Product Reviews

Open for Business, an expansion pack for the The Sims 2, allows you to follow your Sims to work and control their business lives as well as their personal lives. Starting the game gives you the opportunity to create a new shopping district where you can build dedicated shops or buy existing ones.

If you don't want to do this, you can start small and operate a home business. To start, all you need is a cash register. Part of the The Sims' charm is its flexibility, which extends to Open for Business. You can create and run any type of business you like, as every object in the catalogue can be put up for sale.

In addition, you can buy a ticket machine and charge people for the amount of time they spend in your shop. For example, you could set up a load of games consoles and charge people for using them.

The real fun comes from buying your own shop and going to work there. There's a selection of shops that you can buy for a wide range of prices. However, as you scroll through the list there's no obvious way of seeing which you can afford.

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A simple option that greys out those you can't afford would have been better.

To operate the business, you need to get the Sim that owns it to go to the shop. If they have a car, they can drive; otherwise, a taxi will suffice. You have to select the destination from a list; it's a shame there are no short cuts for properties that you own.

Once in your shop, you can hire and fire staff, and give them uniforms. Part of the fun of the game comes from training your staff. There's a range of skills they can learn, including salesmanship. The better they get at each skill, the better your business will perform.

You must carefully manage employees to keep your business running smoothly. Assign your staff jobs such as restocking the shop, operating the till or working the shop floor. Don't forget your development, though. You need to work hard to build up a decent sales patter so you can boost purchases and increase your profits.

If you'd like to micromanage your business, you can set the price for individual items in your store. There's also a global option to set pricing from ridiculously cheap to extortionately expensive. It's important to get the right balance so you improve customer loyalty.

As well as selling predefined objects, you can buy workstations to build products. These are mostly toy machines, which is fine if you're running a toy shop, but hardly fitting if you run a clothes shop. A wider selection of stations would have been nice.

Still, the minor flaws in this expansion pack aren't enough to ruin a flexible and extremely fun way of taking your Sims through their professional lives.