The Sims 2: Family Fun Stuff is an expansion pack that requires the complete Sims 2 game in order to play. In The Sims 2, like The Sims before it, which quickly grew to be on of the most popular PC games of all time, you create one or more autonomous characters (sims) with distinct personalities and needs. You then create a virtual household for your sims, deciding whether they're roommates, spouses, or parents, and you move them into a pre- or custom-built house and neighborhood.  Your sims will interact with each other and other sims in their community, with children going to school while the adults head to work. The Sims 2, however, has several new options, such as an enhanced neighborhood editor that lets you import custom cities from Maxis' own SimCity 4 (not included), and expanded building options for building bigger houses.

The most significant additions in The Sims 2 are the behavioral and character enhancements made to the sims themselves. While sims still have specific personality types determined by their horoscopes and adjustable individual characteristics, such as neatness, niceness, and playfulness, they now have some notable new features, such as memories, genetics, aging, and the new aspiration/fear system. When creating a family, you can now have the game randomly generate children based on their parents' appearance and personality, though you can still edit these children. You can choose to re-create a real-life couple or family to see what kind of genes get handed down from generation to generation. Or you can experiment by interjecting the DNA from an alien into the family tree, as The Sims 2 includes the ability to create aliens from outer space and even marry them off to your more outlandish sims family members.

The Family Fun Stuff expansion pack lets you add a whole new selection of furniture, clothing, and home decor to your Sims 2 characters' world. The decor comes in several different themes, each of which is distinct and fantastic. With this expansion pack you can turn your sims' house into a fantasy castle, complete with four poster beds and tapestries, or decide to make them pirate-loving deck hands with a nautical theme. Costumes come with each theme, letting you turn your sims into dragons, princesses, pirate captains, and more. The furniture matches the theme, so you can add items such as a captain's desk or a complete underwater kids' bedroom set to your nautical theme. For those of you who can't get enough of the virtual sims world, The Sims 2: Family Fun Stuff expansion pack will give you even more hours of fun, with 60 new items and costumes that give your virtual family a distinct look and character.