Why should Cilla get all the fun? (The Sims - Hot Date (Expansion Pack) (PC))

Member Name: johninnit

Product:	The Sims - Hot Date (Expansion Pack) (PC)
Date:	09/01/02 (1017 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Develops game concept, Not too pricey, Lots of yuks!

Disadvantages: Needs a powerful computer, Tricky installation, Too addictive!

This is so addictive it's made me pretty much trash my computer, just to play it!

Hot Date is the third expansion for Maxis' excellent "The Sims", adding a lot of new features, as well as the expected new items and skins.

The Sims itself is a remarkable game (on which I've expounded at embarassing length in another op), but basically it's a mundanity simulator. Yep - You get to simulate wallpapering a house, making coffee, cleaning the loo, or even the excitement of paying the electricity bill!

This may at first sound insane, but it is infuriatingly addictive (also thanks to the huge internet community dedicated to swapping new bits and pieces, and Maxis' cunning release of free tools to help you customise it yourself). My girlfriend Jo and I have little replicas of ourselves (scanned in at the Dome last year), and we fight constantly over the one computer chair and for control of the mouse, just to watch our computerised alter-egos obey our every command.

Previous expansion packs added new items (Livin' it Up and House Party), but this one takes it a lot further, reworking the control interface to better present the more sophisticated options, and more interestingly, adding a whole new type of neighbourhood, the Downtown area, where Sims can go shopping, eat out, dance, drink, and date.

In previous editions, interaction had been limited to holding house parties, which got a bit repetitive due to the same scenery, but this lets larger numbers of Sims interact in very different ways.

For example, at the mall Sims can buy magazines to help them hold more informed conversations, or browse for gifts to curry favour with other Sims. At restaurants, they can wine and dine family members, friends, or strangers that they meet Downtown. Best of all, the Sims DIY philosophy holds sway, and if you don't like it, you can tear it all down and build your own bars, parks, or beaches instea
d.

The Sims on its own is great in that it only requires a modestly powered computer, and lots of friends could easily get involved, sharing and swapping, without needing to be high-powered game freaks (Hot Date was an Xmas present to Jo from one of her friends). Subsequent packs were also fairly light on requirements, but this unfortunately keeps upping the stakes.

I have a 366mhz Celeron with 64MB, a 3GB drive and 16MB video card, and I think this is pretty much the minimum spec now. It used to trot along quite nicely, but now really crawls, the sound gets garbled, and the whole thing crashes every now and then, when the swap file gets too large. I'm not really a computer gamer (more work and internet), so won't be upgrading my computer, and this will probably be the last Sims upgrade I can use.

The number of expansions also means problems installing them correctly. I was a couple of meg of hard disk space short on first install, so was told to uninstall Hot Date and try again. Unfortunately I didn't know that this would also uninstall vital bits of the Sims program, needing all 3 packs to be reinstalled in the correct order!

This had extra problems in that I wanted to keep the user data I had in the game, so couldn't delete any of the files which were still clogging my drive and preventing a reinstall. It wouldn't reinstall without gallons of clear space - even though it was only overwriting exisiting files - so I had to rip out stacks of useful work programs, reducing my computer to little more than a Sims-console.

I thought I could reinstall all the other software, but no - the Sims wants not only nigh on a gig of hard disk space for the three packs I have, but a huge whack of swap file space too. This really is one for people who don't mind shrinking their computers' horizons quite a bit! To cap it all, installing the whole thing meant I overwrote my user data anyway! (grr!)

J
ohn's lesson from this is:
a. don't be too hasty installing/uninstalling
<br>and
b. back up your user data!!!

These niggles though are only relevant to people like me, who find themselves stuck in the stone age (pre 2000) in computer terms. It won't bother anyone with a roomy hard drive, 128mb RAM, and a swanky new processor. If you're a 21st century gamer, you'll only notice the improvements the pack offers.

On a very petty note, the new interactions require a lot more voice effects. Sims speak in a garbled Sim-speak, which is very funny and well observed, and I don't think is as good in the new pack - nothing up to the standard of the excellent "Dis bois is frenushay!" or "Dag dag..." (though the new mall clerks have some good lines).

The new graphics however, are great, adding a lot more useful skins than Livin it Up did (less wacky ones), and making just enough variety for each household to look and feel different.

The new interactions are not only focused around dating, and include greater variety of family and friend relationships, based on personality type, and new control over interests. An inventory option also lets Sims give presents of items that previously didn't have much use (garden gnome anyone?).

It is the dating side though which will definitely provide the most yuks, as you cruelly egg on your virtual proteges into all manner of ill-advised encounters, and play god over domestic bliss or strife. Tacky - yes, cheap - yes, juvenile - yes, but very much fun.

The Sims is a great concept, fantastically and wittily executed, and isn't a game which really needs expansions in order to hold your attention. This means that packs like Hot Date are really bonuses rather than necessities. If you have the Sims though, and a tough enough computer for it, a modest-ish £20 will add a great new twist to the game, and is a much better expansio
n than the more limited Livin' it Up.

There's a definite novelty factor to exploring all the new options and locations, which I imagine will keep us extra-hooked for a fairly long time.

Just don't blame me when you stop going downtown yourself, in order to stay in with your Sims!!



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Quick update - 6/3/2
Since writing this, I've bought a new CPU, an Athlon 1100mhz, which is perfectly capable of running even the 20-character pub scenes with no delays or crashing. So no worries if you've got a newer machine. - cheers, John

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Quick update 2 - 27/3/2
Oy oy oy... Just read on the Sims site (www.thesims.com) that they've now sold 6.3 million copies worldwide (13m with expansion packs - that's the combined sales power of more than 10 Gareth Gates!), which makes the Sims the most popular game ever! This is a little scary that it seems to be appealing to non-traditional games players, and to have touched the biggest nerve in people since Tetris. Personally can't believe it's not all some sinister plan for world domination ('Tragamin style', for all the Nokiagamers)... However I will probably queue up with the rest of the sheep to buy the latest 'Vacation' pack when it's released next month!!

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