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Mad Poster
Original Poster
#1 Old 12th Jul 2017 at 5:32 PM
Default Other games similar to TS2
So, what other games do you know that you think are similar to TS2 in some aspects or another? (And please don't cheat and say TS3 or 4!)

One I'd recommend, if you have an Nintendo 3DS, is Animal Crossing: New Leaf. Parts of the game are surprisingly similar: you have to keep a bunch of residents in your town happy, and you can decorate houses. The main difference is that all your residents are brightly-coloured cartoon animals, and the game takes place in real-time - so if you don't visit the town for several weeks, don't be surprised if one of your villagers leaves town. It's pretty relaxing, actually.

I'm secretly a Bulbasaur. | Formerly known as ihatemandatoryregister

Looking for SimWardrobe's mods? | Or Dizzy's? | Faiuwle/rufio's too! | smorbie1's Chris Hatch archives
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Mad Poster
#2 Old 12th Jul 2017 at 8:15 PM
There are certainly some similarities in Crusader Kings II. Bit it's all rather "zoomed out," so to speak; you're building a family dynasty through marriage and breeding, and every so often "chance cards" pop up, but there's no directing your character to use the toilet or take out the trash. I think the main draw of CKII for me is building a cool family tree I can admire, something that takes considerably longer in TS2, but it's also a whole lot easier to die in CKII, and I tend to find that stressful. (Plus, it's a lot harder to make money than in TS2!) But CKII is automatically set in the medieval period, so you don't need CC for that.
Alchemist
#3 Old 12th Jul 2017 at 9:10 PM
there might be many similar games; depending on what is compared.


people simulator; I recall watching 1:: Rim World.
like this franchise, it has building structures in it; and placing objects.

I recall watching other games with same mentioned features in them, but am not sure of their names. one had a jail setting.
I take them to also be people simulators.
Mad Poster
#4 Old 12th Jul 2017 at 9:32 PM
Oh right, there's also 'The Ship': https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ship_(video_game) The whole point there is murder, and you control a single assassin on a ship full of other assassins, and while trying to survive and kill your target without getting caught, you also have to keep your player character fed, clean, and sane. The interface includes little sims type meters for various aspects of the character's mood.

Also, probably not quite as similar, but when Skyrim's Hearthfire expansion introduced building houses and adopting children to the game, my friends and I joked that Skyrim had become the Sims.
Mad Poster
#5 Old 12th Jul 2017 at 10:38 PM
Singles: Flirt Up Your Life https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singl...rt_Up_Your_Life

Singles 2: Triple Trouble https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singles_2:_Triple_Trouble

https://www.google.com/search?q=Sin...iw=1097&bih=543

Both are great games but there for adults.

All my Beginning Hoods here at MTS. http://www.modthesims.info/member.php?u=7749491
All my Beginning Hoods as Shopping Districts plus Old Town. http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=523417
MooVille, a tribute to Mootilda and her fabulous lots http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=534158
Mad Poster
#6 Old 12th Jul 2017 at 10:45 PM
Mad Poster
#7 Old 13th Jul 2017 at 5:19 AM Last edited by gazania : 18th Jul 2017 at 6:03 PM.
Quote: Originally posted by ihatemandatoryregister
So, what other games do you know that you think are similar to TS2 in some aspects or another? (And please don't cheat and say TS3 or 4!)

One I'd recommend, if you have an Nintendo 3DS, is Animal Crossing: New Leaf. Parts of the game are surprisingly similar: you have to keep a bunch of residents in your town happy, and you can decorate houses. The main difference is that all your residents are brightly-coloured cartoon animals, and the game takes place in real-time - so if you don't visit the town for several weeks, don't be surprised if one of your villagers leaves town. It's pretty relaxing, actually.


It's been a while since I played an AC game ... it indirectly led me to The Sims (I wanted a game with humanoid characters). I was quite the AC trader back then, and was part of one of the main AC forums before you people got stuck with me here. But if I recall, one drawback is that even if you DID try to convince the animals not to leave, most left anyway. That was the first AC game, though, and later, Wild World. Maybe animals weren't so quick to scoot after that. I don't know.

And visiting others' towns when Wild World came out was fun. There was a problem, though .. it turned out that certain trolls would visit a town and take your stuff or try ruining your town. You could, though, quit without saving and stop almost all of them (I believe you could boot them, as well), but some moved pretty quickly. As a result, our forum had ratings and reviews of members who visited towns. Smarter players stuck with those people (and yes, I had an excellent rating! ).

For me, one of my favorite memories of AC was the weekly K. K. Slider songs with the first AC. Good memories ...

I was also an avid Harvest Moon player for a while, too. That is kind of in the same vein, only with an emphasis on farming or ranching.

I've already mentioned The Movies (well, I've mentioned AC and HM, too, but I think did enough repeating!). But I feel old ... all of these games came out ten or more years ago!

If you look on Steam for games similar to Sims 3 (sorry ... that was the best I could do), here is what you get. I have to admit with the exception of Cities Skylines (which I stopped playing after a month or two), none of these float my boat:

http://store.steampowered.com/recom...like/app/47890/

EDIT ... There was an ANIMAL CROSSING movie? Really?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icH15buRLN0

Anyway, the community where I was a member is still around as well! I don't know if they have ratings anymore. But it's good to see it exists after all these years (I think I joined in 2003-ish or so), and the only reason why I left in 2006 was because I became more interested in The Sims. I remember good people there. Trolls/thieves were booted immediately, and the mods did their best to make this as safe and fun a community as possible. It almost makes me wonder if I have my username and password somewhere, and should find my saved AC game, though my AC house is overrun by cockroaches by now! (If you neglect your house, you get roaches.) It reminds me in many ways of MTS. People helped each other, and we older players were generally kinder toward younger players. And it's cool to see that yes ... there are still many players my age!

http://www.animalcrossingcommunity.com/

Thanks to ALL free-site creators, admins and mods.

RIP Sunni ... truly a ray of light.
Lab Assistant
#8 Old 13th Jul 2017 at 9:04 PM
Fallout 4 is a pretty decent contender purely for the Settlement mechanic. Basically, the game follows a protagonist (male or female, customizable appearance) as they suddenly find themselves in a post nuclear war society. It's a shooter RPG, think Mass Effect but with mutants rather than aliens. But pretty early in the game you are introduced to the concept of settlements, in which you rebuild society town by town.

You can choose to completely eradicate the existing township and build it up from scratch (all have different geographical features; some near water, some built on a cliff, one is literally a drive in movie theater). You designate farmers, laborers, scavengers, guards, doctors, vendors, etc. from within your town's population and watch it grow! As a huge fan of the Sims, I thoroughly enjoyed Fallout 4 for the settlements.

Another recommendation I have would be Harvest Moon or Story of Seasons. It's a twenty year old series with many iterations, but at it's core, you play a young, novice farmer coming into a new town. You cultivate crops, raise animals, sell your wares, buy or craft clothes, and, over time, court a bachelor or bachelorette from the local and marry them and have children. The newest one, Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns, has looser gender definitions, diverse villages to visit and work in, and a lot more freedom in the design of your farm.

That's my two cents, anyway. Also Animal Crossing.
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#9 Old 15th Jul 2017 at 10:55 PM
Don't forget Little Computer People, although I never actually got a chance to play it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Computer_People

On the topic of Animal Crossing, I really regret giving one of my villagers "SHOO FLEE!" as a catchphrase. It was funny at first, but now half of my villagers keep screaming it at me, even when I try to give them better catchphrases.

I'm secretly a Bulbasaur. | Formerly known as ihatemandatoryregister

Looking for SimWardrobe's mods? | Or Dizzy's? | Faiuwle/rufio's too! | smorbie1's Chris Hatch archives
Instructor
#10 Old 16th Jul 2017 at 6:48 AM
My first thought was Crusader Kings II, as I just found out about this game in the past two weeks. Definitely agree with what mdsb759 said.

Some might disagree, but I always liked playing the Virtual Villagers growing up for similar reasons that I like to play Sims. Extremely simple to play, and it's a "real-time" game that requires your attention, especially in the beginning at all times (although, you can pause them in the options - the issue is that it they are also not games you can sit and play for hours on end). Anyway, the premise is that you're controlling some villagers who have come upon a new area on an island with no (or little, I'm not sure how the more recent games go) contact with anyone else. They're sequential, so you play the first version, then the second, and so forth. I don't think all of them have, but the first few have been converted for smart phones for free. So, you might want to check them out for a casual game to play while you're doing something. The same company also makes "Virtual Families" which is even closer to The Sims, but because they're so simple I never got too too into them because I'd rather play the actual Sims.

I might one day finish my Zanes Hollow project, but I wouldn't hold my breath. Until then, you can see what I'm up to on my Simblr!
Mad Poster
#11 Old 16th Jul 2017 at 6:44 PM
Castaway/Life/Pet Stories. My Sim maybe?
Mad Poster
#12 Old 16th Jul 2017 at 7:00 PM
Quote: Originally posted by PlyPlay665
The same company also makes "Virtual Families"

Thanks...guess what I was playing until 3am?
Scholar
#13 Old 16th Jul 2017 at 7:42 PM
I loved The Guild a lot. Basically this was an economic simulation, but it put much emphasis on building a legacy.
First you developed your workshop (anything from a thief's den to a smithy to your own church) a little and leveled up in five skills. Once you had a financial cushion, you could start wooing potential partners. Your character and their spouse had children whose skills could be influenced with toys and schooling. When you died, one of your children took over, inheriting your business empire and your title, but not your public office, and often getting saddled with a uge inheritance tax.

The contemporary version is The Guild 3, but I didn't have the chance to play that one yet, so I don't know if it is any good.
Mad Poster
#14 Old 16th Jul 2017 at 8:59 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Enki
Once you had a financial cushion, you could start wooing potential partners.


When I first saw your post, I misread that as "Once you had a financial cushion, you could start woohooing potential partners." I think I need a nap.
Mad Poster
#15 Old 16th Jul 2017 at 9:22 PM
Creatures is pretty cool. It's on gog.com. It's an artificial life simulator, you get these little creatures to grow and take care of and you can teach them some basic language (14 verbs with set meanings, about 20 generalised nouns - e.g. "food" rather than "carrot") but the most incredible thing about it really was that all of their internal chemistry was simulated so over the generations they really could evolve and mutate and turn into something quite apart from what you started with, behaviour wise, anyway. You can end up getting really attached to the disobedient little buggers and get really sad when they get sick and want to do everything you can to save them I think this is like The Sims for the sheer open ended sandbox nature - they give you the options and there's no goal, you just do what you want with them.

I also used to like the aesthetic of Theme Hospital for being similar to TS1 in that isometric style and I feel that it has some of the same zany humour even though it's a totally different kind of game. Fun stuff.

I use the sims as a psychology simulator...
Mad Poster
#16 Old 16th Jul 2017 at 11:21 PM Last edited by FranH : 17th Jul 2017 at 1:13 AM.
Although they're not really in the same 'direct one on one' theme, the games Caesar, and Civilization are pretty awesome, especially the 3rd iteration for Caesar, 3rd, & 4th for Civilization.
It's all about building entire empires and being King. I liked being a barbarian!

Oh, and I didn't mention my favorite game right now: Banished. Those pixels really suffer..

Receptacle Refugee & Resident Polar Bear
"Get out of my way, young'un, I'm a ninja!"
Grave Matters: The funeral podium is available here: https://www.mediafire.com/file/e6tj...albits.zip/file
My other downloads are here: https://app.mediafire.com/myfiles
Mad Poster
#17 Old 17th Jul 2017 at 7:47 PM
Other than Sims games the one to me that is closest to them is Singles 2 in game play and buying and building.

My man Josh just got his bar set up to start having fun.

If it was not for Sims 2 coming out in 2004 the Singles games would have taken off and expanded just like the the Sims games.
Just bad timing for a great game.

Singles is just as mod able as sims games are and new worlds have been made by some of the players that still play it.
Some modders have even take Sims 2 items and converted them over for both Singles games.
Screenshots

All my Beginning Hoods here at MTS. http://www.modthesims.info/member.php?u=7749491
All my Beginning Hoods as Shopping Districts plus Old Town. http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=523417
MooVille, a tribute to Mootilda and her fabulous lots http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=534158
Alchemist
#18 Old 17th Jul 2017 at 8:16 PM
Quote: Originally posted by PlyPlay665
Definitely agree with what mdsb759 said.
my comment of there being many similar games?
Scholar
#19 Old 18th Jul 2017 at 9:47 AM
Quote: Originally posted by simsfreq
I also used to like the aesthetic of Theme Hospital for being similar to TS1 in that isometric style and I feel that it has some of the same zany humour even though it's a totally different kind of game. Fun stuff.


I love Theme Hospital! Especially the announcements over the PA system: "Litterbug warning!" And the crazy illnesses like Inflated head or Piles. Or when your hospital gets infected with a vomit bug and there is a VIP touring at the same time.... lol!

Paladins/SimWardrobes downloads: https://simfileshare.net/folder/87849/
Scholar
#20 Old 18th Jul 2017 at 12:49 PM
Quote: Originally posted by SciBirg
I love Theme Hospital! Especially the announcements over the PA system: "Litterbug warning!" And the crazy illnesses like Inflated head or Piles. Or when your hospital gets infected with a vomit bug and there is a VIP touring at the same time.... lol!


"The Hospital Administrator is cheating, The Hospital Administrator is cheating"
Can't get that out of my head any time someone mentions theme hospital. (Yes, I cheat in it) thus I'm glad sims aren't as aware of the dubious amounts of income. Shhh... Mortimer Green and Monique Diamond need not know okay?
Mad Poster
#21 Old 24th Sep 2017 at 2:09 AM
Just had to come back to this thread - husband and I have totally got immersed in Rimworld these last couple of weeks. Has anyone else played it? It's similar by the sounds of it to some of these other games which have been mentioned, you start with a small number of colonists who have to establish a village or base on a new planet, while dealing with hazards like pirate raids, diseases, extreme weather etc. It's totally addictive! And there are definite similarities with Sims games, the people all have Needs but also little mood buffs based on what is going on, relationships, and one of the most hilarious and fun touches for me is that they actually create art and name their pets based on what's happened within the colony recently! You end up really caring for these little people, which is kind of brutal, because some of the threats are really difficult to manage.

It's kind of sim-apocolypse-challenge esque, but 2D.

I use the sims as a psychology simulator...
Inventor
#22 Old 24th Sep 2017 at 2:56 AM
The Black & White game series had a similar concept of raising people and satisfying their needs, as well as the player's creature.

From what I remember from the first Black & White, the creature's motives were hunger, energy and damage (fatigue from wounds). Players can teach them miracles by just showing them or handing them a miracle bubble, both while they're bound to the leash of learning. There are other skills the beast can learn almost instantly, such as dancing, fishing, and raising/lowering the totem at the village center. By the way, that final skill mentioned was especially important later in the game, when the player and their creature needed to raise two totems simultaneously to lift a village of their curse.

Inside the player's temple there is a creature cave, which has several large scrolls about the creature's other bios. One of them confirms the beast's personality, other motives such as thirst, and tolerance towards other creatures and villagers. Most of this is influenced by how the player treats the creature and things around them.

The developers concentrated quite a bit on the creatures within the first Black & White, and more so for the Creature Isle expansion. For the second game, the villagers were the main focus. I haven't played the second game entirely to know for certain if that aspect is true, but then I prefer the concept of the first game because of the creatures.
Forum Resident
#23 Old 24th Sep 2017 at 6:06 AM
Another Rimworld player here. I was recommended to try it by some players on MTS as an alternative to Sims 4. Like Sims 2 I feel that's it's been worth every penny, and has long replayability.. It's more or less made by one guy, and bills itself as a story generator, colony simulator, amongst other things. Like the Sims 2, the little characters, heck even the dog (and mufflo's) pull you in and you feel connected to them. Sometimes you even hate them and want to see them dead (goopy anyone)

The developer actually credits the sims games as being an inspiration. He wanted his players to also feel the connection and emotion for little pixel people, just us simmers seem to love and care about our little people. Rimworld is all about emotion, and you'll feel yourself being worried, laughing, feeling sad, and frustrated easily within a couple of minutes or so. Tynan has written a book about game design and written several articles. His ideas interest me, especially when he mentions the sims and emotional connection. I think it's the charm we keep talking about when we think about sims 1 and 2. Anyway here's an article where he mentions Sims 3 and player connection. https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/Tyn...ation_Dream.php
Mad Poster
#24 Old 24th Sep 2017 at 10:54 AM
Anybody has played that Facebook's restaurant game? Probably was called "Restaurant City", but damn - the system of runnin was closest to what we got in TS2 OFB's restaurant. It was a good game. Hire waiters, janitors, and maybe even host. And I remember: setting up and redesigning a restaurant up a restaurant felt like buy modeand some expacts of build mode, and I believe you had to create your own avatar that was similar to CAS. I think you could also change your outfits of the employees. Oh boy, this was probably the best app I ever played on that platform during my time. #RestInPeace
Mad Poster
#25 Old 25th Sep 2017 at 1:17 AM
I knew there were some sims influences in there! Thanks for the article, sounds interesting.

Also, recently I started playing the game Armello, which is nothing like Sims, but I was amused to see one of the loading messages: "Reticulating Splines"

I use the sims as a psychology simulator...
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