I love the Sims 2 and play is pretty regularly despite being in my early 20s now. It really is the only game I've ever consistently played and enjoyed over time. After trying Sims 3 and deciding I much preferred Sims 2 I decided to invest in a few of the expansion packs and add ons in order to make my game even more exciting.

One of the expansions I bought was this 'Freetime' extension pack. There is loads to say about it and how I use it so I've condensed it into a few important bullet points.

- Activities -
The point of this expansion is that it provides your Sims with a selection of hobbies to while away their time. You Sim can basically become an enthusiast about a specific hobby, or several, and progress up the levels towards joining the 'club' for their respective hobby. The areas of interest are: music and dance, arts and crafts, sport, fitness, science, nature, gaming, cuisine, tinkering and film/literature. I like that there are so many areas they can develop an interest in as this means you can shape your Sim into an even more realistic real life person with their own specific set of interests. Within each hobby too there are a few different things they can do, and the more time they spend doing them the further they progress up the hobby ladder.

- Careers -
With the additional hobbies also comes a new selection of careers. These are: entertainer, dancer, architect, intelligence and oceanographer. I love getting a new set of careers to explore as it makes the game much more exciting and realistic for me.

- Clothes -
There are some new hobby related clothes and career related clothes that come with this expansion pack. Personally I download additional clothes and the ones you get with this are a little costumey for me. That said, it is always nice to get a new selection of clothes to try out or to create a specific character.

- Additional -
There are also a few other changes which just make playing the Sims a little easier. There are things like additional areas of study within the bookcase, like learning about parenting. As far as I can tell this doesn't make the Sim a better parent though it does give you the option of checking on the baby which produces a thought bubble telling you what the baby needs. There is also the addition of taking other 'neighbourhood sims' (i.e ones you have no created and cannot play) up through the age phases when your Sim ages. I personally like to create a whole neighbourhood of Sims but this can be useful when playing just one family as teens need a fellow teen to hair their first kiss with etc.

- Problems -
I find it deeply irritating that when a Sim develops an interest in something they send a little representative of the club round to talk to them. You can easily get rid of this person by crossing through the tab that appears in the lift of things for your Sim to do. There are also other issues like your Sim developing a deep interest in nature and turning into a plant person. There are remedies for these but for a gamer, like me, who likes to create a realistic world it can be a little irritating.

- Price -
You can buy this used for roughly £8 on Amazon and new for around £13. I don't think this is the best expansion pack out there but there are a load of nice items and things that come with it to improve your game. Maybe not for everyone, though good for those Sims enthusiasts out there.

Overall, a decent expansion pack though probably a little but more costly than it is worth.