Home Sweet Home 2:
Kitchens and Baths
Platform: Windows
From the city lofts and apartments comes the sound of home improvement: hammers pounding, saws buzzing, and paint rollers slopping. Is it a new season for Do-Up-My-Home-TV? No, even better. The crack design team of the now-classic game, Home Sweet Home, has returned. But these designers aren't content with country living rooms any more. Home Sweet Home 2: Kitchens and Baths takes style to new heights by tackling big city high rise apartments, along with some sleek improvements and additional rooms.
Following the same basic principle as the original Home Sweet Home, this game allows you to decorate the kitchens and bathrooms of your dreams-or at least the dreams of your clients, at least. Choose the right items to please the customers, using their poetic hints as a guide. Once your design has been approved, direct the workers to build each item.
As before, the building phase is under a strict time limit. However, some improvements make the process go a little more smoothly. Some effects, like picking up the garbage, are simply more streamlined, while other improvements are a pleasant surprise. For instance, if you choose extra items to go into the design (just so it will look right), an equal amount of extra items will arrive pre-assembled. In other words, you don't necessarily have to spend your precious few days painting that essential picture over the sink.
Once you have a few designer apartments in your portfolio, you can return to your own house, where you can get your fill of faucets and fixtures. Here, you can choose from different rooms to design, including the kitchen, the bathroom, and the living room from Home Sweet Home 2. Different floorplans are available at the click of button. If you manage to unlock enough items, you may be able to design your (nearly) complete dream home.
Home Sweet Home 2 is a delightful expansion for an already entertaining game. Being able to expand into new rooms, in addition to the new puzzles presented by a city full of new clients, is more than the home design gaming fanatic could hope for. Well, I suppose we're still waiting to design the master bedroom... and the closets, the garden, the garage, the attic and... well, there is still room for the series to grow. In the meantime, enjoy putting the polishing touch on that designer kitchen that you've always dreamed about, in Home Sweet Home 2.
Windows:
Download the demo
Get the full version
Mac OS X:
Not available.
Try Boot Camp or Parallels or CrossOver Games.
Oh! I'm so excited that this has finally been released. I've played through the first one probably 5 times. I got started on the new kitchens and baths yesterday and I'm loving it!
Would someone like to correct the listing - Download (Mac, Windows) - since it can't be used for a Mac without the same system modifications that allow us to use any Windows software?
It's hard enough that JayisGames so often lists only Windows games as though everyone can use them, without these kinds of mistakes...
Oh we are very sorry to have inconvenienced you. It's fixed.
It's not Jay's fault that the game writers don't write as many games for Mac as they do Windows.
That's not anything against the Mac, just an observation.
I have Windows Vista, and I got the message that it wasn't compatible with my color scheme and I needed "Vista Basic". Weird! Other than that, fun game!
To Ayumi:
The same thing happened to me with the color scheme message. I fiddled around in Control Panel and sure enough, I was set on Windows Aero. I changed it to Vista Basic and it worked fine. You know Vista has to be difficult. :)
Why can't I download any Bigfish games? I can't even get the game manager to download, it just stops halfway...any help?
No offense, but it would be nice if you were a little more specific than "fiddle around in Control Panel" to help people who don't know how to switch to Vista Basic.
It took me a LOT of googling, but apparently I was supposed to right click on my desktop, Personalize, get to Window Color and Appearance, and and open the classic properties for more options.
How inconvenient! I've played much more basic and enjoyable games that automatically switched to Basic if it needed to!
Alternatively, one can right click on the game icon> properties> compatibility> and disable desktop composition.
To Raibear:
My apologies. I wrongly assumed that people know how to use Control Panel for their computer settings.
Pam,
I understood exactly what you meant about fiddling around in the Control Panel. It was actually a really easy switch to make from Windows Aero to Windows Vista Basic. Anyone who has even the slightest knowledge of their computer system should know how to do that without having to resort to any amount of Goggling. I wouldn't say that it is all that inconvenient but rather just a little annoying until you get in the habit of doing it.
I rather feel this game is a poor example of a 'time-management' game. I started playing this genre when msn introduced 'diner-dash' and have loved them since!
Unfortunately I feel Home sweet Home 2 lacks a few things. Foremost...the big bulky hand cursor was a poor design...and they never gave you the option of switching to a regular cursor. Reason being that half the time you go to pick up a builder.... well...it just doesn't pick them up. Same goes for giving them coffee/tools/first aide...a percentage of the time it doesn't even register. Same goes for dropping them onto a project...you think you have it, and then they just walk away. Wasting valuable time.
I'm running the game on a 2 month old computer...so it's not my computer. I wish it was!
The reason I play the games is because of the 'time-based-action'...I like the rush to get it done. But I find myself increasingly frustrated with the game play and have decided that I will not finish this one.
It IS fun to play...but I only recommend it to those who do not get easily frustrated or those who don't feel the need to score 100% on every level. It is possible to play through the game w/o scoring 100% every time...yet I never feel a game is truly played unless it is complete.
Has anyone experienced the problem of the building setting not working? I go through, design the whole room, then when it comes time to build, 2 things happen.
First, it sets the build time at a negative number, so that the time over with as soon as I start the build mode.
Second, it blanks out the entire room, down to concrete walls, and no floors. Even the items that were there in the original build are gone.
What it results in, is no build setting at all, and no build points. Since I can't earn build points, I can't unlock anything.
I just bought it earlier this week, and since then, I have emailed yahoo (whom I bought it from), and eGames (whom I presume built it, since they were in charge of the 1st one, and the Christmas edition), and have gotten no response out of anyone.
Since I paid for it, I'm getting kind of irritated. Sooo... has anyone had this issue? I have it set to the correct windows setting.
[Edit: I haven't seen this on any of the Home Sweet Home games. It sounds like something you'll have to deal with through Yahoo since that's where you purchased the game. -Pam]
I'm on level 17 for The Krams and I'm stuck. I got the hints: seating for 15, table setting for 10, and 2 dog and 3 cat dishes on the table. This level only allows for 11 items.
I can't get pass this level. D:
Update