The
Simms Hot Date
Publishers:
Maxis / Electronic Arts
Release date: 13 November 2001
Price: £19.99
Type: Strategy / Simulation
Official Website: www.thesims.com
Additional info: This is an expansion pack for the game
The Sims.
Minimum
Specs:
Windows 95 / 98 / ME *
The Sims preinstalled (important this one)
300 Mhz Processor
64mb of Ram (but Maxis / EA actually recommend 128mb)
4x CD / DVD ROM drive
600 MB hard disk space, plus space for saved games, downloaded
lots etc.
DirectX 7.0 compatible Video Card with at least 2 MB Memory
DirectX 7.0 compatible soundcard.
*
The Sims: Hot Date will not work with Windows 2000 (according
to the manufacturers). Apparently it will work on Windows
XP.
Tested
on:
Compaq Presario 5WV297
Athlon 1Ghz
128mb pc100 Memory
TNT Riva II M64 (Direct X 7.0 compatible)
Soundmax Integrated Digital Audio (Direct X 7.0 compatible).
DVD Drive (32x speed)
56k Modem
Windows ME
All of the original games and expansion packs are installed.
Ever
wanted to play God? Fancy the idea of wreaking love-induced
havoc? The Sims: Hot Date could well be the perfect game
for gamer with love or hate on their mind. Hot Date is
the eagerly awaited add on pack for The Sims - it provides
at least 40 new Inter Sim interactions and 125 new objects
to buy and use (including wallpaper). It's the third add
on for the original game, proving the popularity of these
kind of games shows no signs of diminishing - and it started
way back in the 80's with Little Computer People. For
those who don't know, players of The Sims take control
of many aspects of a computer-generated persons' day-to-day
life (and it can be frighteningly real!). There are a
maximum of 8 people in a family, including children. Every
family lives in a neighbourhood (of course!) and there
are several houses per neighbourhood, making your game
almost as diverse as life itself. The hottest new add
on for this game is the downtown area that can be built
upon and changed around. It's where all the coolest Sims
go to pick someone up and perhaps get drunk <weg>
- but more on the downtown area later!
One thing that's noticeable straight away is the different
interactions available between Sims. The interaction selection
menus have changed, as well as there being loads of new
interactions like nag, footsie, cuddle and slow dance
to name but a few. This can provide a load of fun by itself
even if the game didn't have any new features at all.
One thing Maxis have done is made relationships much harder
to develop and maintain. Basically a Sim has a 90-minute
period in which they can do each interaction twice before
getting a negative reaction from the other Sim. Sounds
complicated? Try it out in the game! It makes things a
little more difficult, but lateral thinking is needed
here to get round it. All this adds to the game play,
thus making it much more addictive than the previous Expansion
Packs.
Now
comes the interesting stuff. The downtown area. Each neighbourhood
has it's own downtown area. Downtown is just like a neighbourhood,
but is obviously a little different! Building downtown
is simple and it's also possible to download (and upload)
user created lots at the official website. Basically,
the downtown area is where Sims go to meet people and
possibly date. There are restaurants, nightclubs, bars,
shops, beaches and parks where Sims can while away the
hours with their loved (or intended loved) ones. If the
mood is right, Sims can misbehave while downtown, doing
things like "playing" in the changing cubicles
(not that anything is visible!). Downtown, it's also possible
to meet several NPC's (Non Playable Characters). These
are people like waiters and DJ's - much like the maids
and gardeners Sims might have at home, plus there are
new groups of people called Townies. They fall into different
categories like Jock - it's even possible to marry these
NPC's and bring them into a household.
Some
players have reported difficulties when installing and
playing the game (see the newsgroup alt.games.the-sims
for info). It seems crashes while installing the game,
or when going downtown are fairly frequent for some players,
but this is possibly down to driver or memory issues.
One thing the tester has noticed is that some downtown
areas are a little slow at times, especially if there
are lots of other randomly picked Sims present and the
lot is especially large.
One
point worth mentioning is that the user community for
this game is absolutely huge. There are hundreds of fan
sites where it's possible to download skins (new characters)
and new objects, plus there are lots of sites purely dedicated
to cheats for this game. The downloads usually come in
zip (WinZip or WinRar will take care of these files) format
and instructions come with most of them to show where
the unzipped files must be put in order for them to be
used within the game.
Overall,
the expansion pack is good fun to play, while being extremely
addictive to boot. Maxis have done a great job on this
expansion pack, although it still seems a little buggy
and may need some work to improve stability. There aren't
any new career paths available, but loads of new items
to test, and of course downtown to explore (what a shame
Sims can't work downtown!). Existing "The Sims"
fans will love this game, as will new players. All in
all, it's an excellent game and gets a big thumbs up from
the tester.
Total
Score: 9 / 10
It loses 1 point on being a bit buggy
Thanks
to jenh for this review
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