Four Seasons in One Day (The Sims 2: Seasons (PC))

Member Name: LucyAnnabel

Product:	The Sims 2: Seasons (PC)
Date:	10/04/08 (105 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Makes gameplay more exciting, more possibilities

Disadvantages: Addictive, takes up a lot of disc space

The Sims
---------------
Maxis are the wonderful company that brought us 'sim city' 'Sid Meir's Sim Gold' and 'The Sims'. Although the Sims was a great game, there was a lot to be updated and Maxis released the Sims 2 in 2004, selling 1 million copies in 10 days.
The Sims2 is a game where you create and bring up your own family. Buy a house for your sims, redecorate and plan the layout as you wish. Buy their furniture, get them jobs, get them pregnant and make them friends. But don't forget to make them eat, go to the toilet, get them washed and sleep at the same time or they could die! Also, getting your sims skill points by doing related activities can win them a promotion (e.g. watch the cooking channel to gain cooking points).
At the bottom of the screen is a series of buttons which allow you to view their job status, skill points, age, name, personality, fitness, starsign, wants needs and aspirations.
The 'Wants' and 'Fears' bars show what the sims would and would not like to do. If you fulfill a want, the sims earn aspiration points which can entitle you to buy new objects and grow up happy. Fulfill a fear and your sim can become unhappy...in extreme cases this leads to them going mad, begging on the street, talking to a flour bag baby or being hassled by the social bunny!
Each Sim minute is one of our seconds and you can fast forward play so that you skip boring things like when they are asleep or at work. This means you can go through all four seasons in one day.

Seasons
-------------
This expansion pack was released in March 2007. Expansion packs are additional CD's that are installed ONTOP of the Sims 2 with extra themed content to make gamplay a bit more exciting. You must therefore already have the Sims 2 in order to play with an expansion pack. Expansion packs can be run alongside each other and do not clash when you play.
Riverblossom hills
Seasons brings us a new neighborhood: 'Riverblossom Hills' where you choose the seasons for your year (I have them as winter, spring, summer and autumn, although you could have 2 seasons of summer, 2 of winter or anyway you like).
Each season brings you different weather. Obviously in Winter there is snow and in summer there are thunderstorms and summer rain.

Temperature
'Seasons' also means that your Sims have a new temperature bar, where if they spend too much time out in the snow they get cold and as a result can get flu. In summer the sun is hot and spending too much time outside can lead to sunburn. I love it when your Sims spend too much time 'making out' with another sim and get too hot.
Plantsims
As with other expansion packs, Seasons encludes a new type of Sim which your own sims can become. This is a PlantSim which is green, looks like a plant and has different needs to a normal sim. To become one of these you must do something special...but if I told you it might spoil the fun. Plant sims in this game are Rose and Daisy Greenman. They will come and visit you within your first few days as the house.

Growing Crops
In the Sims2 you can create your own garden, but with Seasons you can grow your own crops from plants or trees for eating yourself, making into a smoothie or selling for a bit of extra cash. A greenhouse will help you look after them.
As your sim spends time tending to their crops, they will achieve bronze, silver and gold gardening awards which allow them to look after the crops better, or grow new veg/fruit.
Wishing Well
The wishing well allows your sims to wish for 'friends, love or money'. Be careful that your sim has a full aspiration meter though, or you could get something nasty.

Leftovers
One of the finer points of the expansion pack. Now sims can cook a meal and store it in the fridge to eat at a later date rather than watch it go mouldy or throw it away once they've had enough. Expecially useful when you have a hungry child that can't cook food for itself.
Clothing and Hairstyles
Other expansion packs mean new clothes but Seasons has a difference. Now you can change hairstyles according to what type of clothing you are wearing. So you could put your hair up for swimming and athletics, and have it down for pyjamas and underwear. Also, there is a new option for 'outdoor' clothing which includes raincoats, fleeces and hats and scarves.

Careers
Every expansion pack has new careers which your sim can chase. Seasons includes the 'Gamer' career, 'Adventurer', 'Education', 'Law', 'Journalism' and 'Music'.
Garden Club
If you're especially proud of your garden, join the garden club. This isn't always easy though.

Penguin
Thought I'd mention the penguin as it's ridiculously cute. The fat little guy comes waddling onto your plot in winter and knocks over your snomen. You can pat him but that's about it.
New objects
Every expansion pack includes new objects and this one is no different. There are skating rinks (very expensive and take up a lot of room but fun!), new sofas, chairs and beds etc.

Lifetime Aspirations
If you have any kind of expansion pack you will gain the possibility of life aspirations. Now sims have a lifetime goal which if you fulfill, they will have platinum (the highest) aspiration level for the rest of their lifetime. Be warned though, aspirations (e.g. marry off 6 children) are hard to fulfill.
Now for the boring stuff...

System Requirements
--------------------------------
Obviously you already need the Sims 2 installed for any expansion pack to work. Ontop of that you need extra disc space.....
(Taken from the Sims2 official website)

* 1300 MHz processor
* 256 MB RAM (512 MB RAM is recommended for Windows Vista or if you are running with a few expansion packs installed)
* Windows(R) Vista, Windows XP, Windows ME, Windows 98 or Windows 2000 Operating System.
* 8x or faster CD/DVD drive
* At least 1.5 GB of additional hard drive space (5.0 GB total is required if installing both The Sims 2 and The Sims 2 Seasons Expansion Pack at the same time.)
* A T&L-capable video card with at least 32 MB of video RAM.
Supported video cards:
* ATI Radeon(TM) series 8500 or better (9600 or greater required for Vista)
* 8500, All-In-Wonder 8500
* 9000, 9200, 9500, 9600, 9700, 9800
* X300, X600, x700, X800, x850
* X1300, X1600, X1800, X1900, X1950

Price and Availablilty
-----------------------------
Sims 2 Seasons expansion pack costs £16.99 to download from the EA store or £19.99 for the CD pack. It is being sold £5 cheaper at game.co.uk and is available from most of other gaming sites and stores such as HMV.
Summary
In my experience this (along with Open for Business) is the best expansion pack you can buy for the Sims2. Introducing seasonal weather, body temperature for sims and the ability to grow your own food allows the game to be LESS centred around the success of a career. Now with the Seasons expansion pack it's possible for sims to earn money from home (and enough to live on this time) and have something to work towards (the garden club).
When introducing friends to playing the Sims 2, I reccommend this expansion pack first. It doesn't make gameplay hard, but simply makes the game more realistic with storms in summer for example. For a beginner, the seasons expansion pack doesn't bombard the player with difficult tasks (as activities such as growing food, getting into the garden club or making snowmen are all optional). Whereas an expansion pack such as Open for Business or Pets can be a bit overwhelming (what with Sims aspirations tending towards owning lots of pets or having very successful businesses).
After playing with this expansion pack with the seasons, weather, temperature etc., the Sims 2 alone seems somewhat empty!

Summary: A must-have for Sims addicts and beginners alike