE TIME February 28, 2008
NeuroSplicer (Freeside, in Orbit)
44 out of 53 found this review helpful
This is the...7th expansion of the SIMS 2, so one has to ask: was there ANYTHING not done yet? Well, apparently yes.
Our Sims are given a choice of 10 hobbies (ranging from dancing and sports to...video games - Sims playing the SIMS 3? Yeah...deliciously ironic) which not only improve their mood but also their job skills if compatible. Said leisure-time activities can also serve in making money, since most hobbies end up, first, creating something and, then, improving on it.
Yes, there is a new Hobby-meter...Keeping it high will ensure your Sim's admittance into hobby-specific exclusive clubs. There are music and dance, arts and crafts, sports, fitness, scientific, nature lovers, gaming, cuisine, tinkering, and, finally, film and literature clubs - each branching out into more specialized subcategories.
Besides new clothes and items, this expansion comes with 5 new careers: architect, dancer, entertainer, intelligence officer (no Sim-Jack Bauer, no) and oceanographer. The controls are more or less the same - and so are the graphics and sounds (well, whatever sound the SIMS ever had). What I did not appreciate was...SecuROM (hence the second star withheld).
SIMS 2 always required a lot of micromanagement. FREETIME does add another level of complication, but I am sure it will appeal not only to hard-core Sims-fans. However, by taking care of your Sims' free time, make sure they do not take up all of yours...
Since this is supposed to be the last expansion, fans of the series will not resist. However, keep in mind that EA will probably release a SIM 2 bundle in a couple of months. If missing on more than a couple of expansions, I would advise to wait.
Fun Freetime Activities - and Sim telemarketers March 31, 2008
D. McCoy (Columbia, MD)
33 out of 37 found this review helpful
Freetime, like all of the previous Expansion Packs (EPs) adds new and interesting functionality to The Sims 2. Sims as young as toddlers can stumble upon an activity that they find particularly appealing and get additional fun and perks while engaged in it.
Hobbies include science, nature, music, cuisine, tinkering, sports and fitness. Now considering the different activities and career paths that were already present, these add many new possibilities for finding a fulfilling lifetime of fun for your Sims.
New careers have also been added, new objects, such as the restorable car, the basketball and soccer nets, and new functionality to old objects like the newspaper and computer and career 'chance' cards that allow your Sim to take part in and share their love for their hobbies and gain enthusiasm.
Your sims can now pick their hobbies as a topic of conversation, and impart knowledge to other sims for relationship building and enthusiasm gain.
Sims also gain lifetime aspiration points for milestones that take place in their lives. Starting with toddlers who get points for learning the three primary growth skills of their age group (walking, talking and potty training), your sims will gain points to put towards perks such as a secondary aspiration, slower need decay, better luck at chance cards, the ability to make three way calls and give financial advice for cash, and much more. Of particular use is the ability to make Grandma's comfort soup, which drastically shortens the time your sims have the flu.
But, there is something annoying that happens once you install Freetime: Spam. Your Sims are spammed at every turn by the game announcing via a pop-up that a particular sim has gained or lost enthusiasm for one hobby or another. Once you get to higher levels, the spam increases, with your sims getting incessant phone calls from various hobby clubs and sims offering magazine subscriptions related to your sims hobbies.
Eventually, the NPC sims just barge in to your sims homes and give them membership cards to the new secret hobby lots of their interest area. There they can share their hobbies with other like minded sims and compete in contests for simoleons and build enthusiam even more.
The spam starts to encroach on your enjoyment of the game, as the phone ringing is not likely to be a buddy any more, but a hobby club telling your sim about their enthusiasm level. It makes you wish for Sim caller ID or phone screening. Even if you cancel the action of your sim answering the call, you still get a pop up about it. And if you have a full house of sims, it gets maddening, pop-ups filling the entire right side of the screen.
So, great EP if you can overlook your sims getting spammed to death. If simulated telemarketing reminds you too much of telemarketing in real life that prompted you to put every phone number you have on the National Do Not Call List, maybe this EP will get on your nerves.
(Supposedly, there is a user-authored mod that reduces in-game spam, but I haven't tried it yet. I'll update after I give it a go)
EDIT: I downloaded a user-authored mod that cuts the spam down to a reasonable amount. It's still more than I'd like. And Mr. Humble, wherever you are - I think it stinks that this EP has made the game so annoying. Does anyone there market test your stuff with real players? It seems like it never was, other wise you'd know how annoying this EP was.
 FreeTime Takes Up All My Free Time! March 4, 2008
Benjamin Roberts (Louisville, KY United States)
15 out of 15 found this review helpful
I picked up Sims2 FreeTime last Thursday, and if I hadn't created a Sim that looked like my wife, I probably would have forgotten what she looked like. There is something postmodern about being up at 1:30 AM on a Thursday night with your wife saying, "Come on, put the game away", while a Sim that looks like your wife makes hand gestures at a Sim that looks like you who is playing The Sims 3 on HIS computer.
FreeTime allows you to have enjoyable hobbies, often with things you were doing already, such as cooking, working out, watching movies, etc. Now, those tasks translate into cuisine, fitness, or film and literature. All your sims will enjoy at least one of these activities more than the others, which will allow them to have more fun and do more activities. If your sim is really into cuisine, he'll enjoy cooking and watching the cooking channel, but he'll be able to do other things such as read cooking magazines, blog about cooking, talk to other Sims about cooking, get a membership in a cooking club, enter a cooking competition, and more.
Your sims may also enjoy sewing, pottery, etc. They can work on old broke down cars. And the expansion pack adds some items that will be familiar to those who enjoyed the first Sims game, including a basketball hoop, the hobby train, and the genie in the bottle (who grants three wishes!)
Novel writing is better than before as well. Your Sim can sit down to write his novel, and select plot points, the cover, etc. When the novel arrives and Sims read the novel, the plot points of the novel will appear over their heads in thought bubbles.
There are cool new career paths, as well. There is Oceanographer, with a Koi pond as the reward; an Intelligence Agent with a listening device reward; Entertainer with a Walk of Fame star; Architect with a drafting table reward; or dancer with a ballet bar reward.
Another great feature is the ability to take up to 3 friends with you as you age. That way, your Sim doesn't become an old man while the girl he shared his first kiss with remains a teenager in high school.
FreeTime may not be the absolute best expansion pack to date, but it will definitely take up YOUR free time.
Overall Fun March 7, 2008
E. K. Pearson (USA)
13 out of 14 found this review helpful
It's been very hard for EA Games to top the Season's expansion in way of activities and good game content for the Sims 2 game franchise, but they come pretty close with their new expansion Freetime.
The big draw is the new hobbies that are available for your sims to do in their spare time. And while this can certainly keep your sims extremely busy, often it feels like there's never enough time to do it all in. It does help fill in those gaps for age groups of toddler and children though , which is a great stress killer as both age groups have been limited in activities for so long. As your sim increases their "points" in a certain activity, options like surfing the web and posting blogs on the pc concerning your sims hobbies opens up. Eventually you have a special membership to a exclusive club for that hobby as well where you can go to do things related to the hobby or even just meet other sims who might share that hobby.
Also in this expansion is a second meter for your sims lifetime achievements. As your mood stays platinum it builds faster giving you points to spend in four categories: Motive Decays, Career, Your Chosen Aspiration, and a category to select a secondary aspiration if you want. The secondary aspiration is long overdue in my opinion, as it stops the extreme one-dimensional aspect of picking your aspiration. So now your sim may be obsessed with money, but if you select Family as a secondary, you might actually want children or to interact with your own family more. The Motive Decay section is almost essential these days as motives seem to pile drive down faster than I ever recall them doing before, especially as you partake in the various hobby activities.
However, this expansion comes with some MAJOR Annoyances. I swear that Maxis holds a meeting before each expansion to study and put together some of the most aggravating behaviors possible to irritate their fan base (Sea Chantey anyone?). In this case it would be the phone ringing off the hook and people stopping by chronically at your house (and no... locking the doors to household only does not keep them at bay) as you learn new hobbies. The phone only rings off the hook for the first few points into a new hobby, but if you have more than one person in the household it can drive you absolutely NUTS. And imagine if you play more than one household in your neighborhood. It grinds on a player very quickly. Another bad point is that as you don't do something for a hobby bugs the player by saying that you need to do activities associated to get it back up. So when you're just doing the basic skills (for scholarships or jobs) as you no longer study since the points pretty much are a permanent thing once you get them, or do anything else related to that field it will give you messages telling you that you're losing points in it. The downer regarding hobbies is that a sim doesn't actually get to pick what their "predestined" hobby is. You basically experiment around until the sim gets a highlighted section. This is the hobby that your sim is most interested in doing. It would have been nice for the players to pick themselves, based on their sims habits and personality. Be prepared though for your sims to pick up new gestures with every new hobby they gain points into, and while it's cute the first few times, you eventually get tired of them rubbing their bellies thinking about food or cracking their knuckles (beware, some sims will actually whistle the Sims 2 theme song). Based on all these exasperating things mentioned, this player currently has all sounds turned off.
The expansion does offer a few overdue new things though. The ability to sort and create your own music channels (so pick your favorite Sims 2 songs from all the radio stations or set up your own MP3's), a few new badges for your sims to earn and a new neighborhood with new characters to play. The sewing badge is rather neat in that you can actually make one custom outfit for each gender/age once you get high enough, it would have been great if Maxis had expanded that option a bit more for making custom outfits. There's also an option to study parenting out of the bookshelves now, once learned you're able to click on a baby and see their greatest need. However, I find this option completely unnecessary considering that babies in the game are very simple, and usually it gives me a toilet symbol (as if you can do anything with them regarding) and you just have to wait for a diaper change anyways. Other neat things include Mr. Humble, who might visit your household and give you a special PC that has a preview of Sims 3 on it, and if your household is really into their hobbies they could just get a visit from the gypsy who'll leave a mystical genie lamp which grants 3 wishes (careful what you wish for though...). Of course there's a few new outfits for the expansion, but have to say that I found them rather hideous (another specialty of EA Games as of late, wondering if they let 4 year olds design the outfits these days to save money) and one new hair for adult males. So if you're expecting a lot more content in that area, you'll be disappointed. The last neat item they placed into this expansion is the ability upon a sims birthday to grow up to three townies with you, so now when you make friends with little Marsha Bruening, she can go through the life stages with you, instead of still being a child when you're an elder and wondering why you don't hang with her anymore.
Overall, the expansion gives enough new stuff to keep you busy for a bit and expand your sims activities making it a decent buy. Finding the time to squeeze it all in may be a problem though, and people who used to keep busy creating large sim families may find it near impossible to do now. Still this is one of EA's better expansions and should have enough stuff in it to keep even a finicky simmer busy for a good while. And thankfully thus far this expansion has been bug free, which I know purchasers of Bon Voyage can greatly appreciate. Happy Simming!
|
|
|
