The Sims 2: FreeTime

The Sims 2: FreeTime (also known as TS2 FT or simply FreeTime) is the seventh expansion pack for The Sims 2. It was released on February 26, 2008. It mainly features group activities and hobbies for Sims.

Description
''Now your Sims can rediscover the joys of leisure time! Awaken your Sims' true passions in life as they discover and excel at all-new activities. Whether they're tossing a football with the family, practicing ballet, restoring cars with friends, or building train sets, your Sims now have more ways to build skills, enhance friendships, and make their lives more successful. Craft new, unique items for your Sims to use in their daily lives including clothing, pottery, and more. Your Sims will even unlock secret rewards by mastering their hobbies and advancing all-new careers. Explore a wide variety of new hobbies that will change your Sims' lives!''

Desiderata Valley
Desiderata Valley is the new neighborhood shipped with The Sims 2: FreeTime. It mainly focuses on the residents' leisure activities and pastimes. All families are at moderate economic status; not too rich and not too poor. There are a number of community lots where Sims can do many activities, such as gallery, sport park, community kitchen, and so on.

Lifetime Aspiration
Sims now have a new bar between the daily aspiration bar and the Influence bar, the Lifetime Aspiration bar. This bar indicates how happy a Sim has been throughout their life. The longer the daily aspiration bar is kept high, the more points the lifetime aspiration bar is awarded. Sims who reach the maximum Lifetime Aspiration will be rewarded with Perma-platinum mood.

Lifetime Aspiration Benefit
The higher a Sim's lifetime aspiration bar is, the more aspiration benefit points they can spend. Sims who spend their aspiration benefit points will be given special personal abilities and advantages. For example, slower needs decay, making friends faster, smooth talking, higher salary, etc.

Secondary Aspiration
The secondary aspiration unlocks Sims' possibilities for new wants and fears that are outside their primary aspiration. Sims can choose their secondary aspiration as an aspiration benefit.

Hobby Enthusiasm
The new simology includes hobby enthusiasm for each Sim. Sims who do activities relevant to a particular hobby will gain enthusiasm in that hobby, and will be able to unlock more and more benefits as they become more enthusiastic in that hobby. There are 10 hobbies: Cuisine, Film and Literature, Games, Tinkering, Science, Arts and Crafts, Fitness, Nature, Sports, Music and Dance. Each Sim has a predestined hobby, and Sims will build enthusiasm for that hobby faster than for the others.

Secret Hobby Lot
Sims who have gained enough enthusiasm in a hobby will discover a secret hobby lot. The instructor for that hobby will give the Sim membership in the hobby club, which will grant them entry to the secret lot. The hobby lot can only be visited by Sims who have a membership, though they can bring other Sims with them.

Best Friends Forever
BFF is a new friendship level. Two Sims who are best friends long enough will develop the BFF relationship. BFFs will have a slower daily relationship decay, and will never fall out of friendship, even if they are furious with each other. BFFs also have benefits, such as an autonomous "far away greet" interaction, and the ability to tell inside jokes.

NPC Aging
Sims' townie friends no longer remain the same age forever. Whenever a Sim grows up, they can choose any 3 townies they know to grow up together. With this feature, childhood friends can grow older, and teen couples can get married when they're old enough.

Genie
Genies can grant three wishes to Sims who have received the Dusty Old Lamp. Sims cannot become genies, nor are genies playable. A family whose members have high hobby enthusiasms are more likely to have the lamp delivered to them by the gypsy matchmaker.

New Additions

 * New Life State: Genie
 * New Careers: Architecture, Dance, Entertainment, Intelligence, and Oceanography
 * New Lifetime Wants: Become City Planner, Become World Class Ballet Dancer, Become Prestidigitator, Become Head of SCIA, and Become Hand of Poseidon
 * New NPCs: Food Judge, Hobby Instructor, Rod Humble
 * New Skills: Nursery Rhyme and Parenting
 * New Radio Station: Indie Wave
 * New Talent Badges: Pottery and Sewing
 * New Meal: Grandma's Comfort Soup
 * New TV Channel: Movie
 * New Video Games: MySims, FIFA 08, Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, Spore, and The Sims 3

Minor Features

 * Rod Humble will come to greet newly moved-in family and drop off a gift. The gift will contain a free computer and a video game of the preview of The Sims 3.
 * Advanced Neighborhood Options. Players can create new neighborhoods, add sub-neighborhoods, or switch between other neighborhoods without having to go to the neighborhood view.

New Objects

 * H-O-R-S-E of course Basket Ball Hoop
 * The Goal of Paul Soccer Goal
 * Mechanical Stitching Machine by Antique Artifacts Sewing Machine
 * Upright Pottery Wheel by QuicKraft
 * Basic Barre by Deuxjoint Ltd. Ballet Barre
 * One Man's Junk Car from Mechanically Minded Restorable Car
 * Round and Round Model Train Set
 * Don't Wake the Llama Board Game
 * The Formidable Formicarium Ant Farm
 * Teeny Tykes Activity Table
 * Simavarious VII Concert Violin
 * The BOB 3942 by SoundEscapes Synthesizer

New Interactions

 * Sims-based
 * Sims can birdwatch outdoors.
 * Hiking and jogging.
 * Bug Hunting.
 * Older Sims can teach a Nursery Rhyme to toddlers.


 * Object-based
 * Sims can enter contests and win prizes.
 * Crafted paintings can be framed.
 * Drawings drawn on Teeny Tykes Activity Table can be hung on wall.
 * Sims can tinker on most appliances, plumbings, and electronics.
 * Sims can discover new comets and planets that will grant §500 for the discovery.
 * The ReNuYuSenso Orb can be used to reset Aspiration benefits.

Trivia

 * This pack, along with The Sims 2: Apartment Life are the only expansion packs in The Sims 2 as well as the entire The Sims series never to be released for Mac. It was planned to release both packs for Mac but this never happened. It remains unknown why they were never released for Mac.

Gallery
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Media

 * Non-US