The Sims 2: Nightlife

The Sims 2: Nightlife is the second expansion pack for The Sims 2, was released on September 13, 2005 (USA and Canada) and September 16, 2005 (European Union, Australia and New Zealand). It was released for Mac OS X on March 27, 2006. The expansion pack centers on the new downtown area, which has various activities, such as bowling, karaoke, dining and dancing, as well as a photo booth, and includes a dating mini-game which allows player to engage in their Sim's relationships in greater depth.

Description
The game is reminiscent of an expansion pack from the original The Sims game entitled The Sims: Hot Date, which focused on new social interactions and locations for Sims to visit, such as a dance club or romantic restaurant. Nightlife follows in a similar theme. Some of the items are also similar to the ones found in The Sims House Party.

New additions include inventories, new interactions, and over 125 new objects. NPCs that a player's Sim dates can now leave gifts or hate letters at the Sim's home, depending on the success of particular dates. Some of the new NPCs include party DJs, a Gypsy Matchmaker and Vampires.

Nightlife also adds a new aspiration. The Pleasure Aspiration is assigned in exactly the same way as any of the other 5 aspirations. Sims with the Pleasure Aspiration crave enjoyment in many different ways, whilst they fear embarrassment. Pleasure Sims may receive wants such as 'juggle' and 'jump on lounge.' Nightlife has also introduced a new reward object called the ReNuYu SensoOrb, which enables any Sim to change their aspiration at any time. However, like all other aspiration reward objects, it can fail if the Sim's Aspiration Meter isn't at least in the Gold range, which results in the Sim using it receiving the Grilled Cheese Aspiration, and all other wants or fears will be superseded with ones revolving around grilled cheese sandwiches, such as "Make Grilled Cheese Sandwich" or "Be rejected for Talk about Grilled Cheese Sandwich." If The Sims 2: University is installed, the Sim's Lifetime Want will also change.

In Nightlife, Sims can own their own cars instead of relying on the carpool. There are several models and colors available. In addition, driveways (mandatory for any residential lot to accommodate a car) and garages can be built into the Sim's lot.

Also new, more customized swimming pools can be designed. Included is a new diagonal shaped swimming pool tool, which can be used to create extensive shapes not previously possible. However, the pool ladder and diving board may only be attached to pool tiles square on to the lot.

The lot mode has been expanded in Nightlife, so that it is possible to view the neighborhood from a lot. Players may leave one lot to play another without having to go back to the neighborhood mode. It is still impossible, however, for a Sim to invite himself or herself to another residential lot.

New gameplay mechanics
As with previous expansion packs, not only does The Sims 2: Nightlife come packed with more content, but also adds something to the overall gameplay of the original game. New aspects of gameplay that are added to Nightlife are:

Fury
The Sims 2: Nightlife introduces the concept of fury. Of limited duration, this generally affects which social interactions are accepted. It is most likely to occur when a spouse is caught cheating with another Sim. If another Sim becomes furious at the player's Sim, their Sim will be subjected to vandalism, such as having their newspaper stolen, or their trash can kicked over. This can be resolved through making friends with the person that is furious at them.

Contacts
If a sim has a successful date or outing, there is a chance they may receive a call from a friend of that date or a group member. When the call is received the caller will be added to the sims relationship panel as a contact. They are indicated by a blue haze on the sims portrait in that panel. They also have friendship status. After calling the blue haze will recede counterclockwise. The duration of which is set by how successful the date or outing was. If normal friendship status hasn't been established by then the friendship relationship will be lost

Vampires
The Sims 2: Nightlife introduces NPC Vampires and allows Sims to turn into Vampires themselves. By befriending the "Grand Vampires" (also known as the "Count" and "Countessa") who hang out in the downtown area at night, the player can persuade a vampire to bite their Sim. Once a Sim has become a vampire, it receives the characteristic sharp teeth, red eyes and bluish skin. Vampires will die if exposed to sunlight for more than a few seconds (they stay within their coffins during the day). A benefit to a Sim being a vampire, however, is that its Needs do not decay during the night. Another advantage vampires possess is the fact that they become immortal, and thus, they will always stay the same age they were when they were first bitten, and never grow any older. Teenagers can also become vampires, therefore they stay a teenager forever, unless they are sent to college - in which case they will become a Young Adult, and once graduate, they will become an Adult.

If at any time the Sim grows tired of being a vampire, they can call the Gypsy Matchmaker and receive a Vamprocillin D potion that changes them back to normal.

Vampires also have no reflection in mirrors, though they will show up in photographs. They can also change into a bat to fly to another spot on the lot quickly. They also are known to "bleh" on occasion.



Attraction and Chemistry
Any sim that is teenaged or older can make use of the Attraction and Chemistry system. This system is designed to make achieving relationships easier. Attraction eligibility denotes which sims can receive attraction. To be attraction eligible a sim must be the right age, the right gender and not blood related. Attraction is a score that can be added or subtracted by Turn-ons and Turn-offs, Personality, Aspiration and Zodiac signs. A playable sim's attraction score can be indicated by the Scope Room and the Flirt... Check Sim Out interactions. A non-playable sim's score for a playable sim can be indicated through the Ask... Do You Like What You See? interaction. If two sims have an attraction score for each other, it will be visible as a chemistry score. The chemistry score is the average of two attraction scores and is visible on the relationships panel. The number of lightning bolts on any sim's portrait in the panel indicates how high the chemistry score is. Three Lightning bolts indicate the highest score while a lightning bolt with a red x through it indicates the lowest chemistry. Chemistry unlocks social interactions between two sims that would otherwise be unavailable. It can also increase the chance of them accepting risky interactions between themselves. The number of unlocked interactions and how accepting sims are of those interactions corresponds to how high the chemistry score is.