Customer Reviews for The Sims 2: Apartment Life

The Sims 2: Apartment Life
by Electronic Arts

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Video Game Reviews of The Sims 2: Apartment Life

Customer Review: Love the expansion pack. but it's not worth the DRM hassle!
Summary: 1 Stars

I purchased two copies of this expansion pack because both my son and my wife are Sims 2 addicts. Both of them loved the extras BUT then the problems began!

As a 'PC expert' I was called in when my son's copy would not load. It seems that he had re-installed the game at least four times because he had installed corrupted custom content on his new Sony Vio laptop. He then found he could not get Apartment Life to work at all.

I tried and every time I insert the disk it ejects and the message 'Insert a disk' appears. I tried my wife's copy and got the same result so it wasn't a bad disk. I investigated the problem on Internet and found EA have protected the game using SecuRom - the same software which caused the Spore DRM controversy. According to what I found SecuRom does not like:
(a) Nero software (Yes my son had Nero 8 on his machine and yes it has stopped working properly)
(b) It can cause problems if there are repeated installs - Now up to at least 5 that I know of.

SecuRom is NOT easy to remove. The removal tools provided by EA and SecuRom do not do a complete removal. EA games is not very helpful either, offering a variety of non-relevant solutions such as telling me that the game would not work on his laptop because of it's video card. (It already had been working).

All in all it took me several hours to fix the problem, my time being worth a great deal more than the games cost. I still have an Apartment Life disk which messes up computers and prevents other legitimate software working. There is a way round it, but that involves un-official copies of the game which I can't condone.

My recommendation is that if you are an average user who just plays the standard game then go ahead and buy it but if you want to build your own Sims and use custom content - give this expansion pack a miss - it isn't worth the hassle.

Customer Review: Fun.. Fun Fun..
Summary: 5 Stars

How to describe the new add-on to the endless Sims 2 series in one sentence? Rental housing at its best.

Despite being the eighth expansion pack for The Sims 2, Apartment Life has really interesting features. You will love the beautiful architecture and you will be surprised at how much fun, magic can bring into the normal lives of the ordinary sims. This is more entertaining than Free Time and the apartment roommate element spices it up a touch. That's the farewell gift from the team - next expansion is inevitably expected somewhere in 2009, but for "The Sims 3."

Customer Review: Love this game, hate SecuROM
Summary: 1 Stars

I love The Sims 2, but I refuse to buy anything containing SecuROM. EA, stop pretending that this BS actually helps prevent piracy (we've seen the piracy figures for Spore) and remove your malware from your games, then I'll buy from you again.

Customer Review: Fun expansion
Summary: 3 Stars

Welcome to apartment living. If you thought free time and seasons were different, now your sims can live in an apartment complete with noisy and nosey neighbors. I find the addition of 'apartments' to be both welcome and frustrating. Welcome in the sense that I would love the opportunity to see all of my sims living closer together. Frustrating because now your sims have neighbors who will complain if you have dirty dishes in your own house! Umm okay maxis.

Pro's

Some great new clothing for both women and guys this time. New trendy clothes are always great.

Witches: its about time. I like the idea of having my own Harry Potter clone in my neighborhood and witches/warlocks and magic just adds a whole new dimension of fun.

Reputation: also a sort of neat feature.

Con's

The hairs were not well done. They still look really blocky, and the addition of new hairs with just different colored barretts is not a new style. Its just the same hair, with a re-colored barrett.

Men still need better hair. There is a serious lack of items for men in the expansions. The fan community still does better in this area- EA: please consider making an 'all male' stuff pack.

Apartments are great, but- the neighbor complaints at time are out of control. Complaining about your dirty dishes? Complaining about noises? My one sim could not rest, because of a steady stream of neighbor complaints. One or two complaints is cute. Contstant complaints? Meh, not so much.

Inability to make apartments? I was sort of bummed I couldn't make my own apartment building. I so want a sims 2 penthouse with all the trimmings. Unfortunately, you can't make them yourself without a lot of hassle. Why Maxis?

Inability to customize structure of apartments. While I understand the concept, not being able to have a bathtub in my downstairs bathroom was just inconvenient. I wanted to be able to do a bit of remodelling. Sims should be able to remodel with the landlord's consent.