'The Sims 2: Now Loading' would be more accurate. (The Sims 2: Bon Voyage Add-On (PC))

Member Name: TheViolinist

Product:	The Sims 2: Bon Voyage Add-On (PC)
Date:	09/01/08 (154 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Innovative and enjoyable gameplay, adds new experiences, simmies get time off from work.

Disadvantages: Loading...loading....and more loading...

The following information contains spoilers, please don't read if you want things to be a surprise.

If you are reading this I am under the presumption that you are already familiar with the Sims 2. If not I would advise seeking out a Sims 2 review to provide some background information.

Background - I myself am a great fan of the Sims 2 series. I have played the Sims 2 ever since it came out. I own all of the main expansion packs (eps), but not all of the stuff packs. I have a relatively high-specification computer that has had little difficulty running the series in the past.

First I'd like to share some information about the actual game.

Vacation Themes - There are 3 different 'vacation neighborhood' themes. These are Tropical, Eastern, and Mountain. One pre-made neighborhood for each is available from the beginning. Although you are allowed to create your own 'custom' neighborhoods, you still have to choose from the three areas. You could, however, combine the themes if you wanted to.

Going on Vacation - Sims head off on vacation by picking up the phone and booking. You can choose to leave immediately or several days later (it's cheaper to book in advance). You can take family and friends, but not pets or babies. Engaged couples can also book a honeymoon that will begin as soon as the marriage is over. Alternatively they can choose to get married while on holiday.

When the time has come, the taxi will arrive and your simmies will head out all set for vacation, suitcases and all.

When you arrive, you can choose to stay at a hotel (the price-ranges for which are mentioned in the descriptions) or you can buy a holiday home to stay at.

Hotels charge fees for each room that is booked. You can choose to book as many rooms as you like by clicking on the door. The price is determined by what is in the room and its size. Hotel fees can be very expensive. My sim was paying 900 per night at a hotel that was rated as '$$$' out of 5. Room service can provide food for your sims at any time of the day or night for an extra cost. Some of you may be pleased to note that custom downloaded food is also available from room service.

On the topic of food, there is little in the way of themed food for each of the destinations. A food stall is available (and the new foods are exclusive to them) for each theme in which 3 new foods are available.

Owning a holiday home is very much like owning the sims regular house. They can be built and edited in the same way. However, even with holiday homes, sims are restricted to a maximum 6 day stay.

Your sims can earn travel points by learning new skills and experiencing new things such as local delicacies. I have to say that my favorite new skill from those I have experienced so far, is instant teleportation that can be learnt if you answer the ninja's riddle correctly. Such skills can then be passed on to other sims.

Aside from the ninja, there are other holiday related NPCs including tour guides, bellhops, maids, fire-dancers, lumberjacks, pickpockets, and even bigfoot.

While on holiday, your sim can choose to walk to any of the destinations within the vacation neighborhood, this avoids having to wait for a taxi. There are also secret lots can be discovered by finding treasure maps.

Although BonVoyage is a novel idea, taking sims on vacation can become tiresome rather quickly, especially using the maxis neighborhoods.

Some of the new music was quite nice and well themed to the different locations. I did however notice an overall problem with the sounds becoming distorted at parts.



Now it's time to discuss technical information:

The minimum specifications are as follows:

The Sims 2
OS: Windows 98/2000/ME/XP/Vista (I am using XP)
Processor: 1.3 GHz
Memory: 512 MB RAM
Hard Drive: 1.5 GB
DVD-Rom: 8 Speed
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0 compatible
Input: Keyboard, Mouse

However, in my experience, I've learnt to take these recommendations with a pinch of salt. My personal recommendation would be DOUBLE the processor, memory, and hard drive space; and that's at the very least.

If your computer only just meets the requirements, you should stay clear.


Get the Bug Spray:

The Sims and its Eps have always been renowned for containing various game play bugs, most of which have little impact on the overall game, and some of which can be quite amusing. Although patches are provided from time to time, they never fix all of the bugs, only the most significant ones. As an owner of all the Eps, I can say that I have only experienced minor bugs, until now at least.

Loading...still loading...still loading...:
See the pretty blue loading screen with all the icons? Do you like it? I hope so...because you'll be seeing a lot of it.
The loading times are absolutely appalling. I've never seen anything like it in my life. Loading has always been an issue with the sims 2 games for many users that don't have brand-new computers, but this EP takes the biscuit.
When I ran the game for the first time after install, I sat watching the loading screen, excited that my chance of playing was close at hand. 10 minutes later...I was still smiling. 20 minutes later I was starting to worry to say the least; I could have gone on a real vacation and the game probably wouldn't have loaded by the time I got back. On a serious note, I consider this to be a major issue, the loading times have been more than doubled because of this EP; that means even with a pretty high-spec computer you can expect to wait 10+ minutes just for each section to load.

If you have a brand new top of the range computer, this may not be an issue, but for us mere mortals it's certainly a worrying prospect.

The Sims BSOD Error:
The Sims BSOD error is believed to be closely linked to certain Nvidia cards, but users with other graphics cards have suffered the same problem. It appears to be relatively random and nobody has really discovered a true cause for it. This error can cause your computer to blue-screen typically after 15-45 minutes of gameplay. Having suffered this myself, it can be very annoying to say the least. This pack doesn't seem to offer a solution, and the increased loading times only adds to the problem.


Where to buy? (if you still want to that is)

At current, the cheapest available offer is at Asda.co.uk who are selling the game at 12.98 with free delivery. However, the dispatch time is expected to take weeks, so it may be safer to go with play.com's 14.98 deal.
Always check with a price comparison website first, such as pricerunner.co.uk or moneysupermarket.co.uk.


Conclusion:

The gameplay is enjoyable, but the significant loading times make 'actual gameplay' almost none existent. Unless you have a very high specification computer, I would recommend avoiding this title, even if previous Eps work well (which was the case for me). I found it quite ironic to become so stressed over a game supposedly centered around 'vacations'.

Summary: Only for ultra-high spec computers, anything less will suffer even if the previous EPs work fine.