The Sims 2 (My offline WoW replacement)

Expansion Packs I Own: University, Nightlife, Freetime & Pets
So I just recently got myself back into the Sims. It still amazes me how much time that game can suck out of your days! I played a lot of the Sims 1 and was a big fan of the Sims 2 when it came out, but shortly after it did, I got into World of Warcraft so I basically stopped playing completely, although the Sims 2 was very fun. When I found myself internetless and WoWless, I fired up old Pleasantview to see how all my little Sims were doing.
Instantly I was just as hooked as the first day I got it! I love the lifetime aspirations like reaching the top of a career or having 10 grandchildren. I had forgotten how much fun it was to have a Sim baby and watch it grow up and teach it's skills to it and get it into private school and then college and then work through a career of it's own! lol. I also had always been interested in the Sim vampires! I had never actually seen one, having not played Nightlife that much before leaving the game behind for WoW, but I knew they were out there because of the vampirisum turn on and the coffins that you can purchase.
So I was working away on a Sim, I forget her first name but her last name was Baker, and she had a daughter named Lydia Baker. Mrs.Baker was downtown at the Tiki Lounge place and I was just about to get her to hop in a cab and head home when I saw him! Count Nolan Adjwhatever? lol. He had like grey skin and red eyes and was wearing total vampire clothes! I ran over and had a chat with him and as soon as my Sim had gone home and slept, I invited him over. Because of the Nightlife game, you need to have chemistry with people before you can get romantic with them, well, chemistry really helps anyways, and my Sim basically hated Count Nolan! I was bummed and was about to go make a new Sim and just hope to meet him again downtown, when I noticed the child, Lydia, had already become friends with him, lol. So it was off to college with her!
Lydia was the knowledge aspiration so almost as soon as she arrived in college, one of her wants was to become a vampire! It was really working out nicely seeing as that is what I had planned for her, lol. She invited Count Nolan over to her dorm one night (he wont come out during the day and runs away whenever the sun comes up, lol) but I couldn't figure out how to get him to bite her! I could influence him to bite others, but not her. I was about to give up when the little icon poped up in the top of my screen saying "Be Bitten", lol.
It was really fun playing a vampire! Especially a vampire in college! Almost every day I'd get a want that was to turn someone else, so by the time I graduated, nearly all the townies in my dorm and all my family and friends were vampires, and I had silver aspiration, lol. Of course it was an added challenge, trying to finish college as a vampire, and I almost died many times when I'd have to fly outside (you can turn into a bat) mid daylight to make it to my final exams, but it was a blast! When my Sim moved back to Pleasantview, she married Count Nolan and had two children with him, although to look after her babies she had to get the cure for vampirisim from the gypsy, lol.
I would recommend turning into a vampire if you're not in college or working! You die quickly if you go sunbathing or anything, lol but at night time your stats don't drop at all so it is great for gaining skill points and such! Plus it is fun to bite people and fly around as a bat! I see that somehow you can get turned into a warewolf or a plant guy, but I have yet to figure out how to do that.
I really enjoy the addition of the hobbies in Sims 2 Freetime, and it is one of those expansions I would definitely recommend grabbing! Pets on the other hand, although they are pretty cute and all, it is kind of more annoying than anything! Neighbourhood dogs are always coming over and digging holes in my yard and there's this skunk who is always prowling around, lol. The animal careers were kinda sweet at first, but it is a fair bit of work keeping a dog happy, and really im more interested in my Sim getting promotions than my Sim's pets.

I was also getting a lot of use out of the Sims 2 Body Shop. You can find it in your Sims folder in the latest expansion (so Freetime for me) in the CSBin. It lets you export skin, hair, makeup, clothes, etc from the game and edit them in photoshop. It is pretty cool if you like a certain outfit but really want it in a certain colour hehe. I'll post some pics of the clothes I made and edited and stuff when I can. I even made some vampire eyes and skin! Needless to say, the Sims has managed to take up a fair bit of my internetless time, although I have been itching to download some new clothes and stuff!
One final thing that I have rediscovered that I love about the Sims is the story mode! I have always loved writing stories and such so my neighbourhood has like such a long story for every single family, haha. Some of my better familys and stuff I'll post a bit about when I get back on my own comp, hehe.