B_Campbell's Full Review: The Sims Expansion: Hot Date (Mac)
At first, I wasn't sure what to make of Hot Date, the third expansion for the wildly popular game The Sims. A friend of mine had told me from the day the original game was released that they needed to let us take our Sims out of the home. I was skeptical of how this would work; where would they go? And would you control them all, or just one at a time? How do you resolve the time difference between home and away? What happens to the home while they're gone?
It turns out that Hot Date gives your Sims the ability to do exactly what my friend suggested. With this expansion, they're no longer bound to the house, but can finally go elsewhere to visit new places, meet new people, and git bizzay yo.
Since Hot Date is an expansion and cannot be played without the original game, I'm not going to go into depth on the basic gameplay - see my review of The Sims for that. Instead, I'll highlight the important additions the expansion offers.
The most noticeable addition is, of course, the new Downtown. Your Sims, formerly bound to live and die on one small, solitary patch of land forever, can finally get out of the house. Downtown offers tons of new things to do, along with new people to meet - there are vendors, stores, parks, games, and on and on. The inhabitants of Downtown, the Townies, are really a lifesaver and help make it easier for your Sims to get promotions. Before, your Sims could only befriend other Sims in their neighborhood. This meant that, if you needed 8 friends for a promotion, you needed to make 8 other Sims in that same neighborhood. This could get a bit tiring and frustrating, but now that there are dozens of Townies, all you have to do is visit Downtown, meet a few, and then call them up from home. No more populating neighborhoods with filler Sims.
Not only can your Sims visit the Downtown area, but you can also customize it in Build and Buy modes. Here's the thing: there are no money restrictions! You can build to your heart's content in Downtown, and make whatever you want! Finally, you can build that architectural masterpiece that you've been saving funds for, without worrying about kicking your Sims out.
My original question was: how does this downtown work? It turns out that the designers did a pretty good job of it, and the result is both fun and balaced in terms of gameplay. Only one Sim from your household can go Downtown at a time, but they can invite another Sim from another household with them (that's where the date in Hot Date comes in). Once there, time progresses for that Sim, but at home time stands still. So, if you leave for Downtown at 12:30, spend six hours there, and return, it's still 12:30 at home but six hours have passed for your Sim. This seems like it can be abused - go Downtown and fill your Sim up on what they need for a promotion - but during thier stay Downtown, your Sim still must fulfill their needs. Eventually, Energy runs out (no sleeping Downtown), and you must return home, where your Sim can rest. Note that this throws off their entire schedule! While an industrious player may try to take advantage of Downtown to get 'quick' promotions, it's difficult to do well and Downtown is better suited to what it was really designed for - meeting people and trying out all the new activities.
Beyond the new area, there are some significant changes to the game's basic functions. Most importantly, the relationship meters have been altered. Previously, relationships were fairly simple; interactions between Sims either increased or decreased the relationship, and over time the relationship score steadily dropped. Hot Date changes this by using a long-term and short-term relationship system instead. It still looks similar to the original meter, but functions very differently. Basically, the short term meter will slowly pull the long-term meter toward itself, while the long-term meter quickly pulls the short-term meter toward itself. This means that it takes a bit longer to make a friend or fall in love, but once that's been reached, it's harder for it to fall off over time. This not only introduces a bit of challenge to making friends, but is slightly more realistic as well.
Another major change is that Sims now have a personal inventory. Certain items can be picked up and placed in inventory, as well as purchased at shops Downtown. Some of them can be used later, but most of them are useful to give to other Sims as presents. My favorite thing to do is to use the workshop bench to make lawn gnomes, then add them to inventory and give them as presents. It's quick and easy, and all Sims love gifts!
Another minor addition are books and magazines. Every Sim has certain interests, based on many factors but mainly based on their personality. Reading a book or magazine can change a Sim's interests. This may seem innocuous, but can actually be pretty important in the right conditions, since it's easier to make friends with a Sim with similar interests.
Of course, there are a bunch of new wallpapers, floors, and items available in Hot Date. Of note is the heart-shaped bed, which your Sims can not only sleep in but also has a vibrate function. I guess I'll leave it to you to figure out the rest.
By the time you install Hot Date, it's highly recommended that you have Livin' Large and House Party installed first. It's not necessary, but it's much easier than trying to install the other expansions later. This means you should have either:
A) The Sims Double Deluxe -or-
B) The Sims Deluxe and House Party -or-
C) The Sims, Livin' Large, and House Party.
By the time you install Hot Date, you'll also want a beefier machine. With each upgrade, it seems that system requirements jump a bit, but with an 800mhz processor, 128MB of memory, and a 32MB video card, you should be okay. I would actually suggest more memory, as it seems to help the most with this game.
Of all the expansions for The Sims, Hot Date is probably the 'must-have'. If you don't want to spend the money on every single one, I'd say you can't go wrong with this one. Not only does it add new items but also introduces new gameplay mechanics, and starts a trend; every expansion after Hot Date includes its own special place your Sims can leave the house to visit. Of course, for those of use who are addicted (which is almost everyone who plays the game), you'll need to get every last add-on.
Take your Sim Downtown, and meet up with other Sims you can ask out on dates Create fun places to take your date -- movies, clubs, parks, and more Kee...More at Amazon Marketplace
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