I just stumbled upon a thread in the official BBS, in which Maxis gives a few details about the Sims 2. First of all, MaxisProducer states that some bugs with the Body Shop concerning lightning and graphics have been fixed. This will hopefully solve some problems with blurry or even black custom content on certain hardware combinations. He's still being unclear about the possibilities for your Sim families to have a second 'vacation' home. One thing that is now sure is that the thirst, mood and family motives are indeed taken out of the game. The motives are now the same as in the Sims 1. The new ones didn't add much to the game, and the wants and fears seemed more important to Maxis. Finally, MaxisProducer also tells us that the web team is working on a tutorial about how to import SimCity 4 neighborhoods to The Sims 2. The following is already being said about it though (which too, isn't extremely clear):

"1 SC4 grid tile = 1 Sims2 neighborhood grid tile = 10 Sims2 lot tiles. you should know that you can only use the smallest SC4 city size, from in the region map and you should confine your (Sims2 buildable lots area) roads to within the middle 1/2 of the SC4 city map."

The webteam is also busy building the new Sims 2 site, but the tutorial should arrive some time soon. It's just "not ready for prime time yet," according to MaxisLucky. We'll keep you posted.