You may remember from early
screenshots of The Sims 2
that it was planned to have weather. Unfortunately, it didn't happen in the
end. Now, however, Maxis seems to have perfected it, and is bringing it to
us in the form of The Sims 2 Seasons!
All four seasons will feature (spring, summer, autumn and winter).
Thundershowers, snowstorms and hail are
just some of weather you can expect - and not just in a special
neighbourhood either, but everywhere. Your Sims are effected by that weather
too - their wants, fears, mood and relationships will change.
In
winter, kids and grown ups alike can enjoy the snow, build snowmen and go
ice-skating. In summer, why not go fishing?
Does you Sim like gardening? Then
they may want to join the new gardening club, where they'll get tips to
improve their garden. Like in The Sims Unleashed, Seasons allows you to
grow your own ingredients - although this time you can use them to make love
potions, energy drinks, health boosters and more, as well as food.
Seasons
also brings six new
careers - adventurer, gamer, music, law, journalism and
education.
For the first
time, your Sims need to choose their clothes carefully -
dress wrongly in Summer for instance, and your Sim could
get sunburn! Seasons brings new seasonal clothing including Winter coats,
gloves, ear muffs, raincoats, and Summer dresses.
Can't be bothered to wait for your
favourite season to come around? Get the weather control device (an
aspiration reward) and make it come instantly.
Other new items include a wishing well and
a pool slide nearly identical to the one seen in The Sims On Holiday.
All in all, it would not be unfair to say that Sims 2:
Seasons revolutionizes the game. Sure it looks the same,
sounds the same, and plays about the same, but it's a whole
new world out there, a world where nature reigns supreme and
your sims must bow to its forces or suffer the consequences.
Seasons is one of the most significant expansion pack of The
Sims 2. This one is a must-buy with the The Sims 2, whether
you're picking up The Sims for the first time or have been
at it for over seven years like us. The only thing missing
is a new external area (like the colleges of University, the
downtown areas of Nightlife, and the tiny shopping village
of Open For Business).
Maxis developers didn’t disappoint when they announced that
The Sims 2: Seasons would be their biggest and best
expansion pack for The Sims 2 so far. If you enjoy The Sims
2, by all means, pick up Seasons and give it a shot. If
nothing else, the changing of the seasons and their impact
on your quirky Sims add even more variety and life to an
already amusing people simulator.
It has well-balanced gameplay, and the fishing and gardening
allow your Sims to finally relax and enjoy the great outdoors
instead of constantly being in motion. Unfortunately, with all
of these new features come even longer loading times, but if you
don't mind this and are already addicted to The Sims, I'd highly
recommend this expansion pack.
There are plenty of nice new seasonal effects and items to enjoy
in The Sims 2 Seasons, but gameplay-wise, there is really not
much advancement at all compared to what arrived in the previous
expansion, Pets (or even as much as Open for Business or
University).
This is the perfect expansion for those gamers who hate the real
weather including the rain, snow, and sun. Now they can say they
had a grand time sledding or skiing without the worry of
frostbite. The Sims 2: The Seasons is one of the more expansive
expansions and easily one worth your time and money.
Even though The Seasons isn't an expansion pack that adds a
great deal in the way of compulsory objectives and items, it
does give your Sims a new purpose to stay at home. Its weather
effects are welcome and it's always nice to see your Sims'
aspiration wants longing for seasonal activities. Fishing,
kissing, catching fireflies at night, building snowmen, wishing
down the well and socialising around a campfire singing songs
when the sun is setting is the back to basics gameplay that we
were after this time around.
Seasons is a great expansion pack to The Sims 2. In fact, I’d go so far as
to say that it’s the best one out there. No, it doesn’t have the volume of
changes and additions that some of the other ones have, but everything in
Seasons fits so very well with The Sims 2 that it’s hard to imagine playing the
game without it.
The fun comes from watching how differently each season unfolds
and how it affects your Sims: Winter helps with family bonding,
spring brings romance, summer builds friendships, and fall
quickens learning new skills. Sims can play in the leaves, dance
in the rain, have snowball fights, or even get struck by
lightning -- virtual weather's never been quite this engrossing
(or unpredictable). Gardening's all the rage now, too, though
it's initially tedious, a new condition called "PlantSimism"
bestows your Sims with some amazing agricultural talents.
It's hard to appreciate until you see it in action, but the new
weather is a thing of beauty. Rain, sun, and snow are such a
significant part of the human condition that it's hard to
imagine going back to the perpetual bland springtime of the
previous Sims. What used to be a static outdoor
plot is now a showcase for rain and snow.
The Seasons expansion brings the world
more to life, and adds some elements that are guaranteed to
create more things for your Sims to do as they move through
their short lifespans. There are a few bumps in terms of
compatibility with past games (Pets and environmental pathing),
and the game had a problem (upon first launch) of recognizing
custom content, but seemed to correct that itself upon
subsequent launches. Still Seasons does what an expansion should
– it adds to the existing world and builds on the foundation of
the franchise.
Ultimately, Seasons does little more than add a visual upgrade
to The Sims 2, and it doesn't go as far as it should.
Practically nothing has been done for cross-expansion
overlapping, so those Pet owners looking forward to dogs romping
through the snow or playing with the sprinklers will be
disappointed. However, changing seasons provide great visuals
for the passage of time, as sims grow up and mature.
The new additions made the game that
much better; in fact, the weather aspect of it was meant
to be part of the original The Sims 2 but it never made
it because they didn't have it quite right just yet.
However, the wait was worth it, and they really did a
good job. I like the new approach to nature, the new
activities, the little improvements, and the
continuation of the "simmified" music library that
started with The Sims 2: Open for Business expansion
pack, launched one year ago.
Seasons also makes various other minor additions, such
as new career paths to follow and new wardrobe choices
to reflect the different seasons (such as snug winter
outerwear), and these are all presented in the exact
same distinctive style that you've come to expect from
the Sims 2, with its colorful graphics, expressively
animated characters, upbeat music, and the enthusiastic
"simlish" gibberish language that all characters speak.
But the main attractions are the seasonal gameplay and
the new farming and fishing gameplay.
Gardening and fishing offer interesting new ways to
approach the game, if you want to get away from the
virtual rat race, but other than that it's a
thematically confused update - somewhere between a
oversized object pack and an impressive weather system
tech demo.
Thanks to
Metacritic for pointing me to these reviews