I do have to admit here, I bought and installed House Party and Hot Date the same day, and I previously had Livin' Large installed (on the Mac) so if my comments run together, that's why. :-)

In my humble opinion, Hot Date (the 3rd expansion pack for the Sims) is AWESOME. I've only had it for about 2 weeks, so I haven't found *all* the features yet, but I'm endlessly amused. I can't believe I played the Sims without an expansion pack for so long!

Intro: I have a fast computer (PIII, 512 meg of ram) But compared to playing it on an older machine, the intro flies. I still find the "reticulating spines" message way too amusing.

Character creation: Lots of options have been added for creating characters. They now have punk people, and some really great theme outfits. It's much better than the boring jeans and t-shirt'ed bald men. I think it could be better if you could seperately pick the face and the hair though, because some of the hairstyles would just look better on different faces. It would probably be an easy thing to do, and it would make the options even greater.

Items: TONS of new items that you can furnish your home with, and as in the previous games, you buy each of these using the game's shopping and building interface. Also as in the previous games, each of the new additions you can make to your home is accompanied by an usually amusing description. It also actually lets you use some items--ones that your sims either buy or make by hand--as gifts to give to other sims.

Interactions: Although the sims still talk to each other in that horrible gibberish (almost like the people in Charlie Brown cartoons..) They DID add some new voices. You can now wave at sims, shake their hands, and do lots of other activities, like "worship" "admire" "talk about... interests, gossip" and drive the conversation to what interests the other sims to get better points for compatability. They've added lots of different kisses (from suave, to peck on the cheek, to polite..) and hugs too. Just be careful when on a date, not to start off on the wrong foot (that "passionate" kiss might not be appreciated by someone you've only known for 5 minutes) There are also new meters for relationships, present and lifetime. While present goes up and down depending on the conversation and actions, lifetime is a slow but steady guage of how they REALLY feel about your sim.

Downtown: You can build your own lot downtown! Create anything from an ice cream shoppe to a brothel by using the same simple commands as when you're making a neighborhood.

All in all, a great expansion pack. Just make sure you have a computer that flies, or your sims will be hopping across the screen instead of smoothly walking!






Recommended: Yes