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Computer & Video Games | Home » » The Sims 2: FreeTime Expansion Pack | | | | | | | Description: | | The Sims 2: FreeTime PC | | | Features: | |
• Discover new activity types
• New group activities
• Hobbies offer lifetime rewards
• Requires The Sims 2, The Sims 2 Special DVD Edition, The Sims 2 Holiday Edition, or The Sims 2 Deluxe to play.
| | | Product Details: | | | Product Length:
| 7.5 inches | | Product Width:
| 5.25 inches | | Product Height:
| 1.0 inches | | Product Weight:
| 0.44 pounds | | Package Length:
| 7.4 inches | | Package Width:
| 5.4 inches | | Package Height:
| 1.1 inches | | Package Weight:
| 0.3 pounds | | Release Date:
| February 26, 2008 | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 58 reviews |
| | | Game Information: | | | Platform:
| Windows 98 / Windows 2000 / Windows XP | | Media:
| CD-ROM | | Item Quantity:
| 1 |
| | | | Used and New: | | | |
| All | |
| $18.50 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $18.50 | Used
- Good | | | $19.50 | Used
- Mint | | | $19.84 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $19.84 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $19.87 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $19.87 | Used
- Good | | | $19.87 | Used
- Mint | | | $19.87 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $19.90 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $19.94 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $19.94 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $20.00 | Used
- Mint | | | $20.00 | Used
- Mint | | | $20.99 | Used
- Good | | | $22.95 | Used
- Mint | | | $24.95 | Used
- Good | | | $25.00 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $29.97 | Used
- Mint | | | $29.99 | New | | | $33.29 | New | | | $33.49 This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. | New | | | $33.49 | New | | | $34.97 | Used
- Mint | | | $41.50 | New | | | $44.00 | New | | | $44.67 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $45.00 | Used
- Good | | | $48.94 This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. | New | | | $51.40 | New | | | $59.99 This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. | New | | | $98.50 | New | |
| New | |
| $29.99 | New | | | $33.29 | New | | | $33.49 This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. | New | | | $33.49 | New | | | $41.50 | New | | | $44.00 | New | | | $48.94 This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. | New | | | $51.40 | New | | | $59.99 This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. | New | | | $98.50 | New | |
| Used | |
| $18.50 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $18.50 | Used
- Good | | | $19.50 | Used
- Mint | | | $19.84 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $19.84 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $19.87 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $19.87 | Used
- Good | | | $19.87 | Used
- Mint | | | $19.87 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $19.90 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $19.94 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $19.94 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $20.00 | Used
- Mint | | | $20.00 | Used
- Mint | | | $20.99 | Used
- Good | | | $22.95 | Used
- Mint | | | $24.95 | Used
- Good | | | $25.00 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $29.97 | Used
- Mint | | | $34.97 | Used
- Mint | | | $44.67 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $45.00 | Used
- Good | |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 58 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
86 of 87 found the following review helpful:
 Fun Freetime Activities - and Sim telemarketersMar 31, 2008
By Teahouse Fox
"...and this is my favorite store on the Internet!"
Freetime, like all of the previous Expansion Packs (EPs) adds new and interesting functionality to The Sims 2. Sims as young as toddlers can stumble upon an activity that they find particularly appealing and get additional fun and perks while engaged in it.
Hobbies include science, nature, music, cuisine, tinkering, sports and fitness. Now considering the different activities and career paths that were already present, these add many new possibilities for finding a fulfilling lifetime of fun for your Sims.
New careers have also been added, new objects, such as the restorable car, the basketball and soccer nets, and new functionality to old objects like the newspaper and computer and career 'chance' cards that allow your Sim to take part in and share their love for their hobbies and gain enthusiasm.
Your sims can now pick their hobbies as a topic of conversation, and impart knowledge to other sims for relationship building and enthusiasm gain.
Sims also gain lifetime aspiration points for milestones that take place in their lives. Starting with toddlers who get points for learning the three primary growth skills of their age group (walking, talking and potty training), your sims will gain points to put towards perks such as a secondary aspiration, slower need decay, better luck at chance cards, the ability to make three way calls and give financial advice for cash, and much more. Of particular use is the ability to make Grandma's comfort soup, which drastically shortens the time your sims have the flu.
But, there is something annoying that happens once you install Freetime: Spam. Your Sims are spammed at every turn by the game announcing via a pop-up that a particular sim has gained or lost enthusiasm for one hobby or another. Once you get to higher levels, the spam increases, with your sims getting incessant phone calls from various hobby clubs and sims offering magazine subscriptions related to your sims hobbies.
Eventually, the NPC sims just barge in to your sims homes and give them membership cards to the new secret hobby lots of their interest area. There they can share their hobbies with other like minded sims and compete in contests for simoleons and build enthusiam even more.
The spam starts to encroach on your enjoyment of the game, as the phone ringing is not likely to be a buddy any more, but a hobby club telling your sim about their enthusiasm level. It makes you wish for Sim caller ID or phone screening. Even if you cancel the action of your sim answering the call, you still get a pop up about it. And if you have a full house of sims, it gets maddening, pop-ups filling the entire right side of the screen.
So, great EP if you can overlook your sims getting spammed to death. If simulated telemarketing reminds you too much of telemarketing in real life that prompted you to put every phone number you have on the National Do Not Call List, maybe this EP will get on your nerves.
(Supposedly, there is a user-authored mod that reduces in-game spam, but I haven't tried it yet. I'll update after I give it a go)
EDIT: I downloaded a user-authored mod that cuts the spam down to a reasonable amount. It's still more than I'd like. And Mr. Humble, wherever you are - I think it stinks that this EP has made the game so annoying. Does anyone there market test your stuff with real players? It seems like it never was, other wise you'd know how annoying this EP was.
73 of 76 found the following review helpful:
Freetime Expansion Adds New Dimension to GameplayFeb 28, 2008
By Ashley L. Sheppard
The Sims 2 Freetime offers just what the title implies; activities and goals for your sims when they are not busy with their usual day-to-day activities.
I was fairly impressed by this new expansion because of all the elements it added. When I first played expansions such as Pets and Bon Voyage, I got just what I expected. With this expansion, I not only got hobbies, but I got a new aspiration meter with rewards, and lifetime friends as well as "BFFs".
Not only does this expansion add all these elements, but the main theme of the expansion, hobbies, was incorporated seamlessly into the gameplay. This was done not only with a variety of new objects, but by giving new functionality and value to old objects. For example, I was impressed when I found out that my sims can now read a variety of books, or watch different genres of movies. They can also write a somewhat customized novel, and it is delivered to their door! And sims that enjoy "tinkering" will find that they can "tinker" with many items they already have in their house.
There are, of course, a few downsides to the new expansion. It seems like sim motives decrease at a faster rate than before, although there are now unlockable rewards that allow you to slow this. It also seems to take a very long time to earn badges. Hobbies are not always the easiest thing to max out enthusiasm for either; it takes a lot of time. The variety of ways to increase this enthusiasm helps, as does the fact that a sim has a particular hobby that they will excel in faster than any other.
Overall, it is a very enjoyable expansion. I enjoy it much more than the most recent expansions, and I feel that it does add a new dimension to gameplay, as well as gives your sims a new kind of personality.
30 of 30 found the following review helpful:
 FreeTime Takes Up All My Free Time!Mar 04, 2008
By Benjamin Roberts
I picked up Sims2 FreeTime last Thursday, and if I hadn't created a Sim that looked like my wife, I probably would have forgotten what she looked like. There is something postmodern about being up at 1:30 AM on a Thursday night with your wife saying, "Come on, put the game away", while a Sim that looks like your wife makes hand gestures at a Sim that looks like you who is playing The Sims 3 on HIS computer.
FreeTime allows you to have enjoyable hobbies, often with things you were doing already, such as cooking, working out, watching movies, etc. Now, those tasks translate into cuisine, fitness, or film and literature. All your sims will enjoy at least one of these activities more than the others, which will allow them to have more fun and do more activities. If your sim is really into cuisine, he'll enjoy cooking and watching the cooking channel, but he'll be able to do other things such as read cooking magazines, blog about cooking, talk to other Sims about cooking, get a membership in a cooking club, enter a cooking competition, and more.
Your sims may also enjoy sewing, pottery, etc. They can work on old broke down cars. And the expansion pack adds some items that will be familiar to those who enjoyed the first Sims game, including a basketball hoop, the hobby train, and the genie in the bottle (who grants three wishes!)
Novel writing is better than before as well. Your Sim can sit down to write his novel, and select plot points, the cover, etc. When the novel arrives and Sims read the novel, the plot points of the novel will appear over their heads in thought bubbles.
There are cool new career paths, as well. There is Oceanographer, with a Koi pond as the reward; an Intelligence Agent with a listening device reward; Entertainer with a Walk of Fame star; Architect with a drafting table reward; or dancer with a ballet bar reward.
Another great feature is the ability to take up to 3 friends with you as you age. That way, your Sim doesn't become an old man while the girl he shared his first kiss with remains a teenager in high school.
FreeTime may not be the absolute best expansion pack to date, but it will definitely take up YOUR free time.
47 of 52 found the following review helpful:
APPARENTLY THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS TOO MUCH FREE TIMEFeb 28, 2008
By NeuroSplicer
This is the...7th expansion of the SIMS 2, so one has to ask: was there ANYTHING not done yet? Well, apparently yes.
Our Sims are given a choice of 10 hobbies (ranging from dancing and sports to...video games - Sims playing the SIMS 3? Yeah...deliciously ironic) which not only improve their mood but also their job skills if compatible. Said leisure-time activities can also serve in making money, since most hobbies end up, first, creating something and, then, improving on it.
Yes, there is a new Hobby-meter...Keeping it high will ensure your Sim's admittance into hobby-specific exclusive clubs. There are music and dance, arts and crafts, sports, fitness, scientific, nature lovers, gaming, cuisine, tinkering, and, finally, film and literature clubs - each branching out into more specialized subcategories.
Besides new clothes and items, this expansion comes with 5 new careers: architect, dancer, entertainer, intelligence officer (no Sim-Jack Bauer, no) and oceanographer. The controls are more or less the same - and so are the graphics and sounds (well, whatever sound the SIMS ever had). What I did not appreciate was...SecuROM (hence the second star withheld).
SIMS 2 always required a lot of micromanagement. FREETIME does add another level of complication, but I am sure it will appeal not only to hard-core Sims-fans. However, by taking care of your Sims' free time, make sure they do not take up all of yours...
Since this is supposed to be the last expansion, fans of the series will not resist. However, keep in mind that EA will probably release a SIM 2 bundle in a couple of months. If missing on more than a couple of expansions, I would advise to wait.
14 of 14 found the following review helpful:
 Caveat emptorOct 27, 2008
By Chuck
Just be aware this product contains some security software called SecuROM.
The game ran on my system exactly once before the SecuROM software shut it down. The SecuROM software would insist I had loaded a backup or a copy and would not allow the game to run. Ea customer support blamed everything from my video driver to dust on the disk. I still haven't gotten the game to run again. I liked the game very much the one time I got to play it.
Caveat emptor
See all 58 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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