The Sims 2: Open for Business is the third expansion pack to the sales-record-breaking The Sims 2 game. This expansion pack allows your Sims to
build a business and run restaurants, nightclubs and other businesses. You can even hire employees if you want someone to do the work for you and customize a lot of your business.
Here's quick list for everything this expansion adds to The Sims 2:
Bluewater Village - Maxis has set up a new extension of the main
neighborhood, the default is called Bluewater Village. Like other new playing
areas, you can create your own. The new area is populated with many community
lots to show off all the types of business a Sim can own. Some of the families
own businesses, others are prepared to open one.
Running Businesses - All you need to start your own business is a
phone, an open/close sign, and possibly a cash register. Once you've established
your business, you're going to need to decide what you're in the business of,
exactly. Businesses Sims can own: toy shop, beauty salon, florist, clothing
boutique, electronics store, restaurant chain, and others. Running these
businesses entails many micromanagement decisions such as price levels and
internal construction. Not only do you have to work hard for the money, you may
even have to take on employees. You can hire anyone that comes to your business
(you won't know their skills) or you can use the phone to hire employees for a
small list of possible Sims. There are a ton of business options. You can get
pretty creative here. The learning curve isn't steep, you just have to have the
patience to find what you're looking for. Of course, running your own business
and seeing to every little detail can be a little overwhelming at first. It does
requires a lot of work and patience, as there are a lot of details to overlook,
but it will be very rewarding in the end, when you'll be able to buy that sports
car and huge mansion just with the profits from your business.
Making Money - To facilitate the commerce system, the expansion adds
three types of stores to the Simverse: Pay Per Item (toy shop, robo store,
clothes...etc), Pay Per Use (Bowling, Salon..etc), and Pay Per Time (Gym,
Nightclup, Bar...etc). By using one of these three models you can create
virtually any type of retail store. These will offer you a long time of
playabilty and this game has awesome replayability, because you can start adding
more business's to your lot, making it harder and harder. As businesses gain in
popularity and satisfied customers, the reputation and rank increases. Of
course, the better your business is known and regarded, the better the rewards.
Business Perks - Business Perks are earned as your business earns
rank. There are multiple paths of perks, you can choose from: connections,
perceptions, cash, wholesale, and motivation. Business perks do not pass down to
your their when you sim dies, and they will have to start again. You gain
business perk points every time your businesses move up through the ranks. By
the time the business gets to the 3rd or 4th generation, it should be running
smoothly and on a profit.
Badges - Too add to the challenge, Sims earn badges for certain skills
involved in running a business. There are 7 different types of talent badges -
Toy Making, Robotery, Flower Arranging, Restocking, Sales, Cash Register and
Cosmetology. Badges come in three levels: bronze, silver, and gold. How a Sim
performs their job will depend on their badge level. With each level, a Sim
gains a new social or skill. For example, for crafting badges they must work on
the crafting objects (robot-making station, floral station, or toy workbench).
Sims who have a lot of badges will want to be paid more (sometimes a lot more)
than Sims who have only one or none. Unfortunately there is no bar that goes up
showing how close you are to getting a badge. You simply have to do the action
over and over until you are told that you received one.
Items - There are 125 new items in all--make it easy to build a
business with its own unique look and style. There're new roof styles,
awnings, split-levels, bay windows, elevators, new chairs, tables, paintings,
sculptures, etc, etc.
Making Crafts - Sims can create robots and toys. Once you build
a robot at the workbench and turn it on, it becomes a part of the family,
complete with its own wants and needs. The robot can help around the house and
work longer and harder than a normal Sim. Robots don't age, and they don't
sleep. Instead they use power over time, and can only recharge by standing
outside and shutting down while in the sunlight. Robots can fall in love, make
woo-hoo (have sim sex), or even get married. Unfortunately, female robots cannot
get pregnant ;)
University and Nightlife required? - Not really. But it is definitely
designed to work alongside both University and Nightlife. For instance, if you
have the Nightlife expansion pack, you can choose from businesses in the
Downtown area. If you ever wanted to own & run the Crypt O'Night night club, now
you can! Without these two expansions there are certain businesses you just
cannot operate, which is a little disappointing. If you fully want to experience
this expansion pack, it would be better to have the previous expansions.
Open for Business is so much better than I expected it to be. It adds a whole
new dimension to the game and gives you lots more to do when you Sims have
max skills and scads of cash and are at the top of every career. It might seem hard at first to get your business going, but it is worth the time. All in all this is a wonderful expansion that any Sims 2 owner
should buy.
System requirements: PIII-1GHz, 256MB RAM, T&L-capable video card with
at least 32 MB of video RAM , Win98/ME/2k/XP, at least 1.5GB free HDD space
/Requires The Sims 2, The Sims 2 Special DVD Edition or The Sims 2 Holiday
Edition to play/
Note: Before you install the game, don't forget to disable CloneCD,
Alcohol 120%, VirtuaCD, etc. Also, if you have any "hacked" / third-party
objects/patches in your game, you MUST remove these BEFORE attempting install of
Sims 2 University.