You’ve probably heard by now that one of the biggest changes in store in The Sims 2 is that your sims will experience the full lifecycle. Kids will grow up and adults will age, and new generations of sims will be born to take their place. Rather than simply changing your sim’s appearance to simulate aging, The Sims 2 adds two new components to your sim to really make him or her more lifelike: DNA and memories.

Sim DNA adds an interesting new genetics aspect to the game that will have a big effect on your sims. The first consequence of Sim DNA is that sim children will resemble their parents. Rather than simply using a standard formula to combine the parents’ features and crank out a set of clone-like children, The Sims 2 will combine the parents’ traits while leaving in the same random factor found in real life. The result is children that resemble their parents, but also have their own unique look. Siblings will bear a family resemblance to each other, but will be unique individuals with a unique appearance. In The Sims, there were plenty of ways to customize your sim, but this number was finite. You could easily see your sim's doppelganger when visiting Downtown or viewing screenshots online. With Sim DNA, though, the possibilities are virtually unlimited. More than ever, your sims will truly be your sims – distinct from the sims created by other players.

I can't help it if my parents were slobs!

Sim DNA will control more than a sim’s appearance; it will have an affect on his or her personality.  In real-life, certain personality traits are often passed from one generation to the next.  Like father, like son, right?  Well this maxim will apply in The Sims 2 as well.  Sim parents will pass on their personality traits to their children through their Sim DNA.  Don’t expect your shy and lazy slob of a sim to father many world-beating, go-getters.

Sim DNA will affect how your sims start out in life, but where they go from there will depend a lot on what they experience on the road of life.  In The Sims, your sim began each day as if it was his or her first.  As long as a sim’s motives were filled, the sim would be happy no matter what happened the day before.  In The Sims 2 your sims will now have memories, and these memories will shape your sims’ personalities throughout their lives.  Since these memories will affect a sim’s personality, the behaviors exhibited by the sim and the interactions available to him or her will vary depending on the sim’s life experience.

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