
	Platform PC Genre Simulation Publisher Electronic Arts Developer Maxi ESRB T (Teen) Released February 27, 2007

- Might seem subtle, but seasonal activities really do add much more enjoyable gameplay than one might think - Fishing and gardening activities add a serene and peaceful Zen-like nature to gameplay

- Mostly cosmetic weather effects don’t really affect gameplay too much - Doesn’t advance the franchise ahead as much as previous expansion packs

Review: Sims: Life Stories (PC) Review: Sims 2: Nightlife (PC) Review: Sims 2: Open for Business (PC)
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The Sims 2: Seasons

Score: 8.5 / 10

By far the easiest career path to choose for Sims, if you indeed were able to select it while playing The Sims 2 and any of its expansions to date, is that of meteorologist — the weatherman or weatherwoman. Up until now, every day’s been the same in the world of the Sims — sunny and 72 degrees. Well, those weather predictors will have to work hard for their money, because the winds of change are blowing away the “every day sunny and 72” in The Sims 2 with the newest expansion pack offering, The Sims 2 Seasons.

Finally, for the first time in The Sims 2, you’ll experience, along with your Sims, the four seasons of Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. You’ll finally see snow falling outside your Sims’ wintertime window, and practically feel the balmy summer breezes as the sunrays warmly beam down on your poolside Sims. Seasonal activities abound, although the winter ones, from ice-skating to building snowmen (that later come to animated life right in your Sims’ front or back yard!) are the most entertaining. Hot fun in the summertime is cooled by dips in the pool, where your Sims can play Marco Polo after splashing into the water off the new

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water slide (and get a sunburn). There are a couple of other new items, too, from a hot chocolate maker to a scarecrow to keep away feathered scavengers from your crops, to a greenhouse.

Give your Sims a green thumb during the growing seasons by building your own abovementioned greenhouse and planting fruits and veggies, such as strawberries and

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tomatoes, which require a lot of nurturing. But once you’ve harvested them, your Sims can use these fruits and vegetables to conjure up new energy drinks, health boosters and even love potions. Fashion sense hasn’t been ignored, either. There are also new wardrobe choices, particularly for the cold of winter or the rain of spring.

Six new career paths are opened, including some very interesting ones: journalism, law, music, and in a case of a game imitating life, you can even be a professional gamer! (No actual meteorologist career, though).

There are plenty of nice new seasonal effects and items to enjoy in The Sims 2 Seasons, but gameplay-wise, there is really not much advancement at all compared to what arrived in the previous expansion, Pets (or even as much as Open for Business or University). But The Sims 2 Seasons is another small genesis for the franchise, which is now scarily ever closer to being as true a life simulation as it could possibly be.

- Lee Cieniawa

lcieniawa@armchairempire.com

(April 3, 2007)