From the creator of The Sims comes the most ambitious video game ever made: here you don't just control a single family or city but control an entire species from a single cell organism to a galactic conqueror. As impossibly complex as that might sound, the most impressive thing about Spore is just how accessible and fun it all is. The game is split into six evolutionary phases, starting with almost action-style gameplay at the microscopic level. From there you move to the creature phase on dry land, before going on to the tribal phase and the beginnings of society and technology. From there it's onto the city phase, which plays a bit like SimCity, and from there to the Civilisation phase which plays something like, you guessed it, Civilization. The final phase takes part in outer space where by hook or by crock your species must reign triumphant.

Each phase has its own editing tools associated with it for things like vehicles and buildings. By far the most fun though is the creature tool, which allows you to create your own fully animated lifeform from scratch using a huge range of limbs, facial features and colourings. What's also interesting is that the other planets in the galaxy aren't all pre-populated by the game. Instead, by connecting online you can upload your races, and download those from other people, to fill the galaxy with civilizations from other players around the world. Any one of the six phases would normally be enough for any one game on its own, but this looks like it's going to turn out to be the world's first everything simulator.
HARRISON DENT

Limited to 3 activations, then the game stops working!, 27 Aug 2008
This game is limited to 3 activations. An activation is used when you install or upgrade your computer. Once all the activations are used up, the game stops working!

The DRM used by the game, SecuROM, is very invasive and harvests information about your computer and monitors / disrupts other legitimate applications that it deems may be used for piracy. This is an incredulous state of affairs and if piracy is a problem for the industry, the industry should prosecute the pirates and not invade the customers own computer with spyware to monitor them. It's way too draconian.

Limited to 3 activations, then the game stops working!, 27 Aug 2008
This game is limited to 3 activations. An activation is used when you install or upgrade your computer. Once all the activations are used up, the game stops working!

The DRM used by the game, SecuROM, is very invasive and harvests information about your computer and monitors / disrupts other legitimate applications that it deems may be used for piracy. This is an incredulous state of affairs and if piracy is a problem for the industry, the industry should prosecute the pirates and not invade the customers own computer with spyware to monitor them. It's way too draconian.

IKEA STUFF!, 10 Aug 2008
Let me guess...when you open the box half the bits are missing and you cannot understand the instructions!

Great "stuff" pack for The Sims2, 02 Aug 2008
If you researched on the Sims2 website before hand it shows you a list of most of the items in the add-on. The game has great items for around any Sims home, and are likely to nicely fill empty gaps.
-The pack also has the wardrobe I bought from Ikea in!

Product Placement, Much?, 19 Jul 2008
EA are certainly running out of ideas. First H&M got a sponsorship deal, now Ikea are in on the act. I wouldn't be surprised if we got "The Sims 2: Barbie(TM) and Friends Stuff" next.

This "Stuff Pack" contains some furniture and various items to add to your Sims' homes. However, you can download just as good, for free, from Sims 2 fansites (and get nearly infinite variety there as well - there are literally hundreds of thousands of downloads available for the Sims 2). Not sure if I'm allowed to recommend in a review, but if I am, modthesims2.com is a good place to start.

I'm a Sims 2 fan myself, but even I would say: Don't bother with the Stuff Packs at all, unless you can't (or won't) download better content for free online.

Seriously., 14 Jul 2008
seriously, they MUST have ran out of ideas.. i mean whod have given it an IKEA pack?!

get some new ideas.. your running out fast, EA.

Not much stuff really, 03 Jul 2008
I dont think much of this sims 2 add on. I own every single sims 2 expansion pack and stuff packs. There does not seem to be that much more fun to the game with this pack. My daughter is a sims 2 addict she lasted one evening with this pack. When i added the sims 2 freetime for example she was glued for weeks the same with the sims 2 teen style stuff. I guess it may be down to taste for some people. I must add the word dissapointing but not a one star score.

From the makers of Far Cry comes the most technologically advanced video game ever made, with graphics to make you gasp and enemy artificial intelligence so clever it could give SkyNET a run for its money. With Half-Life 2 and Doom 3 now well established, Crysis has become the new milestone for PC graphics and first person shoot `em-ups. The premise of the game involves an alien landing on an island off North Korea, with you as the only person that can stop it. The incredibly realistic looking environments are the game's initial draw, with some particularly stunning looking jungle locales. All the levels include dynamic effects to make them even more realistic (and dangerous) including earthquakes, breaking ice, landslides and tornadoes. Since the alien decides to flash freeze the entire island half way through the game, and the final sections end up in a zero gravity spaceship, it's unlikely you're going to get tired of the same old environments.

As in Far Cry, there's no strict level structure and you're able to explore the island however you want; choosing to go in all guns blazing or taking a more stealthy approach. You can also customise your weapons to suit your preferred style of play with silencers, telescopic sights, laser sightings and more. Your special armour can also be modified as you go, so that you make less noise as you move, run faster, jump higher, recover energy or just take damage better and make use of heavier weapons. Naturally the game also includes an extensive multiplayer mode, but it is the stunning, near photorealistic, graphics and game world which is most certain to claim the game's name in PC gaming history.
HARRISON DENT

Limited to 3 activations, then the game stops working!, 27 Aug 2008
This game is limited to 3 activations. An activation is used when you install or upgrade your computer. Once all the activations are used up, the game stops working!

The DRM used by the game, SecuROM, is very invasive and harvests information about your computer and monitors / disrupts other legitimate applications that it deems may be used for piracy. This is an incredulous state of affairs and if piracy is a problem for the industry, the industry should prosecute the pirates and not invade the customers own computer with spyware to monitor them. It's way too draconian.

IKEA STUFF!, 10 Aug 2008
Let me guess...when you open the box half the bits are missing and you cannot understand the instructions!

Great "stuff" pack for The Sims2, 02 Aug 2008
If you researched on the Sims2 website before hand it shows you a list of most of the items in the add-on. The game has great items for around any Sims home, and are likely to nicely fill empty gaps.
-The pack also has the wardrobe I bought from Ikea in!

Product Placement, Much?, 19 Jul 2008
EA are certainly running out of ideas. First H&M got a sponsorship deal, now Ikea are in on the act. I wouldn't be surprised if we got "The Sims 2: Barbie(TM) and Friends Stuff" next.

This "Stuff Pack" contains some furniture and various items to add to your Sims' homes. However, you can download just as good, for free, from Sims 2 fansites (and get nearly infinite variety there as well - there are literally hundreds of thousands of downloads available for the Sims 2). Not sure if I'm allowed to recommend in a review, but if I am, modthesims2.com is a good place to start.

I'm a Sims 2 fan myself, but even I would say: Don't bother with the Stuff Packs at all, unless you can't (or won't) download better content for free online.

Seriously., 14 Jul 2008
seriously, they MUST have ran out of ideas.. i mean whod have given it an IKEA pack?!

get some new ideas.. your running out fast, EA.

Not much stuff really, 03 Jul 2008
I dont think much of this sims 2 add on. I own every single sims 2 expansion pack and stuff packs. There does not seem to be that much more fun to the game with this pack. My daughter is a sims 2 addict she lasted one evening with this pack. When i added the sims 2 freetime for example she was glued for weeks the same with the sims 2 teen style stuff. I guess it may be down to taste for some people. I must add the word dissapointing but not a one star score.

Believe the hype, 20 Aug 2008
I played the demo when it first came out and at the time I didn't particularly have a great rig, I could only play Crysis on all low settings. At first I thought gameplay was average, I wasn't really trying the game out to see what the gameplay was like but more to do with how good my pc could run it at the time.

How the tables have turned; I recently got myself a powerful gaming rig and I decided to try the demo again and well what can I say, my system's optimal settings recommended high and it plays like a dream. Now that I own the game I have managed to tweak some settings and I have a mixture of high and very high and it runs as smooth as silk, personally I cannot enjoy a game unless the graphics are as amazing as they should be; This is important as it really sets the atmosphere of the game making the gameplay more immersive.

Gameplay wise, very fun indeed a lot of the content is similar to other shooters but hasn't all first person shooter games got the same kind of conecpt? However a lot of it is also origional, AI is one of the best I've seen in a fps game (not scripted and use environment to their advantage etc) Your nano suit is what keeps you alive, this is a very interesting new feature and it works well.

The story/plot is some what familiar and you do feel like you have been here before, but at the same time it is unique in it's own way and I thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish.

The multiplayer aspect of it is the only downside to Crysis which is why I only gave it 4 stars, it is a game designed more for single player and it feels like Crytek put the multiplayer in at the last minute.

Over all fantastic gameplay, beautiful graphics not so good multiplayer.

Really good fun, 15 Aug 2008
Hi all i bougth this game on release i didnt have a very good systme then pt4 processor 8500gt and so on terriable on a system with no bulk.

But if you have a powerfull system which i have now and be able to run it on high or even very high it looks very pleasing the only draw back is that its story gets a bit pradictable.

Those who rated it 1 star saying my system is good ect and only can run it low/medium well the thing is it did cost over 5 million to creat so it will need a bulky system.

The card i have is a 3850 overclocked by aroun 75hz on both core speed and memory. And i can run it on very high at 1024/768 runs smooth lose a few frames somtimes but nothing to interfer with the game.



Fail to see what the fuss is about, 08 Aug 2008
I saw some game reviews, videos and screenshots for this game recently and my interest was peaked. There's a lot of fuss and it seemed, on the surface, to be deserved. I had a look at the main site for the game and found a demo I could download. After playing the demo I am glad I didn't buy this game. I might have thought that the demo was not representative of the actual game, until I started reading the bad reviews which commented on the game play issues that I found. It seemed that there were a lot of very nice features and good ideas that have been poorly realised. I haven't played a PC FPC since Rainbow Six 3, which is a game I'd prefer to play over Crysis.

I can see how this game would appeal to a bigger fan of FPCs than myself. For those of you who only flirt with FPCs it is probably a good idea to download the demo first to see if you like it or just not bother with it. There are no doubt far better FPCs on the market that would make less demands on your PC.

Arguably the best FPS ever...., 05 Jul 2008
At the back end of 2007 i owned an ageing PC.I was aware Crysis was generating lots of hype and rave reviews and it provided a ready made excuse for me to upgrade.So you could say i had to spend the best part of £700 in order to play it.Was i dissapointed?Not one bit.I would rate Crysis in the same bracket as Half Life 1/2 and Far Cry (also developed by Crytek).I'll now tell you why.

The nanosuit is an ingenius idea which lets you play the game however you want.If you want to take a cavalier approach you can,but the game is far more rewarding if you adopt the stealth angle and play it mostly in cloak mode.Obviously the objectives will always be the same no matter how many times you play through,but how you achieve these is directly down to you.For example,the 1st KPA soldier you encounter can be pacified with non-lethal ammo,grabbed and thrown into the sea/against a nearby rock,or just shot outright,with or without a silencer.There really is that many ways to go about things.

Weapons can be customised on the fly.Most accomodate a silencer,flashlight,grenade launcher and various scopes.

The vehicles are no less fun to drive than they were in Far Cry and the tank in particular is an absolute joy,although you only get one for a very small portion of the game.

The graphics are a revelation.Never have foliage,water and explosions looked this good.My PC consists of a Geforce 8800 GT,2GB DDR RAM,and a Pentium Core Duo E6750 2.66 GHZ.The game auto detected on high settings for everything and it runs amazingly well,with only the slightest of slowdown in extreme occasions.

The story is very immersive and the level where you take out multiple AA batteries is a classic example of how you can tackle things in your own way.I have done this differently each time i have played through.

The only bad point i feel is worth mentioning is a level near the end when you fly a VTOL.The handling is shocking to say the least,but this level is so brief that it doesn't detract from the game in any way.

The controls also cater for joypad support,but who would want to use one over a mouse and keyboard?Certainly not me.

I would also recommend that any veteran of the FPS genre play the game on Delta difficulty.It purely removes the cross hairs,but doesn't effect scopes on weapons and is eminently manageable.

All in all Crysis is not only a triumph of technology and graphical brilliance,but it is a timely evolution of the first person shooter.It's just a shame that a lot of people will miss out due to not having the required spec machine to play it.My advice to you would be to buy one.I did.And i haven't regretted it for a second...



Solid game, but a short running time and limited freedom weaken its appeal., 27 Jun 2008
Back in 2004 a hitherto unknown company called CryTek released a game called Far Cry. In a year that also saw the long-awaited releases of both Doom 3 and Half-Life 2, Far Cry was a surprisingly successful break-out hit, marrying the excellent graphics of those games with a semi-freeform approach to missions that was truly exihilirating. The sense of freedom it brought to the normally linear-as-hell first-person shooter market was quite revolutionary, and it has arguably aged better than either of its competitors due to its much greater replay value. Crysis is not the sequel to Far Cry, since Electronic Arts snatched up CryTek and their next game whilst the Far Cry brand name remains with Ubisoft (who are currently developing the Africa-set Far Cry 2 for a late 2008/early 2009 release), but it is the 'spiritual successor'.

Crysis is set in 2020. North Korea has occupied an island in the Pacific Ocean where something unusual has been uncovered by an archaeological expedition. The UN has sent in a team of special operatives using new nanosuit technology to investigate, resulting in guerrila warfare against the North Koreans before the situation escalates and a full-scale war looks set to unfold over the island, resulting in the deployment of two US carrier groups to the area. And then the object the expedition has uncovered wakes up...

So far, so traditional. Crysis builds on the success of its predecessor by retaining the tropical island setting but ramping its graphical capabilities to the max. Make no mistake, Crysis is the single most graphically-advanced computer game on the market, a position it will retain for some years to come given the somewhat conservative looks of its nearest competitors. That said, the game scales excellently: my two-and-a-half-year-old single-core machine coped with most settings at Medium, and it looked substantially better than the still-gorgeous Far Cry with everything turned up to maximum.

Of course, graphical excellence is nothing without the gameplay to back it up and Crysis delivers on that score. It's a fast-paced action game but, like Far Cry before it, it also allows you to play stealthily and gives you more options, such as more silenced weapons and a camouflage field ability, to make use of that tactic. The game also allows for more effective hand-to-hand combat. The nanosuit allows you to increase your speed, strength or armour throughout the game depending on the situation, although to be honest you rarely need to take it off armour mode, but it's a nice touch. Weapons selection is surprisingly poor, however. The UN-issue SCAR rifle is great but you have to ditch it as soon as you run out of ammo and switch to the North Korean automatic rifle, which has the stopping power of a gnat in a hurricane. Entire clips are sometimes needed to take down one enemy soldier. The shotgun is great but ineffective at range, whilst the minigun tears through ammo so fast it's barely worth using. The gauss rifle and the infinite-recharge ice weapon you get at the end of the game are both excellent, but since you only get them five minutes before the game ends, hardly astonishing.

Crysis is a pretty good game that fixes many of the sins of Far Cry. There is less messing around indoors, the story and characters are much better-developed, there's a much greater sense of coherence in how the missions and levels fit together and a solid sense of camaderie once what appears to be the entire US Marine Corps lands on the island to provide some back-up in the latter half of the game. Unfortunately, it also takes some retrograde steps. Whilst multiple routes to mission objectives are again provided, they are much more constrained than before. This is because whilst Far Cry took place across multiple islands, Crysis takes place in sectioned-off areas of one big island, and the game won't let you just wander off at will. This decreased freedom from its predecessor is extremely irritating, given it's one of the appeals of CryTek's work. Secondly, CryTek have astonishingly not yet figured out that whilst we enjoy fighting intelligently-designed human opponents, having lumbering mutants or in this case (spoiler!) ice-based, gravity-bending aliens turn up just feels lame, especially when they can take ten times as much ammo to kill compared to the superhumanly damage-resistant human enemies.

The other major problem, one increasingly prevalent in the FPS genre, is the establishing of Crysis as a franchise. We can't have one good, long game and that's it, we've got to have a major cliffhanger ending, followed by the news that Crysis is a trilogy with part two due in 2009 and part three in 2011, and finally the news that there will be a 'parallel' game following another character through the same events, with the first of these, Crysis: Warhead, coming out in late 2008. Sometimes the sheer avariceness of the computer game industry is startling, especially when the developers proudly tell us that the game has sold a million copies in six months but it could have sold more if piracy wasn't around, so as a result the sequels will be co-developed for the consoles and may not be as visually impressive as a result. And to finally put the boot in, Crysis is quite short: at about eight hours to completion, Crysis is substantially shorter than Far Cry, Half-Life 2, FEAR or a lot of other recent FPS games.

Crysis (***½) looks a million dollars even on relatively underpowered machines and is a huge amount of fun to play. However, it won't last very long, has a huge cliffhanger ending and scales back on the amount of freedom you have. The game is available now for PC in the UK and US. The 'parallel' game, Crysis: Warhead, will be released in November 2008, with Crysis II likely to follow a year later.

It's all about fun, personal development for your Sims in The Sims 2 FreeTime. Sims can follow their individual interests, whether it's immersing themselves in books, becoming an award-winning foodie, flying a remote-controlled helicopter or playing the violin. Gifted mechanics can repair and then drive their newly-renovated sports cars. Sims can rake in oodles of Simoelons with skilfully crafted pottery or by writing a mesmerising novel.

Cool careers bring happiness and fulfilment to your Sims and your storytelling opportunities expand. New cool career options await, including oceanography, architecture, and entertainment. Now by honing their talents, your Sims can unlock a secondary aspiration making them even more unique.

Limited to 3 activations, then the game stops working!, 27 Aug 2008
This game is limited to 3 activations. An activation is used when you install or upgrade your computer. Once all the activations are used up, the game stops working!

The DRM used by the game, SecuROM, is very invasive and harvests information about your computer and monitors / disrupts other legitimate applications that it deems may be used for piracy. This is an incredulous state of affairs and if piracy is a problem for the industry, the industry should prosecute the pirates and not invade the customers own computer with spyware to monitor them. It's way too draconian.

IKEA STUFF!, 10 Aug 2008
Let me guess...when you open the box half the bits are missing and you cannot understand the instructions!

Great "stuff" pack for The Sims2, 02 Aug 2008
If you researched on the Sims2 website before hand it shows you a list of most of the items in the add-on. The game has great items for around any Sims home, and are likely to nicely fill empty gaps.
-The pack also has the wardrobe I bought from Ikea in!

Product Placement, Much?, 19 Jul 2008
EA are certainly running out of ideas. First H&M got a sponsorship deal, now Ikea are in on the act. I wouldn't be surprised if we got "The Sims 2: Barbie(TM) and Friends Stuff" next.

This "Stuff Pack" contains some furniture and various items to add to your Sims' homes. However, you can download just as good, for free, from Sims 2 fansites (and get nearly infinite variety there as well - there are literally hundreds of thousands of downloads available for the Sims 2). Not sure if I'm allowed to recommend in a review, but if I am, modthesims2.com is a good place to start.

I'm a Sims 2 fan myself, but even I would say: Don't bother with the Stuff Packs at all, unless you can't (or won't) download better content for free online.

Seriously., 14 Jul 2008
seriously, they MUST have ran out of ideas.. i mean whod have given it an IKEA pack?!

get some new ideas.. your running out fast, EA.

Not much stuff really, 03 Jul 2008
I dont think much of this sims 2 add on. I own every single sims 2 expansion pack and stuff packs. There does not seem to be that much more fun to the game with this pack. My daughter is a sims 2 addict she lasted one evening with this pack. When i added the sims 2 freetime for example she was glued for weeks the same with the sims 2 teen style stuff. I guess it may be down to taste for some people. I must add the word dissapointing but not a one star score.

Believe the hype, 20 Aug 2008
I played the demo when it first came out and at the time I didn't particularly have a great rig, I could only play Crysis on all low settings. At first I thought gameplay was average, I wasn't really trying the game out to see what the gameplay was like but more to do with how good my pc could run it at the time.

How the tables have turned; I recently got myself a powerful gaming rig and I decided to try the demo again and well what can I say, my system's optimal settings recommended high and it plays like a dream. Now that I own the game I have managed to tweak some settings and I have a mixture of high and very high and it runs as smooth as silk, personally I cannot enjoy a game unless the graphics are as amazing as they should be; This is important as it really sets the atmosphere of the game making the gameplay more immersive.

Gameplay wise, very fun indeed a lot of the content is similar to other shooters but hasn't all first person shooter games got the same kind of conecpt? However a lot of it is also origional, AI is one of the best I've seen in a fps game (not scripted and use environment to their advantage etc) Your nano suit is what keeps you alive, this is a very interesting new feature and it works well.

The story/plot is some what familiar and you do feel like you have been here before, but at the same time it is unique in it's own way and I thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish.

The multiplayer aspect of it is the only downside to Crysis which is why I only gave it 4 stars, it is a game designed more for single player and it feels like Crytek put the multiplayer in at the last minute.

Over all fantastic gameplay, beautiful graphics not so good multiplayer.

Really good fun, 15 Aug 2008
Hi all i bougth this game on release i didnt have a very good systme then pt4 processor 8500gt and so on terriable on a system with no bulk.

But if you have a powerfull system which i have now and be able to run it on high or even very high it looks very pleasing the only draw back is that its story gets a bit pradictable.

Those who rated it 1 star saying my system is good ect and only can run it low/medium well the thing is it did cost over 5 million to creat so it will need a bulky system.

The card i have is a 3850 overclocked by aroun 75hz on both core speed and memory. And i can run it on very high at 1024/768 runs smooth lose a few frames somtimes but nothing to interfer with the game.



Fail to see what the fuss is about, 08 Aug 2008
I saw some game reviews, videos and screenshots for this game recently and my interest was peaked. There's a lot of fuss and it seemed, on the surface, to be deserved. I had a look at the main site for the game and found a demo I could download. After playing the demo I am glad I didn't buy this game. I might have thought that the demo was not representative of the actual game, until I started reading the bad reviews which commented on the game play issues that I found. It seemed that there were a lot of very nice features and good ideas that have been poorly realised. I haven't played a PC FPC since Rainbow Six 3, which is a game I'd prefer to play over Crysis.

I can see how this game would appeal to a bigger fan of FPCs than myself. For those of you who only flirt with FPCs it is probably a good idea to download the demo first to see if you like it or just not bother with it. There are no doubt far better FPCs on the market that would make less demands on your PC.

Arguably the best FPS ever...., 05 Jul 2008
At the back end of 2007 i owned an ageing PC.I was aware Crysis was generating lots of hype and rave reviews and it provided a ready made excuse for me to upgrade.So you could say i had to spend the best part of £700 in order to play it.Was i dissapointed?Not one bit.I would rate Crysis in the same bracket as Half Life 1/2 and Far Cry (also developed by Crytek).I'll now tell you why.

The nanosuit is an ingenius idea which lets you play the game however you want.If you want to take a cavalier approach you can,but the game is far more rewarding if you adopt the stealth angle and play it mostly in cloak mode.Obviously the objectives will always be the same no matter how many times you play through,but how you achieve these is directly down to you.For example,the 1st KPA soldier you encounter can be pacified with non-lethal ammo,grabbed and thrown into the sea/against a nearby rock,or just shot outright,with or without a silencer.There really is that many ways to go about things.

Weapons can be customised on the fly.Most accomodate a silencer,flashlight,grenade launcher and various scopes.

The vehicles are no less fun to drive than they were in Far Cry and the tank in particular is an absolute joy,although you only get one for a very small portion of the game.

The graphics are a revelation.Never have foliage,water and explosions looked this good.My PC consists of a Geforce 8800 GT,2GB DDR RAM,and a Pentium Core Duo E6750 2.66 GHZ.The game auto detected on high settings for everything and it runs amazingly well,with only the slightest of slowdown in extreme occasions.

The story is very immersive and the level where you take out multiple AA batteries is a classic example of how you can tackle things in your own way.I have done this differently each time i have played through.

The only bad point i feel is worth mentioning is a level near the end when you fly a VTOL.The handling is shocking to say the least,but this level is so brief that it doesn't detract from the game in any way.

The controls also cater for joypad support,but who would want to use one over a mouse and keyboard?Certainly not me.

I would also recommend that any veteran of the FPS genre play the game on Delta difficulty.It purely removes the cross hairs,but doesn't effect scopes on weapons and is eminently manageable.

All in all Crysis is not only a triumph of technology and graphical brilliance,but it is a timely evolution of the first person shooter.It's just a shame that a lot of people will miss out due to not having the required spec machine to play it.My advice to you would be to buy one.I did.And i haven't regretted it for a second...



Solid game, but a short running time and limited freedom weaken its appeal., 27 Jun 2008
Back in 2004 a hitherto unknown company called CryTek released a game called Far Cry. In a year that also saw the long-awaited releases of both Doom 3 and Half-Life 2, Far Cry was a surprisingly successful break-out hit, marrying the excellent graphics of those games with a semi-freeform approach to missions that was truly exihilirating. The sense of freedom it brought to the normally linear-as-hell first-person shooter market was quite revolutionary, and it has arguably aged better than either of its competitors due to its much greater replay value. Crysis is not the sequel to Far Cry, since Electronic Arts snatched up CryTek and their next game whilst the Far Cry brand name remains with Ubisoft (who are currently developing the Africa-set Far Cry 2 for a late 2008/early 2009 release), but it is the 'spiritual successor'.

Crysis is set in 2020. North Korea has occupied an island in the Pacific Ocean where something unusual has been uncovered by an archaeological expedition. The UN has sent in a team of special operatives using new nanosuit technology to investigate, resulting in guerrila warfare against the North Koreans before the situation escalates and a full-scale war looks set to unfold over the island, resulting in the deployment of two US carrier groups to the area. And then the object the expedition has uncovered wakes up...

So far, so traditional. Crysis builds on the success of its predecessor by retaining the tropical island setting but ramping its graphical capabilities to the max. Make no mistake, Crysis is the single most graphically-advanced computer game on the market, a position it will retain for some years to come given the somewhat conservative looks of its nearest competitors. That said, the game scales excellently: my two-and-a-half-year-old single-core machine coped with most settings at Medium, and it looked substantially better than the still-gorgeous Far Cry with everything turned up to maximum.

Of course, graphical excellence is nothing without the gameplay to back it up and Crysis delivers on that score. It's a fast-paced action game but, like Far Cry before it, it also allows you to play stealthily and gives you more options, such as more silenced weapons and a camouflage field ability, to make use of that tactic. The game also allows for more effective hand-to-hand combat. The nanosuit allows you to increase your speed, strength or armour throughout the game depending on the situation, although to be honest you rarely need to take it off armour mode, but it's a nice touch. Weapons selection is surprisingly poor, however. The UN-issue SCAR rifle is great but you have to ditch it as soon as you run out of ammo and switch to the North Korean automatic rifle, which has the stopping power of a gnat in a hurricane. Entire clips are sometimes needed to take down one enemy soldier. The shotgun is great but ineffective at range, whilst the minigun tears through ammo so fast it's barely worth using. The gauss rifle and the infinite-recharge ice weapon you get at the end of the game are both excellent, but since you only get them five minutes before the game ends, hardly astonishing.

Crysis is a pretty good game that fixes many of the sins of Far Cry. There is less messing around indoors, the story and characters are much better-developed, there's a much greater sense of coherence in how the missions and levels fit together and a solid sense of camaderie once what appears to be the entire US Marine Corps lands on the island to provide some back-up in the latter half of the game. Unfortunately, it also takes some retrograde steps. Whilst multiple routes to mission objectives are again provided, they are much more constrained than before. This is because whilst Far Cry took place across multiple islands, Crysis takes place in sectioned-off areas of one big island, and the game won't let you just wander off at will. This decreased freedom from its predecessor is extremely irritating, given it's one of the appeals of CryTek's work. Secondly, CryTek have astonishingly not yet figured out that whilst we enjoy fighting intelligently-designed human opponents, having lumbering mutants or in this case (spoiler!) ice-based, gravity-bending aliens turn up just feels lame, especially when they can take ten times as much ammo to kill compared to the superhumanly damage-resistant human enemies.

The other major problem, one increasingly prevalent in the FPS genre, is the establishing of Crysis as a franchise. We can't have one good, long game and that's it, we've got to have a major cliffhanger ending, followed by the news that Crysis is a trilogy with part two due in 2009 and part three in 2011, and finally the news that there will be a 'parallel' game following another character through the same events, with the first of these, Crysis: Warhead, coming out in late 2008. Sometimes the sheer avariceness of the computer game industry is startling, especially when the developers proudly tell us that the game has sold a million copies in six months but it could have sold more if piracy wasn't around, so as a result the sequels will be co-developed for the consoles and may not be as visually impressive as a result. And to finally put the boot in, Crysis is quite short: at about eight hours to completion, Crysis is substantially shorter than Far Cry, Half-Life 2, FEAR or a lot of other recent FPS games.

Crysis (***½) looks a million dollars even on relatively underpowered machines and is a huge amount of fun to play. However, it won't last very long, has a huge cliffhanger ending and scales back on the amount of freedom you have. The game is available now for PC in the UK and US. The 'parallel' game, Crysis: Warhead, will be released in November 2008, with Crysis II likely to follow a year later.

Freetime great for My Busy Simmies!!, 08 Jul 2008
Even though my sims people in my game have extremely busy lives I wanted this pack oh so much, not just because I have all the Sims games anyways but cos of all the fun things my simmies can do, so at the weekends they do all their fun and family types things. But with this packs diversity you can also use it in a different way for exanple a soccer mom, could watch her kids play soccer, like they do at school events, and if you have Open for Business you can have a clothes shop where the clothes are made on the sewing machine then sold, also pottery shop, a garage (home business) to do up scrap cars and sell them on to buyers. I love this game so very much and play it very often if you are a sims fan i am sure you will love it too, taking into consideration the other packs do make this a more enjoyable pack on its own people may find it not as good, but as i said though I love it!!

Happy Simming

not very interesting, 07 Jul 2008
I am a massive sims fan and have all the expansion packs, this one compared to others such as University, or bon voyage is not really that interesting. with all the other expansion packs there have been loads of things to do to keep you hooked, this one however bored me after only a couple of plays with it. this is because apart from a few extra hobbies and career paths theres not much else to it, no big adventure or whole other area to visit (as in bon voyage, nightlife, uni etc) I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the next one 'apartment life' is better!

Not my favourite of the Sims 2 expansion packs, 19 Mar 2008
I own and love every single Sims 2 game but I don't feel that this makes as big a difference as some of the others, such as University for example.

Your Sims are now able to pursue a variety of interests. Such as tinkering, and art and dance. To keep a Sim interested in a talent they have to keep working at it.

Once the Sim has gained enough interest in a certain area, for example, cuisine. They will first have the option of researching this hobby on the internet and in newspapers and also talking about it with other Sims. They will then be called and asked if they wish to subscribe to a magazine. You can of course say no to this and then subscribe at a later date.
Once the Sim has gained enough expertise in their area they will be given a membership card which allows them to visit a secret club. If they are interested in cuisine, they will be invited to Sue's Secret kitchen where they can enter food contests in hops of winning a cash prize.

Every Sim has a natural ability, but it may take a while to find out what this is. But once you find it that Sim will let you know how much they are enjoying the activity.

As the Sim gains enthusiasm in a hobby they gain rewards. If someone is interested in nature for example they will soon have the option to go hiking.

There are also more jobs available. Like choreographer and comedian.

All in all another good Sims game.

Absulootlee rubissch, 17 Mar 2008
It was lik toetally badd wiv a captital B. It gav de cumputer gaym a fuw new stufs and hair doos but apparet frum dat it made no diff to da gaym at al. Dunt bye it.

Securom, 14 Mar 2008
I love the Sims and the Sims 2. I have every expansion pack available, however the last I cannot bring myself to purchase. Securom was added to the last pack (Bon Voyage) and I feel my computer was damaged by this the programme. I would love to buy Freetime but I do not want to damage it further. Type securom into a search engine and see the affects.

Limited to 3 activations, then the game stops working!, 27 Aug 2008
This game is limited to 3 activations. An activation is used when you install or upgrade your computer. Once all the activations are used up, the game stops working!

The DRM used by the game, SecuROM, is very invasive and harvests information about your computer and monitors / disrupts other legitimate applications that it deems may be used for piracy. This is an incredulous state of affairs and if piracy is a problem for the industry, the industry should prosecute the pirates and not invade the customers own computer with spyware to monitor them. It's way too draconian.

IKEA STUFF!, 10 Aug 2008
Let me guess...when you open the box half the bits are missing and you cannot understand the instructions!

Great "stuff" pack for The Sims2, 02 Aug 2008
If you researched on the Sims2 website before hand it shows you a list of most of the items in the add-on. The game has great items for around any Sims home, and are likely to nicely fill empty gaps.
-The pack also has the wardrobe I bought from Ikea in!

Product Placement, Much?, 19 Jul 2008
EA are certainly running out of ideas. First H&M got a sponsorship deal, now Ikea are in on the act. I wouldn't be surprised if we got "The Sims 2: Barbie(TM) and Friends Stuff" next.

This "Stuff Pack" contains some furniture and various items to add to your Sims' homes. However, you can download just as good, for free, from Sims 2 fansites (and get nearly infinite variety there as well - there are literally hundreds of thousands of downloads available for the Sims 2). Not sure if I'm allowed to recommend in a review, but if I am, modthesims2.com is a good place to start.

I'm a Sims 2 fan myself, but even I would say: Don't bother with the Stuff Packs at all, unless you can't (or won't) download better content for free online.

Seriously., 14 Jul 2008
seriously, they MUST have ran out of ideas.. i mean whod have given it an IKEA pack?!

get some new ideas.. your running out fast, EA.

Not much stuff really, 03 Jul 2008
I dont think much of this sims 2 add on. I own every single sims 2 expansion pack and stuff packs. There does not seem to be that much more fun to the game with this pack. My daughter is a sims 2 addict she lasted one evening with this pack. When i added the sims 2 freetime for example she was glued for weeks the same with the sims 2 teen style stuff. I guess it may be down to taste for some people. I must add the word dissapointing but not a one star score.

Believe the hype, 20 Aug 2008
I played the demo when it first came out and at the time I didn't particularly have a great rig, I could only play Crysis on all low settings. At first I thought gameplay was average, I wasn't really trying the game out to see what the gameplay was like but more to do with how good my pc could run it at the time.

How the tables have turned; I recently got myself a powerful gaming rig and I decided to try the demo again and well what can I say, my system's optimal settings recommended high and it plays like a dream. Now that I own the game I have managed to tweak some settings and I have a mixture of high and very high and it runs as smooth as silk, personally I cannot enjoy a game unless the graphics are as amazing as they should be; This is important as it really sets the atmosphere of the game making the gameplay more immersive.

Gameplay wise, very fun indeed a lot of the content is similar to other shooters but hasn't all first person shooter games got the same kind of conecpt? However a lot of it is also origional, AI is one of the best I've seen in a fps game (not scripted and use environment to their advantage etc) Your nano suit is what keeps you alive, this is a very interesting new feature and it works well.

The story/plot is some what familiar and you do feel like you have been here before, but at the same time it is unique in it's own way and I thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish.

The multiplayer aspect of it is the only downside to Crysis which is why I only gave it 4 stars, it is a game designed more for single player and it feels like Crytek put the multiplayer in at the last minute.

Over all fantastic gameplay, beautiful graphics not so good multiplayer.

Really good fun, 15 Aug 2008
Hi all i bougth this game on release i didnt have a very good systme then pt4 processor 8500gt and so on terriable on a system with no bulk.

But if you have a powerfull system which i have now and be able to run it on high or even very high it looks very pleasing the only draw back is that its story gets a bit pradictable.

Those who rated it 1 star saying my system is good ect and only can run it low/medium well the thing is it did cost over 5 million to creat so it will need a bulky system.

The card i have is a 3850 overclocked by aroun 75hz on both core speed and memory. And i can run it on very high at 1024/768 runs smooth lose a few frames somtimes but nothing to interfer with the game.



Fail to see what the fuss is about, 08 Aug 2008
I saw some game reviews, videos and screenshots for this game recently and my interest was peaked. There's a lot of fuss and it seemed, on the surface, to be deserved. I had a look at the main site for the game and found a demo I could download. After playing the demo I am glad I didn't buy this game. I might have thought that the demo was not representative of the actual game, until I started reading the bad reviews which commented on the game play issues that I found. It seemed that there were a lot of very nice features and good ideas that have been poorly realised. I haven't played a PC FPC since Rainbow Six 3, which is a game I'd prefer to play over Crysis.

I can see how this game would appeal to a bigger fan of FPCs than myself. For those of you who only flirt with FPCs it is probably a good idea to download the demo first to see if you like it or just not bother with it. There are no doubt far better FPCs on the market that would make less demands on your PC.

Arguably the best FPS ever...., 05 Jul 2008
At the back end of 2007 i owned an ageing PC.I was aware Crysis was generating lots of hype and rave reviews and it provided a ready made excuse for me to upgrade.So you could say i had to spend the best part of £700 in order to play it.Was i dissapointed?Not one bit.I would rate Crysis in the same bracket as Half Life 1/2 and Far Cry (also developed by Crytek).I'll now tell you why.

The nanosuit is an ingenius idea which lets you play the game however you want.If you want to take a cavalier approach you can,but the game is far more rewarding if you adopt the stealth angle and play it mostly in cloak mode.Obviously the objectives will always be the same no matter how many times you play through,but how you achieve these is directly down to you.For example,the 1st KPA soldier you encounter can be pacified with non-lethal ammo,grabbed and thrown into the sea/against a nearby rock,or just shot outright,with or without a silencer.There really is that many ways to go about things.

Weapons can be customised on the fly.Most accomodate a silencer,flashlight,grenade launcher and various scopes.

The vehicles are no less fun to drive than they were in Far Cry and the tank in particular is an absolute joy,although you only get one for a very small portion of the game.

The graphics are a revelation.Never have foliage,water and explosions looked this good.My PC consists of a Geforce 8800 GT,2GB DDR RAM,and a Pentium Core Duo E6750 2.66 GHZ.The game auto detected on high settings for everything and it runs amazingly well,with only the slightest of slowdown in extreme occasions.

The story is very immersive and the level where you take out multiple AA batteries is a classic example of how you can tackle things in your own way.I have done this differently each time i have played through.

The only bad point i feel is worth mentioning is a level near the end when you fly a VTOL.The handling is shocking to say the least,but this level is so brief that it doesn't detract from the game in any way.

The controls also cater for joypad support,but who would want to use one over a mouse and keyboard?Certainly not me.

I would also recommend that any veteran of the FPS genre play the game on Delta difficulty.It purely removes the cross hairs,but doesn't effect scopes on weapons and is eminently manageable.

All in all Crysis is not only a triumph of technology and graphical brilliance,but it is a timely evolution of the first person shooter.It's just a shame that a lot of people will miss out due to not having the required spec machine to play it.My advice to you would be to buy one.I did.And i haven't regretted it for a second...



Solid game, but a short running time and limited freedom weaken its appeal., 27 Jun 2008
Back in 2004 a hitherto unknown company called CryTek released a game called Far Cry. In a year that also saw the long-awaited releases of both Doom 3 and Half-Life 2, Far Cry was a surprisingly successful break-out hit, marrying the excellent graphics of those games with a semi-freeform approach to missions that was truly exihilirating. The sense of freedom it brought to the normally linear-as-hell first-person shooter market was quite revolutionary, and it has arguably aged better than either of its competitors due to its much greater replay value. Crysis is not the sequel to Far Cry, since Electronic Arts snatched up CryTek and their next game whilst the Far Cry brand name remains with Ubisoft (who are currently developing the Africa-set Far Cry 2 for a late 2008/early 2009 release), but it is the 'spiritual successor'.

Crysis is set in 2020. North Korea has occupied an island in the Pacific Ocean where something unusual has been uncovered by an archaeological expedition. The UN has sent in a team of special operatives using new nanosuit technology to investigate, resulting in guerrila warfare against the North Koreans before the situation escalates and a full-scale war looks set to unfold over the island, resulting in the deployment of two US carrier groups to the area. And then the object the expedition has uncovered wakes up...

So far, so traditional. Crysis builds on the success of its predecessor by retaining the tropical island setting but ramping its graphical capabilities to the max. Make no mistake, Crysis is the single most graphically-advanced computer game on the market, a position it will retain for some years to come given the somewhat conservative looks of its nearest competitors. That said, the game scales excellently: my two-and-a-half-year-old single-core machine coped with most settings at Medium, and it looked substantially better than the still-gorgeous Far Cry with everything turned up to maximum.

Of course, graphical excellence is nothing without the gameplay to back it up and Crysis delivers on that score. It's a fast-paced action game but, like Far Cry before it, it also allows you to play stealthily and gives you more options, such as more silenced weapons and a camouflage field ability, to make use of that tactic. The game also allows for more effective hand-to-hand combat. The nanosuit allows you to increase your speed, strength or armour throughout the game depending on the situation, although to be honest you rarely need to take it off armour mode, but it's a nice touch. Weapons selection is surprisingly poor, however. The UN-issue SCAR rifle is great but you have to ditch it as soon as you run out of ammo and switch to the North Korean automatic rifle, which has the stopping power of a gnat in a hurricane. Entire clips are sometimes needed to take down one enemy soldier. The shotgun is great but ineffective at range, whilst the minigun tears through ammo so fast it's barely worth using. The gauss rifle and the infinite-recharge ice weapon you get at the end of the game are both excellent, but since you only get them five minutes before the game ends, hardly astonishing.

Crysis is a pretty good game that fixes many of the sins of Far Cry. There is less messing around indoors, the story and characters are much better-developed, there's a much greater sense of coherence in how the missions and levels fit together and a solid sense of camaderie once what appears to be the entire US Marine Corps lands on the island to provide some back-up in the latter half of the game. Unfortunately, it also takes some retrograde steps. Whilst multiple routes to mission objectives are again provided, they are much more constrained than before. This is because whilst Far Cry took place across multiple islands, Crysis takes place in sectioned-off areas of one big island, and the game won't let you just wander off at will. This decreased freedom from its predecessor is extremely irritating, given it's one of the appeals of CryTek's work. Secondly, CryTek have astonishingly not yet figured out that whilst we enjoy fighting intelligently-designed human opponents, having lumbering mutants or in this case (spoiler!) ice-based, gravity-bending aliens turn up just feels lame, especially when they can take ten times as much ammo to kill compared to the superhumanly damage-resistant human enemies.

The other major problem, one increasingly prevalent in the FPS genre, is the establishing of Crysis as a franchise. We can't have one good, long game and that's it, we've got to have a major cliffhanger ending, followed by the news that Crysis is a trilogy with part two due in 2009 and part three in 2011, and finally the news that there will be a 'parallel' game following another character through the same events, with the first of these, Crysis: Warhead, coming out in late 2008. Sometimes the sheer avariceness of the computer game industry is startling, especially when the developers proudly tell us that the game has sold a million copies in six months but it could have sold more if piracy wasn't around, so as a result the sequels will be co-developed for the consoles and may not be as visually impressive as a result. And to finally put the boot in, Crysis is quite short: at about eight hours to completion, Crysis is substantially shorter than Far Cry, Half-Life 2, FEAR or a lot of other recent FPS games.

Crysis (***½) looks a million dollars even on relatively underpowered machines and is a huge amount of fun to play. However, it won't last very long, has a huge cliffhanger ending and scales back on the amount of freedom you have. The game is available now for PC in the UK and US. The 'parallel' game, Crysis: Warhead, will be released in November 2008, with Crysis II likely to follow a year later.

Freetime great for My Busy Simmies!!, 08 Jul 2008
Even though my sims people in my game have extremely busy lives I wanted this pack oh so much, not just because I have all the Sims games anyways but cos of all the fun things my simmies can do, so at the weekends they do all their fun and family types things. But with this packs diversity you can also use it in a different way for exanple a soccer mom, could watch her kids play soccer, like they do at school events, and if you have Open for Business you can have a clothes shop where the clothes are made on the sewing machine then sold, also pottery shop, a garage (home business) to do up scrap cars and sell them on to buyers. I love this game so very much and play it very often if you are a sims fan i am sure you will love it too, taking into consideration the other packs do make this a more enjoyable pack on its own people may find it not as good, but as i said though I love it!!

Happy Simming

not very interesting, 07 Jul 2008
I am a massive sims fan and have all the expansion packs, this one compared to others such as University, or bon voyage is not really that interesting. with all the other expansion packs there have been loads of things to do to keep you hooked, this one however bored me after only a couple of plays with it. this is because apart from a few extra hobbies and career paths theres not much else to it, no big adventure or whole other area to visit (as in bon voyage, nightlife, uni etc) I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the next one 'apartment life' is better!

Not my favourite of the Sims 2 expansion packs, 19 Mar 2008
I own and love every single Sims 2 game but I don't feel that this makes as big a difference as some of the others, such as University for example.

Your Sims are now able to pursue a variety of interests. Such as tinkering, and art and dance. To keep a Sim interested in a talent they have to keep working at it.

Once the Sim has gained enough interest in a certain area, for example, cuisine. They will first have the option of researching this hobby on the internet and in newspapers and also talking about it with other Sims. They will then be called and asked if they wish to subscribe to a magazine. You can of course say no to this and then subscribe at a later date.
Once the Sim has gained enough expertise in their area they will be given a membership card which allows them to visit a secret club. If they are interested in cuisine, they will be invited to Sue's Secret kitchen where they can enter food contests in hops of winning a cash prize.

Every Sim has a natural ability, but it may take a while to find out what this is. But once you find it that Sim will let you know how much they are enjoying the activity.

As the Sim gains enthusiasm in a hobby they gain rewards. If someone is interested in nature for example they will soon have the option to go hiking.

There are also more jobs available. Like choreographer and comedian.

All in all another good Sims game.

Absulootlee rubissch, 17 Mar 2008
It was lik toetally badd wiv a captital B. It gav de cumputer gaym a fuw new stufs and hair doos but apparet frum dat it made no diff to da gaym at al. Dunt bye it.

Securom, 14 Mar 2008
I love the Sims and the Sims 2. I have every expansion pack available, however the last I cannot bring myself to purchase. Securom was added to the last pack (Bon Voyage) and I feel my computer was damaged by this the programme. I would love to buy Freetime but I do not want to damage it further. Type securom into a search engine and see the affects.

The best EP so far, 09 Jul 2008
I love Sims, always have, and was really pleased when I found that they were incorporating weather into it at last!

Weather was initially going to be in the base game, but due to a bug Maxis had to take it out. Upon learning this I found it a little annoying that you have to pay for a feature that should have been in the game in the first place, however, once you start playing you totally get over that because of all the other brilliant features this game holds.

You (obviously) have seasons. The effects are bit draining on your PC so before buying you should definitely make sure it can handle the game, but they are worth it because they are so good, and nicely realistic.

You also have season-appropriate activities, such as fishing, gardening, making snowmen, raking up leaves, and each season has a different bonus. In spring your sims fall in love, in summer they make friends, in fall they gain skills and in winter they spend time with the family. You also have the new creature sim: plantsims, which are my favourite creature sim by a long shot (and I have all the EPs and SPs).

The new items are great, and compliment the new features very well. You can buy a juicer to put your homegrown produce in (different juices can give special bonuses so it's good to experiment with those), get a hot chocolate maker for warming up any cold sims, plus too many more to mention. You can also put away leftover food into the fridge, which is very handy for Sims who want their kids to get decent food when they are out. The food in the fridge stays edible the entire time it's in there too, so you can make a meal, put it away and it will just stay there until eaten!

You also have a new outfit: outerwear - coats for when the weather turns chilly - and you can now pick a different hairstyle for each outfit (ie one for everyday, a hat for outerwear, hair up for athletic wear etc) which is a nice little touch.

The reason people love this EP so much is because it adds things to everyday gameplay. Many of the other EPs rely on visiting community lots, or doing something extra, such as buying a pet, however you will notice the features of this pack every sim day which is great if, like me, you have slow loading times and can't be bothered to visit other lots all that often.

If you love Sims you should definitely buy this EP, it adds too much for you to pass it up.

SUPER BEST EVER SIMS GAME!, 24 Jun 2008
This is a really good game- buy it or live in boredem!

I am 10 years old because the first sims game was ages 7+ so we thought- why are the others all 12?

This is an amazing game and if you like sims then don't think twice about this game. It's a definate MUST HAVE for sim lovers. First of all, be prepared with a fire alarm as storms and lightning can cause fires. Next, every sim loves a bit of gardening, don't they? The first bronze gardening badge is easy to get so make your sim garden a bit for a good reputation, although the others are harder they will make a better impresion on other sims. The snow is amazing. Your sims can go out and create snow angels and have snowball fights, and in summer they can play catch or have a water bomb fight. Yes, this game has seasons. You can set them so you have somewhere with just winter, and another place with just summer. It's incredible! You can also fish and grow your own fruit. You can too play polo in the pool. I think that came with this one anyway- I have so many sims! Anyhow, this is a serious MUST HAVE for sims lovers. I told you once and I'll tell you again, this game is super cool! Buy it or live your life in boredem!

Very great idea for sims... wanted snow for so long already, 22 Apr 2008
I have all the expansion and i think this one is the most worthy to buy. Its got all seasons which so much activities for each season. You can also change the seasons to whatever you like. Each season has some advantage... e.g. Autumn for faster skill earning points n winter for friendship~ I luv this more than anything... well, just as good as pet because I am an animal lover =) Totally recommand this to any sim lover!

Excellent just right proberly the best one yet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, 10 Apr 2008
This is just what the sims need. It dosent give wierd stupid things to do but gives you more realistic thing, small things like put away leftovers. It may not sound important but when you have 2 people in a family and only one can cook its annoying serving food for 6 and wasting 4 plates full. It also lives up to its name and better you can choose what and where the seasons are. All this has proberly made it THE BEST ONE YET........................

Another amazing Sims game, 19 Mar 2008
I have all of the Sims 2 expansion packs, and I love this one.

The original Sims game had only day and night, 7am-7pm. Which was as I'm sure you can imagine rather boring. With this game, the Sims can brace all the elements, such as snow, rain and even lightning.

There are many other additions to the game rather than just the weather, such as the new clothes and hair styles.

Because of the new seasons there are many more options available for interacting with the other Sims. Such as having snowball fights and making snow men together.

This game also features a temperature icon. If your Sims are out in the summer, are exercising, and become too hot the icon will go red warning you that you're sims need water and a rest. Be careful to check it regularly as I had a Sim outside in the snow for hours and they turned blue!

Your Sims can also check the weather any time of the day with the new TV channels, and sections in the newspaper.

Overall I think this is one of the better Sims 2 expansion packs and would definitely recommend it.

Limited to 3 activations, then the game stops working!, 27 Aug 2008
This game is limited to 3 activations. An activation is used when you install or upgrade your computer. Once all the activations are used up, the game stops working!

The DRM used by the game, SecuROM, is very invasive and harvests information about your computer and monitors / disrupts other legitimate applications that it deems may be used for piracy. This is an incredulous state of affairs and if piracy is a problem for the industry, the industry should prosecute the pirates and not invade the customers own computer with spyware to monitor them. It's way too draconian.

IKEA STUFF!, 10 Aug 2008
Let me guess...when you open the box half the bits are missing and you cannot understand the instructions!

Great "stuff" pack for The Sims2, 02 Aug 2008
If you researched on the Sims2 website before hand it shows you a list of most of the items in the add-on. The game has great items for around any Sims home, and are likely to nicely fill empty gaps.
-The pack also has the wardrobe I bought from Ikea in!

Product Placement, Much?, 19 Jul 2008
EA are certainly running out of ideas. First H&M got a sponsorship deal, now Ikea are in on the act. I wouldn't be surprised if we got "The Sims 2: Barbie(TM) and Friends Stuff" next.

This "Stuff Pack" contains some furniture and various items to add to your Sims' homes. However, you can download just as good, for free, from Sims 2 fansites (and get nearly infinite variety there as well - there are literally hundreds of thousands of downloads available for the Sims 2). Not sure if I'm allowed to recommend in a review, but if I am, modthesims2.com is a good place to start.

I'm a Sims 2 fan myself, but even I would say: Don't bother with the Stuff Packs at all, unless you can't (or won't) download better content for free online.

Seriously., 14 Jul 2008
seriously, they MUST have ran out of ideas.. i mean whod have given it an IKEA pack?!

get some new ideas.. your running out fast, EA.

Not much stuff really, 03 Jul 2008
I dont think much of this sims 2 add on. I own every single sims 2 expansion pack and stuff packs. There does not seem to be that much more fun to the game with this pack. My daughter is a sims 2 addict she lasted one evening with this pack. When i added the sims 2 freetime for example she was glued for weeks the same with the sims 2 teen style stuff. I guess it may be down to taste for some people. I must add the word dissapointing but not a one star score.

Believe the hype, 20 Aug 2008
I played the demo when it first came out and at the time I didn't particularly have a great rig, I could only play Crysis on all low settings. At first I thought gameplay was average, I wasn't really trying the game out to see what the gameplay was like but more to do with how good my pc could run it at the time.

How the tables have turned; I recently got myself a powerful gaming rig and I decided to try the demo again and well what can I say, my system's optimal settings recommended high and it plays like a dream. Now that I own the game I have managed to tweak some settings and I have a mixture of high and very high and it runs as smooth as silk, personally I cannot enjoy a game unless the graphics are as amazing as they should be; This is important as it really sets the atmosphere of the game making the gameplay more immersive.

Gameplay wise, very fun indeed a lot of the content is similar to other shooters but hasn't all first person shooter games got the same kind of conecpt? However a lot of it is also origional, AI is one of the best I've seen in a fps game (not scripted and use environment to their advantage etc) Your nano suit is what keeps you alive, this is a very interesting new feature and it works well.

The story/plot is some what familiar and you do feel like you have been here before, but at the same time it is unique in it's own way and I thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish.

The multiplayer aspect of it is the only downside to Crysis which is why I only gave it 4 stars, it is a game designed more for single player and it feels like Crytek put the multiplayer in at the last minute.

Over all fantastic gameplay, beautiful graphics not so good multiplayer.

Really good fun, 15 Aug 2008
Hi all i bougth this game on release i didnt have a very good systme then pt4 processor 8500gt and so on terriable on a system with no bulk.

But if you have a powerfull system which i have now and be able to run it on high or even very high it looks very pleasing the only draw back is that its story gets a bit pradictable.

Those who rated it 1 star saying my system is good ect and only can run it low/medium well the thing is it did cost over 5 million to creat so it will need a bulky system.

The card i have is a 3850 overclocked by aroun 75hz on both core speed and memory. And i can run it on very high at 1024/768 runs smooth lose a few frames somtimes but nothing to interfer with the game.



Fail to see what the fuss is about, 08 Aug 2008
I saw some game reviews, videos and screenshots for this game recently and my interest was peaked. There's a lot of fuss and it seemed, on the surface, to be deserved. I had a look at the main site for the game and found a demo I could download. After playing the demo I am glad I didn't buy this game. I might have thought that the demo was not representative of the actual game, until I started reading the bad reviews which commented on the game play issues that I found. It seemed that there were a lot of very nice features and good ideas that have been poorly realised. I haven't played a PC FPC since Rainbow Six 3, which is a game I'd prefer to play over Crysis.

I can see how this game would appeal to a bigger fan of FPCs than myself. For those of you who only flirt with FPCs it is probably a good idea to download the demo first to see if you like it or just not bother with it. There are no doubt far better FPCs on the market that would make less demands on your PC.

Arguably the best FPS ever...., 05 Jul 2008
At the back end of 2007 i owned an ageing PC.I was aware Crysis was generating lots of hype and rave reviews and it provided a ready made excuse for me to upgrade.So you could say i had to spend the best part of £700 in order to play it.Was i dissapointed?Not one bit.I would rate Crysis in the same bracket as Half Life 1/2 and Far Cry (also developed by Crytek).I'll now tell you why.

The nanosuit is an ingenius idea which lets you play the game however you want.If you want to take a cavalier approach you can,but the game is far more rewarding if you adopt the stealth angle and play it mostly in cloak mode.Obviously the objectives will always be the same no matter how many times you play through,but how you achieve these is directly down to you.For example,the 1st KPA soldier you encounter can be pacified with non-lethal ammo,grabbed and thrown into the sea/against a nearby rock,or just shot outright,with or without a silencer.There really is that many ways to go about things.

Weapons can be customised on the fly.Most accomodate a silencer,flashlight,grenade launcher and various scopes.

The vehicles are no less fun to drive than they were in Far Cry and the tank in particular is an absolute joy,although you only get one for a very small portion of the game.

The graphics are a revelation.Never have foliage,water and explosions looked this good.My PC consists of a Geforce 8800 GT,2GB DDR RAM,and a Pentium Core Duo E6750 2.66 GHZ.The game auto detected on high settings for everything and it runs amazingly well,with only the slightest of slowdown in extreme occasions.

The story is very immersive and the level where you take out multiple AA batteries is a classic example of how you can tackle things in your own way.I have done this differently each time i have played through.

The only bad point i feel is worth mentioning is a level near the end when you fly a VTOL.The handling is shocking to say the least,but this level is so brief that it doesn't detract from the game in any way.

The controls also cater for joypad support,but who would want to use one over a mouse and keyboard?Certainly not me.

I would also recommend that any veteran of the FPS genre play the game on Delta difficulty.It purely removes the cross hairs,but doesn't effect scopes on weapons and is eminently manageable.

All in all Crysis is not only a triumph of technology and graphical brilliance,but it is a timely evolution of the first person shooter.It's just a shame that a lot of people will miss out due to not having the required spec machine to play it.My advice to you would be to buy one.I did.And i haven't regretted it for a second...



Solid game, but a short running time and limited freedom weaken its appeal., 27 Jun 2008
Back in 2004 a hitherto unknown company called CryTek released a game called Far Cry. In a year that also saw the long-awaited releases of both Doom 3 and Half-Life 2, Far Cry was a surprisingly successful break-out hit, marrying the excellent graphics of those games with a semi-freeform approach to missions that was truly exihilirating. The sense of freedom it brought to the normally linear-as-hell first-person shooter market was quite revolutionary, and it has arguably aged better than either of its competitors due to its much greater replay value. Crysis is not the sequel to Far Cry, since Electronic Arts snatched up CryTek and their next game whilst the Far Cry brand name remains with Ubisoft (who are currently developing the Africa-set Far Cry 2 for a late 2008/early 2009 release), but it is the 'spiritual successor'.

Crysis is set in 2020. North Korea has occupied an island in the Pacific Ocean where something unusual has been uncovered by an archaeological expedition. The UN has sent in a team of special operatives using new nanosuit technology to investigate, resulting in guerrila warfare against the North Koreans before the situation escalates and a full-scale war looks set to unfold over the island, resulting in the deployment of two US carrier groups to the area. And then the object the expedition has uncovered wakes up...

So far, so traditional. Crysis builds on the success of its predecessor by retaining the tropical island setting but ramping its graphical capabilities to the max. Make no mistake, Crysis is the single most graphically-advanced computer game on the market, a position it will retain for some years to come given the somewhat conservative looks of its nearest competitors. That said, the game scales excellently: my two-and-a-half-year-old single-core machine coped with most settings at Medium, and it looked substantially better than the still-gorgeous Far Cry with everything turned up to maximum.

Of course, graphical excellence is nothing without the gameplay to back it up and Crysis delivers on that score. It's a fast-paced action game but, like Far Cry before it, it also allows you to play stealthily and gives you more options, such as more silenced weapons and a camouflage field ability, to make use of that tactic. The game also allows for more effective hand-to-hand combat. The nanosuit allows you to increase your speed, strength or armour throughout the game depending on the situation, although to be honest you rarely need to take it off armour mode, but it's a nice touch. Weapons selection is surprisingly poor, however. The UN-issue SCAR rifle is great but you have to ditch it as soon as you run out of ammo and switch to the North Korean automatic rifle, which has the stopping power of a gnat in a hurricane. Entire clips are sometimes needed to take down one enemy soldier. The shotgun is great but ineffective at range, whilst the minigun tears through ammo so fast it's barely worth using. The gauss rifle and the infinite-recharge ice weapon you get at the end of the game are both excellent, but since you only get them five minutes before the game ends, hardly astonishing.

Crysis is a pretty good game that fixes many of the sins of Far Cry. There is less messing around indoors, the story and characters are much better-developed, there's a much greater sense of coherence in how the missions and levels fit together and a solid sense of camaderie once what appears to be the entire US Marine Corps lands on the island to provide some back-up in the latter half of the game. Unfortunately, it also takes some retrograde steps. Whilst multiple routes to mission objectives are again provided, they are much more constrained than before. This is because whilst Far Cry took place across multiple islands, Crysis takes place in sectioned-off areas of one big island, and the game won't let you just wander off at will. This decreased freedom from its predecessor is extremely irritating, given it's one of the appeals of CryTek's work. Secondly, CryTek have astonishingly not yet figured out that whilst we enjoy fighting intelligently-designed human opponents, having lumbering mutants or in this case (spoiler!) ice-based, gravity-bending aliens turn up just feels lame, especially when they can take ten times as much ammo to kill compared to the superhumanly damage-resistant human enemies.

The other major problem, one increasingly prevalent in the FPS genre, is the establishing of Crysis as a franchise. We can't have one good, long game and that's it, we've got to have a major cliffhanger ending, followed by the news that Crysis is a trilogy with part two due in 2009 and part three in 2011, and finally the news that there will be a 'parallel' game following another character through the same events, with the first of these, Crysis: Warhead, coming out in late 2008. Sometimes the sheer avariceness of the computer game industry is startling, especially when the developers proudly tell us that the game has sold a million copies in six months but it could have sold more if piracy wasn't around, so as a result the sequels will be co-developed for the consoles and may not be as visually impressive as a result. And to finally put the boot in, Crysis is quite short: at about eight hours to completion, Crysis is substantially shorter than Far Cry, Half-Life 2, FEAR or a lot of other recent FPS games.

Crysis (***½) looks a million dollars even on relatively underpowered machines and is a huge amount of fun to play. However, it won't last very long, has a huge cliffhanger ending and scales back on the amount of freedom you have. The game is available now for PC in the UK and US. The 'parallel' game, Crysis: Warhead, will be released in November 2008, with Crysis II likely to follow a year later.

Freetime great for My Busy Simmies!!, 08 Jul 2008
Even though my sims people in my game have extremely busy lives I wanted this pack oh so much, not just because I have all the Sims games anyways but cos of all the fun things my simmies can do, so at the weekends they do all their fun and family types things. But with this packs diversity you can also use it in a different way for exanple a soccer mom, could watch her kids play soccer, like they do at school events, and if you have Open for Business you can have a clothes shop where the clothes are made on the sewing machine then sold, also pottery shop, a garage (home business) to do up scrap cars and sell them on to buyers. I love this game so very much and play it very often if you are a sims fan i am sure you will love it too, taking into consideration the other packs do make this a more enjoyable pack on its own people may find it not as good, but as i said though I love it!!

Happy Simming

not very interesting, 07 Jul 2008
I am a massive sims fan and have all the expansion packs, this one compared to others such as University, or bon voyage is not really that interesting. with all the other expansion packs there have been loads of things to do to keep you hooked, this one however bored me after only a couple of plays with it. this is because apart from a few extra hobbies and career paths theres not much else to it, no big adventure or whole other area to visit (as in bon voyage, nightlife, uni etc) I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the next one 'apartment life' is better!

Not my favourite of the Sims 2 expansion packs, 19 Mar 2008
I own and love every single Sims 2 game but I don't feel that this makes as big a difference as some of the others, such as University for example.

Your Sims are now able to pursue a variety of interests. Such as tinkering, and art and dance. To keep a Sim interested in a talent they have to keep working at it.

Once the Sim has gained enough interest in a certain area, for example, cuisine. They will first have the option of researching this hobby on the internet and in newspapers and also talking about it with other Sims. They will then be called and asked if they wish to subscribe to a magazine. You can of course say no to this and then subscribe at a later date.
Once the Sim has gained enough expertise in their area they will be given a membership card which allows them to visit a secret club. If they are interested in cuisine, they will be invited to Sue's Secret kitchen where they can enter food contests in hops of winning a cash prize.

Every Sim has a natural ability, but it may take a while to find out what this is. But once you find it that Sim will let you know how much they are enjoying the activity.

As the Sim gains enthusiasm in a hobby they gain rewards. If someone is interested in nature for example they will soon have the option to go hiking.

There are also more jobs available. Like choreographer and comedian.

All in all another good Sims game.

Absulootlee rubissch, 17 Mar 2008
It was lik toetally badd wiv a captital B. It gav de cumputer gaym a fuw new stufs and hair doos but apparet frum dat it made no diff to da gaym at al. Dunt bye it.

Securom, 14 Mar 2008
I love the Sims and the Sims 2. I have every expansion pack available, however the last I cannot bring myself to purchase. Securom was added to the last pack (Bon Voyage) and I feel my computer was damaged by this the programme. I would love to buy Freetime but I do not want to damage it further. Type securom into a search engine and see the affects.

The best EP so far, 09 Jul 2008
I love Sims, always have, and was really pleased when I found that they were incorporating weather into it at last!

Weather was initially going to be in the base game, but due to a bug Maxis had to take it out. Upon learning this I found it a little annoying that you have to pay for a feature that should have been in the game in the first place, however, once you start playing you totally get over that because of all the other brilliant features this game holds.

You (obviously) have seasons. The effects are bit draining on your PC so before buying you should definitely make sure it can handle the game, but they are worth it because they are so good, and nicely realistic.

You also have season-appropriate activities, such as fishing, gardening, making snowmen, raking up leaves, and each season has a different bonus. In spring your sims fall in love, in summer they make friends, in fall they gain skills and in winter they spend time with the family. You also have the new creature sim: plantsims, which are my favourite creature sim by a long shot (and I have all the EPs and SPs).

The new items are great, and compliment the new features very well. You can buy a juicer to put your homegrown produce in (different juices can give special bonuses so it's good to experiment with those), get a hot chocolate maker for warming up any cold sims, plus too many more to mention. You can also put away leftover food into the fridge, which is very handy for Sims who want their kids to get decent food when they are out. The food in the fridge stays edible the entire time it's in there too, so you can make a meal, put it away and it will just stay there until eaten!

You also have a new outfit: outerwear - coats for when the weather turns chilly - and you can now pick a different hairstyle for each outfit (ie one for everyday, a hat for outerwear, hair up for athletic wear etc) which is a nice little touch.

The reason people love this EP so much is because it adds things to everyday gameplay. Many of the other EPs rely on visiting community lots, or doing something extra, such as buying a pet, however you will notice the features of this pack every sim day which is great if, like me, you have slow loading times and can't be bothered to visit other lots all that often.

If you love Sims you should definitely buy this EP, it adds too much for you to pass it up.

SUPER BEST EVER SIMS GAME!, 24 Jun 2008
This is a really good game- buy it or live in boredem!

I am 10 years old because the first sims game was ages 7+ so we thought- why are the others all 12?

This is an amazing game and if you like sims then don't think twice about this game. It's a definate MUST HAVE for sim lovers. First of all, be prepared with a fire alarm as storms and lightning can cause fires. Next, every sim loves a bit of gardening, don't they? The first bronze gardening badge is easy to get so make your sim garden a bit for a good reputation, although the others are harder they will make a better impresion on other sims. The snow is amazing. Your sims can go out and create snow angels and have snowball fights, and in summer they can play catch or have a water bomb fight. Yes, this game has seasons. You can set them so you have somewhere with just winter, and another place with just summer. It's incredible! You can also fish and grow your own fruit. You can too play polo in the pool. I think that came with this one anyway- I have so many sims! Anyhow, this is a serious MUST HAVE for sims lovers. I told you once and I'll tell you again, this game is super cool! Buy it or live your life in boredem!

Very great idea for sims... wanted snow for so long already, 22 Apr 2008
I have all the expansion and i think this one is the most worthy to buy. Its got all seasons which so much activities for each season. You can also change the seasons to whatever you like. Each season has some advantage... e.g. Autumn for faster skill earning points n winter for friendship~ I luv this more than anything... well, just as good as pet because I am an animal lover =) Totally recommand this to any sim lover!

Excellent just right proberly the best one yet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, 10 Apr 2008
This is just what the sims need. It dosent give wierd stupid things to do but gives you more realistic thing, small things like put away leftovers. It may not sound important but when you have 2 people in a family and only one can cook its annoying serving food for 6 and wasting 4 plates full. It also lives up to its name and better you can choose what and where the seasons are. All this has proberly made it THE BEST ONE YET........................

Another amazing Sims game, 19 Mar 2008
I have all of the Sims 2 expansion packs, and I love this one.

The original Sims game had only day and night, 7am-7pm. Which was as I'm sure you can imagine rather boring. With this game, the Sims can brace all the elements, such as snow, rain and even lightning.

There are many other additions to the game rather than just the weather, such as the new clothes and hair styles.

Because of the new seasons there are many more options available for interacting with the other Sims. Such as having snowball fights and making snow men together.

This game also features a temperature icon. If your Sims are out in the summer, are exercising, and become too hot the icon will go red warning you that you're sims need water and a rest. Be careful to check it regularly as I had a Sim outside in the snow for hours and they turned blue!

Your Sims can also check the weather any time of the day with the new TV channels, and sections in the newspaper.

Overall I think this is one of the better Sims 2 expansion packs and would definitely recommend it.

Kitchens and lack of bathrooms, 22 Jun 2008
I love the Sims and play the game a lot. I was really looking forward to sprucing up my kitchens and baths with a makeover, sadly this is not what I got.

Very unimganative designs and boring sets, I was surprised it felt a lot less stuff than say the H&M fashion pack.

I wouldn't unload it from my game but I don't think I'll be so excited next time

Great stuff but, not good value., 06 Jun 2008
I have been a big fan of the Sims for a very long time and I brought all of the expansion packs for Sims 1 and I now own all of the expansion packs for Sims 2.

The items on this expansion pack are very nice and stylish, especially the hairstyles and clothing. However I was a bit disappointed by the amount of Kitchen and bathroom items I got. I feel that the average asking price for this game, between 7.50 and 9.00, is too high for the content, particuarly when you consider than EA are about to release another pack, 'Ikea Stuff. I have to question whether or not they could have delayed this item and combined the two to make it better value for money. Then again if people will buy it at this price then their current marketing stratergy obviously works.

I was lucky enough to buy my copy second hand for cheap. I would recommend any of the expansion packs to people, however my advice would be that unless it is a full expansion pack like Seasons or Freetime, hunt around and buy it for a cheap as possible.

Hope this helps.

Quality but not Quantity, 26 May 2008
I'm an ardant Sims fan and have ALL the expansion and stuff packs and download from the Internet too. These objects are all good quality (maybe alittle dull though), but there just simply wasn't enough of them to warrant the price tag. I agree with other reviews, you could download these things from various free sites.

Sims 2 kitchen and bathroom, 26 Apr 2008
The items on this stuff pack are brilliant, especially if you're the type of player that loves the building and furnishing side of the sims2. But i have to agree with the previous comments about how there's just not enough stuff for the amount you pay. The items are gorgous, and really the kinda ideal things you would put in your dream house. But for £8 - half the price of an expansion pack - i don't thing it's really worth it. Free custom objects, clothes & hair styles, houses, and sims are available off the internet - but in my opinion they sometimes mess up your computer & sims2.
Hope this helped.

Nice items - but terrible value for money, 23 Apr 2008
The stuff packs retail for half the price of a Sims 2 expansion pack - for what you get (in partcular the quantity), this is way to expensive!
Yes, the items are nice, but there are not that many of them and you will be able to get similar items from the various Sims 2 Fan Sites which offer free object downloads.
A £5 price tag would have been more appropriate, but then again, if people are willing pay ...
My tip: Don't buy - if you want swish kitchens or bathrooms go hunting on the Internet and download the free stuff!