The Sims 2: Open for Business [PC]

When it comes to traditional gaming, The Sims 2 has always been outside of the box. By design, it's a game that isn't: A true sandbox title that gives players the ability to guide virtual characters through life and love without ever bogging them down in real world difficulties. Now the latest expansion, Open for Business, dabbles with complexity for the first time. It's a departure that is both fun and challenging, but also risks alienating casual players in favor of dedicated fans.

Up until Open for Business, "work" in the Simverse simply consisted of sending your sim off to a mystical place for a set number of hours each day. Where they went and what they did was relatively unimportant--it was out of sight, out of mind. With Open for Business, you can not only take your sim to work, but you can start a business from the ground up.

To facilitate the commerce system, Open for Business adds three types of stores to the Simverse: Pay Per Item, Pay Per Use, and Pay Per Time. By using one of these three models you can create virtually any type of retail store. For example, Pay Per Item is the traditional retail model, such as a flower shop. Here, you need to worry about purchasing inventory, stocking shelves, and selling items to the customers. Pay Per Use stores are service oriented, such as a salon, while Pay Per Time stores are places like nightclubs which charge visiting sims by the hour.

Open for Business has a surprisingly open-ended system, allowing you to create a home-based business or open a store in a separate location. Either way, you still have to worry about hiring employees, buying (or making) items to sell, convincing customers to buy, and hoping that those who are happy with their purchase will come back again. Though the depth is to be commended, the early stages of launching a business take quite a bit of micromanaging if you want to be successful.

One of the major new features is the talent system. Talents are work-related skills that help make sims better businesspeople. When hiring employees, it's a good idea to review their talents in order to find a good fit for the job. For example, if you are running a beauty salon, hiring sims with a cosmetology talent will be to your advantage. That said, sims can improve their skills by doing things over and over, so when you find a solid employee, keep them happy.

Management is more than just nurturing good employees though. Sometimes you get a bad apple and if that happens, it's time to give them the pink slip. Just like in real life, firing an employee causes a lot of negative feelings, so be careful when hiring friends to work in your shop.