Cheats Codes and Walkthroughs for Sony Playstation 2 PS2: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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Sony Playstation 2 Sims 2 The Cheats, Codes, Hints, Tips and Walkthroughs
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Sony Playstation 2 Strategy Guides Canada:  Sony Playstation2 Sims 2 The Official Games Strategy Guides Books
UK:           Sony Playstation2 Sims 2 The Official Games Strategy Guides Books
USA:         Sony Playstation2 Sims 2 The Official Games Strategy Guides Books
THE SIMS 2 STRATEGY GUIDE/FAQ - WRITTEN BY JPaterson
The Sims 2 for PC FAQ/Walkthrough Written by Josh Rulez - aka warfreak
USA>  1. Sims Compendium- Strategy Guide
             2. Sims 2, The: Official Strategy Guide
Europe>  1. The Sims Compendium: Official Strategy Guide
                 2. Sims 2, The: Official Strategy Guide
Canada>  1. Sims Compendium- Strategy Guide
                  2. The Sims 2 Official Strategy Guide
USA>  The Sims 2 (console):  Official Game Guide (Paperback)
Europe>  The Sims 2 (console):  Official Game Guide (Paperback)
Canada>  The Sims 2 (console):  Official Game Guide (Paperback)
Unknown - While playing a game, press Right, Down, Right, Down, Right, Down. If you entered the code correctly, you will hear a Sim voice.

Mode switch - Press Select to toggle between Direct Control mode and Cursor Select mode. This very useful in Freeplay mode.

Extra clothes - Get your Sim's relationships to 100 with everyone. Each time you raise another relationship to 100, you will unlock a new article of clothing.

Food locations

Dangleberries can be harvested in the Sproutch Couch.
Other fruits are harvested on a Frood Tree.
Golden eggs can be received from Chicken Checkers game.
Fish can be harvested from the Manilla 1000 Aquarium
Some vegetables can be harvested from the GenoLife Garden Hutch.

Hunger satisfaction - The more expensive refrigerators carry more foods. They also add a bonus amount of hunger satisfaction. The more cooking skill you have, the higher the hunger satisfaction. Additionally, hunger is the one need that if left unmet can kill your Sim. Sandwiches that boost energy (also is a love dish) are ostrich, pork, strawberry, wheat bread.

Easy money - Go to Build mode, then go to wallpaper and press Square to sell. Select a wall that has no wallpaper. Keep selling the wallpaper that does not exist for easy money.

Saving money - Objectives that require buying furniture can be easily purchased on low ends. Just buy it to complete the goal, then delete and get your full money back.

Controlling a dead Sim - Kill your Sim. There are a lot of ways to do this, but starting a fire is the fastest. Once your Sim is dead, switch to direct control (if not already in it). As a dead Sim you can walk through walls and talk to Sims. Terrorize, Wail, and Possess are social options dead Sims can do. However, you cannot actually possess Sims out of Social mode. These social options have no effect on other Sims, but are amusing. You can also challenge the Grim Reaper in fiddle challenge. You have an unlimited number of chances to try this. If you win, your Sim will come back to life. You can also pay the Grim Reaper 100 Simoleons for a Back To Life Ticket.

Development team picture - At the title screen, press Right, Down, Right, Down, Right. If you entered the code correctly, you will hear a Sim voice. Alternately, press Left, Right, Down, Right, Left, Right, Down at the title screen. If you entered the code correctly, you will hear a Sim voice.

Extra locations

Alien Crash Site: Fulfill all of XY-XY's aspirations and make him friends with Jonas. This will unlock The Bio-Dome.

Cliffside Retreat: Fulfill all of Isabella's Wants and make her happy. Note: It may be difficult and take some time to get her to make a sandwich.

HMS Amore: Fulfill all of Betty's Wants until she is Platinum. She will then tell you where the next location is. One of her wants will be to marry Captain Nelson.

Jugen House: Fulfill all of Toothless Joe's aspirations until your Sim gets "Visit New Location" as one of their aspirations. Then, go back to Tranquillity Falls and your aspiration will change to "Help Chantal". To do this, just keep fulfilling her wants until she is Platinum (a job in Art). This will unlock the Alien Crash Site.

Orbit Room: Become friends with Red S, then serve him some food. Then, move back to Sunset Canyon and make Red S and Helga fall in love and get married. Red S will now live there, and you can control him. Do whatever is needed to get Red S in a Platinum mood. He will tell you how to get to Tranquillity Falls.

Rockwall Acres: Follow the instructions given to unlock this area.

Shoreline Trails: Buy a Foosball Table. When a Want that is described as "Beat Torin at Foosball" appears, wait for Torin to play, then click the "Challenge" option and defeat him.

Sunset Canyon: Bring Helga, Billy, and Sheila back to life, build a kitchen, clean up the mess, build a bathroom, and give them beds to sleep in. They will then tell you the next location.

Tranquillity Falls: Fulfill all of Larry and Chantal's wants to put them in a Platinum mood. After both are in a Platinum mood they will tell you where Jugen House's is located, and it will be unlocked.

Hidden food - There is more than just the food you can make. For example, there is food that give your skills a boost, food that helps you in love (romance Sims only for their goals), and food not in the list. For example, you can make a pizza.

Free harvested food - Use the following trick if you are in need of food and have very little money. Buy an item that can have food harvested from it. Harvest the food from it, sell it back, then buy another. This will keep you from having to spend money on food. Unless there is more than one sim in your house, you do not have to worry about the other Sim wasting money buying non-harvested foods.

Aphrodisiac effect meal - Ostrich and Passion Fruit; or Carrot, Lime, Pork, and Passion Fruit. Most things made with Ostrich or Passion Fruit will have the aphrodisiac effect, although some have a very negative effect (black hearts) that will lower your Sim's mood.

Energy boost effect meal - Dangleberry, Yogurt, Strawberries, and Cherries; or Ostrich, Eel, Strawberries, and Mangosteen (expensive but works the best). Sandwiches that boost energy (also is a love dish) are Ostrich, Pork, Strawberry, Wheat Bread.

Skills boost effect meal - To boost all your Sim's stats by 3 temporarily, create a meal using Egg, Milk, Whole White Flour, and Corn Oil. Put it in a food processor, then in an oven. The meal will have sparkles coming out of it. When you eat it, all your stats will be boosted by 3 temporarily. Alternately, create a meal using Chicken, Onion, Egg, and Milk or Carrot, Egg, Milk, and Whole White Flour.

Sick meal - Any meal made with Llama, no matter what the effect, any Sim that eats it will vomit.

Raising motives - To raise your Power, Fun, and Comfort at the same time, power nap on a couch with a television or radio on nearby.

Finding buried treasure - A Sim can only use the Metal Detector in Direct Control mode. It is possible to find money, Dangleberries, monkey idols, and bottle caps.

Cheat: - Sent in by: lee.gould2

Fill All Motives
Unlock Gnome. Then pause the game and enter UP, CIRCLE, UP, RIGHT, L2.

Cheat: All Objects
Unlock Gnome. Then pause the game and enter L2, CIRCLE, DOWN, LEFT, UP.

Cheat: All Recipes
Unlock Gnome. Then pause the game and enter R2, SQUARE, UP, DOWN, RIGHT, X.

Cheat: Audio Track
Unlock Gnome. Then pause the game and enter R1, L1, R1, L1, TRIANGLE.
Cheat: Team Picture
Unlock Gnome. Then pause the game and enter RIGHT, DOWN, RIGHT, DOWN, RIGHT.

Cheat: All Fashion
Unlock Gnome. Then pause the game and enter SQUARE, R2, DOWN, RIGHT, SQUARE.
Unlockable: Gnome
To reveal Plumb Bob Trophy on the lots, pause game and enter L1, R1, UP, X, R2. Sim Voice At the title screen, press Right, Up, Right, Down, Right, Up, Down, Right. If you entered the code correctly, you will hear a Sim voice.

Mode switch
Press Select to toggle between Direct Control mode and Cursor Select mode. This very useful in Freeplay mode.

Extra clothes
Get your Sim's relationships to 100 with everyone. Each time you raise another relationship to 100, you will unlock a new article of clothing.

Extra locations
Alien Crash Site: Fulfill all of XY-XY's aspirations and make him friends with Jonas. This will unlock The Bio-Dome. Cliffside Retreat: Fulfill all of Isabella's Wants and make her happy. Note: It may be difficult and take some time to get her to make a sandwich. HMS Amore: Fulfill all of Betty's Wants until she is Platinum. She will then tell you where the next location is. One of her wants will be to marry Captain Nelson. Jugen House: Fulfill all of Toothless Joe's aspirations until your Sim gets "Visit New Location" as one of their aspirations. Then, go back to Tranquillity Falls and your aspiration will change to "Help Chantal". To do this, just keep fulfilling her wants until she is Platinum (a job in Art). This will unlock the Alien Crash Site. Orbit Room: Become friends with Red S, then serve him some food. Then, move back to Sunset Canyon and make Red S and Helga fall in love and get married. Red S will now live there, and you can control him. Do whatever is needed to get Red S in a Platinum mood. He will tell you how to get to Tranquillity Falls. Rockwall Acres: Follow the instructions given to unlock this area. Shoreline Trails: Buy a Foosball Table. When a Want that is described as "Beat Torin at Foosball" appears, wait for Torin to play, then click the "Challenge" option and defeat him. Sunset Canyon: Bring Helga, Billy, and Sheila back to life, build a kitchen, clean up the mess, build a bathroom, and give them beds to sleep in. They will then tell you the next location. Tranquillity Falls: Fulfill all of Larry and Chantal's wants to put them in a Platinum mood. After both are in a Platinum mood they will tell you where Jugen House's is located, and it will be unlocked. Food locations
Dangleberries can be harvested in the Sproutch Couch.
Other fruits are harvested on a Frood Tree.
Golden eggs can be received from Chicken Checkers game.
Fish can be harvested from the Manilla 1000 Aquarium
Some vegetables can be harvested from the GenoLife Garden Hutch.

Free harvested food
Use the following trick if you are in need of food and have very little money. Buy an item that can have food harvested from it. Harvest the food from it, sell it back, then buy another. This will keep you from having to spend money on food. Unless there is more than one sim in your house, you do not have to worry about the other Sim wasting money buying non-harvested foods.

Hunger satisfaction
The more expensive refrigerators carry more foods. They also add a bonus amount of hunger satisfaction. The more cooking skill you have, the higher the hunger satisfaction. Additionally, hunger is the one need that if left unmet can kill your Sim. To quickly fulfill your Sim's hunger even with low cooking skills, make a meal using Beef, Pork, Lamb, and Potatoes.

Aphrodisiac effect meal
Ostrich and Passion Fruit; or Carrots, Lime, Pork, and Passion Fruit. Most things made with Ostrich or Passion Fruit will have the aphrodisiac effect, although some have a very negative effect (black hearts) that will lower your Sim's mood.

Energy boost effect meal
Dangleberry, Yogurt, Strawberries, and Cherries; or Ostrich, Eel, Strawberries, and Mangosteen (expensive but works the best). Sandwiches that boost energy (also is a love dish) are Ostrich, Pork, Strawberry, Wheat Bread.

Skills boost effect meal
Chicken, Onions, Eggs, and Milk.

Sick meal
Any meal made with Llama, no matter what the effect, any Sim that eats it will vomit.

Raising motives
To raise your Power, Fun, and Comfort at the same time, power nap on a couch with a television or radio on nearby.

Easy money
Go to Build mode, then go to wallpaper and press Square to sell. Select a wall that has no wallpaper. Keep selling the wallpaper that does not exist for easy money.
If you need some money and own a "Defective Arcade Genie Lamp" you can keep making wishes and you will get money eventually. However, the genie can also cause fire and make all the characters in the area of the lamp to pee themselves if you make him mad. When the genie is mad he will come out of his lamp with red colored smoke beneath him. However, if he is giving you something good the smoke will be purple or pinkish. It is best to perform this when you first get a house so that you can get your money and not risk losing any items you have purchased. Note: If you talk with the genie, he will also give you small advice and hints occasionally. Saving money
Objectives that require buying furniture can be easily purchased on low ends. Just buy it to complete the goal, then delete and get your full money back.

Finding buried treasure
A Sim can only use the Metal Detector in Direct Control mode. It is possible to find money, Dangleberries, monkey idols, and bottle caps.

Controlling a dead Sim
Kill your Sim. There are a lot of ways to do this, but starting a fire is the fastest. Once your Sim is dead, switch to direct control (if not already in it). As a dead Sim you can walk through walls and talk to Sims. Terrorize, Wail, and Possess are social options dead Sims can do. However, you cannot actually possess Sims out of Social mode. These social options have no effect on other Sims, but are amusing. You can also challenge the Grim Reaper in fiddle challenge. You have an unlimited number of chances to try this. If you win, your Sim will come back to life. You can also pay the Grim Reaper 100 Simoleons for a Back To Life Ticket.

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5. Request a Guide:
'Walkthrough: It's All About the Benjasims
As you can see from the screenshot, Kelly's got get the National Compound running, and she's already met a few people from the neighborhood. However, those 234 Simoleons in her bank account are not going to last long. She needs to do what the Silhouettes preached about years ago: time to Get A Job.

Jobs
Jobs are the main way Sims will get money. Taking a job is easy, but maintaining it day in and day out will be tough. Kelly's up for it though, and starting the process isn't hard at all. Kelly starts the process by going to her newspaper, which is delivered every day at 9 AM. That right there is her first mistake in life. A better way to find jobs is via a computer. If you use one, you'll find jobs based on your skill points (explained in a moment). That means you won't have to start at the bottom of the corporate food chain if you've already got the skills to be past it. Every paper will have three jobs available, and can be looked at a couple times before one is decided on. Computers usually have four or five jobs available. Again, while the newspaper only lists level 1 jobs, computers list them by the asking Sim's skill levels. Jobs have many things in common at their core. Most jobs have five days on the job per week, and two days off. Promotions are based on gaining job skills, good moods, and many friends. No single job is on a swing shift (that is, Sims have regular hours). All Sims have to take carpools to work. But we might be getting ahead of ourselves here. There are 10 career tracks in The Sims 2, and each has 10 levels of actual jobs. The goal, in theory, is to start from level 1 and earn your way up the corporate food chain until you get to level 10. Each level is more demanding than the last, but provides more money. There isn't really one track that's better than the others, but starting pay may be a huge factor. Now, let's review Kelly's aspiration, both the in-game one and the one that we, as the player, decided for her. She is aiming to be popular, and wants to turn the National Compound into THE party house. She does not want be locked into a job forever; she just needs one to get started. With that in mind, her goal is to simply get a good starting pay. So she looks through the paper, and looks at all three jobs before accepting any. See the screenshots below. The first job, an EMT in the Medical track, has a starting pay of 280 Simoleons per day. The second is a Dishwasher in the Culinary track, and that'll bring in 126 per day. Finally, the third one available is the Llama's Team Mascot in the Athletic track, and that brings in 154 per day. Kelly just wants the cash now, so she wants to be an EMT. By selecting Find a Job from the pie menu of the newspaper again, the same three choices will be offered, and this time she'll select Take Job when EMT comes up. She is informed via pop-up window that the carpool will arrive at 7 AM daily. With Kelly now holding a job, she can take a look at her job panel again. This time, we'll actually have something relevant to talk about. Remember how to access it? It's the third icon of the vertical five. Check out the screenshot above on the right while we go through what all the bars and everything mean. First, at the top left of the pane, you can see the career track symbol and the specific job your Sim currently has. Below that are the per-day salary, and then the work hours. Remember that the carpool arrives for the Sim one hour prior to the shift. Kelly works from 8 AM to 2 PM, so the carpool will arrive at 7 AM. When it does so, it will stay up to one hour, then drive away if she doesn't get in it. Below that are the days of the week; the light blue ones are work days, and the dark blue ones are off days. The arrow underneath a day says what day it is. Finally, the bottom-left of the pane shows how many vacation days the Sim has. Sims start with none, but will earn them through frequent promotions. These vacations are PAID, so if you have one and just need to give your Sim a day off, have him or her stay at home. The money is automatically given when the shift starts, even though the Sim isn't there. On the right side of the pane past the divider line is a list of seven job skills. New to the Sims series is the last one, Cleaning. We'll touch on all of them in a moment. Job skills are used not just for jobs, but they are the primary requirement of getting promoted. Unlike personality, Sims are not locked into job skills and have no limit. Provided they live long enough, they can earn all 70 points and be Uber-Sims. Here's a rundown of all the skills, how to earn them, and what they mean inside and outside of the job.
Cooking: A Sim with high Cooking will be able to cook better, more fulfilling meals. This helps all Sims who eat their cooking to have their Hunger need filled faster. This one is a must in the Culinary track, and useful for all other tracks as well. In addition, a Sim may start a fire when attempting to cook a meal too advanced (like if a Sim tried cooking salmon when it only knew how to nuke a TV dinner). Study this one at a bookshelf, or by watching the Yummy Channel on TV.
Mechanical: Sims can fix broken appliances quickly if they've got high Mechanical numbers. That will save money when something breaks and a repairman would usually be called in. This skill is used in practically every job to some extent. This one can also be trained via a bookshelf.
Charisma: A Sim with high Charisma can actually offset the penalties associated with being fully shy. Charismatic Sims tend to attract other Sims as friends, and their jokes and other interactions will pass more often. For Kelly's purposes (having the Popularity aspiration), this one is extremely important. Charisma can be trained at any mirror by selecting either Practice Speech or Practice Romance.
Body: High body skill points will allow a Sim to have just a hair more energy when doing active things throughout the day. Plus, a Sim with a good body will do better in physically demanding jobs, such as anything in the Athletic career track. Working out to music from the radio, the TV, or any exercise equipment will get this one up.
Logic: Logic does not seem to have much of an impact outside of jobs. It is, however, a boost to inactive Sims. The theory is that while athletic or active Sims use their bodies to accomplish things, the logical Sim uses its mind to solve the same problems. Logic can be improved by playing chess or looking through a telescope.
Creativity: Creative Sims can paint pictures and write novels, the two non-job things that actually earn money. (The specifics will be discussed shortly.) It can be gained by playing the piano, or doing either of the two non-job activities.
Cleaning: This skill helps improve the speed and quality when a Sim cleans a dish, floor, toilet, or whatever. This is a good offset for a Sim who has a low Neat score: while you'll have to command him to clean, he'll do so quickly and accurately. Cleaning, like Cooking and Mechanical, can be studied via a bookshelf. In addition, all job skills gain while the Sim is performing a related action. For example, while the Sim cooks dinner, it will gain a little experience in Cooking. If a Sim cleans the bathtub, its experience will grow in Cleaning. Skill gain rates are dependent on the object used for it. For example, working out with the TV or the radio is fine. But you can get higher Body points MUCH faster with exercise machine. Always try to gain your skills using the fastest method to save time. Here's a screenshot from earlier as a reminder. All the bubbles next to the skill names are empty, but the first point of Cleaning is circled in blue. That means she'll need to achieve one point in Cleaning to even be considered for promotion. Dividing the job summary and job skills is a vertical bar with two numbers at the bottom. The bar is your Sim's job performance; obviously, the higher, the better. The bar raises with every day that your Sim goes to work on time and in a good mood. Some needs can usually be met at the job site, so don't fret if you've stuck between getting to work in only got two minutes or peeing yourself. Just head for work, and Bladder should be taken care of there. Not getting to work, or showing up in a bad mood, will hurt the job performance. If the bar dips low enough, your Sim could be demoted, or even possibly fired. The two numbers below the job performance bar states how many FAMILY FRIENDS your Sim has, and how many more it needs to be promoted. Family is stressed because Sims in the household can befriend other Sims and still have it contribute to the overall total, which plays into the Alpha Strategy section of the guide. Kelly's as you can see is 0, and (+0). That means she has no Family Friends, but she doesn't need any to be promoted. So, Kelly's got the day off today. Even if she didn't, she didn't have the job when the carpool was supposed to be there, so it's not counted against her. She needs a single point of Cleaning to be up for a promotion, but she should learn how to prepare food for herself first. (Living on one's own is a drag, huh?) So she goes to her bookshelf, pulls out a cook book to study via choosing Study… > Cooking. She sits in her discount chair and starts studying away. See that tube above her head? That's a progress bar that shows how far along she is to learning the skill. The smaller the number skill, the quicker it is. Now she's ready to cook a meal before going to bed. And cooking gets its own separate sub-section!

Do You Smell What the Sims Are Cooking?
Cooking is an art, and in The Sims 2, you have to know what you're doing to make sure no one gets sick. If a meal is cooked wrong - whether that means overcooked or undercooked - the Sim that eats it will have a chance of suffering from food poisoning. It's not a pretty sight, especially since it can be contagious. Cooking can be done in two ways. The old Sims 1 way, which is still an option, is to click the refrigerator and select "Have …" if the Sim is only cooking for itself, or "Serve …" if your Sim is cooking for others too. The new way is to click a cooking appliance and select the option from there. The latter is preferred, because by choosing your appliance, you can affect the speed of the meal. Food from ovens is more filling than from a microwave, but a microwave is extremely fast and definitely preferred if you've got a time crunch (such as eating breakfast before work). You can select the specific dish you want to prepare after selecting either the "Have…" or "Serve…" options, but be choosy. Your refrigerator has a limited amount of food in it, and you'll have to get more groceries if you run out. Complicated meals, and meals for multiple people, will use up more ingredients than basic meals. Plus, eating a stack of pancakes when the Hunger meter is only 1/4 empty is a fast way to a fat tummy. Eat only what you need to, only when you need to. The quality of the meal is not just based on your appliances, but your Sim as well. Sims with high Cooking skills not only make better meals, but they can make more types of meals. Sims without Cooking skills can barely handle TV dinners and instant meals (like protein shakes and so forth), whereas a Sim with high Cooking skills can churn out turkeys left and right without effort. Again though, banging out a turkey when you only need a bowl of spaghetti will quickly get your Sim out of shape. Here we see Kelly making a meal. She is led to the microwave and chooses Have Dinner, because she is the only one she is cooking for. She then chooses TV Dinner, as it's the only option. She'll go to the fridge automatically, cook it, then head to the nearest table and chair combo to eat. Hired Help It's getting pretty late now, as you can see. She needs to get ready for her first day of work tomorrow, so it's time to start wrapping it up to head for bed. She cleans up her plate, goes to the bathroom, takes a shower, sets her alarm, then dives into bed. In the morning, the alarm gets her up. She cooks a quick meal, then heads out to the carpool when it arrives. It whisks her away to her work (and out of our hair) for a few hours. Did you see what time it was before she managed to get into the ambulance? Remember, the carpool only sticks around for one hour after it arrives, and at 7:53 AM, Kelly cut that one close. She lagged a bit because she was cleaning up her breakfast dishes, so she decides to get some help with those household duties. The moment she arrives home, the amount of money she earned is added to her household account. She'll need it, because hiring people to help out with the house can get expensive. To start the process, all she needs to do is go to her phone. After selecting Services from the pie menu, a box will pop up with the list of services she can call. Adoption Agency: If your household has a decent income, you can call the Adoption Agency to get a kid without all the messy body fluids. You will be denied to adopt one if you can't financially support it.
Bartender: The host of the party should be all about the socializing. He or she shouldn't be wasting time making and serving drinks. The bartender will alleviate that problem for you, freeing up time to schmooze and flirt with party guests.
Exterminator: Too many dirty dishes and unclean bathrooms lead to cockroaches and other nasties that shoot Environment needs through the floor. While your Sims can take care of a few groups by themselves, a full-blown outbreak of pests can only be controlled by an Exterminator. If you ever find yourself having to call one, try harder to keep a cleaner house to prevent it from happening again.

Gardener: Gardens are beautiful, but require a lot of time and effort. Gardeners will water plants and prune hedges for you, for a price. You'll practically need one if you want anything more than a couple bushes.
Maid: The epitome of a cleaner. The maid will work like a robot to make sure every dirty dish is washed and every toilet is cleaned. The maid will arrive daily around 10 AM, and will leave once everything is cleaned up. That's a double-edged sword though, as there won't be anyone to clean up family messes aside from the family at night. Luckily, the maid is pretty cheap, and can be afforded by practically everyone. The service is excellent especially in the early days when your Sims need as much time as possible to gain skills for promotions.

Repairman: Broken appliances make messes at best, and outright fail to work at worst. If your Sims have a high Mechanical skill, they can fix it themselves. If not, or if you don't want them to, you can call a repairman to do it. They're expensive, but probably worth it if you need to save some time.

Nanny: Sim kids take a lot of work. It's almost a full-time job to raise a child, especially an infant. Sims who need to work can help themselves and their newborn by hiring a nanny to do most of the work, like feedings and diaper changes. Sims can hire nannies on a long-term basis, and she'll come by based on the adults' schedules (that is, she'll come around while the adults are at work). Sims can also hire a nanny on a short-term, one night basis. That's perfect if a couple wants to have some time to rekindle anything they had lost after Junior came along. Job Advancement So Kelly hires a maid to help out now and then. This particular maid is male, and as you can see by the little window in the corner, he'll be over in the morning. Don't worry all you male gamers out there: the hot French maid is still there. The specific gender of your maid is random, so if there's one you're shooting for, just decline to hire one, and immediately call back to hopefully be offered the other. As you can also see by the screenshots, Kelly's Social meter is awfully low. She also has the Want of successfully inviting someone over, and another Want of being friends with Albert Staple. We can kill all those birds with one stone. She can buy a chessboard via Buy Mode with her remaining funds, and she can also use Buy Mode to move her dining chairs around it. After doing so, she can call up Albert and invite him over. Once together, they can play chess for awhile. Doing so will get her Logic up a point, and her relationship with Albert will grow. To invite a Sim over to your Sim's house, the process is just as easy as getting a service. Simply go to the phone and select Call… > Sim from the pie menu. A list of all the Sims that your Sim knows will appear. You can sort and view the list a couple different ways, but Kelly doesn't know enough people at the moment to make it tough to find the one she wants. If the target declines the invitation, the relationship meters are probably not high enough. Call again immediately, then just have the two Sims talk. Once the daily meter breaks +20, hang up and call again, then fire over an invite. It should be enough to get them over to your house. If the target asks permission to bring a friend along with him or her, it's up to you whether you want to allow it. There's no penalty for declining, and it would be another mouth to feed and brain to entertain, but accepting may make your friend network grow faster that way. Details about house guests will come in another section. With only one Sim in a household, this is the primary of getting anything accomplished. By itself, one Sim cannot easily get the job skills AND friends needed to get promoted while maintaining other relationships. Actions like this, that add to relationships and job skills simultaneously, are hard to find, so they need to be done when they can be. With a successful chess session, Kelly bids goodbye to Albert. Now, without a need to play chess anymore for the night, she decides to sell the chessboard back to the store. Whatever store Buy Mode links to has the best return policy ever. If you sell back an item within the same day of buying it, your Sim gets a full refund no matter how many times the item was used. Notice that's "within the same day," not "within 24 hours." If you buy an item at 11 o'clock at night, you'll only have an hour to use it before it loses some of its value. An old use of this policy is to buy a computer at the beginning to expand the number of job options so you're not limited to just the paper, then immediately selling it back to get all that cash back. However, computers are now exceptions to that rule, and will lose some value if used to get a job. The next day at work, she didn't get promoted, but she did get a Chance Card. These are little situations that your Sim can get into at work, randomly determined. In this case, Kelly has been asked to help clean a very messy exam room. She has three options available to her: clean it herself, ask the custodial staff to do it, or ignore the situation. Whenever you get a Chance Card, you'll always be presented with two situational options and an ignore option. One of the situational options is right, and the other is wrong. You won't know which is right ahead of time, because they can and will switch on you. That is, if one time the first option is right, then perhaps the second time you get the same Chance Card with a different Sim, the second option may be the right one. It's random each time, so unless you have a better system, a simple coin flip can help you out here. Chance Cards can carry huge benefits, but also huge losses. The moral choice may not always be the right one to pick, either. A different Sim, on the Law Enforcement track, once got a Chance Card where she found out her fellows were taking illegal cuts from busts. The Sim could either keep quiet and get a cut herself, or turn them in. The Sim chose to keep quiet, and managed to get 40,000 Simoleons without being caught. Yes, that's 40 THOUSAND. In that instance, going against the moral choice actually proved beneficial. Since it's always one or the other, if she had chosen to turn them in, something bad would have happened. If you choose not to gamble, choosing the Ignore option basically cancels the Chance Card. As you can see from the screenshots, Kelly chose to gamble by trying to clean up the mess herself, but unfortunately, that was the wrong one. She lost one day's pay, which is substantially better than it could have been. So now she's got a friend, a couple points in Logic, and decent need meters. Kelly decides that it's time for her to try to get promoted to level 2 in the Medical career track. If you remember from before, she just needs one point in Cleaning to make it. Because it will only take one hour to achieve that first point, she decides to skip breakfast the next morning and simply study the moment she wakes up. After going to work and coming home, we find that… …Absolutely nothing special happened. Oh well. Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither are careers. At least the job performance bar has gone up a bit, so she's closer to a promotion than she was yesterday. She is still paid for her work, though, so now would be a good time to discuss the uglier side of living: the bills. As the old saying goes, the only guaranteed things in life are death and taxes (and expansion packs). Sims have to pay to live, and that comes in the form of bills. Bills are delivered every Tuesday and Thursday, and if they're not paid, the unfriendly neighborhood Repo Man comes by and legally jacks one of your Sim's possessions to cover the cost. Your Sims have roughly four days to do something about bills, so that should be adequate time to gather the money, unless you really went nuts with possessions. Bill cost is determined by the items in your Sim's house, as well as the house itself. With the National Compound as small as it is, not to mention the fact that there isn't a whole lot in it, Kelly's bills are not too bad. Despite ignoring the bill on Tuesday until now, Kelly won't have to shell out even one day's paycheck to cover it all. To gather your bills, click the mailbox outside your house. Your Sim will bring in the mail and place it on any available surface, starting with coffee tables. Then, you simply need to click the bill and pay it via the pie menu. Provided you have the funds, your Sim will take the bill outside and put it in your mailbox, and the funds will be deducted from your account. The mailman will come by the next day and take the mail away automatically, so you don't have to worry about that. Now all the bills are paid. Kelly still has all the requirements to be promoted, so she just needs to keep showing up to work in a good mood. With nothing specific to attend to, a number of options are available to her. The first thing she should do is spend the money she's got. Remember, the Compound still doesn't have windows or internal wallpaper. Getting that set will improve the Environment meter in the rooms, helping her mood before she heads to the hospital. After that, she should spend her time studying cooking to help get her stomach full the next morning to boost her Hunger meter a bit, also adding to her mood and chance of promotion. Ka-ching! Kelly arrives home and gets what was coming to her! All her hard work has paid off, and she gets promoted to the next level, Paramedic! Not only does she get a raise from 280 per day to 385, she gets a one-time bonus too! The bonus is always twice as much as the new salary. So, she gets 385 per her new job, plus (2 x 385) = 770 bonus, for a total of 1,155 for the day! Obviously she won't see that kind of money on a daily basis for a LONG time, but it's a great boost! As you can see from the screenshot, she needs one more point of Cleaning to be considered for another promotion. There's no reason to stop now, so as soon as she can, she starts studying, and nails level 2 in Cleaning in only a couple hours. She bides her time awhile before she goes to bed. When she enters her bedroom that night, though, she remembers to reset her alarm clock to the new time. The alarm clock will not reset itself for her new job. Under normal circumstances, the money received from the bonus should go to skill-gaining objects. For example, if your Sim would need a point in Logic to get promoted again, it would be in your best interest to permanently buy a chess table. However, because Kelly's job requires a skill she can get with her current objects, she puts the money to improve the house some more. She even adds an oven to her kitchen so she can make better meals. She makes sure to leave some money left over to pay her maid the next time he comes over, so she can't completely outfit her house with windows. Still, what windows she has is definitely an improvement over the what the house used to look like.

Walkthrough: Hangin' With Your Peeps
The next day, she finds herself bored at home. Although she's got to work, her shift is late. When the maid Remington comes over, she decides to chat him up a bit. Their friendship takes off a little quickly, so she decides to call him to come over again after his shift, but for a social call. Unlike in The Sims 1, all NPC Sims can not only be talked to, but they can be treated like other Sims, including to be added to the Family Friend Count provided the meters are high enough. In order for her to host her guest, she decides to make a meal for the both of them. (This way she can also test-drive her new oven.) This is accomplished simply by selecting the appropriate appliance, select Serve Meal…, and then the meal itself. She will automatically set a place for the guest, grab a plate for herself, then sit and eat with Remington. All Sim guests have two core needs when coming over to another Sim's house: they need food, and they need entertainment. Sim guests don't necessarily NEED to eat, provided the visit will be short. They seem to have a higher bar for their Hunger need than they used to. Still, if you're planning on having the guest stay awhile, make food early so they have the energy to do other things later. After serving Remington hamburgers, Kelly asks him to dance. It's nothing hot or heavy, but they dance a bit around her living room to the music that's on. The current song is "Chapter Four" by Avenged Sevenfold… (We'll talk about customizing music in the game later.) As you can tell, Kelly's choice of music as random as her choices for room décor. Even though Kelly and Remington don't become friends, their relationship becomes very good. At 7 PM, the carpool unfortunately arrives. Kelly and Remington have had a great evening, but she sends him away as she piles herself into the ambulance. Kelly wants to get to know Remington more, so the next day, she calls him up again after his shift. This time, their relationship gets a whole new kick in the pants. Not only they become friends, but after a little flirting, they get crushes on each other. Several more hours later, and despite the carpool impatiently waiting outside, they share their first kiss: a tiny peck on the cheek. (Why they decided to choose the bathroom for this romantic moment is beyond me.) See that icon above Remington's head in the screenshot? The icon declares that that Sim (and usually the other Sim involved in the action) has a new memory. If we check Kelly's memories in the Personality Panel… sure enough, she's got that one down as a significant event. Kelly continues to go to work. Luck is with her, and one of her new Wants is to become best friends with Remington, something very easy to achieve. The next day she wakes up and studies Cooking, and Remington comes over to clean. After he does so, he asks to clock out and just hang out with her. She accepts, and they continue adding to their relationship until indeed they are tighter than a knotted string. Things are going well between her and Remington, but she doesn't want to neglect Albert. She decides to throw her first house party to try to gain relationships with both Sims. Early the next morning, Kelly buys a third chair for her kitchen table and a couch to replace her recliner chair in the living room, she goes to the phone. After selecting Throw Party…, you can choose the specific type. For Kelly's purpose, she only has one (House Party) available. She can then invite a certain number of Sims over. As you can see from the popup window, she can only invite two people maximum. (Apparently, the maximum number of party guests is based on the power of your computer. The computer used to write this guide… well, isn't the most powerful of computers.) She only has two friends anyway, so she invites them both. Parties are timed events that start the moment the guests arrive. Kelly only has about five hours of game-time (that's five minutes real-time in normal speed) to make sure everyone has a good time. Parties have a chance of starting off on the wrong foot because if you invite a guest who doesn't like the host, the guest may not show up, hurting the party score. Luckily, both guests show up here. They'll invite themselves in, so Kelly won't have to worry about greeting them. Once it gets going, a window in the top-right corner shows the timer and the party score in text form. Keeping party guests entertained isn't much harder than dealing with standard guests. The added factor is your guests' Social meters; in addition to feeding them and entertaining them, the host also needs to be talking to them. Kelly starts by making meals for her guests, then busts out her dancing. She manages to get both guys dancing with her (who could blame them?), which brings up relationship points and party scores all over the place. Once they get tired, they all go and watch some TV until the party timer runs out. It works well for everyone, and relationship scores (and her aspiration meter) soar. Thanks to the timing of Kelly's job, she's able to throw her party and still have the time to go to work that night. Not only that, but because she's gone Platinum, she goes to work in the best of moods, and she gets promoted again!

Walkthrough: In-Home Jobs
As you can see, life is rolling along pretty well for Kelly. She's got the Compound complete (at least compared to the planning phase of it that we did in the last section), she got a couple good friends, and is doing pretty well financially considering her youth. However, she realized after the successful party made that she does not want to stay in the Medical track. For that matter, she doesn't want a typical job at all. Luckily, there are two things she can do instead. Although she doesn't have an ounce of creativity in her, Kelly feels she can start writing some fiction based on her experiences in the hospital. She'll need a computer for that though, and she doesn't quite have the money yet. She sticks with her job long enough to buy a desk, chair, and computer for her living room. Kelly works on her novel all she can, gaining creativity the whole way. It can take a long time to bang out a novel. Kelly tries it between her shifts, but in the end she's got too much on her plate and must give something up. She has enough money to sustain her, so she decides to resign from the Medical track and become a full-time writer. A Sim can instantly quit his or her job by going to the phone, calling Work, and resigning. But don't quite before taking advantage of any vacation days you may have! They don't carry over or anything, so you might as well use them if you've got 'em. Roughly 25 man-hours after she started, her novel is finally finished. It's sent to the publisher automatically, and now its path is taken out of her hands. She doesn't really feel like typing out another one, but she still has all those creativity points. To bide her time until she gets the report of how well her novel sold (and the royalty check that comes with it), she decides to buy an easel and start painting! Like in The Sims 1, painting can lead to some good money. However, this time around, you can actually select the EXACT thing to paint. After buying an easel, click it and select "Paint" to create an image from the depths of insanity, or "Paint Still Life" to paint a subject of your own choosing. If you select the latter, a box will appear and you can steer it around with the keyboard and mouse to frame the thing you want to paint. If there's another Sim in the house, you can also choose "Paint Portrait" to have a tangible memory of the target forever. Your Sim needs to get some paint on the canvas to lock in the effort. If you terminate the action before any paint hits the canvas, the canvas shall be removed and you'll have to start again. If there is paint on the canvas, you can just get rid of it if you've changed your mind, or you can continue the painting until it's done. The screenshots below show Kelly as she first paints a standard picture. The second set shows her selecting and painting her computer. Once a painting is complete, you can sell it, or you can use it as décor for your house. Kelly will eventually get paintings of everyone who lives inside the Compound and make a special room to show them off… but that's WAY into the future. You can make a lot of money from writing novels and painting. You can definitely make enough to make that your full-time job. Doing so enables your Sims to make their own hours and relax most of the time, living with little stress. For Kelly, it's perfect due to her desire to throw parties and make a lot of friends. Conventional jobs pay a little better when it comes down to it, but nothing beats the convenience of being a freelancer. Let's take a break for now. We've already spied on Kelly long enough, so we'll give her a break and let her live in peace for awhile. We'll check in on her again soon.

Walkthrough: Sim Love
Let's see how Kelly National is doing. You can see her age meter has dropped, because she's bought the Elixir of Life and drank it five times. If a single adult Sim aims to go through the whole process of finding a mate and having a kid, he or she will practically NEED to drink the elixir to get enough time to do all that. The National Compound has grown considerably. A second floor has been added; the bedroom, a bathroom, and a room specifically for painting go up there. A large room on the lower floor is the new party room. Kelly's doing great, both in the money and mood sense. …Well, almost. She longs to have someone always available in her life. She and Remington have had eyes for each other since the day they met, so she's decided to take their relationship up a notch. She invites him over one day and cooks him a delicious meal. They flirt a little bit, and then finally a kiss is issued. Kelly wants to take it up ANOTHER notch, though, so that night she buys a double bed to replace her current one. The next day, when Remington comes over for a visit, they both go upstairs. Kelly is issued the Relax command via the bed, and she invites Remington to join her. After that, she issues an interaction through Remington called Woo Hoo, and two minutes later, Kelly hops out of bed without much on and Remington falls asleep. Tool. Kelly isn't exactly a traditional girl, as you can tell. But she still has enough of a conscious to want to make an honest man out of Remington. So she does the modern thing and actually pops the question to HIM. This is done by her doing an interaction called Propose… > Engagement. Luckily, he accepts, and Kelly finds herself with a fiance! Weddings are a big deal this time around. The first sign that it's an actual ceremony (instead of a two-second event) is that a special type of party is opened up. Kelly heads to the phone the next day and selects Throw Party… > Wedding Party from the pie menu. Now, the special types of parties have special types of stipulations. You can't throw a successful wedding party, for example, if no one bothers getting married there. It will be considered an abysmal failure, even if everyone is fed and entertained. For the wedding party, Kelly buys a wedding cake and hires a bartender. She invites Remington and Albert as guests; the latter to rekindle some form of friendship, and the former because, well, you can't have a wedding without the groom. This is where having a more powerful computer will definitely play into things. A wedding with only one other guest is pretty lame, after all. Anyway, at the party, Kelly fires the interaction Propose… > Marriage after the party starts. Remington accepts, they swap rings and spit, then cut the cake. Just like that, the party is a success. The final 3 hours (game-time) of the party pass quickly, and end with a limo pulling up to the house. It whisks away the newlyweds to their honeymoon, and they come back with perfect need bars! Remington takes Kelly's last name due to her household being the, shall we say, "hosting" house for the whole relationship. He moves in, bringing a thousand Simoleons with him. When a Sim moves into someone else's house, and the mover is the last one of his or her family to move out, then all of his or her wealth comes too. Remington is apparently poor, but that's no big. Usually, the mover's job retains. However, Remington's job was to clean Kelly's house. Remington won't pay himself to clean his own house, so he goes unemployed. However, his job SKILLS retain, and Remington starts with a combined 50+. Remember, he was a maid, so obviously his Cleaning is 10, with everything else not far behind. Marrying NPCs is a great route to go for first-generation Sims for this reason. Now, Remington is the second Sim here, and he is under our direct control. Switching the active Sim is easy. You can either right-click the Sim itself, or left-click its picture in the vertical bar above the UCP. You can also use the space bar to quickly switch and center to the next Sim in the list, too.

Walkthrough: Sim Kids (And Elders)
Remington's aspiration is Family. As much as he loves Kelly, he wants her to be the mother of his children too. Doing that is no different on your part than a typical Woo Hoo, but there's a separate option. As you can see from the screenshot, both Sims lay on their bed, but the select the Try For Baby option.

Pregnancy
Pregnancy is simulated in The Sims 2. The Maxis version of the EPT is a simple musical line. If Kelly becomes impregnated, then as soon as they're done Woo Hooing, you'll hear one line of "Rock-A-Bye Baby." If don't hear that, then the attempt was simply fun, not productive. Apparently, Remington doesn't shoot blanks, because Kelly's head is filled with the tune on the first attempt. It can take several, but there's a much better chance of a baby on the way if both Sims are in great moods before the attempt. If Kelly had become pregnant while employed, the job would give her a MANDATORY maternity leave regardless of her career track and level within it. She would be forced to stay home until the child was born. After that, she would get three more paid vacation days intended to be used to take care of the child. However, that is not mandatory, and she could go right back to work without repercussion; and in fact, she'd have three vacation days she could use for her own purposes. The fathers don't have the same luxury, but who cares? Anyway, now that Kelly is expecting, she quickly downs another batch of Elixir of Life. She needs to anyway, because when an NPC Sim moves in, its age meter is empty. So, it's as if Remington has JUST become an adult, so Kelly is years ahead of him. By her guzzling the old E of L, she basically catches up (down?) to him. During the next night, Kelly has weird dreams and frequently stirs awake. When she finally wakes up for the day, she has to quickly run to the bathroom, and she proceeds to make a mess on the toilet. If morning sickness doesn't advertise pregnancy, nothing will. Meanwhile, Remington, probably afraid at what the pregnancy will do to his new wife, quickly gets a job in the Athletic career track and books it out of there onto the next carpool. Jerk. Well, maybe that's not so bad actually. Raising a child will be a full-time job, and Kelly will not have the time to work on her paintings or novel before and directly after the birth. Even during pregnancy, Kelly's body will be a roller coaster of confusion. Her Hunger and Energy meters will be in hyper-drive, forcing her to eat and sleep twice as much as usual. Her Bladder meter may or may not be affected; it seems to be random. Either way, she will definitely not be able to do much to contribute to the bills. But why should she? Remington should be all over taking care of her these trying months. Well, okay, pregnancy only last three days in The Sims 2, but still. To Kelly, it probably feels like an eternity. It only gets worse as she shows more and more as the time marches on, and that seems to throw her meters for an even bigger loop. The less she does, the better. That doesn't mean she should be lazy; far from it. She works out now and then to keep superfluous fat off her and nutrients coursing through her veins to keep the baby healthy too. Toward the end of the pregnancy period, Kelly uses Remington's paychecks to slightly remodel the upstairs. The bathroom gets moved, and everything on that half of the hallway gets extended. The old bathroom gets converted to a new bedroom to be used when the baby comes. However, thing are not bought for it yet; Kelly wants to see the gender of her child first. So while Kelly's dealing with all that, Remington meets a chick at work named Brandi and gives her a tour of the house. While Kelly's upstairs doing last-minute checks of the new rooms, Remington and Brandi discuss diamond rings in the party room downstairs. Uh oh. Well, nothing bad happens here. Brandi goes on her way, and Remington rescues what little of his paycheck Kelly hasn't gotten her hands on yet. He realizes that his everyday outfit is his old maid's uniform (complete with gloves), so he decides to head into Pyroville to get new threads. He hits the phone and calls for Transportation, then selects to take a taxi. A pop up will ask if he wants to go alone, or if multiple Sims (i.e., the whole family) will be coming. He answers that it will just be him, and a few minutes later, the taxi is outside waiting for him. He jumps in and rides away to the heart of the tiny city. Details of community lots will given later. Suffice to say that Remington cannot visit another house; he must visit a community lot. PyroTech Industries Clothing, Incorporated is open 24 hours, so he stops in there for a quick shopping trip. To buy new clothes, simply go to a clothing rack. (Remington chooses the pink rack, and everyone around him successfully ignores his existence.) You could select Try On from the pie menu if you wish, just to see how everything will look. To actually purchase it, select Buy from the pie menu, and you'll get a catalog of every piece of clothing in the game. You can choose to select an outfit for either gender and any age, and since Remington is buying for himself, he goes with Male Adult. To buy an article, simply click it once to get a green highlight around it. Then click the icon at the bottom to add it to your shopping cart. You can remove items from your cart by clicking the cart tab at the top, selecting the clothing you wish to put back, and hitting the appropriate button. After you're done selecting all you want to buy, hit the checkmark at the bottom, and your Sim will buy it. You can buy as many items (each for 200 Simoleons) as you want, provided you have the funds. Just because you have the clothes, though, doesn't mean you wear them. Remington takes his purchase out of the store and calls a cab to head home via the blue pay phone on the sidewalk. Once there, he heads upstairs and chooses Plan Outfit… > Everyday from the pie menu of his wardrobe. He selects the clothes he just bought, and to make sure it's all good, he changes right there. You can mix any top and bottom for that gender and age (no cross-dressing here), although one-piece outfits must remain by themselves. Remington is proud of his new purchase, but later that night, he has something else to be very proud of. Kelly wakes up in the middle of the night and, after several painful expressions and seizure-looking reactions, gives birth to a healthy Sim! During the birth, a box will pop up and will freeze the game to announce the newcomer. The reason the game does this is because the child is actually going through a DNA process. Both parents' DNA (their body structure, skin tone, hair color, et al.) are examined. Genotypes are invisibly created, and a child is created from coin flips and other probability methods. In other words, while a child's appearance is SOMEWHAT random, it is MOSTLY based on the parents'. If both parents have black hair, for example, the child is guaranteed to have it too. Dominant and recessive genes play a part in this, so if you actually paid attention in biology class, you might just know what's going on. For all of us who couldn't stay awake through the teacher's lecturing, it simply means that the kids will actually resemble the parents, and kids from the same pair of parents will resemble each other. You may not (and probably won't) see any resemblance until the kid hits at least the Child stage of life (after Infant and Toddler), but it becomes very clear then. The appearance isn't the only thing that a child gets from its parents. The personality of the child is based on its parents. Similar to The Sims 1, a child's personality is determined category by category. The child will either take the points of the father, the points of the mother, or the average of the mother and father. So if the mother has 4 to Neat and the father has 8, then the child will either have 4, 6, or 8 points in Neat. That said, parents can alter a child's personality during the early years by using the Encourage… interaction. Once the child comes along, you're given the chance to name it. A symbol will be beside the textbox will inform you of its gender, so you can make a good (or really inappropriate) choice. The idiot in charge of the Nationals hit the Enter button too quick in the act of trying to take a screenshot, and it was too long since he last saved, so the National baby's name is Baby Boy. Yeah, that kid's gonna need therapy before he hits his teen years. Despite the crappy name, Kelly is all over her new son. At Remington's insistence, she buys a crib with a camo mattress. She also buys a diaper changing station (which Remington insists also is designed in camo), and puts them both in the new room. Remington goes Platinum with the arrival of Baby Boy, but Kelly has other Wants to be attended to. Infants The first stage of a Sim kid's life is the Infant stage. They won't stay here for long, but it's going to be hell on the parents during this time. In fact, it's arguably the hardest one to deal with. As an infant, the Sim baby has absolutely no control over itself. It can only cry when it needs help, and it can't convey the exact problem it's suffering. Luckily, a Sim infant doesn't need much to keep it happy. Aside from being fed, the only thing a Sim infant needs is its diaper changed now and then. Feeding is done by choosing Give Bottle to from a fridge, and diapers are changed via the diaper changing station. (You did buy one, didn't you?) Because an infant does not exactly know the best time to start crying, constant vigilance must be paid to make sure it does not deteriorate in happiness. Infants will frequently wake up in the middle of the night for any given reason, and the parent must immediately respond. There are two ways to go about that. The simplest way is to keep the baby's crib in the same room with the parents' bed. The baby's crying will easily pierce the dreams of the adults, and they can immediately deal with the problem without risking any delay. Kelly and Remington choose the other path, which is more risky, but only forces one of them to wake up at a given time. Because of an infant's simple needs, it's usually in full green if everything's all right. If the mood changes at all (shown by the background color of the baby's thumbnail above the UCP), the player can forcibly wake Kelly or Remington to deal with it. Green smoke above Baby Boy indicates a dirty diaper, and it's a good rule of thumb to feed the baby whenever its diaper is changed. The only other thing to remember is to put the baby in its crib when it's time to sleep. Infants have no business sleeping on carpet or, heaven forbid, wood or concrete. Infants really don't have much of a reason to EVER leave their crib if not being held by a parent anyway. If all this sounds too much for your adults to handle, simply call up the nanny service via any phone. A nanny will be over and will, for a fee, take care of the baby. No muss, no fuss… but the baby won't turn out QUITE as well. Besides, there won't be any relationship points going between the baby and its parents, whether it's being taken care of or not. Make sure that if your Sims don't take care of the baby, that a nanny does. SimCity Social Services are on the lookout for abandoned babies. They're not as strict as they were in the old days, but your children can still be taken away. What's worse, if ANY child is neglected, they're ALL taken away at the same time. So be sure to keep those mouths fed and those butts clean. As a personal note here, Kelly did one thing that shows off the power of the painting engine, one that really caused strong fanboy feelings for The Sims 2. Remington, wearing his new clothes, held his son while Kelly painted the image. After these screenshots were taken, the painting went on permanent display in Baby Boy's room. "The cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon, little boy blue and the man in the moon…" Kinda makes you cry, doesn't it? But they don't stay young forever. In only a few game days, you'll get an alert that your infant is about to have a birthday and advance to the next stage of life. The infant will automatically turn into a child the next day roughly around 6 PM, but you can force it to happen sooner. Trust me, you WANT to force it, because it'll help out your kid's aspiration meter a hair, plus give you an excuse to throw another special kind of party. Kelly goes to the phone the next morning after 8 AM and selects Throw Party… Birthday Party from the pie menu. Albert Staple gets invited, along with the Nationals' bartender. (Don't worry, the bartender is off-duty here; it's just a social call.) A birthday cake is the trigger to make the event good, like the wedding cake (and the wedding itself) was for the Wedding Party. With Remington and the other guests present, Kelly interacts with the cake and chooses Bring Baby Boy to Cake from the cake menu… er, pie menu. She summons everyone over, and she helps Baby Boy blow out the candles. After that, the aging is forced, and Baby Boy becomes a toddler! The party isn't over, and the guests enjoy the cake. Kelly jumps into Buy Mode to grab a high chair so Baby Boy can enjoy some of that sugary goodness too. Before long, the party is over, and a whole new set of challenges presents itself. Toddlers The Toddler stage is the second stage of a Sim's life. A toddler sticks around in this age a little longer than an infant, and unless you're intentionally making the Sim a terrible parent, you'll need every additional second you get from it. A toddler only has six needs, adding the Fun, Social, and Hygiene meters to the Hunger, Bladder, and Energy meters. (Toddlers don't care about their Environment or Comfort meters.) Toddlers also graduate from milk, and can be served actual food. Just buy a high chair for them, have an adult put the kid in it, and select Serve Food from the pie menu. All toddlers will have three key Wants: Learning to Talk, Learning to Walk, and Learning to Potty Train. A parent's intervention is required for all three. If ignored, the child will still grow up and achieve those three skills on its own automatically. However, its aspiration meter will take a heavy shot in the process, subtracting the final lifespan significantly. On the other hand, the quicker the toddler learns the skills, the higher the aspiration meter upon growing, and the longer the final lifespan. Whichever skill you go after first is up to you. If the toddler can talk, it can inform you of problems easier and quicker, and be social sooner. If the toddler can walk, it can get throughout the house faster. If the toddler can use a toilet, your adults won't have to waste time changing its diaper. The only thing you'll have to buy here is a training toilet. Place it in the bathroom, because an adult can empty it by flushing the contents down an adult toilet. No muss, little fuss. While you're buying stuff, you should buy a variety of toys. Toddlers can work on certain job skills early to give them a head start in life later. This is why it's actually a disadvantage to start with adult Sims if you're going for career success: toddlers will have job skill points entering the job market, a luxury which first-generation adults will not have. But still, starting your first family with kids is unnecessarily complicated, which is why it was not recommended. Getting your Sim kid trained in all three skills before it grows up is damn near impossible. Luckily there's a way to really speed the process. If you buy and feed Smart Milk from the Aspiration Rewards Panel to the kid, you can double the speed it learns any of the skills. In addition, if your adult is also wearing the Thinking Cap, the speed the kid learns at is four times normal. It can be extremely frustrating to deal with this stage of your Sim kid's life. Especially toilet training, where the Sim kid won't gain much skill unless its Bladder meter is close to empty. The best way to do this is to issue the Teach To Talk or Teach To Walk commands eight times. The adult will repeatedly teach the child, and though moods will get shot to hell all over the place, the training will be done. Unfortunately for the Nationals, no one has a high Aspiration Meter, so they have to rely on normal learning speeds. Try to make sure all training happens on one floor. For that matter, try to have all your toddler stuff on whatever floor your fridge is on. With the extreme time limit placed on you, you'll need to waste as little time as possible, and that includes going up and down stairs. The Nationals take a middle-of-the-road approach, keeping the crib and diaper changing stations upstairs, while keeping the training toilet downstairs. Your adults will need to sleep whenever they can. Adult Sims and kid Sims have different internal clocks, and will usually have conflicting times when they're awake or asleep. Try to stretch out a Sim kid's energy until it breaks before sending them to their crib, but have the adults sleep whenever the Sim kid does. If that means that the adult will have to truncate his sleep when the kid wakes up in the middle of the night, so be it. After you go through all that, you'll get the same warning about a birthday being around the corner. Kelly does the same thing here, gathering guests for Baby Boy's entrance into the Child stage of life. Candles get blown out, and just like that, we go to the next section of the guide! Child Children Sims have outgrown the crib, the toddler toys, and the diaper changing station. If you only have one kid like the Nationals do, sell off all those items and get a standard twin bed. If your Sims are going to have more kids, keep all those items in a nursery or something, because you'll need them. Make sure you give your new child an end table and alarm clock, too, because now they start school. Just because your Sims go to school, though, doesn't mean you're out of the woods. They are still under the watch of SimCity Social Services, and they'll be taken away if they don't get fed. Luckily, they've become very similar to adult Sims. Children have all eight of the normal meters. They can still learn job skills, but that shouldn't be their focus. They must go to school daily, or they'll be taken away by Social Services. Their Job Panel shows their progress in school, although of course you can't get promoted or anything. High grades lead to a high aspiration meter, which again leads to longer life spans. The bus arrives outside the house like the carpool every morning at 8 AM. If an adult Sim goes to work the same time, they can't share vehicles. School is on five days a week; children get Saturdays and Sundays off. Now, everything sounds like it's all clicking well, right? Well, if you remember Brandi from awhile ago, Remington starts inviting her over more. To make a long story short, in comes to a head when, with Kelly in the other room painting, Remington and Brandi are relaxing on the bed. Remington decides to take a gamble and attempt a Woo Hoo. Bastard. It passes… but just at that moment, Baby Boy comes out of the bathroom attached to the bedroom and witnesses it. Word IMMEDIATELY and AUTOMATICALLY gets back to Kelly, who runs in. She smacks Remington, then breaks up with him via an interaction from the pie menu. When two Sims break up, whoever initiated the action stays at the house, and the other is ejected. Remington leaves, never to be seen again. (Well, he is, but Kelly won't look at him anymore.) Meanwhile, Brandi has the guts to hang around in her underwear. Kelly gets violent, and proceeds to lose two fights to her. She decides to just slap Brandi a couple times then, and Brandi finally takes the hint to leave. And just like that, in a matter of hours, the marriage is undone, and Kelly becomes a single parent. This hurts for many reasons, and Kelly immediately sets about recovering herself. First, she takes a job via the computer to get something that pays well. Remember, taking jobs from the computer gives the Sim the chance to pick up jobs based on the Sim's skill, which means he or she can get something above level 1. Second, because Baby Boy is still a child, Kelly won't leave him home by himself. So, she uses the phone and calls the nanny service, selecting to have a nanny come over anytime Kelly is at work. This all happens on the course of the weekend. Once Monday hits, and 8 AM rolls around, it's off to school for Baby Boy. He brings home homework, which stresses the hell out of kids but seriously improves their grades. The best way to deal with homework is to ask for help, which any Sim can do. As long as a Sim is of equal or older age, the older one can help the younger one. Kelly and Baby Boy persevere despite having their lives completely turned around. Before long, and many piles of homework later, Baby Boy gets another birthday. Kelly is the only adult in the house, so she has to do the actual inviting. She invites Albert Staple and Kennedy Cox, as usual. Kelly pointedly does NOT invite Remington. This time Baby Boy won't need assistance to get to the cake, so he blows out the candles, and just like that, we've got ourselves a teenager! Teenager When a Sim becomes a teenager, the first thing you're presented with is the option for what you want their inspiration to be. You can choose any of the five, and there's no downfall to picking one over the others. Baby Boy has grown up pretty well off, and so he wants to continue the trend by Getting Stuff. Teenagers are free of SimCity's Social Services. If children get mistreated in the house, and SCSS comes over to haul them away, teenagers are spared. Teens have the ability to get jobs, but only can if their grades are high. They still must attend school, and they cannot move out on their own. However, they don't need babysitters watching them. They can engage in romantic interactions, but they can't Woo Hoo. No teenage pregnancies here. Teenagers should focus on getting job skills between school days. If you give your kid a job, that's all the more true. Don't forget homework, though, because if grades fall too far, the job will be terminated. Teens get two new, related, cool commands at their disposal. Depending on their aspiration, the commands can even play into their Wants. Teens can go out to boost their Fun and Social meters, and can do so by Sneaking Out or Asking Permission To Go Out. The former is done by going to the phone, although this is an advanced command that can only occur between two teens with very high relationships. The command can only be issued between 10 PM and midnight. The latter can be done by having the Sim ask an adult who lives in the house through a standard social command. After permission is granted (assuming it IS granted), the teen will choose his or her target as if he chose to sneak out. Either way, a car arrives late in the evening to pick up the teen for whatever Sim teens do. There isn't much more to say about teens, but while Baby Boy is one, Kelly edges closer and closer to advancing to the final stage of life: the Elder stage. She and Baby Boy do what they can until that fateful day, and a final birthday party is thrown for her. She blows out candles and advances. And she STILL does not invite Remington. The jerk doesn't need to see her sexy body get all flabby and old. Elder If your Sim makes it to Elder, congratulate yourself on a fine job. Not every Sim can survive that long, and it's far too easy to intentionally do something to the poor thing that can terminate its life early. Elder Sims are, oddly enough, everything you expect Elder Sims to be. Their hair automatically turns white, females bodies sag in the chest, male bodies sag in the stomach, it's incredibly difficult to maintain fitness, and both the Bladder and Energy meters are constantly plummeting. Elders also seem to have a slightly higher chance of catching diseases. Elders don't have any business stretching their Energy to the depths of hell anyway, and shouldn't take unnecessary risks, such as being outside in the middle of the night. Elders still go to work, but only if they desire. Once a Sim hits that age, if the Sim was already employed, he or she can call work and retire from the job. This in effect quits it, but the Sim still earns a daily paycheck equivalent to roughly one-third of what he or she was making before retiring. Kelly National has been hard at work in the Slacker career track, and she managed to get a really valuable Chance Card. She's expanded the Compound, and retired from her job. In addition, Baby Boy's birthday comes and goes. He's an adult now, and gets a job via the computer. No more homework! Woo hoo! Because no other outfit was available, Baby Boy wears Remington's maid uniform as his primary everyday clothes. Needless to say, he goes shopping too. Finally, many days later, Kelly sadly passes away. Because she died of natural causes, the SimCity Insurance Company shells out money to her kin. Family of course gets the first cut, but if a Sim doesn't have too many family members, his or her best friends will get the remainder. The total amount is scaled to that Sim's prestige (such as work ethic and number and quality of friends), plus his or her aspiration meter. So, as you can see again, the aspiration meter, while it can be ignored, is extremely important. You can see from the screenshots below how much Baby Boy netted. Note also that if the Sim who gets the cash did not live with the newly deceased, they will STILL get the money. For example, another family in the neighborhood, the Eaves, had their oldest daughter move out. When both parents died, the daughter got a total of roughly 5000 Simoleons. It's not a tremendous amount, but it's certainly a great boost. The money does not subtract itself from the family's account. For all intents and purposes, it's "free money" that appears out of thin air. As you can see from the screenshot above, Kelly's death brought Baby Boy nearly 10,000. Again, that was partly due to Kelly's gold aspiration meter at the time of her death. The Nationals' story does not end here. Baby Boy, perhaps taking a page from his mom's book, starts hitting on the maid (the female maid, not another male one). You can even see their first kiss below. That said, we've stared at the Nationals long enough, so we'll leave them in peace from now on. But no matter where you go in The Sims 2, try to keep the life of Kelly National in mind. Her successes and mistakes that you've seen should help your own Sims out.
Sent in by: lee.gould2
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