EA had a hit on their hands at the turn of the century with the release of The Sims. The wide appeal even converted a few non-gamers, causing them to spend hours building houses and making their Sims pee. From evil gamers who wished to torture their Sims to happy-go-lucky types who loved making families and romance, The Sims sold copies to every style of player. A string of successful expansion packs followed, including vacations, pets, dating and even the ability to climb the ladder of Hollywood. This year, EA's behind closed doors screening of The Sims 2 showed off the new Sims in all their glory.

Please note that all images included in this article were captured by digital camera from the PC version demonstration of the title at E3. These are not official screen shots released by Maxis or Electronic Arts.

According to their pre-E3 press release, "The Sims changed the face of gaming in the new millennium and quickly became the No. 1 PC franchise of all time. The next generation of The Sims, The Sims 2, is poised to make its debut at this year's E3. A lively 3D world, more life-like Sims, all-new gameplay, and the addition of genetics, with the DNA of Sims passed down through generations will give players a more vivid, realistic, and in-depth Sims experience. For the first time, players will be able to control their Sims across a lifetime. As you manage 'Life's Big Moments', your Sims will earn a 'Life Score' that measures how well you are playing the game. Each choice you make will have a relevant and dramatic effect on the life of your Sims. Your Sims will be more aware and responsive to their surroundings, able to form complex relationships, and more expressive than ever before. The Sims 2 is scheduled for release on the PC in early 2004."

The buzzword in the booth this year was "generational." The Sims are generational, the simulation is generational and the features are generational. This is a good explanation of the game, as many of the new gameplay mechanics are based on generations. No longer will you be limited to the lifetime of one Sim. Your Sims will now grow old and pass away, leaving behind a legacy of children that look like them. This leads us to the character development model for the game.

Each Sim you create can be tailored explicitly to your needs. You can even make them look like Spock or Mr. T if you like. Changes in eye color and hair color are pretty standard, but the facial feature construction is rivaled only by Linden Lab's recent release, Second Life. Every single facial feature is accounted for in the new method. You can raise the bridge of the nose, widen it, take the chin up or down, open up the brow a bit, puff out the cheeks, pull the ears in a little…everything can be customized to your desire.

This customization applies not just to the characters you create, but to every character that follows in the family tree. Offspring will share traits of both parents, creating new and sometimes frightening results. Families can have up to eight people now and there are signs that you'll be able to invite just as many over to your house to party, if not more.

The setup is still basically the same. You'll have a neighborhood in which you can choose a lot to build your house. Houses are a bit more complex now, with the ability to build above two levels, build on hills, set down foundations, and adjust angles for staircases between multi-leveled decks…pretty good stuff for Sims architecture junkies. The whole thing is topped off with a new graphical engine that puts the old Sims to shame. Deeply immersing graphics provide visual feedback in place of the attribute indicator bars of old. If your Sim is lazy, he'll get a little chubbier. If you want him to lose weight, a little time on the exercise equipment will trim him down. This is all accompanied by visual cues that literally show all of the attributes on screen.

The addition of such features is certainly welcome in the series, and The Sims 2 looks primed to blow its predecessors out of the water. Much like the Sim I saw swimming in the spa during a thunderstorm, fans are in for a pretty big shock. I asked some pretty big questions that don't have answers yet, and those that were answered came out pretty vague. The following are among those that were answered:

Q: Will the Sims be able to go out of their houses?

A: A communal space is being considered to allow your Sims freedom of movement beyond the confines of their house.

Q: Will the time compression be changed so that Sims don't end up spending a half hour each time they need to go to the bathroom?

A: That hasn't yet been determined, but they said they might consider tuning the time compression if they felt that Sims were spending too much time doing certain things.