The Sims: Hot Date Expansion Pack (PC CD)

The new Downtown area is great. Now your sims can go out dancing, hit the bars, dine out in fancy restaurants or just grab a hot dog and ice cream cone, shop for new clothes, buy gifts for one another, etc. If you want to buy a new outfit for your sim sweetie, you can have her try it on and model it for you before deciding to fork over the simulated dough. As for dating, you can simply dismiss your date if things go badly (or a more attractive prospect happens along). When things are really clicking, though, you can lay a number of different lip-locks on your lucky date, including the aptly named passionate kiss, play footsie underneath the table, and/or cuddle up and neck (right there in public, mind you). Even a seemingly casual encounter can become exciting when a sim quite taken with you suddenly jumps up into your arms. These sims are not easy by any means, however—convincing a date to come home with you requires skill and a little bit of luck.

One really great thing about Hot Date is the fact that it greatly expands your world of potential friends. Once you meet a new character downtown, you can call that individual up from home to invite him/her over, ask him/her out on a date, or just talk. This makes it much easier for you to win enough friends to qualify for that big promotion you’ve been after at work.

Hot Date is really great, but there are a couple of minor drawbacks to it. There is one bug in particular that continues to plague me. In a busy restaurant with tables placed close together, one of the NPCs can get in the way of your date, making him/her essentially freeze in place while you are stranded at the table all alone. At the best of such times, you can cancel the dining transaction, get your date moving again, and make a second attempt at ordering a meal; there have been times, however, when my sim became stuck in the Downtown area, unable to even return home, and I had to shut down the program manually or reboot. More importantly, though, Hote Date is pretty hard on the old processor. You can play the game on a PC running the minimum system requirements, but your game will be agonizingly slow at times and will continue to run slower and slower until such time as you exit, reboot, and restart the program. Overall, though, this expansion pack is by far the best of the bunch and makes possible a brand new kind of experience sure to delight all fans of The Sims.

Livin Large added objects, neighbourhoods and jobs - which was cool. House Party did the same - but added a "Throw Party" button. Sadly - although fun, the parties suck. The people only dance when you force them to join you, and all they end up doing is eating and then getting bored.

But anyway - onto Hot Date! The reason this is such a good expansion pack is because instead of just giving us objects, it adds a whole new dimension. You can now go downtown.

Firstly you build your downtown area (maybe you want a beach? A shopping mall? Restaurant and Bar maybe? Its up to you), and then you send one of your Sims down by cab.

They go down and do what you tell them to. If they want to score, you introduce yourself to a Sim you have created that happens to also be donwtown - or one of the characters that live down there. Take them for a meal, buy them choccies (and hope they don't stamp all over them!), sit on the swing seat. Then try and cuddle them and get rejected - or get kicked while trying to play footsie.

If your Sim was just bored at home, or you had money to blow - go and buy some magazines, some gifts (incase you get a date - you can be prepared), some bedwear, swimwear or formal wear.

Overall - a great add on that will keep you spending more time donwtown that at the house!