"The Sims 2 Pets" Review (PC)

Pros:

• Detailed Create-A-Pet Screen
• Realistic animation of pets

Cons:

• Small selection of pet toys
• Time management - hard to balance friends, love, career, skills, and pets
• Little else besides pets were added

• Use Create-A-Pet to choose from many breeds of cats and dogs or customize your own pet's body, colors, personality (smart, sweet, silly, sloppy, etc.), and markings.
• Families are limited to 6 pets, 8 sims, with the maximum being 10 in a household.
• Cats and dogs have personality characteristics including genius, doofus, pigpen, friendly, and cowardly.
• Pets will have similar aging process to Sims - kitten, adult, elder life stages.
• The Kibble of Life aspiration reward will keep pets from aging.
• Pets can breed and have genetics just like Sims.
• Pets can be trained to shake, speak, roll over, play dead and more. Pets that aren't trained may dig in the backyard, knock of the
• Skilled pets can earn a living from three career tracks with 5 job levels: Show Business, Security, and Service.
• Pets have motives and interests.
• Pets can be bought at a store, adopted, or added to the family in Create-a-Family.
• Pets can runaway if they feel unloved. If a lost pet report is made, there is a good chance the pet will be returned.
• New community lots and pre-made families with pets.
• New Building Tools: Flatten and Sledgehammer building tools, rotating floor tiles, diagonal and octagonal room options.

Becoming a pet owner is easy. Cats and dogs can be adopted by calling the Pet Adoption Service, have another Sim sell a pet to another, adopting a stray, created in Create-a-Family or by going to a pet shop. Kittens can only be breed or sold from Sim to Sim, not create created in the create-a-family screen.

Each pet has their own personality. They can be a genius or doofus, hyper or lazy, independent or friendly, aggressive or cowardly, and pigpen or finicky. Personality plays one part in how a pet behaviors. The other is learned behaviors. Pets can be trained to be behave themselves or cause chaos.

In addition to learned behaviors, cats and dogs can learn commands. To speak and stay are a couple of those commands. Hours will have to be invest to properly train their pet. Fitting that in between family and work is almost impossible. But wait! There is good news. Maxis gave us an Obedience trainer that will train the pets - not cheaply though. It's worth it in the long run, especially if the pet gets a job. Pets have three career tracks to pick from - Showbiz, Security, and Service. All of which pay well for a supplement income, especially to broke Sims.

Maxis obviously spent a lot of time perfecting the movement and actions of each type of pet. It's some of the best animation Maxis has done for "The Sims" series. The cat's and dog's walk, clawing on the scratching post, kittens eating - it's all brilliantly done.