Sims 2 family pack due in April

By Tom Bramwell Published 20 March, 2006

In shops for a tenner.

Sims 2 fans who've already plundered Open For Business won't have to wait all that long for more - EA's planning to release a "Family Fun Stuff" pack on April 13th for £9.99.

Family Fun Stuff will be released at retail and consists of 60 new items for Sims fans to play around with - and as you might imagine it's all the sorts of things that a growing family might want.

There are castle beds, cruise ship replicas, numerous bedroom sets including an underwater theme, a nautical theme living room, plus Hawaiian clothing, an octopus toy chest called, er Toyboxtopus and dragon costumes among other things.

As you might have spotted late last week, EA's also released some screenshots, and you can find videos on the official website too.

It's not likely to prove as exciting for casual Sims fans as Open For Business, we'd imagine, but it should keep those of you who play nothing else quite happy. Plus of course, Family Fun Stuff pack abbreviates rather wonderfully. Enjoy.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (23) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • realworld666 Verified Lead Programmer, Fuzzy-Frog Games #1 6 years ago

    Ah yes a castle shaped bed will improve my gameplay experience immeasurably and for a mere 10 of your English pounds.
    Great

  • Thamuhacha #2 6 years ago

    Has anyone played this on PSP?

    Any mild amusement is utterly ruined by the worst loading times since I finished using spectrum cassettes. And every 10 seconds as well. Very nasty.

  • reality_cheque #3 6 years ago

    lol@FFS pack :)

    Another birthday present lined up for the missus; I'm on a winner this year! Keep em coming please EA.

  • Bitkari #4 6 years ago

    I'm waiting for The Sims: Sims Add-on Pack Add-on Pack. It lets your Sims busily create new game packs for use in The Sims.

  • smelly #5 6 years ago

    How about an addon pack which lets your sims play sims?

  • smoison #6 6 years ago

    I'm glad this is bringing women to gameing but, this is worse then regular Fifa, NHL, or other sports updates.

    I really can't see the differences between the game and its 1000 add-ons.

    WHY IS THIS SELLING MUCH!

  • absolutezero #7 6 years ago

    Who actually buys these?

    Own up now, there will be no negative feeling im just interested in why you'd want them.

  • Stickman #8 6 years ago

    "I really can't see the differences between the game and its 1000 add-ons."

    Then clearly you've never played the game. I'd be interested to know how many of the people banging on about "Oh, another expansion pack, EA rip-off, blah" actually spend any time with the game.

    The Sims 2 has so far had 3 expansion packs come out for it, and each one improves the gameplay a vast amount and only costs you £15. Ask anyone who is actually a fan of The Sims and they'll tell you that they're perfectly happy with the expansions.

  • smoison #9 6 years ago

    But WHAT DO THEY ADD?

    Buf Fixes? New Stuff? new areas (ooh a night club...)?


    P;S I have played Sims 1, but it was way too repetitive for me. Got bored after the first hour...

  • realworld666 Verified Lead Programmer, Fuzzy-Frog Games #10 6 years ago

    In all seriousness, Sims 2 is really fun especially when you create your "friends" in the character builder and then subject them to various amounts of torture :p
    Some of the expansion packs look pretty good - the business one in particular looks worth the money but packs like this that add a new bed or a new item of clothing are really pointless since it doesnt improve the game from a gameplay point of view

  • Stickman #11 6 years ago

    OK.

    Nightlife - Added the 'Downtown' area to the neighbourhood. Loads of different venues, new aspirations (not in the original Sims. Now, not only do you have to make sure they don't piss themselves, your sim actually wants to do certain things), much better interaction options with other sims.

    University - Aside from all the extra content, this one added a whole new age to the game! In Sims 2, your sims age, usually baby/kid/teen/adult/elderly (I think). This added a new 'student' (for want of a better word) age range. You now have to balance partying with studying; a better degree = better (paid) job when you go back to the real world.

    Open For Business - The most recent, and IMO the best of the lot. You can now own your own business, be it flower shop, restaurant, or even work from home flogging stuff you've made yourself. Before your sim would bugger off to work for half the day, now you can control their whole life!

    Seriously, they've all been excellent. I know towards the end of The Sims 1's life, the expansions were getting more and more pointless, but these have all been like having a brand new game again.

  • Heitzu #12 6 years ago

    The worst thing is having looked at the Open For Business Item file the items included in this Family Fun Stuff pack were all originally in Open For Business and then taken out...

  • kangarootoo #13 6 years ago

    I think the fact that everyone is asking "why does this keep selling?", is the reason that Maxis make millions and the rest of us don't :(

    No-one can tar The Sims with the usual "EA are bastards" brush. Truth is that maxis hit a winning forumula with a great game design. If we don't like it (I played Sims 1 quite a bit years back, but nothing Sims related since), that simply means it isn't the game for us.

    People can shout "sheep public masses with more money than sense" all they want, but loads of people are buying this because they enjoy playing it, simple as that. If I had worked on something as successful as The Sims (or Sim City et al) I would be well proud of myself.

  • reality_cheque #14 6 years ago

    I can't really add anything much to what's been said by Stickman and Kangarootoo except that you can't really judge Sim 2 by your Sims 1 experiences. Sims 1 -> Sims 2 is a good example of something that is truly an evolution of the idea, rather than just be another cash-in-sequel.

  • hjarg666 #15 6 years ago

    They just should make Sims 2: Gimme All Your Money.
    Upon purchace, game automatically transfers half your money in your every account (including these secret overseas ones) to EA and other half to Maxis. But hey, they give you 2 new chairs and different colour plasma TV!

  • wolfen #16 6 years ago

    Don't forget that a lot of people only play The Sims and don't mind other games that much. Spending £30 for Sims 2 and then £15 every two months for an expansion is perfectly reasonable for them, and not that much different from paying £30 for WoW, and then £19 for a 60 day card. If that's reasonable for those who don't mind forking out, it's fine by me.

    I'm betting if (insert your fave company here) did the same, there would be no problem at all, but like it's EA...

  • kangarootoo #17 6 years ago

    @hjarg666

    Oh ffs. You don't HAVE to buy it do you?

    How about they make a version called "Sims: Make an informed and subjective purchasing decision".

    You name me one single company (not charity) that isn't in business to get your cash and I'll show you a pig with a pilots' license.

  • absolutezero #18 6 years ago

    How about they create just 1 expansion, containing all the silly little extras and release it a couple of years after the original games launch?

    It'd feel alot less like getting ripped off and alot more like giving an older game a new lease of life.

  • kangarootoo #19 6 years ago

    But then people would probably complain about them holding back. I think The Sims is the kind of game that has always benefitted from small add-ons. Maybe its just a pricing issue, but then if people are buying the add-ons for the current price point we can't really expect them to drop it.

  • zozart #20 6 years ago

    People, people, I think the main thing here is that you can get Dinosaur suits for your kids.

    This picture says it all.

    http://www.eurogamer.net/assets/artic les/a63300/ss_preview_Fairytale5WM.jpg

  • Drakron #21 6 years ago

    I think you can blame these "mini packs" in the Sims community.

    Look at how many Sims sites require you pay a subcription to download and this is not new, it comes from The Sims (1) days.

    It was only a matter of time before EA decided to do the same, if someone is willing to pay $10 for month in order to dowload about 20-30 items why sould they dont get in the deal?

  • reality_cheque #22 6 years ago

    "How about they create just 1 expansion, containing all the silly little extras and release it a couple of years after the original games launch?"

    2 reasons: Because then I wouldn't have so many potential birthday/christmas presents for the missus, and it gets her off GR:AW so I can have a game.

  • Krun #23 6 years ago

    The Sims is a Roleplaying game. Its set in a modern world.
    If it had goblins and ogres and dungeons many of you would rush out and buy it and all the add on packs too. New beds = Extra swords.
    "why would you want new beds?" = "Why would you want a new sword? or armour in a roleplaying game?"