Episode 14: The Sims 2

[00:00:20] Hello and welcome to the Retro Game... Retro Room Podcast... Retro... Nope. Sam, it's the Retro Game Room. Alright, let's try it again. No, that's staying in. No, no, I'm clipping it out. Too late? Not a chance. You don't even know how to clip. Yeah, I'm clipping it out. No. Welcome to the Retro Game Room Podcast. Wow, you still hesitate.

[00:00:48] The Retro Game Room Podcast? Yeah, you're now walking into the Retro Game Room. Nathan, welcome. Thank you. I'm imagining it in my head. Have a seat on this 1995 blow-up chair. I'm seated. While we sit on the 1982 beanbag chair.

[00:01:13] I wish I had a beanbag. No, they're terrible. Where I used to work, someone ordered a gigantic beanbag to lounge on and they're terrible. I can guarantee that. Is a papayasin chair in the time period? Sure, it's wherever you want. Sam, what chair are you sitting on?

[00:01:35] I'm sitting on an inflatable chair. Okay, alright. My sister had one of those. They're huge, actually. Yeah. Alright, Sam, you're really tangential tonight, so how about you get back on topic? Sorry, okay. Here we go. You ready? Yes. Gamer Bro Activities. Sarah, what have you been up to in the Gamer Bro sphere?

[00:02:07] Well, I've played a lot of Elden Ring is the situation. So that feels particularly gamer because I'm playing it on my gamer laptop. So it's like even more. However, I am playing with two friends and they are both playing Elden Ring with keyboard and mouse. And so I think that's S tier gamer mode because I can't even imagine playing that game on a keyboard and mouse.

[00:02:32] And then otherwise, I've got my newly upgraded Game Boy Advance with Golden Sun cartridge inserted and I am ready to rock. Nice. So, yep. Otherwise, just playing, you know, games for our club, but not a whole lot. How about you, Nathan? Give us the rundown. Sam, you're last.

[00:03:02] Gamer Bro Activities. Yeah, like what kind of games you've been checking out? Well, I mean, one game that, I mean, I'm a big competitive gamer, so I play a lot of like Counter-Strike and Rocket League. Okay, fair enough. There's one game that I have been, and I've talked to Sam about this before. It's a game that I've been like genuinely excited about for a while now.

[00:03:26] Lately, like, I mean, probably for a while, like a long couple years. Games come out, I'm like, okay, yeah, that's a game. But like, nothing really is exciting anymore. This game, oh my goodness, it's like, it makes me happy and excited to think about. And it comes out, I think, May 5th or something. It's called Motor Slice. Okay. So, you, it's, have you ever played Mirror's Edge?

[00:03:56] No. No? Mirror's Edge is a first-person parkour game. Oh? Great game. Cool, like, amazing visuals. One of the last good EA games. Exactly. Mm-hmm. So they took the parkour from Mirror's Edge, and then they, they combined it with some like, almost souls-like combat. And the main character wields this big like chainsaw.

[00:04:23] So there's like parrying, and you can like, you fight robots and stuff. Oh, I played that at your place. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So they, uh. The demo. The demo, anyways, yeah. Exactly, yeah. So that's, that's coming out soon. I'm very excited for that game. I am actually gonna buy it. Wow. Congratulations. So, yeah. And the, the, um, the soundtrack sounds really cool. It's got this like, drum and bass sort of jungle, vaporwavy. Whoa.

[00:04:53] Old PS1 sound to it. It's really cool, so. Okay. All right. That sounds pretty dope. Yeah. Pretty dope, bro. God. I should never say dope again. Uh, cool. Uh, Sam? Yes. Hi. Um, this is our friend Nathan. Yes. I introduce you to him now. Yeah, you were too, too busy screwing up our podcast title. Yeah, I'm sorry. Yeah, forgot the whole thing. Where are we again? What's that? Where are we again?

[00:05:23] The game, the retro room. Oh my goodness. All right. So, um, game of bra activities. I have been, uh, playing, well, I finished Spyro, the first game. Yeah. On the, um, the remaster. Yeah. Um, which was, uh, or remake, I guess. Yeah. Remake. And, uh, that was, that was really fun.

[00:05:49] Um, first game is good, but I still think the second game was much better. Right. Um, started the third game, but, um, I don't know. I'm not into it right now, but, uh, maybe I just need a break from Spyro for a little bit. True. Possibly. Um, other than that, uh, my boy and I have been playing a bit more of, um, uh, Four Swords Adventure.

[00:06:17] Um, the Zelda game. Mm-hmm. So that's, that's going well. Um, he seems to like it quite a bit. I think it's, uh, interesting because he likes Zelda and, you know, it's one of the very few co-op Zelda games. So that's pretty cool. And it's like the first Zelda game that he's playing, right? Well, Four Swords Adventures is the, oh. Like, like he's controlling Link and like a version. Right. One of the dudes. Is he not? Yeah, I guess so. Yeah.

[00:06:47] Yeah, he does. I'm just trying to think like other co-op games we played, but. Well, there's the Mario game, but. Yeah, Mario. There's like the, uh, Pokemon, um, Let's Go Eevee. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. But yeah, anyway, he seems to be having fun with it. That's great. Other than that, I took apart, um, your dad's, uh, Nintendo Entertainment System. And, uh, started poking around in there to see what's going on, but, uh, I need more

[00:07:16] time to figure that out. Um, and yeah, I think that's about it. I've been playing some Pokemon and, uh, Pokemon Ruby for Game Club. Um, getting it to run on the GameCube is interesting. I've been using this weird emulator that, like, runs the game just through the GameCube without the Game Boy Player. Oh, that's cool.

[00:07:43] And, uh, it works, but it's, like, pretty not the best. Like, it's got a lot of, like, little hiccups. Um. It definitely works. Yeah, it works, but I tried, like, Mario Kart, uh, for the Game Boy Advance, and it's unplayable. Like, it's super, super, super bad. Oh, okay. But for, like, an RPG, it's fine. So, yeah. Anyway, uh, yeah, I'm so far enjoying that.

[00:08:12] But, um, yeah, I think that's, so, oh, uh, I got, uh, hold on. Holy moly, we have so many notes here. Uh. Do we? Well, yeah, it was, like, I wrote notes, and then we talked in the note area. Mm-hmm. Um, anyway, uh, I have some notes here. So, uh, I got some new, uh, Evercade cartridges.

[00:08:39] I got, uh, Indie Heroes Collection 1 and Collection 4. Um, Collection, or sorry, did I say Collection 1? I meant Collection 2 and 4. Mm-hmm. Um, and, uh, Collection 2 has been, uh, really good so far. Um, it's one I've been wanting for a long time, and, uh, finally picked it up. And there was, uh, I beat one of the games already. It was called, um, it was called Nessie the Robot. Oh, okay.

[00:09:07] Um, it's like a, a NES, uh, game, like, made in, uh, uh, NES Maker. Oh, that's fun. Yeah. So, it was, it was quite good. Um, it was a very short game, but, but I liked it. Um, and then I started playing through, uh, Nyx, the, uh, Paradox Relic. And, um, that game's really, really, really good. Um, it's very inspired by, uh, Metroid, like the original.

[00:09:35] Um, also made in the NES, um, engine. So, uh, um, but it feels like, like a really light, um, Metroidvania, which I always have a hard time getting into Metroidvanias, but this one's so, like, it feels nice and small and compact that, um, I'm enjoying it quite a lot. So, uh, yeah. I'm looking forward to getting that one all wrapped up. Nice.

[00:10:01] Um, I went to a retro gaming store, uh, a couple weeks ago and I found a copy of a, of Karate Kid game for the Switch. Sick. Which I didn't know existed, but it's a beat-em-up. So, yeah, I think it might be fun. Okay. That's a, that does sound fun. Yeah. I also, uh, oh, I also picked up on Marketplace another GameCube and PlayStation original. Um.

[00:10:31] Well, aren't you successful? I don't know why. It was just a good deal. And I was like, well, yeah. All right. I'll take it. Why not? And you might have my one GameCube that won't read a single disc. You can have this one if you want. We'll swap. Well, we'll talk, we'll talk about it. Maybe, uh, you could deal me a GameCube over here. Sure. I'm rolling in the- Yeah, clearly, you've got like 25 and I have one dysfunctional one.

[00:11:01] Um, what else? We have, uh, so I went to a customer's house and I noticed while I was there that, um, I was changing his very fancy thermostat with a new one. Okay. And to change it, I needed to do a bunch of wiring and, um, a bit of programming on the thermostat to get all set up. Um, and, um, while I was downstairs, uh, wiring it up, the, uh, I noticed that he had

[00:11:29] a manual for a, uh, computers for like a 1980s computer. And the computer is a TRS-80. And, um, I noticed that on the shelf in the basement and I was like, uh, I went upstairs and he was a old guy, probably in his like eighties. And he, uh, he says, uh, he says, oh, you know, it's, uh, these, these thermostats are sure complicated, huh? And I was like, wow, I mean, not as complicated as programming on a TRS-80, eh?

[00:11:59] And he's looked at me and he's like, he's like, you know what a TRS-80 is? And I was like, I was like, uh, yeah, I mean, I, I have a, you know, a vague, maybe not vague, but I, I understand like old or older computers at least to a degree. And like, I'm, I'm familiar with a bunch of like, you know, a Commodore 64 and Vic 20 and Amiga whatnot. And he was like, he's like, oh really? And then he got like super excited.

[00:12:25] Like this old guy, like very, like, it's just very excited to talk to me about old computers. And so, um, uh, he, he comes downstairs and he's like, he's like, uh, he's like, here, here. He hands me a piece of cardboard and he's like, uh, he's like, do you know what this is? And I'm like, I'm like, I looked at it and I was like, is this like a terminal punch card that you would put inside of like a mainframe computer? He's like, yeah, that's exactly what it is.

[00:12:55] And I'm like, I'm like, I've never actually seen one in real life. Yeah. I've only ever heard of my dad maybe talk about them, but yeah. Like I've heard them. I've heard about them and I just kind of put two and two together of what it could be. And he was like, so excited. He was like, yeah, yeah. I used to, I used to work at a university and people would like, like, uh, type out a whole documents and you'd run it, you'd have to run it through the mainframe, but you'd have to carry it from your terminal to the mainframe.

[00:13:24] And like, sometimes people would trip and they would all go out of sequence and then your whole day is ruined. God, uh, university back then was not worth it. So yeah, he's, uh, he's like, here, you can have one. And I was, uh, he gave me, he gave me a couple of those cards. He's like, I use them as bookmarkers. That's an old guy. Yeah. So I was like, that's so cool. And, uh, yeah, I did a, and because I was like, so like interested in this thing he gave

[00:13:52] me, I did a little bit of research on it. And, uh, from what I discerned, um, when the terminals punch holes inside the cards, um, they, they like are essentially binary, I guess. So it's like ones and zeros that it's looking for a hole or no hole. Yeah.

[00:14:15] And, um, and each of these pieces of paper has, um, 80 spots for holes. Okay. Um, and so, uh, so I learned that each of these holes is one bite of information. So like the, literally the reason why a bite is called a bite is because there's a hole missing from the paper.

[00:14:41] So a bite, which I thought was very funny. I was like, oh, that makes a lot of sense. Damn. That's some good trivia. Yeah. And then, uh, then further on, I read more and, uh, turns out that these packages of these cards were sold in like a thousand. And so I always thought it curious that, um, you know, how there's a thousand bytes or something.

[00:15:08] Well, there's a thousand, um, kilobytes inside a megabyte, a thousand megabytes inside a gigabyte, thousand gigabytes inside a terabyte. Isn't that just metric though? Yeah. But, but there's, but for some reason, I always thought it was odd that there's, there's 8,000 kilobytes inside, or sorry, 8,000 bytes inside one kilobyte. I always thought that was like, why, why is that one 8,000? All the other ones are a thousand. Okay.

[00:15:34] And it turns out it's because these stacks of papers were sold in like, in, uh, a thousand like cards. So a thousand cards times 80 holes that you could put in it is 8,000. So one, one stack of a thousand is, is one kilobyte of information, which is so funny. So you could have a stack. I'm just going to go buy a stack of paper and that's one, one kilobyte.

[00:16:03] You know, the, the, the gif of Kronk who's like, oh yeah, it's all coming together. That's, that's that moment for you. Yeah. Yeah. It was, it was, uh, I was very like, oh, interesting. Interesting. So, um, the, the last thing I'll say is that this customer was super, super nice. And, uh, not only did he give me that, but he went and got his, uh, TRS 80 model 100 computer

[00:16:31] and, uh, gave it to me along with the manual and like, uh, like another book he had on it. Um, and so it was, uh, it's extremely fascinating. I, it's much smaller than I was expecting. Yeah. I think it's just an electronic typewriter basically, but it's like, yeah, it's got its own screen on it. Um, and, uh, and it's runs on batteries, um, four double A's and it can, has a 20 hour battery

[00:17:00] life, which I was like, wow, that's pretty long for like a, essentially like an old laptop. I think all they do is a word processing. It doesn't do really anything else. Well, it's, it's got, it's got like, um, like, uh, you can put, uh, your finances and it's got like program to figure out financing. It's got, um, uh, like a early form of like email and, uh, um, it also has like, uh, like

[00:17:29] a contact phone book list kind of thing. Um, you know, it's got like a two things and then the manual lets you also do things in basic on it, which, um, is pretty neat. So yeah. And then it's, uh, yeah. Anyway, I was reading about it and it's, it's, it's very cool little computer. He, he also said that he used to take it with him when he was working. That's the reason why he bought it. And, uh, he would go to different places and if he connected it to the internet, he

[00:17:58] can research like, uh, things for his job with it. Nice. So very cool. Uh, congratulations. Thanks. My, um, work has given me no computers, modern or otherwise. So there you go.

[00:18:23] Oh, uh, we have, uh, do you want to go into the news? I guess. Well, first of all, we've missed a full part of our introduction. Nathan, this is quite embarrassing. Uh, as a guest, you know, we should have done this very perfectly, but basically we're brought to you in part by the super pod network and I have a solution to the missing, uh, super pod network sound. Are you ready?

[00:18:53] I'm excited. Sam, are you ready? Yep. Okay. Okay. We're brought to you in part by the super pod network. Quack. Nice. Look, if they're not going to give me a sound, then I could use the soundboard on discord. Perfect. Uh, so that's it. And what's happening next week, Sam, we are guesting on the 3DO experience podcast, uh,

[00:19:23] with Thrak and Bill. Yeah. And I am proud to say that I am a fan of their podcast and have been listening away audio only. Yeah. I only listen to audio. Yeah. They, uh, have some pretty scandalous opinions about Ocarina of Time, which, uh, at some point we're going to have to, uh, settle, I think. Uh, but, uh, looking forward to it.

[00:19:49] So if you guys, uh, the problem probably lies with the fact it's not on the 3DO. Yeah. It's clearly the only console that they, that they own at play with that kind of an opinion that must be true. So this is not a shout out. This is a heckle. This is a, uh, call out actually. Um, so looking forward to it and, uh, you know, for our, uh, I don't know, five listeners,

[00:20:15] if you want to go check out the 3DO podcast, we'll be on there at some point. Yeah. Well, we're recording Monday. Next week. Yeah. Sometime. Monday or Tuesday. Yeah. Tuesday. Tuesday. Tuesday. So I don't know when they put out their episodes, but yeah, probably after that. Wednesday. No, I'm going to check that out. I'm going to end off our Superbaud network shout outs, et cetera, with a perfect. All right. The segment is over.

[00:20:45] Now we can go to the news. Perfect. Go ahead, Sam. All right. News. Foreign news. We have only a short list here. Um, first Amber Nick, the company that makes those little handhelds that you can put ROMs on. Yep. Um, they came up with a model that I thought was worth mentioning, which is called the Amber Nick RG rotate. Um, it looks like a, kind of like a game boy.

[00:21:10] Um, but you can rotate the screen, uh, over top of the D pad and, uh, face buttons. And when you do that, uh, it becomes an MP3 player. So it looks, uh, it looks very, very nice. Uh, cute, cute little thing. I didn't see any price yet, but, uh, yeah, it just looks really nice. That's all. I'm going to tell you that the rating for this is over, is going to be about $500.

[00:21:36] That's my rating of this news and likely the price of this device. Maybe. It does look quite sleek. I would say. Yeah, it looks really sleek. Yeah. Yeah. I don't like the twist. Um, that is a new, like you rotate it down. I don't really like that. Yeah. That's prone to breaking. So I'm also going to rate that as a Samsung fold.

[00:22:07] Looks really cool. However. Yeah. Uh, Nathan, what are you going to rate that piece of news? I'm going to rate it, uh, at least one Tony Stark phone out of, uh, out of one, I would say. Okay. Drawn from like the first Iron Man movie. Yeah, sure. Yeah. All right. Well done. That's a good rating, Nathan. Thank you for contributing.

[00:22:34] So, uh, second piece of news I have is the Neo Geo, um, back in the day had a, had a home console, um, called the Neo Geo AES. So, uh, Neo Geo is now re-releasing this, uh, the, like the AES, but, uh, with like, uh, HDMI out and, uh, you know, uh, like new, it's a new console. It's just, it's a reproduction of the old one.

[00:23:03] Um, kind of like when Atari released the 2600 plus. Um, they're also releasing cartridges that, uh, will go along with it. And, um, it's kind of, kind of interesting because it's a real, the console is much cheaper than the original, obviously. The original was like, even back then when it released in the early nineties, I think it was like. It was really expensive. Yeah. I think it was like $900. Like it was like super expensive.

[00:23:31] Um, but this one is releasing, I don't know, Canadian, but, uh, the American price is like $350. Um, so still expensive, but you know, less than what it was originally. And the cartridges back then were, I think we're $200 each. And now they're releasing, not all the cartridges obviously, but like, uh, they're best sellers. Um, they're re-releasing them for like 80 US each, which is much, uh, much more affordable. But, uh, I mean, uh.

[00:24:01] Well, I'll tell you, I'll tell you my rating of this. I rate this as an Evercade and Evercade cartridge with a million Neo Geo games on it. That's what I'm going to rate this as. Um, what's, like, what are they trying to do here? Like, you guys. I think it's for collectors. Like, that's the only thing I could think of. I mean, look, I think the box looks nice. The console looks nice. Yeah.

[00:24:29] But it's really hard to justify 80 bucks for those games. For one game? Yeah, I know. In a cartridge? Yeah. When I've got 12 sitting in one cartridge for 40 bucks? I think the difference is that you can use the console for the original cartridges as well. If you have them. Oh, yeah. If you bought that fucking thing. Yeah, I mean. Okay, sure. Like, they're inter-swappable, you know? Like, with the new cartridges work on the old console as well.

[00:24:59] And then, like, it's not for me. It's obviously not for you. But I assume somebody is happy about this. Well, Nathan, how do you feel about it? I was going to give it a rating of five of my wallet hurting out of five. Oh, this is up your alley. Okay, I see. No, not in a good way. From, like, a negative perspective, yeah. I agree. The price is way too high. That's too high for this. Like, come on.

[00:25:29] And you're going to try to sell me on that joystick controller? Give me a break! No way. So, last piece of news. It follows this quite nicely. It's Evercade. They actually had a little press release that came out after this announcement. And they said, hey, you can play most of these games on Evercade.

[00:25:54] And they also hinted that they plan to release a third set of games for Neo Geo games for the Evercade next year. So, are you telling me we're in a current console war? Tiny one, I guess. Oh, I like that. Okay, I'm going to reinstate the rating of the Neo Geo.

[00:26:19] The rating of the Neo Geo is, I saw a clip of Elon Musk showing the Cybertruck or something. And that it was, like, bulletproof or whatever. And then in the demonstration, they shot at the windows and they shattered or something like that. Yeah. That's the Neo Geo. And the Evercade is just like a normal car. That's like, we can do everything just fine, by the way. Also, we've been doing this technology way longer.

[00:26:48] So, ever cheaper. Wow. Console war. Okay, I like it. They also put a little thing saying, cost per Neo Geo game on Evercade, $5. I thought that was funny. This is my favorite piece of news I think you've ever given me on this podcast. Yeah, it's pretty good, eh? Clearly, we should have guests on more often. Yeah, Nathan inspired me. That was really good.

[00:27:17] I like that. What are you going to rate that piece of news, Nathan? I'm just going to give it a normal 10 out of 10. I just like the fact that they're writing on the news of the release and then they're just like, yeah, our console is great. And, you know, you could buy one of those instead. Yeah, and it looks nicer. You know, they've got their new controller with the analog sticks. Mm-hmm. That's coming out of here. Come on. Listening to the retro game room, I'm a little Evercade-pilled now. So, kind of tempted to buy one.

[00:27:48] It's a pretty good deal. Yeah. Yeah. Got to jump on board. Yeah, we have a whole episode talking about it. So, there you go. I don't know. I was looking at the Capcom one that Sam has. It's pretty nice. So, yeah. Think about it. Anyway. That's all the news. You're welcome, Evercade, by the way, if you're listening. We are your unpaid sponsors. Yep. Big fan. Well, those are pretty good news.

[00:28:17] I'll tell you that much. Neo Geo can, you know, kind of, I don't know, get your shit together. Evercade continues to be great. Cool. Well, is it time? It's time. Well, Nathan, welcome. This is your starring role. Oh. No, that was a weird transition.

[00:28:44] Anyway, point is, speaking of weird, we're talking about Sims 2. Sims 2. Sims 2. Very enthusiastic. Thank you. Thank you for joining me on the podcast, guys. Thanks. Thanks for having us. Sims 2. A classic game. So, well, let's explain what Sims 2 is.

[00:29:12] Actually, I wish I had the game with me because I wanted to read that cover of the game. You want me to do that? Hold on. I'll grab it. Yeah. While you're doing that, maybe I'll talk about the importance of Sims 2 in my life. And then, Nathan, you can as well share your history with this game. Sure. But I'm a longtime Sims player. I've played Sims 1 on the PlayStation 2, which was extremely stressful.

[00:29:40] And shout out to my close friend, Liz. In high school, we played Sims 1 on the PlayStation 2 for hours on single player mode to try to get our character Dudley to literally just get a promotion so that we could beat the game. And we were never successful. Sims 2 is an adventure that I took on on my own. I've beaten that game. And it's near and dear to my heart.

[00:30:10] What about you, Nathan? Same. I mean, as a child, I've played a lot of Sims 2. I played it on the family computer. I had it on my netbook. It chugged. Oh, netbook. Damn. Committed. Sims is... I think Sims is the foray for me, the diving board into PC gaming to a degree. And also PC game modding. Yes.

[00:30:37] Because I definitely installed a lot of mods into the Sims when I was playing it on my netbook. Yeah. So yeah, it was... I don't know. I loved it growing up. It was great. Yeah, one thing I... For Sims 3, I bought it on the PC. And I then had access to the Motherlode cheat code. And that is a true game changer. That's a true game changer. Because I don't think you could do it on the consoles.

[00:31:05] And so you actually have to work for your wealth. And frankly, when I'm playing Sims, I'm about that passive income life. You know? I don't want to have to work. Horrifying. Yeah. Very good. Sam, have you returned? Yeah. Yeah. Been here. Okay. Well, let us know. Tell us about this game. What is the story behind... Well, I'll say similar to you. I also... Most of my experience is on the PS2.

[00:31:35] With my friend from high school. Yeah. And we would go over to his house and we'd play two-player Sims 2 on his PlayStation 2. Yeah. And yeah. I mean, I just remember spending a lot of time playing it with him. And yeah. It was... I don't know. I thought it was a good time back then. I later got it on PC and I played it a bit there too.

[00:32:04] And I thought that was a better way to experience the game. Yeah, definitely. But I really haven't touched it much since like many, many, many years ago. Until just now when we played it. Right. All right. Let us know. On the back of the box here, it says in big bold letters, a new way to play with life. And then we have smaller boxes and it says, create your Sims.

[00:32:33] Choose from over 10,000 fashion styles and pursue fortune, popularity, knowledge, romance, or creativity, life aspirations. Okay. Then we have directly control every move. Explore open-ended or story-based gameplay interacting with 60 story characters, each with their own memories, awareness, and agendas. And then we have... Memories.

[00:33:04] Yeah. Apparently. That's creepy. Design dream homes. Build your world in 16 unique locations using over 400 building and designing options. Customize everything, including your own food and recipes. I mean, customize your food. It's like... That's literally all you should be making on that game, but sure. And then last one is more than 350 objects.

[00:33:33] Fulfill more than 200 wants and fears as you build skills, maintain careers, and make friends and foes. And that's what it says on the back of the box. Well, I find it terrifying that the Sims have memories. That's very bizarre to me. Also, I don't think that there's any evidence that that is true. Yeah. I don't know.

[00:34:00] My relationship with the Sims, it seems like they forgot that we made out 10 seconds ago. Yeah. Yeah. I think that you're more right on that. Yeah. Maybe it's just from the point system? Like, the friend... Like, the associate point system? Well, if that's true, then their memory degrades pretty quick. Because if I could talk to them in a couple days, that's it. We went from 100 to, like, now I can't even balance a vacuum cleaner on my head anymore. It's, like, not cutting it.

[00:34:29] Just like in real life. Yeah. Like, what the fuck? What do we think about the 10,000 fashion styles? Nathan, what was your opinion of the styles of Sims in this world? Well... Yeah, let's hear it. So, on the console? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I would like to know exactly where they got that number from. I mean, I guess each clothing item does have, like, multiple options.

[00:34:56] Like, sleeve length or maybe pant leg length. And then some have, like, different color palettes. I feel like there could have been more. But also, they're probably pushing the hardware. Given the amount of options we had. I also feel like the options that we did have access to were very, like, out there. I don't know. I tend to wear, like, you know, more neutral clothing.

[00:35:25] And a lot of the clothes had, like, designs on them and stuff like that. Yeah, graphic keys. It definitely... Yeah. Definitely there was not enough options. But at the same time, there was too many. There's so much to choose from. But not what you're looking for. Well, also, if you're playing on the PlayStation 2, was that lag helpful to try to think about, you know... Is that what we're getting into? No, not yet.

[00:35:53] We're getting into the PS2 lag situation? How long would it take to go through every option? The 10,000 clothes. You'd still be doing it. 10,000 hours. Yeah. I found the clothing fashion items interesting because they are, first of all, very capsule 2005 wardrobes or whatever. I don't remember when the game came out. But they are... I think it's 2005, yeah. Or 4.

[00:36:20] They scream early 2000s fashion to me. Like the low-rise pants, the shoes, the graphic tees. Like every single fucking t-shirt is some kind of weird graphic thing. The tattoos. The flame tattoos and tribal tattoos. Yep. Huge during that time. So I found that actually kind of charming. But a lot of the clothes are locked. So you have to progress in the single-player game in order to unlock them.

[00:36:50] Oh, is that how you unlock them? Yeah, yeah. And then the 10,000 styles, Nathan, I think you're right. I think they're counting like this shirt but cropped, which I think is a fucking cop-out. Yeah, I agree. I mean, I think they're just saying like, yeah, like this character is identical to this character except they're wearing short sleeves. And then that's one. You know, or that's two. And then you do like one little alteration. Now you've changed the color on both of them. That's four. You know, like... Ridiculous. Ridiculous.

[00:37:21] What did we think about the introduction of the alien sims? Clearly not a lot. I never thought about it. They're just... They're there. Okay. Have you put makeup on the alien sim? I think Amy did when she was making hers. Okay. I've got to explain something to you guys.

[00:37:49] Clearly you didn't explore the alien skin enough. So when you put the alien... When you decide to be an alien, my alien character was Pip Pop. Um, so Pip, I was like, okay, I want her to be kind of a gothic renaissance, basically me in high school. Yep. So I, uh, I was setting her up and then I was like, all right, obviously she needs like super dark raccoon eye makeup. Duh, it's like her mid-2000s.

[00:38:14] So I, uh, so when you don't have any makeup on, on her, her eyeballs are all black because she's an alien. Okay. But when you put makeup on, they put like human eye contact lenses on the alien. Hmm. Which is a very strange detail and that's what I was hoping we would, you would bring up. But, uh, alas, you did not.

[00:38:39] But, um, did you guys, how, what did you think about the genetic, uh, randomization to pick like your base sim? Uh, I mean, I thought I, as a kid, I thought it was... Pretty, like, awesome. I was like, oh man, that's so awesome. You got a whole, like, family tree. Now, I mean, I don't know. It's fine. It's just, it's just a, it's just clicking randomize with more steps. Yeah. Nathan, what did you think about that?

[00:39:09] I always think that stuff's fun. Yeah. Yeah. Especially if, like, you're just trying to create a random character. You're not trying to have, like, a self-insert character and you're just, I don't know, it's just like playing Oblivion and you just spam, like, randomize multiple times. Yeah. Or Dark Souls or something, you know? Yeah, I kind of agree. I sort of liked it. I like that there's this, uh, I completely forgot that you can have, like, this weird genetic tree of your grandparents and then parents. Yeah. Um, I don't know why they would go that far back because you never meet these characters.

[00:39:39] That's true. I'm not 100% sure why it happens. But I guess you could reflect back on, like, Grandpa, like, where you got your alien gene from. Yeah. Yeah. Why do you look the way you do? It's teaching kids about genetics. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Uh, what about the house building? What did you guys think about that? That's the whole reason to play this game. Yes.

[00:40:10] That's why I play this. I would, if it wasn't in the game, I would not touch this game. All right. Well, talk about it. What makes it so good? I don't know. You get to build a house. It was back then. It was awesome. Like, how many games let you build a house back then? Like, none. It was just this one and The Sims 1, I guess. That's true. And then, and then nowadays, like, there's still not that many, but you get the same,

[00:40:35] like, like, at least for me, I get that fulfillment out of playing, like, Minecraft or, you know, many other kind of construction games. Um, but I mean, it does it really well. Uh, I have no problems with the construction. I think it's pretty fun, actually. Um, yeah. If the whole game was more construction, I would, I would play it more because I think that's the best part.

[00:41:02] I just, once I'm out of money, then I'm, then I have to play The Sims and I don't want to do that. Oh, well, that's why you got to get the mother load. Yeah. On the PC version. What about you, Nathan? No, it's exactly like playing The Sims is just a lot of building. And then I, I obviously in the PC version, you could build multiple stories or at least two, or like you could add a second floor to your house. I don't recall in the console version if you could do that. I don't think so. I don't think so.

[00:41:31] And the console version, I almost exclusively just played single player Sims. So I, I didn't like, I didn't build on the second console. But it's like, it's just that, that's one of the things that made it so fun was like you get to imagine like the space that you want and then you just create it, you know? Yeah. I don't know. There's just something fun about it. And then you get to live, you get to live as your little character in, in the space you create. Yeah.

[00:41:58] I was very into the relationship stuff. Like I wanted to, I would often have like characters cheating on one another. My ultimate goal was to woohoo everybody. I would spend hours trying to perfect like relationships and friendships with the different Sims, the jobs. I was like really into the skill building shit. I played the boring version guys.

[00:42:27] I played the, the actual simulation of life. See, see, I think back then, like when I was a teenager and played it, I thought that was fun. But then when I played it, like, you know, the last couple of weeks, I tried to get into it like a couple of times and I'm like, you know, like I have my little kids running around and they're like, dad, I want to eat a snack. Oh, you got kids. Oh, right, right, right. Yeah. You did your family. Yeah. Well, in real life.

[00:42:57] Like, dad, I want a snack. Dad, I need to go pee. Dad, can we go do this? Dad, my toy broke. Like, and it's just like, it's like, okay, you know, I don't mind. But this is just like, now I'm playing a video game to escape reality. And the Sims like, I need to go pee. Oh, I need it. I need to go sleep. Like, bro, go figure it out yourself, man.

[00:43:24] Like, I don't want, I don't, I'm not here to tell you what to do. Go, go do that yourself. I don't know. I was annoyed. I was annoyed every time they had a desire that it was like, it was like, they need to go to the bathroom. Like, just, just go then. I think there is a trait you can give your sim to take care of their needs more. Like, they're more motivated or something like that. I can't 100% remember, but I feel like maybe that's something.

[00:43:51] Because you can technically play and let them just, like the, the NPCs that you later get to control. They kind of just take care of themselves. They're always miserable and crying, but they take care of themselves or they just piss and shit themselves. I know you can just let them do their thing and they'll walk around doing their thing. But like, then I'm just watching them walk around. That's also boring. That's why. Yeah, go ahead. No, no, no. Go, go, go. Oh, no.

[00:44:21] I was just going to say, just to add to that, like, that's, that's why in our reviews, I called the game like a fishbowl. Because you're just kind of, if you just let the Sims do what they want, they just, it's just like, you're, you're just watching a fishbowl. You're just watching them walk around. Gotta fast forward that fishbowl though. Exactly. You watch it super fast. Yeah. I am tempted to pop Sims 3 back in to like revisit it as a PC game. But when I was finished playing Sims for the game, like I burned through an entire Sunday

[00:44:51] afternoon doing it, because it's quite addictive. I actually, I, and then my GameCube is just not reading the disc. I lost the urge to continue playing it very quickly. So, whereas when I was a teenager, it was like, I gotta do this. I've got to kill this Sim. Or whatever it is. So you guys like the building part of the Sim, and you dislike everything else, is what I'm gathering.

[00:45:19] I mean, the, the character designing is cool, but I don't really care much about it. Like, you know, it's, it takes too much time. I find, but it is neat. Like there's a lot of depth to it, but that's okay. But then once it's done, it's done, right? Then you're in the game. And yeah, like the best way I wrote in my review there was the game is just, it's just playing dollhouse.

[00:45:47] Like virtual dollhouse. Like that's, that's what this game is. And like, I never really played dollhouse as a kid and virtual dollhouse is not that much more interesting to me. Interesting. You know, I, I find that like my favorite video games are things that I would do as a kid. And that would be like, and as a kid, I would play a lot in like the sandbox, you know,

[00:46:13] or, and like, you know, building little, little sand roads and stuff. And I thought that was super fun. And now like one of my biggest favorite games that I play on the computer all the time is roadcraft, a game that you just build roads. Like it's just, it's just what I did as a kid, but it's on the computer now. So I think, I think if I was a kid and I was like big into dollhouse, like, like playing dollhouse, this would be fantastic. And it still would be fantastic today.

[00:46:44] Interesting. I, I played a lot with like my Barbies and Beanie Babies and it was all about their relationships. This Beanie Baby was cheating on that Beanie Baby. That Beanie Baby had an alcohol use disorder and was starting at AA. Like it was like very, there was murder, there was suicide, you know, Barbie jumping off the cliffs, Ken killing the Barbie. Like it was all these soap operas that I would build in my head and then play them out.

[00:47:15] Whereas building roads was definitely not. So maybe you're right. Maybe it's just reflects, uh, it's, it works better for people who grew up kind of doing the dollhouse games. Yeah. You know, I think so. Yeah. By no means am I saying Sims is a bad game. No, no, no. It's just good at that one type of game. Exactly. It's just, yeah, it's just dollhouse, but I don't want to do that.

[00:47:41] It's interesting because I think one of the bigger problems with the Sims 2 is that there's not enough character customization. So I, I really like to spend a lot of time making my character look a certain way. And I found it frustrating that 90% of the clothes that I wanted her to wear were locked. Um, so that was really annoying. Uh, and I felt that it wasn't as, you couldn't do as much with how they looked and stuff like that. So interesting.

[00:48:11] Nathan, what about you? Anything that you really liked or disliked about it? Uh, uh, anything I really liked or disliked about the Sims? I mean, controls are okay. Uh, at least if we're like, are we talking about from like on the PlayStation or a console? Yeah, whatever you want. Doesn't matter. Hmm. Um, yeah, I think I, I mean, generally when I played, I didn't really gravitate towards

[00:48:40] the, the, uh, the relationships and stuff like that. And like the, the, the life part of it. Like if, if ever I'm controlling the character, it's just like, all right, your goal is just to like, woohoo, who cares about the, who cares about sleeping, eating all the important things? No, don't do that. That's irrelevant. Um, but I would like generally just, you know, build a, build a family and then, you know, build, spend a lot of time in excessive amount of time building the house and the land that they live on.

[00:49:09] And then just kind of watching them live their lives and then kind of modifying things as, as it plays out to like cater to the, the Sims wants and needs more. So, um, so yeah, I really enjoyed all the, the, the building aspects of it and whatnot. Yeah. Yeah. Nothing, nothing really stands out. Overall, it was a solid game. So. Yeah. It's a, it's all right.

[00:49:34] I would say, um, Sam, did you have like any kind of like, what were some notable experiences that you encountered while you were playing Sims 2? Well, um, so I, I played a bit, um, and tried to get into it and I kept on like having other distractions. Um, but I ended up writing a bunch of my review and then I was like, you know what?

[00:50:00] I have to, I have to like go more. Like I have to do more. Like I was, I got annoyed cause I built the house. So then I like characters gone to work and then I had other, like I made like a whole family. So like all four of them were there and then like, it would make me control another guy. And then I'm like, I'm like, ah, I just, blah. You know, I just didn't like it. So I was like, you know what? I'm going to like after a couple of days, I was like, you know what, before we, you know,

[00:50:29] do this for game club, I'm gonna, I'm gonna try another time. So I launched a new, new session. And, um, this time what I did is I was like, I'm only going to make one character. So that way I don't have all these distractions. Um, and on top of that, I'm going to, I'm going to make sure that they make like a decent amount of money.

[00:50:54] And I found that, I found that, uh, I was annoyed with, with them talking to other Sims that come knocking at your door. So I was like, so I made them like the least social character, which kind of was interesting because in the game, usually like the social meter goes down pretty quick. Um, but it was like a good, like five days before I needed to talk to somebody, which was kind of nice.

[00:51:21] So, um, I played this, this one session and, uh, you know, I'm, I'm, was, I decided to just buy a computer in the house, um, and just make games in the game. And so like a game developer and, uh, it was actually making really good money, like more than just a normal career. I thought, um, but, uh, the doorbell wouldn't stop ringing, but I just ignored that.

[00:51:49] And, uh, after a few days of that and I was like upgrading the house and I was like, this is not too bad. I'm still annoyed that every time they're like, they need to go pee or they need to, they need to eat or something like, I'm like, okay, let's go do this. But like, like fine, whatever. Um, I w I wasn't having a bad time, but I was, you know, I was just kind of sitting there like, eh, you know, that's all right. It's all right. And I was looking forward to making the money so that way I could build upgrades on the house.

[00:52:17] Anyway, after a couple of days of that, um, my character went to sleep and a robber came and took the computer and then ran off. And, uh, I was like, well, guess that's it. You didn't want to buy another computer? Nah, I would have to sell a bunch of things. And I was like, no, that's it. You were making so much money. Yeah. Well, I bought a lot of things. So, oh, okay. So your finances were all fucked up. Yeah. So anyway, that was it. I was like, well, I'm done with this game.

[00:52:45] So before, uh, I, I appreciated that, that you gave it a solid swing, um, and a miss. Uh, before we get into Nathan's spectacular story about, um, his sim experience, I'd like to share, uh, my sim experience, if that's okay. So my sim was an alien named Pip and, uh, he decided to describe their experience through diary entries. Okay. Okay.

[00:53:12] So bear with me as I read Pip's very brief diary entries for their days. Are you ready? Mm-hmm. Okay. Okay. Dear diary. Dear diary. Dear diary. Felicity and I made out a bunch after I charmed the shit out of her, but now she's mad every time I just do my sexy growls. What the fuck? Now she friendzoned me.

[00:53:41] Also, Ozzy never flushes the fucking toilet. Dear diary. If I had to clean Ozzy shit one more time, I'm going to build a room, put him in it and remove the door. He can clean his own piss and shit at that point. Also, I balanced a back. I balanced a vacuum on my head to impress Felicity and it fell on her. So yeah, we broke up. Dear diary. I've been learning to paint and have been making some sick self portraits. Some dude keeps buying them, which is a bit odd, but sure money is money. Dear diary.

[00:54:10] I visited Timmy, Timmy and Torrin's house. I went into Torrin's room while looking for the bathroom because I was about to piss myself after surfing and found all my self portraits. Anyway, I threatened Torrin's life and called him a dead earthworm. We are now enemies. Dear diary. I got a job as a fashion model, but then I got promoted to a nude model. So anyway, I quit and now I'm an artist. I sold a monkey head portrait. Who the fuck wanted that? Dear diary. I met Isabel and Don at this fancy new house.

[00:54:40] Isabel wanted a, quote, talented sim. So I thought that meant she wanted me to make art for her full time. What she actually meant was that she wanted someone to fix her stove. Great. Dear diary. After, after work, I took a bath while in there. I heard a strange noise. So I got out and smelled fire. Yep. Isabel tried to make food and set herself on fire. Anyway, I eulogized at her urn for a while to practice my speech. I really need to work on that so that I can win Felicity back.

[00:55:07] And that was, that was, uh, Pip's adventures. See, see, this is, this is the perfect way to play this game. Like I wrote in my review that, that this game, um, is definitely a two on two for story and character. And the reason why is because you get to make your own story and your, and your own characters. And, and that can be the best story of all time because it's your story. You, you made it.

[00:55:36] It's, you know, you get to fill in the blanks and this is like a canvas to like, you know, make a story with. So the way you played it is like perfect. That sounds great. You know, you did, you had a story and you told the story. Like, I think that's, that sounds way more fun than how I was playing it. Well, there you go. And I was yelling at the screen because Ozzy was never fucking cleaning his shit.

[00:56:00] And my Sim got so many cleaning points just from cleaning dirty toilets, which is really horrifying. Um, all right, Nathan, tell us about, uh, your character. All right. So, uh, uh, my character, he was a man named Giga Chad. Um, he was a, uh, manosphere. Yeah. He was, he was a strapping young lad. He had a nice slick mustache. He wore tight pants and a tight shirt.

[00:56:30] Um, yeah. So he, uh, he had a, well, only one goal in life and that was to, uh, boo hoo. Ace him. Ace him. All the Sims. Who knows? It's just boo hoo. That was, that was the only thing he, he, he wanted to do. So moving Giga Chad into a, a, a new, a new plot of land. I immediately got to work on building him the, uh, his mojo dojo casa house.

[00:56:59] Um, and, uh, it was a beautiful square box with, um, a small kitchenette. Uh, there was a bed kind of, it wasn't in the middle of the room. It was just pretty offset from the middle. Basically. Yeah. There's yeah. Was it, was it the heart shaped bed? No, it was not. It was, uh, just the regular like double bed. Uh, cause you know, you're a little, it's a little, a little expensive.

[00:57:27] Um, and we need to buy other things and, uh, also pay for food. Like condoms. Exactly. Yeah. Um, in front of the bed, there was a fireplace because Giga Chad wants to look sophisticated. Um, because you know, you can't have TV that, that kind of just, that's unsophisticated to a degree. That's privative actually. Yeah, exactly. Thank you. Uh, there was a couch that he, that he, that he had to sit on.

[00:57:57] Uh, that was just sort of adjacent to the, to the bed. Uh, uh, next to the couch was a workout bench. Uh, cause obviously you got to stay in shape and, and, and look good to try and, and woo, woo, woo all the people. Guns out, guns out. Yeah. Exactly. And, uh, other than that, the last little room was just a little bathroom. A shower, toilet, the important things. There's a mirror in there for, for, for checking yourself out. Nice.

[00:58:26] Uh, so first day Giga Chad has moved in and obviously he has the one goal of, of, of woohooing any sim, all the sims. Right. The first people, the first sims that visit Giga Chad in his new, in his new home are a nice elderly couple. Uh, and immediately Giga Chad was drawn to, uh, the older woman there and, uh, started, started hitting on her right away.

[00:58:55] And, uh, you know, it was, uh, it was, it was a touch and go relationship for a little bit, but they, they ended up becoming pretty good friends. What was her name? I don't remember. Classic Giga Chad. Exactly. Um. Felicity or something? No, Felicity is not old. Hmm. What was it? I don't, I don't, I feel like it started with, I feel like it started with an E. Maybe Edna or something. Yeah. Maybe, maybe, maybe Evelyn. Yeah.

[00:59:25] Maybe it was Evelyn. Yeah. Uh, but then, yeah, so moving on, he, uh, at one point Giga Chad was enjoying, uh, his, his fireplace and, uh, ended up catching on fire. He was just, I guess he was just sitting too close to it. He caught on fire. He caught on fire. Yes. The floor caught on fire and then he couldn't put it out. Yeah. Yeah. He was, he was in, inside the fire that was on the floor.

[00:59:53] So yeah, it was, it was just, I guess, unfortunate timing. Maybe he got, he got stuck. He was too scared to move something. Um, so Giga Chad died. Oh, right. I didn't realize that it only costs a hundred simoleons to come back to life. So that was pretty nice. Um. Yeah. It's good to know that our lives are only worth a hundred dollars. Yeah. You know, that's pretty good. Yeah. Pretty good deal. Mm-hmm. So Giga Chad comes back to life.

[01:00:22] And, uh, with this, it's, it's a bit of a realization that, okay, maybe, maybe the fireplace isn't, isn't a safe thing to have, especially like in front of the bed. So we sold the fireplace. Right. We cleaned up Giga Chad's urn. And, uh, um, we installed a TV in its place. Cause you know, it still needs some entertainment. Uh, so now we're, we're kind of downgrading. Um. Um. You can watch the fireplace channel. Yeah. Exactly. You know, you'll log. Yeah. Exactly. Uh-huh.

[01:00:52] So now Giga Chad's back to life. He's just doing his thing. He's working out. He's eating food. He's talking to, uh, his, his, his, his, his love interest. Um. Again, it's, it's a bit of a, it's a, it's a bit of a rocky relationship. Uh, there, there'd be some days where he, he, he, he's, he's really winning her over. And then something bad just occurs. And then it kind of, kind of fizzles out. Um. Mm-hmm. And then, uh, some more time goes by.

[01:01:20] And, uh, this one evening Giga Chad was preparing some breakfast. Cause also he had a really weird sleep schedule. It ended up like, he ended up sleeping through the day and then waking up at, at night. And then doing things, uh, throughout the night. So he was kind of, he was like a, he was like a creature of the night. Yeah. Pip, uh, Pip also had bizarre sleep, sleep-wake cycle. Yeah.

[01:01:48] It was really tough to get him out of it too. Like. Mm-hmm. Uh, it was, it was, it was strange. He eventually got there. But yeah, just, he was making breakfast this one morning. And, um, I, I guess his cooking skill was not very high. It, usually he would just have like a, like a, something readily available to eat out of the fridge. He wouldn't normally cook. Um. And, uh, yeah, he was cooking away at the, at the oven one, this, this one evening. And, uh, he ended up catching on fire again. Again?

[01:02:18] Uh, so Giga Chad and fire do not, at this point, do not go well together. Um. No, that's clear. Yeah, he got. And why couldn't he escape the kitchen when he was on fire? Uh, there was, uh, he was being blocked by, uh, honestly, I think it was the fire. And then the urn, his urn ended up popping up there afterwards. Yeah. He got, he got stuck again. And he go, he couldn't, he couldn't get out. And, uh. So he got stuck from his own urn. Yeah.

[01:02:47] His own previous urn, yes. Essentially. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. So, yeah. Giga Chad died a second time. Okay. All right. Once again, Grim Reaper strolls on in. We just go say hello. And, uh, we come back to life for another hundred simoleons. Nice. Giga Chad also does not have a job. So we're just running on whatever we had left over when we moved in. Uh, that's horrifying. Yeah. His bank account is dwindling.

[01:03:17] Uh, it's, it's, he has less than a thousand simoleons at this point. Um. Well, his alpha, his alpha podcast hasn't kicked off yet. Exactly. Yeah. He's, uh. Yeah. He hasn't met the right, the right, uh, the right people for it. I guess his, his other alpha male crypto bros or something to do it with. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Um. So now that he's back alive, this is his third life. We clean up again.

[01:03:46] I'm pretty sure the oven got destroyed. So this time we, we cleaned it up. Uh, we installed another countertop and, and this time instead of an oven, we didn't even go for a microwave. We didn't go for a toaster oven, nothing. We gave him a food processor. So like a blender. Oh. Uh huh. And it just sat there and it was good enough for food. And I also installed a coffee machine for him just, just to try and help get the sleep cycle back in, uh, back in order. Okay.

[01:04:16] So yeah, he's, he's still, he's still just working out, eating food, showering, doing all the, all the things. And, uh, he's finally at the point where, uh, him and him and his, his love interest are finally at the point in their relationship where, uh, on, on the gauge, they're at about 77 out of a hundred hearts. Um, so almost, almost a hundred. He's very, very close. And Giga Chad decided to work up the courage to ask her to move in with him. Wow. Bold.

[01:04:46] That's really fast. Yeah. And, and it's, it's only been maybe like a week or so at this point. Um, that they've known each other. So that's, I mean. He's committed. Yeah, exactly. He's committed. Trust is, is an important thing in any relationship. So they, they, they clearly have a lot of trust in each other. Yeah. Um, so I guess she decides that it's fine to move out of her house with her husband and then move in with Giga Chad. Oh, she's right. She's married. I forgot about that. Yeah. It's, it's, it's an interesting situation.

[01:05:14] I guess it's, it's from her perspective, it's probably purely platonic. Like, and then from Giga Chad's perspective, you know, he's, he's, he's, he's doing something. He's winning. Yeah. He's like a open relationship, you know, open. Yeah. Uh, so yeah. So from this point on, she's moved in and they're, they're just doing their thing. They're just living life. And then he's, he's trying to, he keeps trying to hit on her. Nothing's working.

[01:05:43] He's, he's, he's rejected at every, every move. It's those married old women, you know, they're really, uh, they're really the reason why so many people are single right now. Exactly. Old, old married women just don't want to do anything. No, no, no promiscuity here, but, uh, um, there's a, there's a, there's an unfortunate

[01:06:08] event that occurs the, the same night that, that she moves in with Giga Chad. And, uh, at some point throughout the night, she ended up passing away. From what? I don't know. She just died. Yeah. She just died. She just died. Yeah. Uh, something, I don't know. There was just another urn on the ground and her ghost was, was there.

[01:06:35] And from that point on, she was just haunting the shit out of Giga Chad. His life from that point on was over. It was, it was terrible. Wow. He was getting vomited on. He was getting yelled at from by the ghost. Like, it was a horrible life. And, uh, yeah, a couple of days later, he, he ended up passing away for a third time and I, I decided that was it. That was, that was it.

[01:07:03] You know, he, um, he really just, uh, reaped what he sowed, you know? He, he, he made the bed and he slept in it. Nope. Uh, and she died and now lives a happy life. Tormenting Giga Chad. I think this is what should happen to all the alpha male bro crypto, uh, Giga Chads of the world. Yeah, I agree. Yeah.

[01:07:29] You know, just have a older woman, uh, refuse sex, sleep in their bed and haunt them for the rest of their lives. Right. That's an excellent, uh, Sims experience, Nathan. Thank you for sharing. Thanks. Thanks for listening. It was an experience. I gotta say about the Sims. I don't really know what else is. Oh, the music. What did you guys think? I was going to say that. Oh, last category.

[01:08:00] Yeah. Nathan, what'd you think about it? Well, Sam, go ahead. Yeah. I was going to say the music in this game is very smartly done. I think it's very catchy. Um, sounds like 2004 is like hit music. It's very funny. I was going to say the music of the time, um, which I like, but if you listen carefully, it's just kind of like gibberish or I guess simulish. Simulish. Yeah. Simulish. Um, but the music's really good. Uh, it's just, it's just funny because if you're like, you're like bopping along to it and you're like, I think I've heard this song.

[01:08:30] And then you like really listen and you're like, now they're just saying like nothing. It's very funny. No, I, I completely agree. There were multiple times when we were playing and I, and I swear, I thought I recognized the song that was playing. Yeah. Yeah. And yeah, it's just, it's just nothing, but solid. Solid. I'm curious because, okay, here's some deep girl pop lore. Okay.

[01:08:58] So one of the songs I think is a rip off of Paramore, um, on the rock station and Olivia Rodrigo released a song in her album Sour. And Paramore, uh, claimed credit for the song, uh, because one of the riffs in Olivia Rodrigo's song is mildly similar to one of their songs.

[01:09:26] And yet Sims 2 is just out there, clearly stole their music and replaced it with their own language. So I'm curious if they actually had to get some level of licensing because how close the songs are to like actual pop songs. But, um, I love the music of the Sims. I love all the waiting music. Yeah. It's all good.

[01:09:53] The weird kind of, you're in the, you're building a house sort of music. It's great. Yeah. That's good. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, what else? What's another feature of this game? Well, I, unless you have something else, I want to talk about the PS2 version specifically of this game. Yeah. Let's hear it, Sam. All right. So, uh, as a teenager, I played this on the PS2 and, uh, I didn't really think much of it.

[01:10:22] And so when we went to play it for game club, I knew that it was on GameCube and Xbox and PlayStation, um, also PC, but I tried to boot up the PC version. Um, it was, uh, basically impossible to get running. Um, yeah, I tried a bunch of things. Um, it keeps crashing every time it gets to like the loading area. Um, EA doesn't support this anymore. Um, there's apparently some workarounds online, but I was like, well, I'm not doing that. That's too much work.

[01:10:53] Um, so I was like, well, I guess I'll pop in the PS2 version and play it that way. Right now. Um, I can't, uh, basically this is like the worst way to play this game. Um, it's the speed of the PS2 is just horrible. I made, I made some comparison videos for the club and, uh, I don't think this game should be running on this hardware.

[01:11:22] It's clearly super like struggling super hard. Um, so much that any change you make, especially, um, especially in the character creation is just painful. There's like a good two second lag on every single change you make. And, uh, I don't know if I should be, yeah, I don't know if you should be impressed that the developers got it running on this, uh, I guess a bit.

[01:11:48] Um, but, um, no, that's not impressive. Uh, I mean, I think if the game was released today in, in this kind of state, it, people would just be like, this is unplayable. Like, I guess people in 2004 were just like, ah, this is fine. Like they have patience for it, but like, no, this is, this is horrible.

[01:12:11] Like the best example was the randomization of your character on the PS2, um, took, I think I timed it at 23 seconds to generate a character. And on the game, it was three seconds and I'm not exaggerating. It was three seconds versus 23. Three. Like what? Like, that's crazy. And then that's hilariously slower.

[01:12:36] And then also like the, anytime you're building your, your house or your character on the PS2 version, there's no music. It's just, it's just silence. On the game cube, there's music and there's, it is your chill. You have a chill time and you're bopping out, but like the PS2, just nothing. There's no, no, at all. Like that's horrifying. You know, the click, click, click of the like choosing things. Uh, yeah.

[01:13:03] And then like when you're, when you're pressing like your bumpers to go through all the menus when you're building, like choosing your building stuff, the time it takes to load every single thing is just so long. And on the game cube is you don't even notice that it's loading. It's just right. It's already loaded. Like as soon as you move. So yeah. PS2, the terrible version of, of this game. Like, um, I'm glad I played it on the game afterwards.

[01:13:33] I think whoever ported it should actually just feel embarrassed. Yeah. You know, did they even test it out to see if they got everything over onto that? I mean, I mean, the PS2 does have like, like, what, like less than half the memory of, of the game cube. So, I mean, like Ram. So I think it was exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, that's probably why it's probably why, but like, Oh my God.

[01:14:02] Like they probably, they probably did it with this kind of, you know, they probably were aware of this, the state that the PS2 version was in, but they probably were thinking, well, the PS2 is like ridiculously has like the most sales of any console ever by like a huge margin. So they're like, they couldn't pass up their opportunity kind of thing. Yeah. That's my, that's my guess. Um, but yeah, it's, it's not a good version to play.

[01:14:28] Well, when, you know, to your point, when you're a teenager, maybe like at that time, you don't really know better. Like video games are all kind of like either shitty or pretty good, you know, like, so maybe it's, it wasn't just like, that was an okay amount of time. Yeah. I mean, I guess you wouldn't know unless you, unless you looked at a comparison and like who was doing that in 2005. Yeah, exactly.

[01:14:56] No one was going to their friends and being like, who has a PlayStation 2 being like, Hey, let's play your GameCube. So yeah, it probably very little people knew that there was a difference, but yeah, it's pretty, pretty bad. That's horrifying. That's horrifying. Uh, but thank you for the science, uh, behind, uh, comparison video, the timing, like you had your science hat on. You were like, let's see, let's investigate further.

[01:15:27] Um, I guess it's a smash or pass time. Yeah. But, uh, well, it's kind of difficult because there's some single player characters that maybe we could smash or pass on the first house. Cause I think we all played the first house maybe. Um, and there's a few NPCs that maybe we can smash or pass. So the first NPC to smash or pass is going to be the person who brings your bills.

[01:15:57] The letter carrier? Yeah. Um, okay. Smash or pass. The letter carrier, Sam. Uh, hold on. I'll Google them. Hail. I think it wears like a little, uh, yellow, uh, outfit. They're all dressed in blue with the shorts. Oh yeah. There you go. Yep.

[01:16:26] Um, I mean, it looks like there's a bunch of models, but, uh, I don't know. I, I carry, carry the mail carrier. Sure. It's a straight up smash or pass, Sam. We'll say yes then. Okay. What about you, Nathan? Uh, going in with zero information. I will say smash. Sure. Yeah, definitely smash. Uh, my husband's a mail carrier.

[01:16:55] So I feel like that would be, um, you know, cause for potential divorce if I don't, uh, smash a mail letter carrier. Um, okay. The next NPC is the burglar, the Sims burglar who kind of creeps around in their striped shirt. No, fuck them. They took my computer. Yeah. Smash or pass. Yeah, but would you angry smash? No. Pass. Like a revenge smash? Okay. What about you, Nathan?

[01:17:24] Uh, no, that's definitely a pass. Yeah. I'm going to have to pass in solidarity for you, Sam. You know, also I don't like the way they walk. Kind of weird. Um, okay. The other NPC is, uh, the Grim Reaper. The Reaper? Um, smash. Yes. Severe smash. Yeah. Really? Yeah. He's just one big bone. No, we're passing.

[01:17:53] You're going to pass on the Grim Reaper? Yeah. Okay. Uh, wow. I thought I knew you better than that, but all right. Let's see. Are there other non-playable characters? Well, I guess in the first house, there's a lady named Felicity. Um, is she a smash or pass?

[01:18:20] Um, that's, uh, pass? Yeah. Pass, I think. Yeah. I'm going to have to pass because she didn't like my moves. What about you, Nathan? I'll, I'll, I'll, sure. I'll just smash. Why not? Oh my God. Okay. He's embodying Giga Chat. Exactly. Very Giga Chat of you. Okay. I want you both to look up the following character. Oh, she's from Sims 4, but it doesn't matter.

[01:18:49] Look up Bone Hilda from Sims 4. And then I want you to tell me if that's a smash or pass. Oh. Uh, that's a pass. Hmm. That's a straight up skeleton. She's a macabra maid. Yeah. I don't know. Uh, hmm. Um, uh, I think, I think I'll have to go with smash.

[01:19:19] Well, I have a question. First of all, in her maid outfit, there's clearly a boob curvature, yet she's a skeleton. Exactly. So I'm not 100% sure if the Sims people know the anatomy of, of, of, of like the human body very well. Uh, but I'm going to say smash simply because of that. Cause she's just, you know, she's got the boobs, I guess. Well, she's kind of freak freaky looking. All right. It's going to be a pass. I can't, I can't.

[01:19:48] All I'm imagining is like the sound of skeletons getting hurt in Minecraft. Oh yeah. I wish we had a sound bite. We could have played that, but I don't have a sound bite. I also don't have a, a bite on a cardboard to, that has the sound on it. I'm trying to relay it back to your, to your computer punch cards. I mean, that's going to be my smash or pass for the Sims. It's really hard.

[01:20:15] It's really hard to smash or pass Sims because you got to smash people. Yeah. And unless you know the specific characters that you're interacting with, like, you know, it's kind of hard to, everybody gets a different sort of narrative as we were saying. All right. Well, thank you for joining us. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for having me. What would you rate this podcast? Smash or pass? Smash. Oh, perfect. Thank you so much.

[01:20:46] And you can hear us soon on the 3DO podcast. Yep. Hold on. We mentioned, we mentioned, there we go. I didn't say Super Pod Network. I said 3DO podcast. Oh, you did now. Okay. The, the 3DO, the 3DO will be, uh, There you go. Nice. Perfect. Perfect. All right. Well, have a good night, everybody.

[01:21:14] This podcast is called Sarah Discovers the Discord Soundport. Oh my God. All right. Have a good night, everybody. Good night. Have a good night. Bye. Bye.