The Sims 2: FreeTime

This expansion pack introduces various activities that have potential to bring happiness, new friendships, and even a profit of cold hard Simoleans to Sims characters with idle hands. New pastime activities include sports such as basketball and soccer, dancing, hiking, and other physical activities, arts and crafts such as pottery or cooking, and even recreations such as stargazing or video gaming. A Sim's dedication to a chosen hobby can unlock new aspirations and life goals, reveal new "secret" lots in the neighborhood, and may even lead to new career paths. As with other Sims 2 skills and activities, part of the fun is in watching characters develop and improve. The first few tries at pottery may yield ugly, lopsided vessels, or the rookie hiker may accidentally wander into a patch of poison ivy, but such early setbacks only serve to make later successes sweeter. Accomplished artists and craftspeople can sell their works for good money, amateur chefs can enter their signature dishes in cook-off contests, and even dedicated video gamers can join tournaments to prove their pixelated prowess.

The premise of The Sims 2: FreeTime is the addition of hobbies to the game. Prior to the expansion pack's release, gameplay of The Sims 2 was primarily oriented around increasing skills and relationship meters in order to advance milestones, such as promoting a Sim to the highest level of a career. FreeTime adds ten possible hobbies for Sims to advance in, adding another dimension of gameplay. These hobbies can be purely avocational, or they can intertwine with existing systems; some hobbies can be used to advance skill building (such as the Tinkering hobby advancing the Mechanical skill), while some can be used to earn money. The possible hobbies—Arts & Crafts, Cuisine, Film & Literature, Fitness, Games, Music & Dance, Nature, Science, Sports, and Tinkering—are tracked using a ten-level "enthusiasm" system. Sims gain enthusiasm in a hobby as they pursue it, but lose enthusiasm if they neglect it. As Sims build enthusiasm in a hobby, they gain options such as the ability to talk about it with other Sims, to instruct Sims in it, and to blog about their hobbies. Individual hobbies offer specific bonuses; for instance, Sims interested in cuisine can make cheese platters, those interested in fitness can go jogging, and those interested in science can search for UFOs. These abilities can allow Sims to gain skills, earn money, or fulfill their needs more easily. Sims who achieve high-level enthusiasm in a hobby can also join dedicated clubs, which allow them to socialize with Sims who share their interests, and upon reaching the tenth level of a hobby receive a commemorative plaque. FreeTime revamps the base game's aspiration system. Sims' accomplishments are measured through a system known as aspiration, which determines their long-term goals and short-term desires. A Sim has one of several possible aspirations (Knowledge, Family, Fortune, Romance, or Popularity in the base game; The Sims 2: Nightlife adds Pleasure and Grilled Cheese) that affect their wants, fears, and lifetime wants. As wants and fears are fulfilled, they gain and lose aspiration points on a scale from red (lowest) to platinum (highest). FreeTime adds a Lifetime Aspiration meter alongside the short-term system impacted by immediate wants and fears. Sims gain lifetime aspiration points as they achieve milestones, such as graduating school or university, woohooing for the first time, giving birth to or adopting a child, and reaching the highest level of a career. Should a Sim achieve the highest possible lifetime aspiration, they gain "permanent platinum mood", placing them in a good mood for the rest of their lives. As well as the lifetime aspiration system, FreeTime adds secondary aspirations and aspiration rewards. Secondary aspirations allow Sims to have the wants, fears, and benefits of another aspiration alongside their primary one. The "hidden" Grilled Cheese expansion, which makes Sims fascinated with grilled cheese sandwiches, was introduced in Nightlife as an aspiration only accessible through interacting with a specific item; FreeTime makes it accessible as a secondary aspiration to all players. Players can spend a Sim's lifetime aspiration points to grant them particular bonuses known as lifetime aspiration rewards. Some of these rewards are available to all Sims, such as slower motive decay or work performance benefits. Others are specific to particular aspirations; for instance, Family Sims can learn a soup recipe that cures illnesses, Grilled Cheese Sims can conjure grilled cheese sandwiches from nowhere, and Knowledge Sims can summon aliens. Lifetime aspiration rewards are a four-tiered system; Sims can gain all rewards from their primary aspiration and the first three from their secondary aspiration. FreeTime adds five new career tracks to the game: Entertainment, Dance, Architecture, Intelligence, and Oceanography. It is the third and last expansion pack to add new careers for Sims, following The Sims 2: University and The Sims 2: Seasons. It adds a large number of new objects and functionalities; as well as over 100 objects added specifically in the expansion pack, it expands the range of interactions available with many pre-existing items. For instance, the novel-writing system is revamped to let Sims write particular genres of novels and give players some control over their plot elements, and the painting easel is expanded to let Grilled Cheese Sims paint still life paintings of sandwiches. The expansion pack also adds a new in-game neighborhood, Desiderata Valley, alongside the three pre-made neighborhoods in the base game. It was the second expansion to add a new base neighborhood, following Seasons.